Share Your World 2014 – Week 17

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….I don’t know about that monkey question

What are some words that just make you smile?

Words that make me smile? From my students….”I love art class”, from my kids “thanks, Mom”, from my husband “Wine?” and from my friends “Let’s get together”.

The Birthday girl with her husband
My oldest daughter A and her partner J.
Teaching Art

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?

We own dozens of candles and a couple of flashlights. We only use the flashlight to find the candles and lighter. We love candle light and light candles often, especially when we’re enjoying  a special romantic dinner.P1030913 P1030906

What is the longest book you ever read?

I think the longest book I’ve ever read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It contains 870 pages.

Image courtesy of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix.jpg

So you win a pet monkey at a fair, but this isn’t just any old monkey. It can do one trick for you whenever you want from getting a pop out of the fridge to washing your hair. What would be the trick?

I don’t know about winning a monkey. I don’t think there’s anything that a monkey could do that would make me want to own one, never mind washing my hair. Yikes! The thought gives me the creeps.

Ikea monkey. Photo courtesy of:http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/pZ80Zpi7N-E/hqdefault.jpg

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful for the sunny weekend and getting out for a long walk with the dogs on Sunday. I’m looking forward to a quick recovery after my oral surgery on Thursday.

For more Share Your World entries check out http://ceenphotography.com/2014/04/28/share-your-world-2014-week-17-2/

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge – Week 9

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….it was such an honour to be one of three blogs featured for last week’s challenge

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/04/27/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-week-9/

This week I’ve chosen three photos that I took when I was in Calgary back in March. We took a walk downtown and my sister and brother-in-law took us to a couple of their favourite gift/art stores. They were full of wonderful works of art and artifacts from all over the world. Here are three of my favourite pieces; an odd looking duck, a painting of a steer done on metal and a sculpture made from water bottles.

photo 4-65 photo 4-99 photo 3-105 photo 5-60

 

 

 

A Photo a Week Challenge-Stripes

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….they say that stripes are worn by very organized people but if worn in the wrong direction they can also emphasis areas of your body that you should probably minimize

Here’s my tribute to stripes. For more photos featuring stripes go to  Nadia Merrill Photography.

Daily Prompts – The Wanderer

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……name 5 places you’d like to visit

1. The west and east coasts of Canada. I’ve lived in Canada pretty much all of my life but I’ve never been to any of our coastal areas. I’m very much drawn to water and that’s one of the reasons I’ve lived in Toronto in the same house for over 35 years. I live right next to Lake Ontario and in the summers I spend a great deal of my time at the cottage on Georgian Bay. P1020618 P1010866

2. Italy, the entire boot. I’ve wanted to go to Italy for awhile now. The rolling hills of Tuscany, the history of Rome, the romance of Venice, the mountains in the north and the rugged coastlines tug at my wanderlust. I love the food, the wine and the art and of course the beautiful scenery. What more could a person want?

3. New Zealand and since I’ve travelled so far I might as well hop on over to Australia. I love reading about both countries and I follow several bloggers from ‘down under’. 

4. New York City. The last time I was in NYC I was a mere child of 5 years. We drove down to pick up my Oma from the ship that she travelled on from Germany. Everyone should experience this iconic city at least once in their life and take in the shows, the great restaurants, Central Park, Coney Island and of course the Statue of Liberty.

New York City Photo courtesy of http://i.factmonster.com/images/brooklyn-manhatten-bridges.jpg

5. Iceland. My daughter and her partner just came back from Iceland and the rugged scenery intrigues me. The entire country has no more than 300 000 people so the roads are never busy and they are easy to manoeuvre.

Iceland – photo courtesy of http://www.fredolsencruises.com/Places_We_Visit/Iceland/Iceland_2_original.jpg?nid=cf86d55c-3498-43be-acd5-7b3bff02ea48

Happy Earth Day

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….it should be more than spending one day picking up garbage

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that we make children aware of their environment and how to keep it clean but maybe we need to be more diligent about making sure that it stays clean so that we don’t need community clean-up days.

For me Earth Day should be about celebrating the wonders of nature and respecting our environment. Nothing burns me more than seeing people dump their garbage from their cars onto the road, sidewalk or parking lot especially when there’s a garbage bin a mere 20 feet away. There’s a sense of entitlement that I find offensive. If you say anything to these people you know you will be accosted with profanity and rude gestures.

Now that the weather has finally turned around we need to get out and breathe in the fresh air and look up, down and all around us and take in what this beautiful world has to offer. Listen to the sounds of the birds and observe the wildlife that inhabits your backyard. Our environment is precious and we need to savour it and protect it.

 

Share Your World 2014 – Week 16

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….it’s almost scary how quickly these challenges come up

How many places have you lived? You can share the number of physical residences and/or the number of cities.

• born in Frankfurt, Germany

Garmisch, Germany

• lived in Garmisch, Germany for about a year

• moved to Canada when I was 20 months old

• lived in Toronto until I was 5

• moved to Oakville when I was 6

• moved back to Toronto when I was 10 and have stayed here ever since

• for 4 years I went to school in Guelph but I always came home in the summer

Photo courtesy of : http://compsci.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/university_guelph_campus.jpg

• after I got married my husband and I moved three times – for one year we lived in uptown Toronto, then moved to the High Park area and lived there for two years and finally we bought our house down by the lake in the west end of the city – we’ve lived in the same house for 35 yearsDSCN0213

What type of music relaxes you the most? 

Most music relaxes me. When I was at the concert last week, even the music by Shostakovich put me to sleep. Music that doesn’t relax me is punk, heavy metal, rap, goth and grunge. 

If you could instantly become fluent in another language, what would that language be and why?

I think I would pick French. I’m surrounded by it every day at school and just once I’d like to surprise everyone by answering back in perfect French. All my children went to French Immersion school and I’ve taught in two French Immersion schools but on the English side for more than 25 years. I just assumed that I would pick it up by osmosis but sadly that didn’t happen. 

If you could fly or breathe under water what would you prefer?

I would prefer to fly. There are too many predators under water and I think It would be safer in the sky. 

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that the snow has finally all melted away and that the garden is starting to show signs of spring. This week I’m looking forward to a short week at work (we had today off) and spending time with my friends on the weekend. 

For more Share Your World posts check out Cee’s Photography.