Pam's Week 30: She's Buying a Stairway to Heaven...

So this week started in the pouring rain and ended with some gorgeous blue skies and sunshine.  The days in between were a bit of a mixture with me running into work in such a downpour the one day that my clothes, including my bra that would have been under 3 layers if you count my clearly not waterproof jacket, did not dry out until noon!  I figured I should have saved myself some time and brought my shampoo to work and had a quick shower on my way in; I looked like I did that anyways.

I have enjoyed reading all about Sharon's adventures in China and Tibet and seeing a gorgeous snippet of her photos, but I realized that I count on her to keep her posts on this blog up to date and I have been feeling rather lonely as of late.  I am the only one posting and maybe even the only one reading it.  Having said that, I am proud of myself for my attempt to keep it up though!

This upcoming week, I will have no excuses to not get out and get my photos taken.  Duncan will be at his week of summer camp and Danica will be camping with Grandma and Grandpa for the week.  My kitchen has been demolished in preparation for the renovation so I can't even spend time in there!  And frankly, the boxes all over the rest of my house aren't really making the living room seem all that relaxing so I might as well get out and get photographing, especially since Danica somehow fixed my camera (my guess, though it may be because I just finished reading The Witches of New York, is that in order to make up for the fact that she got grounded today, she cast a magic spell to fix my camera as her way of sucking up as she would never, ever apologize).

Wide Angle
When I first saw this topic, I assumed it just meant I would take a photo with my camera zoomed out as far as it would go so began snapping a few photos that way.  I then questioned whether there was something a little more to wide angle photography so, you guessed it, I consulted with my buddy, Google.  I then had some fantastic ideas that I intended to try today.  Unfortunately, our photo opportunities today were rather limited by the fact that not only did I not charge my camera battery nor bring a spare, but I also forgot my cellphone at home!

This is a photo of last Friday night's sunset from the beach at Brimley.  I realize Friday was last week but I figured since I posted my last blog early, I could start taking photos early too!

Picture though, if you will, an angled boardwalk along the beach leading up to a historical lighthouse.  That was my idea for today had my camera not died.  The docent at the lighthouse museum offered to let me borrow his cellphone and e-mail pictures to myself but that didn't seem quite right to me.

Adventure
As I had mentioned last week, we went camping last weekend.  One of our friends who came with us had never camped before.  You would think that would be adventure enough.  Of course, as anyone who has ever camped knows, you have never really camped until you have camped and had to take down tents in the rain!  I decided to stand in the doorway of my parents' dry trailer where Robert and I and the kids were lucky enough to spend the weekend and take a photo through the downpour (and I am not exaggerating if I told you it would have rivaled the monsoon rains in Singapore) of Randy with his garbage bag rain poncho taking down his tent.

Starts with J
This was another photo I intended to take this morning at the Iroquois Point Lighthouse as I had seen a similar one in a review of the lighthouse and liked how it looked.  My kids were cooperative but I only had one chance to capture the photo before the camera died so I didn't have the opportunity to fix the angle and not have the top of the lighthouse cut off.

Can you guess what the "j" word was?

Old
Well, the lighthouse is old, having first shone it's light in 1857.  Apparently that lighthouse was torn down and replaced by the current structure in 1870.  This light, on display inside the lighthouse keeper's quarters, was actually a fourth order Fresnel lens from the Martin Reef Lighthouse which was said to be a twin of the Point Iroquois Lighthouse.

Stairs
Truth be told, it was because of this topic that I began looking at photos of the Lighthouse.  I knew we didn't have any interesting stairs here to photograph (at least ones I haven't photographed previously) and thought I wanted something somewhat interesting as I can only imagine what Sharon has found in Asia!  Now there were only 72 of these to get to the top of the lighthouse, but they were admittedly rather terrifying, especially when it came time to descend.  I thought my heart was going to stop as Danica, who apparently was the brave one of the three of us, decided to descend through the door in the floor first.  You see, the railing did not go all the way to the top and there wasn't a railing around the spiral so she was stepping and reaching and I couldn't watch for fear of watching her fall but felt I had to as what kind of mother wouldn't watch to make sure her beloved offspring was safe.  I decided it was a very good call for my father to not accompany us given his fear of heights and enclosed spaces.  I have to admit that I may never venture up top again either.  I'm not sure whether Duncan was most afraid of the ginormous spiders we discovered at the top or the descent...

This picture was actually taken from the bottom of the stairs as the view from the top wasn't quite as striking (maybe if I wasn't too scared to keep my eyes open and my camera steady it would have been better).

Toes
I am not going to pretend this shot is at all original, creative, or something I haven't already taken photos of earlier this year.  It was taken last weekend at Brimley.  I again hoped for something more spectacular today but the dead battery impacted that again.

The description for this photo is in the wildcard as I discovered it while looking for the other one.  I decided Duncan's toes curled up while he photographed their artwork was more creative than my toes.  I guess you will have figured out that I can't actually take the credit for this photo other than it was taken on my cellphone.

Wildcard
The possibilities were endless today!  Or they would have been if I wasn't a forgetful dolt.  Instead, you will have to make do with a photo of our magic fire last weekend.  After we were done making smores, Duncan found some magic fire powder (I can't remember what it is actually called) in my parents' trailer and sprinkled it on the fire.  Voila - the flames turned blue, green, a little bit of purple.  It was quite cool actually.

I forgot that I had promised the kids I would include one of the photos they took this afternoon of their chalk art in the driveway.  Apparently it involved smashing the chalk and then turning the hose on it and watching the colours run into a pattern down the driveway.  They had done a similar creation last night but when my father-in-law saw it this morning, he washed it away before I had a chance to see it.

There's another week in the books.  It's hard to believe that 30 weeks have gone by this year already!  Time really does fly whether you are having fun or not!  Fingers crossed that the weather forecast changes back to hot sun instead of the clouds and chances of thunderstorms it is now predicting for this week....

Pam's Week 29: Purple Rain, Purple Rain...

Wow...what a great song that is.  Whenever I think of the colour purple, I think of that song and of Prince.  Some people loved him and some people hated him but I think the man was a musical genius.  I admit that some of the songs were out there ("Cream" anyone?) but his catalogue was so prolific.  Anyways, I digress...

As I mentioned in my previous post (also posted this evening for anyone who is counting), I am on vacation this week.  My husband, who is currently working 2 full-time jobs, does not have any vacation left.  The kids and I are, therefore, enjoying a staycation.  We have spent a couple days at the beach and a couple days playing tourist in our own area.  It's actually been a lot of fun.  We have seen things we have never seen before and learned a lot too.  It has also allowed us plenty of time in the gorgeous sunshine we had been so desperately waiting for!

Just a word of caution before we begin - it is highly likely that some of these topic interpretations were fairly open...

R

I know Sharon likes to look for the letters in unexpected places.  I decided to create the opportunity yesterday as we picnicked at Rock Lake.  I have this awesome cooler bag and soft-sided tote that I like to use for a beach bag that are monogrammed with an "R" for our last name.  Don't they look great on the beach next to my flipflops?

City Skyline

During our adventure yesterday, the kids and I drove to Bruce Mines to tour Ontario's first commercial copper mine and onto Thessalon to visit the Heritage Park Museum.  The kids thought maybe this would count as a city skyline...

I also walked the dog on Whitefish Island yesterday evening in the hopes that I could get a photo of our city skyline, only to realize that I've posted essentially the same photo multiple times so far this year.

Statue

Once again, I have cheated.  I took this photo of Roberta Bondar a couple of weeks ago when I used her space shuttle replica for 'fast'.  I intended to use this then but didn't so I will include it here, having not taken another statue photo this week.

And now I don't even know if it's technically a statue given that it's only a bust...

Architecture

Of course Sharon is in China capturing photos of all kinds of interesting architecture, I am sure.  I voted to be a little more traditional, pioneer-like if you will.  Here is an example of an old pioneer chapel, built in the round log or "traditional timber" manner.

Purple

While hoping for a cool city skyline photo last night at Whitefish Island, these purple thistles and other purple flowers caught my eye.

Focus on Background

Well now, isn't this easier said than done.  I once again relied on my friend, Google, to offer me an explanation and possibly some ideas.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunities to really attempt a replication.  Today I took the kids strawberry picking, though, and then baked some chocolate-covered strawberry muffins with some of our spoils.  Here are my attempts to focus on the background...

I wasn't sure if I liked the muffins or strawberries in focus better.  Both photos are making my mouth water, however...

Wildcard

This was a complete no-brainer for me as soon as I saw the photo.  I always walk by this beaver dam at Whitefish Island and I've always liked the curves of it.  Last night, the setting sun made it look spectacular, in my eyes.  I thought of using it for 'purple' but decided it made a better wildcard.

I also decided to use a photo from the Bruce Mines - Simpson Memorial Mineshaft from yesterday.  As we walked out, the kids thanked me for bringing them there and asked if we could go back again next year.  Some of the things we learned:
1)  The Simpson Mine Shaft was the first commercial copper mine in Ontario.
2)  The blackflies were so bad that some of the miners committed suicide to escape them.
3)  Copper in the mine was oxidized and looked bright green.  The minerals that we could see that looked coppery in colour were fools gold.
4)  Little boys as young as 7 were used to lead the horses around the horse whim to bring the ore to the surface.
5)  The miners wore candles on their felt hats in the mine to light their way.  They could remove them from their hats and drive them into the wall as they were on a spike.  When the candles went out, they knew that they were running out of oxygen and needed to get out.
6)  Many of the miners were from Cornwall and brought recipes for Cornish Pasties with them.  They were savoury on one side and sweet on the other and supposedly so hard that they didn't break if they fell to the bottom of the mine shaft.
7)  The town of Bruce Mines was named after the Governor General of 1847, James Bruce, who never actually set foot in Bruce Mines.
8)  They used a goose feather as a wick to light the gun powder in order to blast the mine.
9)  They followed the quartz veins in the rock to locate the copper.  It could also lead to iron, gold, and other ores but they never found gold in the Simpson mine.
10)  Much of the "debris" sent to the surface was actually valuable but they didn't have the tools, equipment and technology at the time to properly extract it.
11)  The ore was sent to Boston for smelting.

This is a photo of us at the horse whim.

Tomorrow we head camping for a few days to end my holidays.  I should get my stuff packed and I also have multiple loads of laundry to put away.  Have a great week!  I am sad that I head back to reality in a few days.

Pam's Week 28: Might as Well Go for a Soda...

Yes, I realize this post is terribly late. For once, I have a good excuse, or a reasonable one anyways.  You see, I was running behind on capturing all the photos and then lo and behold, last Saturday during the parade, my camera died.  It froze with the lens out and won't turn on or off or allow me to retract the lens, even after charging and replacing the battery.  I think it is totally and completely kaput.  Needless to say, I  then did not succeed at finishing the remaining photos for last week's blog until now.  I tried using my camera phone for some but it just didn't feel quite the same.  I ended up resorting to locating my old Kodak camera.  It will take some getting used to though as it powers up slower, zooms using a different button (I keep turning it off by mistake as the power button feels like and is located where the zoom is on my Canon), but seems to take photos quicker.  The focus seems a bit different too so please forgive anything strange that may occur.

I also realize that this week's title is not accurate given that I have no soda photos in it.  A soda is usually a cold beverage though so that's the angle I was gunning for with that lyric.  Forgiven?

Without further ado, here is the mishmash of photos from 3 different cameras that constitute this week's assignments...

Grass

How do you make grass look interesting, artistic, photogenic, or even photo-worthy?  Well, you begin by consulting your good friend, Google, and then, as per usual fashion, try, rather unsuccessfully, to replicate the pictures you see.  I didn't have any luck last week with this topic so tried again yesterday when the kids and I took a staycation adventure.  As part of the travels, we stopped at Old Mill Beach at Rock Lake, just north of Bruce Mines.  Robert and I had ventured there a couple of years ago after seeing it featured as one of Algoma's 10 Best Beaches.  After one failed trip down a rather muddy, narrow, and bumpy road that turned out to be not the one we were looking for, we found our way and were one of only a few families there.  The water was beautiful and warm although I wasn't a fan of the seaweed that wrapped itself around my ankle at one point.  Theoretically I realize that it is just a plant but in actuality, it grosses me out and I am always convinced it is trying to kill me (irrational, I know).  After I hid behind some bushes and beside the vehicle to change (there are no facilities at this beach), hoping no one came within the visual line of my bare behind, I saw some long grasses across the road so managed to snap a couple of poor-man's replicas of the inspiration photo.

Sport

My goal was to take the kids to play Disc Golf again and try to capture a live action photo of them releasing the disc and catching it in mid-air on it's way to the basket.  Picture it - it would have been a great photo; trust me.  Instead, I am relying on another photo I took yesterday while at Rock Lake.  Now this particular photo may not actually fit the definition of a "sport" but my kids are "sporting" bathing suits and were swimming (which really is a sport) prior to me capturing this picture.

I had also taken this one of Danica at Pointe Des Chenes earlier in the week with my phone and although the water is very shallow, she looks more like she is actually swimming.

In downloading the photos off my now-broken camera, I realized I had also taken a photo of Robert dancing the tinikling (a Filipino dance).

Cold Drink

Since I've been on holidays this week and the weather has finally been lovely and summer-like, I have taken the kids to the beach a couple of times.  On this particular occasion, we went to Pointe Des Chenes which is a beach very close to town (near the airport actually).  This was a photo of my iced tea in my new iced tea travel mug (also a phone photo).  I envisioned a photo of one of my husband's famous mojitos but unfortunately his schedule doesn't allow for him to have time to make me any.

Starts with V

This may, in fact, be cheating.  This past weekend for Rotaryfest, they rented a "Very Large Duck".  Here it is...

By this point in the day, my camera had died so this was another phone photo.

Insect

Are butterflies insects?  The kids say spiders aren't but butterflies are.  I would tend to agree with my kids because they are smart cookies who seem to know things I don't (or they think I don't know anything even when I do).  Regardless, it was the closest to an insect I was able to photograph this week.  This was another photo taken with my phone while we were at Pointe Des Chenes.  This pretty little yellow butterfly seemed to enjoy flying around the kids' sandcastles (or Pokestops).

Splash

I bet you are thinking of that old movie with Darryl Hannah but I hate to disappoint you.  One of the few photos I actually took with my other camera (the Canon) last week (in fact, I took it on the Sunday at the beginning of the week) was of the kids playing with water balloons at the Fil-Can Day party (Filipino-Canadian Day; I am pretty sure I introduced you to it last week).  Unfortunately, I didn't capture any of the fantastic splashes but if you look hard, you can see a little splash.

Wildcard

Apparently with the 3 cameras, I don't have a lot of wildcard options this week (or if I use one of them, I may not have one for this week which is the week it would actually belong to.  This was the last photo I took last week before my camera died.  It is of one of the marching bands at the Rotaryfest parade.

Maybe I will have this week's blog posted soon too.  I have to double check to see that I've taken all the requisite photos.  Here's hoping the heat and sunshine continue!  Happy Summer!

Sharon's Week 27: I'll Have a Double Double

"Finally!"  My mother is probably saying.  I have excuses why I am late this week but they're not going to make me look good - oh well, if you're reading this, you are friend or family so you probably understand anyway.

I was in Windsor on the weekend and when I went to put my photos for the week onto the computer and process them, I found that I did not have the computer cord with me.  I tried one of Anne's that seemed to fit but Lightroom worked at the speed of a dying snail and I couldn't make myself keep going.  When the computer is not plugged in, it runs in energy saving mode and there's not enough light in the screen to see the photos properly so I gave up on that too.  Now that I write that, I think that there's probably a setting that can change those settings.  Oops!  As it turns out, when I got home and saw that the cord wasn't in my house, I looked in my suitcase and there it was...it had fallen into the laundry section of my case and was with me all the time.  Oops again!  And I was busy Monday (book club in Batchawana) and Tuesday (last minute errands) so here I am on Wednesday finally getting the post up.

The ideas came easily this week...the execution not so much.  In the end I was happy with the choices I made until I looked at this coming week's topics and realized that I could have used these ideas for most of the upcoming ones (hence this week's title).  Grrr.  I am idea-less so far this week and quickly running out of time.  Fingers crossed...

abstract in nature

The first photo I took for this topic is now my wild card and I'll explain it at the end.  When I stopped in at Katherine Cove on my way back from Timmins, this photo jumped out at me.  I just really liked the shiny lines of sun reflecting on the water and the dark wavy lines of sand beneath.

fruit

I tried lots of photos of a bowl of strawberries that we picked up at a farmer's market but they weren't doing it for me.  Then I had the brilliant idea of having a drink out by the pool and voila!

A

This is the shadow of part of a climbing structure in a little playground on the Windsor waterfront.

on the beach

This is the reason I stopped at Katherine Cove.   It was a beautiful sunny and warm day so I spent a little time enjoying the beach.

summer

When I realized that we would be in Windsor during this week, I immediately thought of a photo of Levi jumping into the pool.  He had other ideas and I ended up having to bribe him.  I hope he enjoys his new Vanguard cards.

fast

Now I know that this looks like the exact opposite of fast but this little girl (Trixie) is very fast when she decides she wants to escape into the great outdoors.  Luckily we had no incidents on the weekend.

wild card

I was looking out the patio doors and my friends' place in Timmins and this face was staring back at me.  Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

And here is one disappointing photo from the American fireworks on July 4th.  I don't know what was wrong but the fireworks were really underwhelming (even though I tried hard not to compare them to the ones in Timmins on Canada Day).  The lights disappeared quickly because of the wind I think and something is up with either my camera or my tripod because many of my photos ended up really blurry.  Oh well, I get three chances again next year.

And that's that.  I am not likely going to get this coming week's blog up by the time I leave on Friday and I don't think I'll be able to get anything done while I am in China so I'll say so long for now.  See you again in August.

Pam's Week 27: You Got a Fast Car, I Want a Ticket to Anywhere...

Maybe we can make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere....Shall I keep singing or is that enough?  You guys are likely thanking your lucky stars that you can't actually hear me singing that song right now.  If you could, it's highly probable that you would stop reading right now and quickly close the page to make it stop.

As you read this blog, you will see that I never did take a picture of a fast car.  When I saw the topic "fast" (after last week's 'speed'), this song popped into my head and just wouldn't let go.  Sharon suggested a different song to go along with the fast photo I will end up using but it just didn't work for me the same; I mean, I sang it when she suggested it but then haven't really thought of it again this week.

I will let you know right now that this isn't one of my better weeks.  I just wasn't feeling it.  The topics just weren't inspiring (perhaps because it felt like some of them were duplicating last week's and even awfully closely related to each other this week).  I found it difficult to be creative and ended up just snapping photos to say I did it.  My apologies.  I think I was also very distracted this week.  I found out Sunday night after dropping Danica off at Camp McDougall for the week that one of her best friends had been in a dirtbike accident and had to be flown to London.  I was terribly worried for her and found myself missing Danica and in great need of one of her famous "squeezy hugs".  It was also a sad week as a good friend had to say goodbye to her mother who was seriously one of the sweetest women I had ever had the fortune to meet.

I haven't looked ahead to this week's topics - hopefully they work out better for me.  And hopefully life in general is looking up!  Danica's friend is looking well and her mother said they are hoping to come back home in a day or two so the week is promising thus far....

Abstract in Nature

I am not going to lie - I actually took this picture last week as a potential photo for "pattern" but for lack of an abstract nature photo today, I will post it here.

Now, seeing as I don't really know what exactly constitutes "abstract in nature", I am also going to include one of the photos I took with Sharon at the Fourth of July fireworks on Tuesday night.  I liked how these weeds looked silhouetted against the sunset reflection in the river.

Fruit

I had come up with all kinds of ideas for the watermelon we had in the fridge waiting to be cut.  And then I arrived home to find out that it had been cut into cubes which then made me need a plan B....I didn't have one.  This morning, though, the kids tried to make breakfast (Robert ended up helping them but that's okay).  Voila - strawberry-topped nutella-stuffed pancakes!

A

I intended to take a photo of a swingset as it reminded me of Duncan when he first began talking.  He was actually a late talker (of course he was, being the son of a Speech-Language Pathologist).  When he finally started, however, we were amazed to realize that he already recognized many of his letters.  One day when I took him to the park, he pointed out that the swingset looked like an "A" and the parking lot lines looked like "H".  He wasn't wrong.  Somehow I was unable to locate any of those "A" swingsets in my few attempts this week, though.  I began to look for other possibilities and took a photo of one of the sculptures at the Art Gallery which was "A"-like but then on my drive home from a walk with Riya one evening, I saw the windows in this church were lit up and looked like an "A".

On the Beach

So since it was sunny last night, I ventured to the beach for a short while after supper, mainly to try to get this photo but also thought it would be something fun for the kids to do.  The kids insisted we bring the dog.  I knew how this was going to go - the dog would bark when the kids weren't around or were too far away in the water, the dog would be excited when the kids were nearby and would try to play and they would get upset with her, the leash would get wrapped around at least one of us and someone would end up in tears.  The kids assured me this would not happen and insisted that they wouldn't go if the dog didn't come.  Guess who was right?

Here is a photo of the kids playing on the beach.

Here are the 3 of them on the beach.  By the way, this one was hard to get as Danica was mad at Riya (she has leash burn on her legs and I think the leash had just nearly gotten wrapped around her neck at this point) and didn't want to stand next to her but when she tried to stand next to Duncan, Riya moved to be between the two of them.

Summer

See how there were so many duplicate photos this week?  I guess it's not a true duplicate, but when I think of summer, I think of ice cream (done a couple of times the past couple of weeks) and the beach.

This is a typical summer look for Danica - goggles askew, messy hair, dirty knees...

Fast

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to take a photo of a fast car but any time I saw a fast car, I didn't have my camera ready.  Any other time, there were no fast cars to be found.  I then decided to check out the 25th anniversary space shuttle garden in front of the Bondar Pavilion to celebrate Roberta Bondar's space voyage.  It isn't moving but space shuttles are fast.  Sharon then suggested the song "Rocket Man" but like I said, it just wasn't working the same way for me as far as a blog title went.

Wildcard

I have a couple of these this week.  When I watched the fireworks with Sharon, I really liked how one of them turned out so even though I have included fireworks for the past couple of weeks, I am including one again.  I also noted how pretty the Bondar Pavilion looked with the sunset sky in the background so spent a few evenings this week trying to capture it (not totally successfully, but I tried).  On one of those same evenings, I liked how the moon reflected in the water from the boardwalk.

On that note, I should go finish preparing for the FilCan Day picnic (it's a made up day to celebrate Filipino Independence Day and Canada Day; don't feel bad if you've never heard of it), pick up some sliced almonds for my salad to replace the ones I burnt, start my park deliveries of people and food and perhaps take the dog for a quick walk before we head out.  Have a great week!

Pam's Week 26: Fireworks Emulating Heaven, Til There are No Stars Any More...

Anyone who knows me very well at all will know that I have been a huge fan of the Tragically Hip since my old friends and KMart colleagues, Chris and Leigh, introduced them to me back in the Up to Here days.  I have seen them about 11 times, from small bars in Grand Rapids, MI to huge outdoor festivals in Chicago and Winnipeg, the 2 millenium shows in Toronto, and everything in between.  As soon as I read that fireworks was one of this week's topics (and you may recall that Sharon tricked me and I thought it actually belonged last week), this song popped into my head and hasn't left.  I know that my kids are more familiar with the Katy Perry song "Firework" but that just wouldn't do for me.

This is the first week in a long time that I didn't totally procrastinate and run out the night before the end of the week and attempt to cram in a bunch of photos.  That being said, I was out and about yesterday thinking I was all done when I suddenly realized that I was still missing one of the topics.  Oopsie.  It probably was a good thing that I didn't procrastinate as we were wanting for clear skies and sunshine all week again.  On the plus side - the grass is green...

Anyways, here we go....

Red and White

All the way back from Mount Pleasant last weekend, I pointed out all the nice red barns against the bright white clouds and thought I should stop and take a photo of one of them in an attempt to have something less obvious as my red and white photo but alas, it didn't happen.  So, possible the most obvious red and white possible - our flag.

I also took this photo of my kids yesterday during the brief hour we braved the cold to attend our local Canada Day festivities.  It's more red than white since Danica needed to leave her coat on for fear of frostbite on July 1st...

Pattern

This is the photo I essentially forgot about.  I had taken some pattern photos earlier in the week, however, they were all in nature and since "abstract in nature" was a topic for next week, I felt like I should try to do something different.  Unfortunately, my attempts were not too successful.

One of our oldest streets used to be cobblestone at the south end of it for most of my childhood (and obviously before that).  Recently, they repaved the road but used the cobblestones for crosswalks.  I thought it could be a cool pattern.  Maybe I should have parked my car, braved the rain, and tried for some different angles.

Speed

Somehow when I read this topic, I automatically assumed this meant fast speed.  Fast is one of next week's topics though so perhaps slow would have been another acceptable interpretation of speed.  That's not how I interpreted it though so you may have to look at two similar fast pics in a row!

Boat

This was another topic I thought of taking last weekend while en route to Mount Pleasant.  Mackinaw City and all those other small little Michigan towns seem to have some of the biggest boats I've ever seen.  They are likely more yacht-like than boat but it still would have worked, I'm sure.  We didn't end up stopping near the lake though so that never happened.  Instead, I took pictures of some of the boats around Topsail Island while out walking and photographing with Sharon the other day.  We really liked how the sunlight was reflecting in the rippled water (she may have a similar photo as she was taking some too but I haven't read her blog yet so I'm not sure).

Q

Do you realize how difficult it is to find "Q" in an unexpected place?  Or at all, for that matter.  Sharon and I walked around Bellevue Park turning our heads in all sorts of ways to try to find something remotely resembling a Q.  Then I saw a Dairy Queen cup on the ground and pictured it with a spoon angled properly and decided I could recreate that at home.  This is a pineapple pie I'd made for Father's Day but it hadn't set properly so it still sat, with it's friends, in my freezer.

Not completely convinced I would use that photo, I relied on my old and lately neglected friend, Google, and almost slapped myself.  You see, while Sharon and I were at the park, I saw this chain and tried to make it work as a Q, never actually looking at the rings themselves in this manner...

Now, I made this black and white, as I did with the pattern photo above as well, so I'm not sure why they show up in the folder as such but then reverted to colour when I put them in the blog.

Fireworks

Finally we have the "magic topic".  That would be the topic that matches the title of the blog post.  I have to admit that these photos were taken last week at the National Indigenous People's Day as we arrived too late and the fireworks ended up being set off too far away from where we were standing for me to get any decent photos.

Wildcard

Funnily enough, this seems to be the topic I am struggling with the most these days.  Maybe it's partially because the weather has sucked so we haven't really done anything out of the ordinary or gone anywhere interesting, but I have been having a difficult time thinking of something new and creative to do for this topic.

Geese in the river in front of the bridge at sunset...

Danica and her friend, Sophie, in front of their cabin at summer camp.

It's funny actually because as we were packing her up ready to go, Danica kept expressing her reservations about going this year.  She ended up loving it last year, but she went the same week as Duncan so she felt somehow safer and protected.  I told her she would have to show Sophie the ropes, thinking it would make her feel better as this is Sophie's first year at this camp.  She kept saying she wasn't sure she wanted to go any more.  Then we arrive and she happily takes the bed under Sophie's and the two of them go running off with their counselor without even a goodbye to us!  We had to call them back for hugs and kisses and a quick photo.

Hopefully the weather is more cooperative this week.  I'd hate for it to rain all week when she's at camp but I am also selfishly hoping for some sunshine for myself and my own motivations!  I am also hoping for sunshine for all of you as well as I am not completely selfish!