I'm not sure where the days are going...but they certainly are flying by. We are now technically in fall. You can tell. The leaves are starting to turn colour and the air is crisp at night. It's a great time of year. But then again what isn't a good time of the year? In spring we enjoy the colours coming back and the new, fresh live budding from the ground. In summer we enjoy just being outside and the warm rays of the sun. Fall has a cascade of colours that appear and in winter the glimmer of ice and the outline of trees as the frost clings to them--well, can you find a season that doesn't have something to love about it?

I looked out the window a few minutes ago and the clouds were a cotton candy pink colour the sky a pale blue. How very beautiful. Sunrise is a great time of the day. I must admit...the morning when I sit in my apartment sipping tea, surfing the net, watching the news is my favorite time of the day. It's peacful and while the time is never long enough (during the week) it does seem to pass slower than many moments of my day. Ah.


I'm sure some of you here on the Island know Margaret Gallant. She does some great work and one of the things she talks about is her fashion consulting work. What an amazing woman. I had the opportunity to see her speak a couple of nights ago and was suitably impressed. She is funny and vivacious and really knows how to speak in public. The information on dressing for your body type was terrific. I am going to keep my eyes and ears open for her next presentation. If you get the opportunity to go and see her---do so.

It's Friday! My grandmother celebrated her 87th birthday yesterday and we are off to visit on Saturday cake in hand. There will also be some de-cluttering of the attic going on and it sounds like the fixing of a few things around the house. My Aunt F is over from NS--one of the fearless women who came to visit me in NU and I'm looking forward to the visit with her as well. Sunday should be a great day to relax and do some cooking for the week ahead.

Here's a few pictures from Nunavut September 2006


The vivid colours of the tundra.

 Fog rolling in over the land.

 Remember the new apartment I moved into...first night trying to cook a pizza only to find out (too late) that the manual for the stove was still in the oven. LOL. That was funny.

 The last few ships of the year coming in and dropping off the precious, necessary goods for living in the North.

 And of course the arrival of Oliver.

Good times. More good times to come.

Time sure flys some weeks doesn't it. I thought it had only been a few days since my last entry but it has been just over a week. Oops.

I went down for the count on Wednesday night--arriving home at 7pm from the laundromat I knew I was coming down with something and by light of day Thursday I was in a full blown cold. My head felt like it was going to explode. Apparently there has been a cold going around and it was my turn. Bound to happen to me when the temperatures drop by 15 degrees almost overnight. Fall has arrived.

The weekend was spent putting the finishing touches on the apartment. With the exception of the 2nd bedroom I'm done--close enough. I still need to arrange for a dresser and a couple odd chairs to be brought in from my parents house but basically the living areas are complete. Ah. I even hung pictures. I'm pleased with the overall look--pictures next weekend.

I didn't make it to the TF run on Sunday. The runny nose kept me in and from what I've heard it was for the best. It was a great day--don't get me wrong, but there was a long delay in the start of the day and it was chilly which would not have helped me in recouperating from the cold. I have no regrets. I walked the bridge when it first opened and I still support the TF run.

Busy week ahead at work...off to bed.

I'm still placing objects in the apartment. You'd think I'd be finished by now...but I always spend too much time thinking about where to place each object. 'If I put this here I'll be super organized and it will always be available when I need it.' It doesn't often end up working but I toil away placing objects anyway.

On the weekend while carefully placing objects I opened one of the giant plastic totes I own. I had checked the tote for water damage a couple weeks ago when I first moved in and didn't notice any....as I unpacked the entire tote I found some. I had printed off my entire blog when I was still up North. I wanted to have a paper copy should anything ever happen to the blog online...you never know, right? It took a LOT of paper and three binders to hold it all--not to mention the hours of printing and hole punching. Well as you have likely guessed by now...it got wet. And seeing as the water exposure was over 2 weeks ago we now have a wet, moldy paper situation on hand. I had to toss all the paper out. It was sad but I know the blog is still online and I can re-print or save it electronically somehow. What was sadder was the loss of a little blue note book that contained the original writing of my trip to India. It too had gone moldy and needed to be thrown out.

Before I could toss out the blue notebook I went through it and read the words over again. Then I read all the blog entries about the trip to India. It was such a wonderful experience and I am glad I have the blog to look back on whenever the mood strikes me.

Today I had final confirmation on my habitat trip. April 16 - May 1. Area and details are still to be finalized but the introduction (virtual) to the coordinator in India was made today and the plans should be moving forward soon. That was a big perk me up at the end of my day.

If anyone would like to stop over and finish this re-arranging I'd be very happy to let them in the door. :) What is fun and challenging is the amount of space I have. More space than I have had since I lived in a two-bedroom townhouse in Pangnirtung. The apartment I'm in has a second bedroom--cha ching! a walk in storage closet in the hallway, a linen closet in the bathroom and a proper dining area--big enough for a table and chairs! I don't know what to do with all the space.

This coming Sunday I'm off to the Confederation Bridge to participate in the TF run/walk. The weather isn't looking so great but really as long as it doesn't rain I'm happy. The only crappy part of the day is the need to be in Borden at 6:30am...ugh. I mean I am normally up early but not early enough to be up and awake and out the door in time to be in Borden for a 6:30am bus ride followed by a 12km walk. That is serious awake time.

Here's a few pics taken in August...

Snail trail in the sand at low tide--Victoria-By-The-Sea

Isn't the red amazing? Yes folks--this is PEI! No colour touch up to this picture.

Low tide in Victoria.

Tramp helping with the unpacking.

Playing hide 'n seek.

One of the cats I looked after in August. Looks like I'm not the only one who has a thing for shoes.

Cabot Park. North Shore PEI.

Family day at the beach.

Cabot Park.

View out my office window in Victoria. Minus the pole isn't that fantastic? I can watch the tide come in and out. I've seen countless sailboats going by and birds of all shapes and sizes. The fields in the upper right have been plowed and now and then I catch a glimpse of a farmer tending to his crops.

Boardroom in Victoria. The sun was shining so hard in the early morning you can't really see the view, but it also looks out over the water. I find it hard to always pay attention to the meeting at hand.

Finally--pictures!

Found the cord. It was in one of my grocery bags. More pics to come but here are a few for tonight...

The bedroom wall before the paint. Plain, boring beige.

After one coat of paint.

Three coats. Final product.

And the wall in the living room...

The colours of course are not quite true to life but you get the basic idea.

Ah. It is Monday morning and I'm sitting on my couch in my still as of yet basically bare living room. Things are moving along fairly well but of course I am not yet close to being finished the unpacking process.

The wall in the bedroom has been painted--3X and looks fantastic. I find it calm and yet exciting at the same time. The paint is called 'pre dawn' and is a pinky, raspberry colour. Not very girly yet still pink. The lady at the paint store moved me from a very pinky raspberry to this one that has some definite purple undertones to it. A more grown up colour she insisted than what I had originally picked. The colour was selected to go with a painting I purchased last year in Yellowknife. I posted about it ages ago...October 2009.

It turns out that more than one of my pieces of art looks great up against the wall. I have been placing some of them in front of it and am not wondering if I can get more than one picture up on the wall without it looking crowded. Pictures will come when I relocate my cord for the camera. I went searching for it last night but it could be in Crapaud along with some of my other belongings.

Friday after work I decided to get prepared for the arrival of hurricane Earl and bought some wallpaper to put up on the wall in the living room. Once I had the accent wall for the bedroom planned in my head I thought why stop there...and had the living room wall and kitchen wall planned as well. I couldn't decide what colour to do the living room in though and thought I would head to the paint store find inspiration and go from there. I was inspired to purchase a print that I likely wouldn't have selected a few years ago. It is silver with white flowers and a black vine...you will need to see the pictures. It is quite bold and a bit retro (maybe). It is hanging on the smallest wall in the living room. Just over 5 feet long and with a closet door on one side there isn't a lot of wallpaper but it still produces quite an impact. I put it up on Saturday while waiting for Earl to arrive. It didn't take that long and while it isn't a perfect job--it will do and my telephone table will look great in front of it once it is re-finished.

My parents are arriving this afternoon to help put together my shelving unit, and bed. It is my mom's b'day and so we will be off to my sisters for cake after the chores are done.

Hurricane Earl was down-graded to a tropical storm before arriving in the Maritimes and even then it didn't seem like much of a storm to me. I am glad that Earl took away the humidity. It was so sticky and hot that I hadn't done much work in the apartment or gone for a walk because it was so icky out. The winde and rain that arrived on Saturday was welcome. Even more welcome was the company I had late in the afternoon. LF stopped by for a visit. Over from H'fax for the weekend to see her folks I haven't seen her in years....and am working on getting her signed on for my India trip!

My friend Kim in Banff gave me a deadline to have my apartment finished--next weekend! With a deadline ahead of me I should be able to get more of it done. LOL. Though I reserve the right to re-arrange at will once I have finished.

Coming up this month....I'm walking in the Terry Fox Run across the bridge. A concert at the St. Mary's Church in Indian River. A night at the drive in with 'the girls'. Lunch with some friends.




http://www.wallpaperdirect.co.uk/products-full/osborne-little/avianna/25287

Baby its hot outside. The temperatures are reaching highs of 30+ and my body is not impressed. I also don't own much in the line of work appropriate summer clothes and the AC in the office makes it a struggle. I had a long sleeve blouse on yesterday with a sweater vest. Just right inside the office but the minute I go outside to walk to the other building and am hit with the 39 degrees (with humidity) I'm a puddle of sweat. Ick.

Last night (Wednesday) was my first night in the apartment. I got home around 8pm and due to the extreme heat decided not to do anything but flop on the couch and wait for a cool breeze to blow in. We are still in post-disaster stage here--looks like a tropical storm blew through and moved everything around. If the weather breaks a tiny bit tonight I hope to get some of the unpacking done and another coat of paint thrown up on the wall.

This may jinx things but I actually wouldn't mind hurricane Earl arriving on the weekend (with minimal damage of course) as that would be the perfect excuse to stay indoors and unpack. If it is nice and sunny I will want to play at the beach and will end up still not being able to find clothes to wear on Tuesday.

Last night wasn't as hot as the night before but I still didn't get any unpacking done. I did manage to get some groceries. Now when I say some I mean just over $200 but I still don't really have anything in the cupboards. I will likely be out a couple of times on the weekend (weather pending) to get more as I figure out what I need. By the time I got home last night and unpacked groceries it was 9:30pm so no painting again.

Today is Friday and it is cooler(?) only 19 this am but it is going to get hot again. With any luck though it will be cooler than the last couple days and I can throw up another coat of paint. I would love to be able to set up my bedroom.

It will be interesting to see what Earl brings this weekend.