Rocket Girl

I was listening to this song the other day, feeling sorry for myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I have it playing on my ipod when I run...thinking the title alone should inspire me to run faster....having "rocket" in the title and all.

{I know it doesn't work when I look at my pace, but it was an idea to inspire speed...})

Anyway.

My mood has been melancholy as of late.

I haven't been inspired, or felt a moment of elation in anything that normally thrills me,

and I feel as though I have lost my "upbeat-ness" somewhere out there.

I feel  I'm that Rocket Girl....traveling away into far unknown places.....

or places that aren't usually seen by the average person.

~if only in my mind.~

How about China?

I want to run along the Great Wall.....

take in the gardens and walk the bridges.

Then there are the plains of Africa.

A safari or 2....catching glimpses of never-ending plains where exotic animals roam.

And Mt. Kilimanjaro is on my list to hike.

Even a trip "Down by the Bay" would be lovely.

A row in my Rowboat amongst the reeds and cattails....

catching sight of a fish leaping from the water or strange birds diving for lunch.

My dream....Italy.

Where laundry is hung between homes and the pieces flutter above your head in the sunlight.

Flowers in the open window sills....music and wine and the best of Italian food.

The Swiss Alps. 

I've wanted to go there ever since I was in Grade 6 and had to do a report on those mountains.

To climb, or ski, or just listen to a yodel as the sound bounces between the peaks.

After the song ends and the pictures in my mind slow down a bit...

I stop.

And realize something.

All those places I dream of.....yes....are actually out there somewhere.

But those scenes can be found right here in my backyard.

And I get to see them all for free.

~~~~~

~all photos above taken from right here...

where I  already am.~

in its time....

~What Was~

~What Is~

~What Is to Come~

~There are times in my life I wish I could be in an 

altogether different place.

But it seems to me that you can't get to where you want to be...

 without experiencing the other place first.~

~All places can be beautiful in their time.~

~~~

(Thank you all so much for your encouraging words before my races this past weekend. I have to say both the Aquathlon and Triathlon were a learning experience....more of a mental battle than a physical one. 

I completed both....not with times I like, but I crossed the finish lines. 

And for that ~I'm happy:)

in the span of a lifetime....

There seems to be too many things to do 

and far too many sights too see....

in the span of a lifetime.

Had a wonderful (but it seems very short) visit to the USA with my girl.....

now I just came back home to grab my bike.

I'm off to the sunny Okanagan {in the next~door province of British Columbia}....a 10 hour drive away for my first ever Aquathon and another Olympic Distance Triathlon.

Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend, 
and you enjoy the wonderfulness of 

~the moments within a lifetime.~

backyard finds

There's a lot of work to be done around this place.
Example #1: 
I still have construction stairs braced on my front porch.
~It's been 5 years since I moved in.~
(I'll hold back more comments on THIS matter. I tend to go off on a tangent.)


And that's just one thing.
Let's not talk about mud sidewalks that have yet to hold concrete...or....
(oh! never mind!)


I DO love the other parts though.
Remember the "barrel of fun"?
The "birdhouse neighbors"?


And now I have these kinds of things popping up in every direction:

It's a good thing to keep your focus on the positive.

(As long as you don't fall in my mud walk~way.
Oh....and please be careful when you walk up those braced steps!)

Curiosity...

Some say that Curiosity killed the cat.

~I think the cat is stronger in the 

end because of it.~

Curiosity can often be considered 

an annoyance, a type of "nosy."

~I think this is how you stay on 

top of your game.~

~~~If you stop being Curious...

learning would come to a standstill.~~~

The Curious (much to other's dismay;)

often seem to get ahead in life.

And in most situations that isn't such 

a bad thing at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”

Albert Einstein

out of proportion

Is it me....

or does anyone else tend to blow things out of proportion?

It's just....

some things seem a bit strange.

And I get carried away in my thinking.

(And then things start to bug me and people around me think I'm going crazy.

But I'm SURE what I'm thinking is right.

Sure of it.)

Or am I looking at things all wrong?

Just blowing things out of proportion...

...again.

Who knows.

It's Monday after all.

Have a good day....

regardless of how you're seeing things;))

Hatched

Remember the Duck nest

on the edge of my yard?

(past post)

It's now full of eggshells.

Have a wonderful weekend.

~

Sure the Ducks will enjoy theirs....while making good use of the rain (lakes) puddles which are continuing to form in my yard.

I forgot and remembered~

I finally put the kayak in the lake for the first time last night.

I had forgotten just how therapeutic it is.

Being out there made me forget a lot of things.

Like schedules and things to do and issues.

After awhile I even forgot where I was.

I sat still and took pictures with my (phone)camera.

I think the best part of the evening kayak...

was that I remembered how to breathe again.

That's always a good thing to remember.

~~

~inner beauty~

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”                                     

- John Wooden

Mornings

This morning....

I was called to the back door,

 and my son handed me this:

 Two mornings ago....

I opened my eyes to this view:

Every morning...

I start with this:

The 4:30 mornings....

 when I drive to town for my run/swim sessions:

For me....

there's no time during the day when I feel more alive~

 than the morning.

~

~And YOUR favorite time of day?~

Barrel of Fun

I was sitting on my porch swing the other morning....minding my own business and trying to enjoy a coffee while madly swatting killer mosquitoes....

when my gaze kept being drawn to this barrel.

I had good intentions of cutting it in half and 

making flower boxes out of it to sit at the end of my driveway.

(Thank you dear sister-in-law who gave it to me FIVE years ago to do just that.)

Of course...it still sits where I plunked it, 

~or rather, rolled it~

when we were building our home.

(Another..."I will get around to it one day" project.)

Now the barrel sits like a permanent fixture. 

And I can't seem to find it in me to move it.

Now since that Barrel-Staring morning, I cannot seem to get the

Beer Barrel Polka

(click above link to listen. Or not.)

out of my head!

{A catchy little tune driving me a tad batty.}

~~~~~~~~~~~

I think feel a backyard Polka-party coming on...

(feel free to bring your accordion;)

Start to Finish!

Race day was beautiful.

It ended in thunderstorms...but that was fine by me.

I did it!

My first 13.1 mile run.

I had never run that far before...even in my training.

Ask me 3 years ago and I would have said that distance was insane.

Now.........I say those running the full marathon were insane.

Who in the world would run 42km?!

(Ask me in a year or 2....)

:))

I had wonderful cheer people along the course.....my own family as well as my sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew.

My "GO" sign made by my niece which she flashed at me at the 17km mark.

(It was much needed!)

My pumpkin shoes which my cheer people said they really appreciated.

I was easy to pick out in the throng of runners;)

In action.

(It looks blurry because I was going so fast....bahaha.)

Heading for the finish....

(where I crossed without crawling)....and was given my finishers medal and surrounded by my sweet family who had drove all over the city to cheer me on in different places along the route.

(My Goal Time : 2:10

My Time: 2:08:52)

yessssss!

Nothing feels better than finishing something you started!