Surprise Ending

There is a beautiful day is apon us here in PEI and instead of enjoying the fresh air, I am fulfilling my blogging obligations because once again, it is more than a week since I've posted. The truth is, I was out this morning so it is not a terrible punishment that I am enduring by staying indoors. After today's painting group I had a visit with a friend who lives in a beautiful spot but has a long driveway. The snow is slushy and I was afraid of getting stuck so walked the distance. She and her husband feed birds so chickadees met me at the first tree and accompanied me on my journey and back. It's truly beautiful in the countryside these days so it is very good to be outside taking it all in.

Sorry for the interruption though of course, you didn't know I was gone. I had some wonderful company drop in , a couple of drinks, started supper and was away from the computer for a couple of hours. During supper preparations my oregano had disappeared and I spent a long time looking for it. Found it when I was cleaning up. I have to continue giving stirs to the supper but from this moment forth, you'll never know when I've been gone.

I am still readying my computer to set up the Christmas gift from my daughter. It was a turntable that allows me to convert my vinyl to mp3 files. The fact that the Olympics are on 24/7 on one of the two channels I get has given me some extra time. I've missed Oprah and American Idol terribly but soon I will have this machine working and I am very excited about that. There is so much good music in our universe and I want to hear every bit and share some of the old songs I have that you may not be familiar with or are very, very familiar with.

To have Bonnie Raitt's first two albums, all of Joni's, Dylan's, Dan Hicks' early albums, Phoebe Snow' s, Aretha's and more albums than I can name right now available anytime I want is a dream come true. All my vinyl is sitting upstairs and I've missed it terribly. My daughter had a boyfriend a few years ago who wanted to see how turntables worked and changed the weight on mine. It is beyond my expertise to change it back to how it was.

I brought up Bonnie Raitt first because I know I have one song, That Song About the Midway, from Streetlights on mp3. I also have my favorite Phoebe Snow song. It's actually a well known Gershwin song but in my opinion it is sung best by Phoebe Snow. It is There's a Boat that's leaving Soon For New York. It is one of my top three favorites and I've featured it on this blog more than a few times.

When getting the Phoebe Snow link, I read that she suffered a brain aneurysm in January. I have to read more and find out how this has turned out. Perhaps you will too.

Saved in the East

I had a computer scare earlier and thought that the computer had fried but all is well, I'm only late. It's very big news that one third of the island is without electricity. The photographs on the news were incredible with thick ice covering everything. In one photo the space between two telephone lines had formed a sheet. I'd never seen anything like it. What is very strange is that here in our community in the East, there is not a drop of ice. We were on the warm side of the front and what slight amount we had yesterday melted overnight. We didn't lose power at all. The western part of the province will not be fully restored for days.

Gotta be quick. Music: Some rain songs. Fire and Rain from James Taylor and Feels Like Rain from Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy

Monday Musings

I loved visiting the north shore beaches last week. I keep looking at the photos. I wish it had been a less bitter day though. We really were quite cold. You can dress for the weather but when you're photographing, your hands are uncovered and your photo subject might have you facing the head-on wind.

Managed a one hour hike today but nothing strenuous. That's for tomorrow. Monday's I'm a bit tired after Sunday's shift. Had lunch and a visit with a friend and we made plans for another photo shoot/hike on Friday. I have a full week with activities of some sort every day. I was thinking about the price of gas and how it costs so much to go anywhere. I realized that if I am out driving around, the furnace at home is off whereas if I was home and not driving in the car, the furnace is on keeping me warm. A reasonable trade off that made me not feel as bad.

I'm going to invite my sister-in-law for supper tonight if she drops in after work. If she already has plans I will have cooked my supper for tomorrow night. Pretty good either way. She probably has fish planned as her hubby is returning soon.

I needed a song uploaded the other day that had been on Page One and is not longer there. It was for another reason but it's such a fantastic piece that it is good as a choice for today. Crepuscular Solidao by Bonnie Raitt and Cesaria Evora is that song. Since Bonnie is so good in that duet, song number two is another one featuring her. It is Do I Ever Cross Your Mind with Ray Charles. She certainly has a voice and a style that make her fantastic in duets. I still have her first two albums on vinyl. A lot of people aren't familiar with them because she became famous only after her third and later were released.

Can't You Hear Those Peepers?

Every year there is the long-awaited day when I can open my bedroom window and have the frogs sing me to sleep. That day was yesterday. It was wonderful and I had kids in the house too, going out onto the deck because there was a smoker. Their talk and the frogs made me fall asleep smiling.

I've always liked having my kids in the house with their friends. I can sleep through anything and the only time they ever woke me was when J and his friends were into wrestling and big thumps would wake me.

There is a point here. I awoke at three to pouring rain and remembered that my daughter hadn't put the downspout thingies back on. I was out in my nightie pretty quickly, and got soaked but prevented the water in my basement I would have faced had my window not been open beside my head.

I just spoke with my brother in Coastal BC. His area of town is not flooded but there are flooded areas and they are cut off from the rest of BC. It's certainly terrible conditions around there. I must say I'd prefer our cold spring to his wet one.

Music: A music blog that I visit daily and have linked to before, Keep The Coffee Coming, featured Judy Collins, doing the Joni Mitchell song, That Song About The Midway last week. I commented about the version from Bonnie Raitt that I still have on vinyl. Well I really wanted to hear it, have managed to find it, and here are both versions.

The Latest Look

Not much time to blog today so here's a couple of links.

Sneaker Freaker - I don't wear sneakers. I have a pair of skateboarder type sneakers that I bought in 1996 that I still wear if I have to but when I came across this site, I wished I did wear them because of all these cool lacings.

Dark Roasted Blend - In-flight photograpy is their simple description. I have always loved the views from an airplane and this site shows some wonderful photos taken by a pilot/photographer.

Simpler to link a couple of songs than upload some so here is Spectacular Surprise One and Delightful Surprise Two.