Where did the summer go?

I can't believe we're down to the last official weeks of summer! Granted, here on the BC Coast, the weather didn't even get decent till the first full week of July and I was in school from May till early August, but still...

Regardless, we had a wonderful season :) In May, Sean and I took our camper to Harrison Hot Springs in the Fraser Valley and had a fantastic time, despite a flat tire on the truck and getting lost on a muddy trail.

Cheam Peak

Camper in situ

Harrison Lake

Clematis in bloom

One of the highlights of the summer on the Coast was the presence of a grey whale that fed up and down the coastline from Roberts Creek to Halfmoon Bay. Sean and I just happened to be down for a sunset walk at Davis Bay on one of the evenings it was very close to the beach. Fortunately I had my camera, and snapped this pic of it!

Whale at Davis Bay

Other nature encounters included the bear and a heron. I'm particularly pleased with the photo of the heron on wing:

Bear on an early morning vist

heron

Soon after finishing my English lit course (which was fantastic), my sister and her family came to stay - we had a busy but fun 10 days together:

the gang out at Smuggler Cove

Meanwhile, I'm still working at the library - in fact, in May I officially became a part-time employee :) Up until then, I'd been a Casual. I still love my job and love being able to apply the things I'm learning about in school.

Finally, the cats continue to be their happy-go-lucky selves - running around, playing, snoozing and generally enjoying the life of Riley.

Chloe and Cleo enjoying the sun in the living room

Chloe and Cleo enjoying a post-dinner snooze in the spare room

On Tuesday I started school again and it's going to be a busy term! One of the courses is a cataloguing one and the other is about the history of libraries (yeah, that one's really tough to take!) I'll try to pop in again at least once or twice before Christmas...

Teresa
Currently Reading: Solo by Jill Mansell

Just past the 6000 word barrier...

Not bad for three days writing. In the end, yesterday, I didn't get any writing done. I went to work, came home and talked to my mum on the phone for quite a while, then made dinner. Sean and I also watched two eps of The Tudors and by the time he went to bed (he was working the early shift this morning, waking up at 3:30 am) I was just too beat to write.

But I've made up for it today and added another 1900 words to my total. It's possible I'll get more in later, after Sean and I have celebrated my birthday with lunch :)

Here's a photo of me with my little NaNo writing companion:

From Blog Photos

She made sure I stayed put, though in this shot the paw she had on my shoulder is kinda lost in my hair *g*.

After finishing today's quota, Sean and I went out for lunch to celebrate my birthday. It was back to the Wild Bistro for yummy sandwiches and more of that Licorice Spice tea. Now I'm settling back down with the laptop to answer some email and see if my characters have any more to tell me before it's time for dinner.

Hope you're all having a great day :) Even those of you here in rainy BC with me.

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Intelligencer by Leslie Silbert
Link of the Day: Old is the New New

Autumn weekends on the Coast...

The past two weekends have been gorgeous. Here's a photo I took last Sunday - you can see the grass is starting to grow:

From Blog Photos

This weekend we spent much of our time outside. On Wednesday, burning season opened (the period during which landowners can legally burn brush/deadfall - within limits *g*), so we took advantage of the glorious weather (sunny and about 10º C, to build a fire and haul stuff to it for burning. We had it going pretty well yesterday, so well in fact that the core stayed hot, hot, hot overnight - this is what we saw this morning when we stepped out onto the porch:

From Blog Photos

And our grass is now visible, even in early morning light:

From Blog Photos

Meanwhile, on the clearing next door to ours, the mist had settled in:

From Blog Photos

Inside the house, the cats have been up to the usual - being cute:

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

and occasionally (especially in Cleo's case) a bit naughty:

From Blog Photos

I'm working tomorrow and Tuesday. Tomorrow is my first full day shift - should be fun as it's also the first day EVER the Sechelt library will be open on a Monday!

How about you - how was your weekend? Did you do anything interesting?

Teresa

Currently Reading: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
Link of the Day: Old Roads of Scotland

A post of pics...

First - thanks to those who continued the Blogs of Excellence after being tagged here. If you haven't been by in a while, you might want to check that post (below this one) to see if you made my list :)

Lots going on here - I'm job hunting and also working on final edits to What the Heart Remembers so I can submit it to an editor (unsolicited). Below are some pics I've taken over the last couple of weeks:

Cats in the heat (as promised to Melissa)

Cruise ships on the Strait of Georgia - not far from our house. You'll have to click on the photos to actually see the ships properly - there are three big cruise ships (two side by side on the left) and in the far distance is the ferry heading back from Nanaimo - it's not much more than a white speck, but it was neat to see them all from our little perch:

Gibsons and Davis Bay - the roses are in Gibsons (right across from the Persephone - I do intend to look like a tourist one day soon and take a photo of it. The statue in the background is of George Gibson) while the daisies are in Davis Bay, where Sean and I had lunch yesterday.

Hope you enjoyed this little slice of life on the Coast :)


Teresa

Currently Reading: Journal of My Life During the French Revolution by Grace D. Elliott
Link of the Day: The Beachcombers

This, that and the other thing...

It's been a busy week here on the Coast. I've spent much of my time catching up on things I let slide last week while I was sick. It felt good to actually be doing something again!

We've also discovered that we live at deer central. Now we'd love to think our property itself is the reason, but it's more likely it's because we have the only house without a dog! All our neighbours have at least one big dog, so it's pretty clear the deer feel safest using our garden as their thoroughfare.

I was alerted to a visitor yesterday evening by Chloe growling at the bedroom window - pretty impressive, as I was sitting in the living room with the radio on. She may be a cat, but she's extremely territorial!

After checking to see what nature of visitor (it could have been the bear - we saw evidence the other day that it too had been by as recently as Tuesday morning), I grabbed my camera and managed to get a couple of photos and even some video.

In writing news, I discovered today that I really do need to remember to go to coffee shops more often to work. I stayed in Sechelt between my Nia class this morning and my library shift in the afternoon. With the price of gas these days, I didn't want to go home between the two, so I took the laptop with me and went to The Daily Roast (after finding Starbucks full). I had a yummy coffee and muffin and spent a fruitful hour doing some editing. It was fantastic - there was great music playing and the constant hum of voices and the coffee machine provided just the right amount of noise to lose myself in. I'm too paranoid to use Wireless Hotspots and without the internet I was able to focus on my work.

I've also been glomming books by Vancouver author Robyn Harding - three in the last week! They're page turners and tons of fun. One is even set in Vancouver, which is totally cool. They're very similar in tone to Marian Keyes, Catherine Alliot and Cathy Kelly, but with a Canadian twist. Even the books set in the US give away her nationality - at one point she mentions women might fantasize about sleeping with Joe Thornton of the Colorado Avalanche. I'm not sure many American writers would use a hockey analogy *g*. It's that kind of detail that really sucks me in. Most Canadian teenaged girls have at least one crush on a hockey player. So if you see any of her books - Unravelled, The Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom, The Journal of Mortifying Moments or Chronicles of a Mid-life Crisis, pick them up! You can read more about them at Robyn's website.


Last, but not least, here's the book trailer for Elizabeth Chadwick's next book. If you haven't read her books, they're fantastic!



Hope everyone is having a good week :)

Teresa

Currently Reading:The Wedding Day by Catherine Alliot

Cute cat pic...

Here's how I found Chloe and Cleo sleeping this afternoon - they just LOVE the sun on our bed at that time of day:

I guess it's cute cat pic week here in blogland :)

Latest pics o' the house.

Teresa

What I've been up to...

Working, mostly - either business related stuff (it's tax time) or on the contract I've taken on. Lots to keep me busy. BUT while on the elliptical last week I did do some brainstorming about WTHB and ways to resurrect the story.

Did anyone see the eclipse last night? I managed to glimpse it through the trees during its height and saw the moon coming out of the earth's shadow, when it was high enough to clear the trees and be seen from the library window. Very impressive. And even when I couldn't see the moon itself, the stars were gorgeous as I gazed up at them from the deck. I had all the lights in the house off, so it was pitch black out. Makes me really look forward to summer :)

I'm visiting blogs as I have a chance.

Oh, and here are a couple of cute pics of Chloe from last night:



Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review

Doing NaNo is helping...

me get going with this story. I managed another 2100 words today and hope for the same tomorrow. As with last year, I didn't even try to get my words in on the weekend - just not enough time when there was so much else to do, especially as we found out in the afternoon that my brother/sister-in-law, niece and baby nephew were coming up for the weeked. We had a great time with them, which was nice :)

The story is starting to roll a bit now and I'm trying so hard to resist the urge to do anything BUT write, though I did look up a couple of things today. Still, it's cool to get a feeling for my characters and their voices and to learn more about them as I write. Ella has a harder edge to her than I originally thought, but that's ok! I'm just relieved to know that I might not have to give up on this story idea too, as it was looking bleak for a while. I know lots of writers go through this kind of thing and that often the real solution is just to shut up with the bitching and WRITE!!

This seems especially important now as at least two agents have blogged in recent months about a resurgence in editor interest for historicals. I'd be a fool not to try to take advantage of this trend, so I'm also going to have to return to What the Heart Remembers and complete that final read through then submit to a few more agents.

Now, however, I'm going to listen to my sweetie read the news, then head to the basement and put in some time on the elliptical trainer. I keep a notepad and pen on the shelf there in case any more brilliant story ideas come to me :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and here are some cute shots of the kitties from the other day.

We don't normally allow them on the stove, but they looked so cute I had to get the camera and snap this pic before getting them down and telling them "NO."


Chloe on the stairs.

Cleo in amongst the books on the bookshelf in my office.


Teresa

Currently Reading: The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick

Remembering Scotty...

Three years ago today, we lost our beloved Scotty. Below are some pics of him - the first was taken at Christmas 1989, when he was only 2½ - the others were taken during the three years before he died. He was a lovely, affectionate cat who was a constant ray of sunshine and we still miss him.

Teresa

Sunshine and cedar doors...

The sun finally came out again yesterday here in rainy BC. Even better, our cedar doors have now been hung:

Here's what it looks like from the inside:

We have the same door in the living room, going out to the deck:

Chloe also appreciated the reappearance of the sun, finding one of the best spots - the windowsill in my writing nook:

And yes, that's my car you saw in the first two photos. We got it back last weekend, all fixed up.

Now, enough playing on the computer - I have my office boxes to unpack while I wait for the cable guy to arrive.

Teresa

All moved in, well kinda...

We still have lots of stuff in the cabin - who knew we owned so much? And there's still a storage room with furniture in it as well. That's waiting until Sean finishes the basement.

But, as of last Friday, we're now living in the house :) The cats are settling in well.

Below are some photos.

The hardwood installer finished on Thursday afternoon - here are the results (before we moved the furniture in):

Here's what my library looked like the day we moved in:

I started putting books out on shelves over the weekend:

Cleo had some thoughts on the whole move:

Here she is on the staircase:

And here's Chloe helping with books:

Cleo has found every little nook and cranny, including what little space there is under the bookcase in my writing nook:

Not to be outdone, Chloe also explored every spot she could, and almost couldn't, fit into:

Yesterday my in-laws very kindly brought over our couch and love seat during a break in the rain, so we were able to set up the living room once Sean was home from work:

The cats were overjoyed to see the furniture:

Here's Chloe looking out the library window this afternoon while I worked on unpacking and shelving the last of the books (well, sort of - not quite enough room right now!):

Sean has a lot of books too, so I've been sorting those into boxes for his office - below you can see the kind of progress I've made so far:

Cleo decided she'd had enough and went to sleep on my lap when I sat down to check my email, using my keyboard as a pillow:

while Chloe checked out the view from the other window:

Our front and deck doors will be installed on Thursday - yay!!! More photos then :)

Teresa

Currently Reading: Book for review
Also Reading: The School at the Chalet - one of my favourite childhood comfort reads
Link of the day: Book trailer for Elizabeth Chadwick's new release A Place Beyond Courage