January - Happy New Year!

 this is a photo of the Fraser River, at a photostop over looking this great deep chasm.  We stopped here, just before Lilloet, on our way home from Barkersville last August.  We took the Duffy Lake Road back.  It is a very challenging drive, with many switch backs with 20 km hairpin turns and very steep grades.  Our brakes were smokin'. 

 this is something from 2006, shot with my Canon S3IS at the Tillamook Aviation Museum. 

 This is a shot from our moving Bentley, on the New Year's day run with the VCCC.  I was using my little Sony and laughed to see it capture this wonderful flare on a random shot out of the car window.  This photo lead me to an enjoyable couple of hours reading about auras.  I checked out the color of my aura  and think it was blue... the first time.  :-))  Now this lady seems to have violet and even a few sprinkles of silver (which seems to be the major fairy dust)  I have to work on getting some of that stuff!  I probably should be adding hot links ... but .... hey... who has the time to follow them?

these wild flower shots were taken at the tourist information building at Wells, B.C., just before our visit to Barkerville, B.C. in August.  I was moved to look them up because I was pursuing an idea of making the front grass strip of my garden into a wild flower meadow.  This strip of grass is now called the crocus field and has crocus bulbs blooming in the Spring.  Imagine, if, in August, it could look like this.  And so, I went to find some wild flower seeds that I might use to over seed this grass.  I found a very interesting site ... that I actually have been aware of for some time... West Coast Seeds  And then, while looking at the wild flower blends, I came upon a Butterfly Garden blend.  One thing lead to another, of course, and hours later I was prompted by Pat, that it might be time to make the supper.    On the topic of the butterfly garden... I had saved a pod of seeds from the milkweed which is the flower that the monarch butterfly larvae feed.  I have planted the seeds.  I hope they grow.  But, the plants are available from nurseries, too.  The monarch butterflies recently suffered a reduction in numbers when there was a killing frost in their Mexican over wintering home.  There is someone on our Island who breeds Monarchs and releases them.  I am not seeing them ... I guess I don't have any milkweed plants for them. 
As you can see, over the past week, I have been all over the map, with my hobbies and interests.  In addition to the above I now have my copy of the Amen Solution.  My brother, Dan, mentioned this book to me, with regard to weight loss.  I was down to Russel books to pick  it up, after they had ordered the paperback version in for me.  The on-line only had the expensive hard cover copy.  Its an interesting book.  Dr. Amen is probably making a fortune on his books and solutions for weight loss.  I won't link it.  If you want it, you will find it.  One of the foods mentioned in the book... after a very quick scan ... was stevia.  I googled this and find that it is a herb, called sweet leaf.  The seeds are available but hard to germinate, and it is annual.  The made up portions are actually less expensive than the seeds.  This is a herb that the Japanese and South Americans have used for years.  I believe a derivative of it is used by the Coca Cola company in a specific brand of their sodas now.... but I could not be bothered to follow up on that, as all Cola products and Pepsi taste like dirt, to me.  I seldom drink pop or soda or soft drinks of any kind.  Was interesting to see them using stevia as a sweete4ner, though.
On a completely different tangent, as I returned home from my walk today, I noticed an empty beer can thrown on my front garden.  As I picked it up, I noticed a snowdrop in bud in the front garden!  This is January? right?