A break from the rain

I'm enjoying a break from the rain and wind which has been battering us for the last few days. This morning, the sun came out for a bit and Roo scampered off to the garden to clean up some of the overgrown beds. It's a long weekend here - Canadian Thanksgiving - so we have him around for an extra day.

I watched Manufactured Landscapes with the kids on Friday (I can't remember whose blog mentioned it - but somebody did and I thank you) and let's just say the kids were not that enthused about it. It was a bit slow for them. Heck, it was a bit slow for me too, but it was interesting enough that I kept telling Roo about it and he decided he wanted to watch it and the kids had to sit through it again last night. They busied themselves a bit with the craft box and some hot glue and wandered in and out. I liked its message but I didn't enjoy certain technical aspects of the documentary, namely the soundtrack which hurt my ears, and the occasional fading to b&w which I think reduced the impact of the imagery.

We've watched a fair number of these social documentaries in the last couple years. Some others we've enjoyed:
Is Wal-Mart Good for America
Wal-Mart - The High Cost of Low Prices
Super Size Me
An Inconvenient Truth
Who Killed the Electric Car

Our little foster dog Kailee went to a new home on Saturday. I miss the little schmuck. She was a great dog if you don't have cats. As she began to trust us and mellow out a bit, she became very playful and snuggly.

I miss her. The cat, though, is thrilled that she can have the house back to herself and is no longer imprisoned in a room for her safety.

I'm having a bout of organizer blues. I'm organizing two outings for homeschoolers, one of which is a learn to fish program scheduled for this Thursday. I just got an email from a family of 5 kids cancelling. They have a good reason - but everyone always has a good reason. It's an outing which costs $10 per student and the organizers are arranging appropriate staff levels based on the numbers I gave them last week. Jeez.

I'll try to cheer myself up with some photos of the view out of my kitchen window.

This was in April. The plum tree is in bloom, the railings are poo yellow. You can see the reflection of the house in the glass - also poo yellow.

This is now. The plum tree leaves are burgundy & not dropping yet. There is rain on the kitchen window - that hardly ever happens so the wind was driving quite hard.

The view in the other direction. Green, green, green, with a splash of red.

When the sun comes out, the colors blaze.

That is a better look at the splash of red which is a couple photos above - a bed which is beautiful from a distance but badly in need of weeding. There is a Japanese false cypress which is being throttled by morning glory just by the fountain. Hostas are starting to yellow and die back.

Roo continues to build waterfalls in the stream. There, at the bottom right, you'll see the whitewater from the waterfall closest to the house. Nestled there under the vine maples, holly and ferns, it's hard to see but we can hear it quite well from the deck.