Massasauga

Last week Geordie and I celebrated our two year anniversary and this past weekend was his birthday so we decided to go camping with our friends, Luke and Amber. We went on a canoe trip in Massasauga Provincial Park. It was very strange at first to be there without fourteen teenage campers to look after but we had a riot. I love that we love to do the same things. Here are some photos from our trip.

For some reason I was up at 5:30 the first morning.
I'm so glad I was.
God's creation is beautiful.

love at sunrise

That black thing is a bear. We saw two.

There were so many  of these little frogs at our second site. Every time you stepped in the water four or five would dive for cover.

Geordie's birthday fish! Mega pike.

Cliff jumping!

Amber - refusing to cliff jump

We both look pasty white. Neither of us is white at all.

the end

Words in the Water

I didn't think a date would mean so much but it seems to be bringing back thoughts and memories and feelings I thought I was rid of even though I felt guilty for being rid of them. I can't imagine how much harder it is for those really close to you. I don't want to imagine.

Now that he's said it, I can't imagine this song meaning anything else even though I know there's no way it can really be about you in the last phase of your life. It does fit though. Thankfully, Jesus fulfilled the books demands. It was lifted from you. We know you wanted to live on a better path. It's difficult. Difficult to change. The words touched you. They meant a lot. They were hard to follow, and you were taken home. That shook up our world a bit my friend.

Standing 
Knee deep in cold water
Swiftly moving
Somehow
I knew I lost something


Wading
Waist deep I saw a book there
In the river
Waiting 
For me to find it there
I tried to read it neck deep
Treading water
The tide
Pulled me out to sea


Then with water in my eyes
The words begin to rise from their place
They were beautiful and dread
I reached for them and fed on each phrase
They were honey on my lips
Then a bitter twist in my side
I knew they'd lay me in my grave
"Is there no one who could save me?" I cried




Sinking
Down deep through cold water
Heavy silence
Shadows
Stirring in the gloom
What things
Lay sleeping
Down deep in the darkness?
Woke then to find me in my tomb


Then with water in my eyes
The words begin to rise from their place
They were beautiful and dread
I reached for them and fed on each phrase
They were honey on my lips
Then a bitter twist in my side
I knew they'd lay my in my grave
"Is there no one who could save me?" I cried


When I lost all hope to look
Someone took that heavy book from my hands
All its weight they set aside
After they had satisfied its demands


I felt white and black reverse
And the lifting of a curse from my heart
Then like one receiving sight
I beheld a brilliant light in the dark



It felt really good to scream these words at the top of my lungs on Wednesday. That concert could not have come at a better time. We both closed our eyes and shouted the words as loud as possible. We didn't say so, but I know that we were both thinking of you.

Simple math. The truth cannot be fractioned. 

But I often wish it could.

Words in the Water - Thrice
Simple Math - Manchester Orchestra

Summer is Here

For the May long weekend, Geordie and I went camping with some of his friends from London. It was a fantastic time and the weather was flawless! Here are some photos.

Group shot - Nik, Sarah, Ryan, Starky, Richard, Melissa, Ian, myself, Geordie

Melissa and I ended up, by chance, being together on a team while we were the only girls playing in the ladderball tournament against three teams of guys.
We won.
They weren't exactly impressed but I was very proud.

Hairy Buggers - Nik and Starky
Bomb Diggity's - Ryan and Ian (there is a serious grammar mistake in that name..)
Green Lightning - Geordie and Richard
Ball Busters - Melissa and Brooke
Boo-yah.
Notice Ryan's careful illustrations. This was a serious event.

While the guys fished, I climbed trees and pointed out where all the fish were. Thanks to this, Georide caught a ginormous carp! Unfortunately, my camera's battery had died by then.. Disappointing.

Fishing - Nik caught a perch

Geordie fishing from the middle of the river (of course) with his mouth full of sunflower seeds (of course) with ugly crocs on (of course..)

On our way back to London, Geordie and I stopped in Thamesville to see if he would have any luck in the river there. He didn't.. but we tried and I saw some cool things and climbed another tree.

There were a million of these huge snail shells on the riverbank

I love trains. I especially love that this one goes on a bridge over the river and that I got to see it.

A swan!!!

I love Queen Anne's Lace.

This is the tree I climbed out on.

I am in a tree.

Geordie is fishing. Of course.

Hopefully we can go camping again this summer. I have camping fever. Summer is here.

RIP Charlie

A little over two weeks ago, I saw this sign on my mailbox. ...and on a whole truckload of light posts along my street and in the area. The main reason it caught my eye was because the weekend before Geordie and I were walking one street over from mine and saw an orange cat that looked exactly like this. 

Dead. 

It was on the side on the road because it had been hit by a car.

So I thought that was pretty unfortunate and debated possibly getting in touch with whoever was looking for this cat but decided against it as my sister said it would be better to let them think it ran away. My friend Rosco, on the other hand, thought that I should draw a picture of the cat I saw and put it on the poster for them to see. So I drew this: 

Don't worry. I did not put it anywhere public. I only put it on my fridge.

Last week, while waiting for one of the students I tutor at the library by my work, I was looking through the classifieds in the newspaper for houses for rent, and I found this:

It was at this point that I learned that the cat has been missing since the DAY BEFORE Geordie and I saw it on the side of the road. Coincidence? I think not.

Also, they are now paying for an ad in the paper and offering a $100 reward. So they really want this cat back but I know that they can't have it back because it's dead.

So another week passed and the original posters were still up but I figured that was normal because why would you take down posters when the cat hasn't been found yet. ... which it clearly hasn't. My dreams of not being haunted by the knowledge that I knew where this cat was (no longer in this world) and some family or child or lonely old lady was frantically trying to find it, sitting on their front porch staring aimlessly down the street just hoping that Charlie would come prancing back home, and glancing out the front window every other minute seemed to be becoming a reality!

FALSE.

Today I was walking home when I saw something that actually made me stop in my tracks and caused my shoulders to drop an inch or two:

ANOTHER ONEE??!??!?! COME ONNNNNN

For goodness sake stop losing your cats!!!!!!!!

These full page colour photos accompanied by a full page sign are currently hanging on a billion light posts and, again, my mailbox.

Now that it's a colour photo, I'm even more sure that it's that cat.

I wonder if I will see the grey one.

Watch for Nargles

I have not posted in an extremely long time.

Not much has happened. I am in Guelph and Geordie is now in London. I got a second job with a tutoring company so that is keeping me busy.

Last weekend I went to London/Windsor with Geordie. We went to Port Stanley on Saturday morning and then to the Battle of Longwoods - War of 1812 reenactment that we went to last year again. I love the trails in the conservation area there. I got to use my Fuji Instant Camera for the first time in a  little while so that was exciting.
Here are a few photos:

Port Stanley in the spring

 

Port Stanley Town Jail
Circa 1877

Climbing the bridge on the trails at the conservation area

We found this on the boardwalk  =)

longboard fail

New board, new season, new hill. I should have realized that it was a recipe for disaster. Add onto the photos two weeks of a sore wrist and a still sore right hip bone/butt and heel/ankle ...plus ripped jeans, a bruised ego  and a few days of limping and you've got a pretty serious longboard fail. I will be more careful on that hill from now on.

I needed somewhere to display the photos I take with my new instant camera from Geordie and so I crocheted a vine and leaves and flowers and then hand-stitched material on top of the leaves and glued the leaves and flowers to clothespins! It now hangs in my living room. I think I will have to either make another one, or make the vine longer.. I already have more photos hanging from it than are on it in these photos. It's going to get full quickly I think.