BRIN DE SOLEIL

On our recent trip to the Naramata Bench in Penticton, British Columbia, we had the great fortune to stumble across the most spectacular of B & B's. Known as Brin de Soleil which loosely translates to Sprig or Strand of Sun, it was all of that and more.

From stunning views...

To beautiful grounds...

To soft whispering images...

To small details for your eyes to feast upon...

To wildlife in arm's reach...

To evening skies lit on fire...

To mornings brought to you with sweet freshness...

It was a wonderful experience that left me wanting more.

If you ever get up to this beautiful area in British Columbia, I would definitely recommend that you give the lovely hosts of Brin de Soleil, Pat and Janine Baird, a call.  Personally, I just can't wait to go back.

I was left with the most amazing memories imprinted into my soul and that my friends, is what a holiday should always be about.  Your memories.

Until Next Time.

Smooches Pooches

This Week I will be joining Outdoor Wednesday

and I thank asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com for hosting same

Warm Lavender Scents & Beautiful Sunflower Faces

You know me by now, and if you don't, here is who I am:  a soft romantic at heart who finds joy in what is produced by the gracious beauty of mother nature.  I am in awe of old world charm and dream of bygone, simplistic days of flower pickings, daisy chain crowns and laying among the fields staring at the soft ethereal clouds in the robin blue egg sky.  Other days, I am just a crazy whacked out little chick who dances and sings and swings my massive booty around all the while smashing into objects and bruising various extremities, and I absolutely love the fact that my better half calls me "weirdo" as his term of endearment.

But I have to tell you that nothing made me more happy than stumbling across the most beautiful of Lavender farms on my recent holidays, combine that with the happy faces of sunflowers sprouting everywhere, and well, you would have thought I was in heaven, and you know what, I think I was.

(please click on picture to enlarge)

This week I will be joining Summer Sundays, Today's Flower and Outdoor Wednesday and thank all of them for hosting same.

I hope this summer brings you some warm lavender scented evenings that make you want to kick off your shoes, let down your hair and dance outside in the soft breeze under a moonlit sky!  Trust me, it is pure bliss!

Until Next Time.

Smooches Pooches

FEELING THE THREE R'S OF THE HOLIDAY

(Note:  photos of trip will follow in the next three blogs)

WELL I'M BACK...............!

And I am feeling refreshed, relaxed and renewed, my soul is dancing around my body in pure exhilaration and screaming how much it wants more. Greedy as it is, I can completely understand and I have made a mental note to myself to remember to feed my soul more often than I have in the past.

If I was to be honest tho, I would have to admit that I had my druthers about being locked in a vehicle on a road trip with my better half as a form of a holiday.  Let's face it, there were some serious obstacles:

1. My body is way too sore to be sitting in a car for 1500 kilometers.
2. We were traveling thru mountains with my teeny tiny bladder and with the only pit stops being OUTHOUSES where I had to confront my fears of a possible fly flying up my ass!
3. I hate heat as I swell up like a enormous dimply blotchy helium ballon and we went from 21 to 36 degrees in 4 hours, oh my freaking lord!
4. I am not much of a wine drinker, so what on earth was I thinking about when I booked a holiday based around a wine tour?

And to top it off, my better half is a bit of a pokey driver and I do seem to nag him tremendously in the car when we are driving.  In fact, I have nagging down to a pure art form, not so much that you would eventually find my dismembered body in a beer fridge by the couch as my better half sat there with a silly grin, but just enough for him to get a little red and mentally visualize throwing darts at my head.

These obstacles aside, we survived happily together with only a few minor bumps in the road.  And even though I spent the whole trip as a great big sweaty drip, I just chalked it up to my own free spa moment of sweating out large amounts of impurities out of my body.  And while I had trepidation over the fact that I know absolutely zippo regarding wines, (in fact my idea of a good wine is that if the wine doesn't burn going down my throat, it must be okay) I did come away with the knowledge that there are only certain wines I really do enjoy.  And while I am no Sommelier, my tongue surprisingly could pick up on a few certain aspects of each wine.

Yes my friends, I was my usual klutzy self and I most certainly tripped and hit a few things and came away with a million bruises, but it was all okay as I spent most of my time in an ever slightly tipsy manner much to the chagrin of my ever patient better half.

I shot photo after photo after photo from vineyards to lake views, from sunflowers to lavender fields, to blue skies to stormy evenings, it was a spectacular landscape that I just could not quite capture the way I wanted too.

And while usually I come back happy to be home, I will admit that I am still longing for more moments of sitting in the pale yellow adirondack chairs feeling the warm breeze laced with the scent of soft lavender and sweet honey.

Who seriously would have thought that a little piece of Italy resided right here in Canada, no more than a mere boat ride and five hours of driving away.

Was it worth it, oh yes it was my friends and I have the smile to prove it!

Until Next Time.

Smooches Pooches

CHANGES

Lately, I have been feeling the winds of change upon me in so many aspects of my life.  And while I embrace what is coming, I am fearing it ever so slightly at the same time.

What are these changes, I cannot tell you, but that sixth sense has kicked in and my hair has been standing up on the back of my neck for several weeks. For years I use to go against the grain.  Always doing it the hard way. Known as the good girl, the fact of the matter is that I was a rebel in my own way. Tell me I couldn't do it and I would, tell me that it's wasn't for me and I would make it so, tell me I was not the right person and I would prove you wrong but I have grown older, slightly wiser and much more tired and my fight is fizzling out and I feel like coasting on the waves as oppose to fighting against the current.  And I think to myself:  is that so wrong?

Too many things are piling up around me from an enormous workload, to an obnoxious neighbour who does what he can to push the limits, to an injured body that will not heal, to a soul on overload and a heart that has grown too heavy in my chest.

I wonder often to myself if everyone comes to that point in life where they wish they could go and live on a small island only inhabited by themselves because I am at that point now.

I don't know how to break free from the chains of responsibility.  I have hacked at them, tried to pick the lock on them, greased up my limbs and tried to slip out of them and yet they hang on me like a bad pair of fishnet nylons.

I just want to run.  Run hard and fast with an unknown destination, and where I land, I want there to be a fully furnished cottage with my style, a thriving English Garden with a ripped, italian gardner named Marcello who can crack open my drink with his six pack, a plane ready to go whenever I want to zoom to another destination and millions of dollars at my disposal, while all the time retaining my better half, my pooch and my best friend known as my mother.  Too much too ask for?  I suppose.  But at this point in my life I think I am worth it.

I have already embraced two changes in the last 24 hours, one my hair and two my blog design.  Small, but I knew that they had to be done and I just went with it.

I guess I am looking for transformation without the work.  

I know what you are thinking because I am thinking it too, nothing worth having comes easy, but sometimes........ I wish it did.

Until Next Time.

Smooches Pooches

LOOKING FOR MY HEART'S DESIRE

I am in love with architecture and if it is juxtaposed with flowers all the better. I have this misguided notion that because I live in a young country, so to speak, that we are missing the old architecture that leads to the charm of a town or a city, like those of Italy and France per se. Like I said, I WAS misguided and I now know better. Sometimes it is a good thing to challenge yourself and broaden your horizons and I did so today by opening my eyes as wide as I possibly could to take a good long look beyond the lack of history and to actually see what was there springing to life in front of me.  And you know what, I was pleasantly surprised. And at the end of the day, what I discovered was that where I live is like the beginning of a new garden, young, fresh, healthy and pristine and before the weeds have overtaken it's beauty and it really is simply amazing. And although I still have the desire to go back to Europe to stand and stare longingly at old buildings and their charming Juliet balconies with their ever hanging ruby red geraniums, that feeling is no longer as strong as it use to be, because as Frank Baum once wrote in The Wizard of Oz:  "If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard.  Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with."

Happy Sunday to you all!

Until Next Time.

Smooches Pooches