You know how you get organized at the beginning of each week so you can sail through the upcoming days happy and relaxed because everything is under control?
I hope I’m not the only one laughing helplessly right now.
What’s even funnier is that sometimes I actually delude myself into thinking I truly do have everything under control. That’s when Fate lets out a derisive laugh and upends my plans with unexpected detours, unavoidable delays, and unmet expectations.
I just try to keep calm and carry on. (And sometimes I lie awake stewing for hours in the middle of the night because everybody knows that helps…)
Anyhow, it’s been one of those weeks. Nothing bad has happened; but every time I’ve tried to get my shit together, it’s ended up hitting the fan. So since putting together a coherent post is beyond my ability at the moment, here are the highlights of my week in pictures:
Remember how several months ago I was chuckling about the eccentricities of the locals when I saw a woman leading a goat across the Canadian Tire parking lot? Well, that’s not the only oddball animal on the loose around here. Last week I was driving through the middle of nowhere when I saw this:
Two peacocks, just hanging out in the middle of the woods. Go figure.
I’m used to seeing deer by the dozens around here, but peacocks were a new sight for me. And speaking of deer, these cuties were taking their ease right in the middle of town:
Mom and babies weren’t worried even when I walked up about fifteen feet away.
The rest of Canada is already getting snow (yes, Calgary, I’m looking at you with heartfelt sympathy for yesterday’s sixteen inches – blech!), so we’re starting to feel the pressure to get some last-minute gardening done around here. I’m making slow progress on our landscaping:
Only a few more tons of rock to move. To give you a sense of scale, the post at the far right is almost 5′ tall.
But around here autumn is just starting, and with gorgeous colours like these, I might reconsider my vendetta against the fall season. Almost. Kinda. Maybe…
This golden gorgeousness is a katsura tree, which smells deliciously (and unbelievably) like caramel in the autumn. The beautiful bark behind it is a giant Douglas fir.
How was your week?
Book 14 update: I managed to squeak into Chapter 20 this week despite the craziness. Fingers crossed for a more productive upcoming week…
Author Diane Henders 
Love your pictures. I don’t know where they come from or run off to but we get deer, turkeys, all manner of “wild” things. They seem to think they live here. And as for your plans that go splat. Ever heard of old Murphy’s law?
LikeLike
Old Murphy is my nemesis. Just when I think, “Okay, I’ve covered all my bases and there’s no way anything can possibly go wrong”… you guessed it, something completely bizarre happens to scuttle my plans! Murphy always gets the last laugh. 🙂
LikeLike
We needed your tape measure to confirm if it really was 16″. 🤣🍕
LikeLike
Bahahaha!!! I’ll be there in a couple of weeks to check it out, but it had better be down to less than 8″ by then or I’ll run screaming!
LikeLike
What you need is a couple of goats around your place. Check out Ron Ball, Feral Farmer, on Facebook and next time you are down in Cowichan Bay area, look him up. Another interesting character I met on Facebook and have never seen. His goats are real characters too.
LikeLike
“Feral Farmer” – that’s hilarious! Goats always give me a chuckle, too – they’re such odd critters, and the photos on his Facebook page really show their personalities! 🙂
LikeLike
Love the Peacocks…reminded me, I have seen them running wild in an area of Los Angeles called Palos Verde. Coastal community that is built on a very large and I do mean large hill. When you drive into the area…the hub bub of LA disappears and you see peacocks running wild….don’t know the history of how that started and had forgotten about it until I saw your post! As for the deer…obviously use to humans!! (saw Calgary got a ton of snow…seems too early, but I can remember those types of early snows when we lived in Denver). Have a great weekend Diane!!
LikeLike
Thanks, Kirt, – you, too! (Now I’m having visions of peacocks breeding in the wild and overrunning the Island. That oughta make things interesting!) 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well we have shovelled for the last 36 hours. Any peacocks likely couldn’t see above the snowbanks! Hope your upcoming week is calmer and of course snow free.
LikeLike
That snow is just disgusting. I hope it’s not an indication of the kind of winter in store for you. Stay warm out there!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It feels like the clock has been speeding up more every year, and hand-in-hand with that I’m having the planning/execution problem you describe. I’ve been putting it down to less energy as I get older. That sounds better than “being unlucky” or – worse still – “being lazy.”
I do like your characterization of procrastination as a time management tool – thank you so much for that 🙂
Your gardens are coming along nicely; I love the rocks as edging!
LikeLike
Thank you! We decided that since we had SO MANY rocks, we might as well make use of them. We’re still only picking up the ones that are lying conveniently on the surface after our excavation. We keep reminding ourselves (as we muscle tons of rocks around in our wheelbarrow) that a lot of people have to pay good money for rocks like ours. Too bad we can’t sell them. 😉
And I know what you mean about the clock speeding up. Yikes. I can’t believe it’s October already!
LikeLike
I’ve tried pressing the “control” key on my computer and that doesn’t work either. So far my week is going fine. Here at that office I’ve dealt with enough of the “high priority interrupts” to start thinking about getting going on Monday’s scheduled tasks. I’m expecting the boss to schedule an emergency meeting on why we’re getting so much emergency work so I’m really thinking of postponing this week till November when I’ll have more time to deal with it.
LikeLike
An excellent strategy. Let me know how you do that – it sounds like a skill I could use. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked up from my work at 5:00 PM and thought, “Well, I’m ready to start my day’s work now.”
I’m sure your boss will be able to solve your time crunch, though. For management, the solution is always easy: If you aren’t getting enough work done, then you need more managers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Kinda know what you mean. I’ve been saying I’m going to clean up my office/sewing room for what seems like months now. I have an “addiction” – printing off recipes that look interesting and something I might like to make. The only problem is I have several stacks of them that are a couple of feet tall and I couldn’t find what I was looking for if my life depended on it. I started out putting them in notebooks by category. They took up a two foot shelf and then an expanding file, then the stacks started. I think I’m just going to “bite the bullet”, bring in a giant trash can and shove everything in it, that is just as soon as I can get off the computer (after I’ve checked out all my favorite web sites, emails, etc.) The same goes for all the cones of yarn left over from my days of my knitting machines. After that I need to check & see if the local senior center would like all of my left over jewelry making supplies, etc, etc, etc. Of course I might have to take a nap first. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Ain’t procrastination great?
I thought our fall was going to be here by now. Normally in the 70’s this time of year — this week in the upper 80’s. I usually get a month or two that the AC doesn’t have to run constantly. Doesn’t look like it will be that way this year.
Are the peacocks normally there? Beautiful pics. We have deer here also (currently hunting season), but they aren’t so “friendly”.
LikeLike
Peacocks are definitely not indigenous here – I think they must have escaped from a nearby farm. Who knows; maybe they were only out for a little stroll before heading home to their coop? And I can’t believe how calm and complacent the deer are around here. In Alberta if they get so much as a sniff of human, they’re gone. (I’m sure there are a lot more hunters in Alberta.) 😉
And oh, no! The dreaded “internet-recipe” addiction! I, too, have a stack of recipes that look yummy. I print ’em off, file ’em next to the box full of recipes I already use, and almost never make ’em. (Although I do go through the pile every now and then and think, “Oh, that looks yummy”… and put it all right back in the pile.)
I prefer to think of procrastination as “time management”. 😉
LikeLike
I envy your seasons.
Fall here takes about ten minutes. Green. Ohhh craaaaaaap. Brown.
Spring is a little better. A couple of days, maybe. Cold. BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!!!!! (Thunderstorms and sandstorms together. Think raining mud and rocks. Sideways.) Bloody, flaming hot.
Have I mentioned I envy your seasons? 🙂
LikeLike
So… tell me again why you live there? 😉 After living for 30 years in Calgary, I’m thrilled with the seasons out here on the coast. Calgary’s seasons are a lot like yours (only colder): Winter, which is alternately ugly-brown and muddy-white and lasts about 8 months; then spring for two gorgeous weeks in early May; and on the May long weekend it snows again, then hovers in the single-digits-Celsius and rains through most of June. Then the 30+C heat, drought, hail, and tornadoes start. Frost hits anywhere from mid-to-late August; and then everything’s ugly-brown again. Usually after everything’s dead the weather turns nice again for a few weeks, but it’s too little, too late.
Out here, I’ve discovered the true meaning of “fall colours” – everything slowly changes colour and then stays beautiful for a month or more. (Have I mentioned in the last ten minutes now much I love it here? No? I LOVE IT HERE!) 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I love it there, too. Maybe I’ll actually get to see the place sometime. 🤪
LikeLike
LOL! You should! Although I hear the Oregon coast is pretty similar to here only with bigger trees; and it’s closer to you and you wouldn’t have to leave the U.S. So there’s that… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keeping calm and carrying on here in the UK, Diane.
I’m laughing just a little, mind… everything under control? Is there really such a concept? 😉
LikeLike
Nope, I don’t think so. And I’m glad I’m not the only one laughing at the idea. 🙂
LikeLike
Love that tree! Beautiful colors and great job capturing it.
LikeLike
Thank you! I was surprised at how well the photo turned out considering I had only snapped it with my iPhone. 🙂
LikeLike
Things are looking pretty nice out there. I am always so disappointed with my plans not working or not even being a general guideline that I have given up planning altogether. That in itself has saved me some time to use to fix all the things that didn’t go according to plan.
LikeLike
That’s an excellent point – it’s much easier to wake up in the morning with “a couple of things I’d like to get done” instead of watching a whole week’s worth of plans going up in smoke at the first setback. Ahhh, I feel calmer already. 😉
And thanks – the landscaping is slow and a lot of work, but the optimist in me keeps imagining how wonderful it’s going to look in five or ten years!
LikeLike