FINALLY!!! Just before the snow started falling, my water lily finally bloomed. If it would have taken a few more days to open the blossom, it would have frozen in the pond without sharing its beauty. I am still wandering around with my camera, as I am now on Day # 7 of my imposed scrapbooking layoff. My doctor and massage therapist have asked me not to sit at my scrapbook table until my neck has healed. It seems like forever!!! I don't think I have ever been without my paper cutter and adhesive for this long. Of course, everywhere I look I seem to be inspired by something that makes me want to sit down and scrapbook, and I can't. I have taken this time to photo document some of my surroundings and some everyday occurrences, getting myself into the habit of grabbing the camera, on a daily basis, as I am thinking about joining my friends with Project Life, starting 2013. I was a little concerned that the amount of work that Project Life demands would eat up my available scrapbook time and I was not willing to impact my regular scrapbooking in a negative way to be able to invest in this project. After talking to my girlfriends who have now participated in Project Life for one year, they assured me that I would not have to sacrifice one for the other. So, for now, I am trying to cultivate the habit of looking for the little things in life that make each day special. The beauty of the water lily caught my eye, as it was indeed a gift on that day. The snow came right on its heels and if not for that mid afternoon break that had me wandering around the garden, I would have missed it. One last burst of colour, before the plants turned black and died, frozen the very next day. Another season over, the blanket of snow reminding us all that very soon we will be nestled in our houses, wood fires burning, bread baking in the oven and hopefully a healed neck so that I can get to scrapbooking all of the wonderful memories of the summer and fall!

Obviously, these photos were not taken today! I awoke to six inches of snow this morning and am soooo thankful that I wandered around two days ago, with my camera in hand and captured the beauty of the few flowers that had escaped the hail this summer. My sunflowers took a real beating during the hailstorm, but most of them managed to recover enough to have a few blooms before the snow took them out. It was a melancholy day today, part of me wanted to cry about the snow, the other half of me wanted to get out the cupcake pans and mixer and celebrate the arrival of the snow. The death of the gardens, perennials and flowers earlier in the summer has meant that the final clean up of the yard was done over a month ago, so I am actually ahead of schedule - if you don't take into account the couple of rows of carrots and beets that are now nestled under a fluffy white blanket. I will just pretend that they are not out there and enjoy the smells that are coming from my kitchen. It seemed like the perfect day to bake and so I buried myself in cookbooks and flour and had a great time. No one was home, Mike had gone to Red Deer to visit his sisters and I was home alone. Gloriously so. That doesn't happen very often, so I really appreciated the peace and quiet and the calming effect that baking has on me. I am not allowed to scrapbook for the next three weeks or so, in an attempt to correct the problems that I have been having with my neck. I have a pinched nerve and spasming back muscles and after a round of anti inflammatory drugs, many, many massages, injections into my back muscles, chiropractic treatments and muscle relaxants, it was pointed out to me by my therapist and doctor that I should take it easy for a while and stop doing the repetitive stress that is causing the problem, So I have swore off scrapbooking for a month. If they knew that I was spending the time on the computer that I used to spend at my craft table, they probably would not be too happy with me!! Shhhh...don't tell on me. I just can't sit and do nothing! I think that the next three weeks is going to be hard on me!! I usually wind the day down by spending a couple of hours working on new kits for the website or completing some pages for my own albums. I can't read (don't like that one), can't do bookwork (not so sad about that!) or do anything that puts me in a hunched over position. I am getting a small taste of being cooped up already and I have only just started. They might as well have cut my hands off!! Getting old really sucks!