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I bet we have all had some fun with our letters, here is abit more… 

• Canadians and the British pronounce the letter Z, they pronounce it "zed" instead of "zee," as Americans say it. Why is there a difference between the pronunciations?

"The nutshell story of zed? Zed entered Middle English from French representing a “ts” or “ds” sound, then came to represent the voiced sibilant in, for example, the word zoo.

Because it entered French from Latin as zeta, it became zède in modern French, zeta in modern Spanish and Italian, and zed in English."

 http://www.billcasselman.com/cwod_archiv...

• What about Scrabble? I mean, I count on that Z and those 10 points on a triple word score square.

• What about ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ to indicate sleeping?

• An April Fool’s joke that Z would be removed from the alphabet

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-letter-z-will-be-removed-from-the-english-alphabet/

• Zinnias  are annual flowering plants that belong to the family Asteraceae. Easy to grow and reliable, zinnias are bright butterfly magnets.

Plant zinnias! A packet of seeds will fill an area with gorgeous flowers in an amazing array of shapes and colors -- even green!

Good video below on growing zinnias...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uTPFhQWZ2E

 As a photographer and gardener,  yellow is one of my favourite colours and one colour I am attracted to in all situations, except in the choice of clothing ( turns my complexion sallow!! )..

Sharing a few of my favorite shots!

Even get abit artistic.

There is nothing like the crackle of an outdoor fire..

More from dew after a rain on my garden lilies  to the nodding heads  of ripe sunflowers…

Yellow can add much yard design..

Abit of history I found…

• Yellow, in the form of yellow ochre pigment made from clay, was one of the first colors used in historic times e.g. often used in wall paintings in Ancient Roman villas and towns. Van Gogh was one of the first artists to use commercially-manufactured paints, rather than paints he made himself. He used the traditional yellow ochre, but also chrome yellow, first made in 1809, and cadmium yellow, first made in 1820.

• Process yellow (also known as pigment yellow, printer's yellow or canary yellow) is one of the three colors typically used as subtractive primary colors, along with magenta and cyan. Painters traditionally regard the complement of yellow as the colour indigo or blue-violet and evident in this cheerful arrangement of pansies 

• Here is an example of sunset from the Seattle airport..

• Yellow is the most visible color, and is particularly attractive to birds and insects.

• Autumn leaves, yellow flowers, bananas, oranges and other yellow fruit all contain carotenoids, yellow and red organic pigments. Carotenoids are common in many living things; they give the characteristic color to carrots, corn, daffodils, rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.

( Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow

XXX- One of the more difficult letters in our posts and word games such as Scrabble or The Minister's Cat which I started way back at C!

The minister's cat is named Xavier, a xenial cat who xeroxes x-rays!

Xenial - means friendly and hospitable

On the topic of cats and kittens have come to a decision on the naming of mine!

Kitten to be named SHILOH or SHI as nick name..and loves to give XOXs

Simple meaning: Tranquil, Hebrew name of Biblical origin. It refers to a geographical place, an ancient city and assembly place for the Israelites before Judah. Shiloh was the dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant...Authoritative.Powerful.Tough,Tenacious,Wealthy, Problem-solver, Achiever

Yesterday added a new addition to the household and yet to give this new little one a name? Suggestions? How do you name your pets?

My little boy, long haired, born March 9, 2014 left his mama, Duchess, a Persian, Rag doll cross and sibs...no name yet!

With his sibs called Clown but will probably change.

Also adjustments to my older husky Nanuq !

Again on abit of a travel log theme two of my favorite cities, visited last week for a touch of spring in the pacific northwest, south west corner of British Columbia, our western most province.

Vancouver officially the City of Vancouver, is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants .

Canada will host the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and several matches will be played in Vancouver, including the final at BC Place Stadium. The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics were held in Vancouver and nearby Whistler, a resort community 125 km (78 mi) north of the city.

Victoria is well represented in this video..

My own experience included  a weekend away to visit with Amelia, my daughter and husband, Sean ( and dog Ilala) and get away from Alberta snow and grunge!  Queen Elizabeth Park,   a day at Whistler, wandering around UBC with camera, and some good eats. An older tower with vines growing to top and cedar tree in bottom.

Good eats on a Sunday afternoon Ernest's Ice Cream on Fraser St. — in Vancouver. Sunday brunch Fresh pasta rolled out

Do you ask for directions? Do you read the instructions before assembly of a new project? OR do you launch forward thinking that you can figure it out as you go?

Personally I have always been directionally challenged and a “ hands on” learner. This combination can at times end one up with some odd results…e.g. the year I sewed Sesame Street puppets and the eyes were on the back of the head.

The other thing I find is that projects always take much longer than one estimates. Thus sharing a recent one where a few days ago before a major spring rainstorm predicted I decided to buy and install a new rain barrel at the side of the house.

These things always take longer than planned!

Disarray in corner..old rain barrel sprung a leak and is green one is background sitting there for two or more summers.

Dug down next to foundation Tree Root right under the garden beam...horrors to get rid of it! 

Packed and slanted away from house..

Landscaping fabric and rocks and free pallet from Home Depot —

Painted with last of tin from eco center 

Rain barrel assembled and shimmed to balance, downspouts cut and inserted, cedar trimmed and left over wooden edging 

Voila! 

Time in reality is mathematical, measured, seconds, minutes, hours, days, years decades, centuries m millenniums, eons, infinity..tick, tick. tick, a grandfather clock sounds with chimes, like the one at my mother in laws hallway, chiming on the hour and a short ding every 15 minutes.
Oh those rich tones, majestic tall dark wood, heavy brass chimes behind etched glass panel, that every few days had to be pulled from the bottom to the top. Thinking of a watchmaker’s shop like the one in which Corrie Ten Boom grew up, or the very Canadian announcement at the top of the hour by National Research Council time signal. “The beginning of the long dash following ten seconds of silence indicates exactly 11 o'clock, Mountain Standard Time” heard every day since November 5, 1939 on CBC Radio.

Now often the only clock ticking I hear is the whirring of the battery operated one in my kitchen.

With the advances of technologies in recent years, the telling of time has taken many different forms, much of which I fail to understand. Included are digital watches, cell phones, ipads, and my Mac lap top that announces the time on the hour and often when I forget about it, such as the middle of a class lecture.

We often would set alarms to wake up in the morning….those old, silver round wind up, bed side clocks with bells on the top; or small folding travel ones in leather cases and square faces, that we could prop bedside in triangular form
and glance in the middle of the night, vaguely figuring out it was 5 AM from the position of the green. small arms and two hours before needing to rise. The pocket watch with the gold cover that my husband had as a railway engineer, finely tuned, and used to time all my contractions during labour with our first child.

Now where do these exist except as antiques or in the bottom of jewelry cases.

There has been always a watch band on my left wrist and I will miss it if not there looking at the white mark and summer tan lines. This simple digital watch, black and purple band inherited from my daughter, that is so familiar but beeps at 806 AM because I could not figure how to change it… BUT it beeps several times and usually reminds me that I am running late for work or need to be walking out of the house if I am to get to my Tuesday morning swim class.
“Late, get going!” it reminds me, but  I protest, “ there is just one more thing to do….breakfast can be carried in the yogurt container and coffee mug ready” Best of intentions but often chronically late..that is me and the changes of clocks and watches.

While Alberta and many other parts of Canada struggle with snow and rain recovering from a long winter, the pacific northwest is in full bloomin’ spring!  

Spent this past week visiting family in Vancouver and Victoria BC, and just enjoy some of my spring photos! 

Here is what their official website indicates for Sidney by the Sea

http://www.sidneybritishcolumbia.com/

Sidney

Aerial View of Sidney-by-the-Sea, Sidney BC Set amidst the natural beauty and unspoiled charm of the Saanich Peninsula, the vibrant community of Sidney-by-the-Sea is the gateway to the BC Gulf Islands and the US San Juan Islands. This bustling commercial hub of the Saanich Peninsula is blessed with majestic views of the ocean, the Olympic and Cascade Mountain ranges. Sidney is a tourist's dream - a friendly port with modern marinas and a multitude of unique galleries, gift stores, antique shops, restaurants, bakeries and coffee bars.

Sidney enjoys a moderate Mediterranean type climate with year-round mild temperatures, low rainfall and very little snow!

Sea side walkways and fish market 

Sidney Marina complex charters, moorage, rentals

Fisherman sculpture sitting on bench

,

scenic waterfront walkways with purple heather in rock wall,

Flowers well many....cherry blossoms in front of my sister's place,

magnolia trees ready to bloom in many brilliant shades ,

clematis after the rain.

Last summer after some work and sudden downpour on a local community farm these beautiful rainbows appeared 

and at times a double arch.

Q is a fun letter to play with the sounds.

Again where I began with the Minister’s cat game ( see C for Cleric’s Cat )….The minister’s cat is a quirky cat, she quarrels quietly!

Or perhaps it is a day of Quiet reflections of questions on the Easter Saturday!

In English, we normally follow the letter Q with the letter U, however this is not so in Inuktitut as can be seen in many of the words below. There is a vital difference between the sound k and the sound q… Q q Like "c" in "car" and K k like "k" in "oak". Inuktitut is the traditional oral language of Inuit in the Arctic. ... Typically, they replaced "q" with "k" and "r" with "g", among other misspellings. Also written in syllabics....

Personally when working in Nunavut, I only picked up a few phrases in Inuktitut offerings being limited to Qanuippit ( how are you) Ilali ( your welcome ) ai ('hello'); nakurmiik ('thank you');  or Qiujavunga ('l'm cold'). Different regions have different dialects…a simple Koana or thank-you will indicate you are from the western arctic such as Kugluktuk or Cambridge Bay. the history of the two writing systems used in Inuktitut is that they used in English in the western Arctic, and syllabics in the eastern Arctic.

But the wrong pronunciation of words could get one in difficult or embarrassing situations...

qaanqijaut

qallunaaq

qamutiik

qanga

qaniq

qanuq

qassit

qaukpat

qausiqtuk

qikturiaq

qikturiaqtauniq

qilalugaq

qimmik

qimmuksit

qisik

qujannamiik

qukiut