Win!

One day back in February, the Bag Lady was sitting at her computer when the sun started to rise. She glanced out the window and thought, "oh, another gorgeous sunrise", but decided she wasn't going to take a picture (she has so many sunrise pictures). A few seconds later, she looked again and thought "Holy crap, I HAVE to take a picture of that!" This was the picture:

She was so pleased with the way it turned out, she sent it to her favourite television station, and they used it on the morning weather forecast. The weatherman commented that he thought it was an award-winning shot.

Last month, as some of you may recall, the Bag Lady decided to enter her picture in a local competition. She had quite a difficult time deciding on a frame, but this is eventually what she settled on:


The contest is decided by a "people's choice" vote, and closed for voting this past Saturday. The Bag Lady got home from town on Tuesday to find a message on her answering machine, asking her to please attend the Gala evening the gallery was holding on Wednesday night. The message stated that she was one of the finalists.

So yesterday was spent in a flurry of preparation (with the Bag Lady standing in her closet, wailing that age-old cry of women everywhere "I have nothing to wear!!"), and she and the Rancher toddled off to town for the awards ceremony.

When the MC started announcing the winners, he started with the photography division, and stated that there were 3 prizes. When he announced the honourable mention prize, he surprised the Bag Lady by saying "Number five" (the Bag Lady's entry was number four). The Bag Lady was so sure she would win third, that she could hardly believe it when she didn't!

Instead, she was awarded second place!

Here is a picture of her with her picture and the ribbon awarded to her photograph.




First place, by the way, went to an absolutely gorgeous professional photograph.

So, thanks to that astute weatherman for pointing out that it was an award-winning shot, and thanks to all of you for encouraging the Bag Lady to enter the competition! It was a lot of fun, and very exciting to win second place!

Wednesday Weirdness

You all know the Bag Lady is a little weird on occasion, right?

At Easter, she was worried about not having enough potatoes to feed her guests, so she borrowed a few from her mother-in-law. They were lovely, homegrown potatoes, and had started to sprout just a bit. The Bag Lady's own potatoes have sprouted huge, long, snake-like sprouts and shrivelled up to the point of not being any use at all (except in the garden).

The Bag Lady peeled those lovely potatoes and felt horrible about wasting those terrific, compact sprouts. There was much conversation regarding wasting those sprouts, and one of the ladies present determined that it might just be possible to start the potato peelings in some potting soil, then transplant them when the ground thaws.

So the Bag Lady did just that. She was a little skeptical that this method would work, so she just tossed them in some dirt in a few shallow containers, watered them and left them to do their thing.

Imagine her surprise when she checked them and discovered that they had indeed started to grow! She took this picture a few days ago, and since then, they have practically doubled in size!

So she is going to have to transplant them into a larger container because it is still too early to plant them in the garden!

Crazy, eh?

Handiwork

The Bag Lady has been busy embroidering some squares for a baby quilt for the Rancher's expected grandchild. Here is one of the squares:


Cute, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

There has finally been a new calf born on the ranch! She made her debut on Friday night around midnight, so the Bag Lady went out yesterday morning and took her picture (here she is, being checked out by some of the rest of the herd): (please click on any of the pictures to enlarge)


It was cold and wet in the morning, but warmed up a little in the afternoon. Unfortunately, this is what everyone woke up to this morning:


When the Bag Lady made her customary trek out to the pasture to check the cows, she found the little calf doing the smartest thing possible under the circumstances - cuddling up to mom and filling her belly with nice, warm milk:


This is the cow's view of the ranch from their sheltered spot at the far west end, looking back toward the house (behind those far trees):

And this is what the Bag Lady's garden looked like this morning. Don't think she'll be able to plant anything for a little while yet:


Hope your weekend is going well!

Edited to add: the Bag Lady had another "first" this morning - there was a lynx in her yard! This is the first time she's ever seen one, and it was very exciting!

Winner!

The Bag Lady got lucky the other day! Sheesh, get your mind outta the gutter...not that kind of lucky! She made a comment on Mizfit's blog and won a giveaway!

Yes, the Bag Lady won a case of Popchips. They were shipped to her via FedEx, but FedEx wanted an actual physical address, complete with street numbers and such (and the Bag Lady has no such thing - FedEx wouldn't write down "turn left at the big swamp, then take a right at the spruce tree"....), so the Bag Lady had them shipped to her sister-in-law's office in town. The Bag Lady went to town the other day and this is what she saw:


When she opened the box, this is what she found:


And when she opened the second box, she found these:


She also discovered that the Customs people (suspicious natures that they have) had to make sure that this wasn't some new and clever way to smuggle contraband into the country, and this is how she knows:

They might just as well have kept that bag, because there's no way the Bag Lady will eat them after some inspector pawed through them, looking for whatever they thought might be hidden in the bag! Although, once the rest of the bags are gone, she might be tempted, because these things are darned good!

The Bag Lady has tried a couple of different flavours and, kind-hearted soul that she is, has even shared some with the Rancher. They are all that they claim to be - light, crispy, not greasy and very good.

So thank you, Mizfit, and thank you to the Popchip company for these delicious treats!

Have a great weekend!

More Canadiana Answers

Here are the answers to the Bag Lady's second (and probably last, at least for awhile) Canadiana quiz!

1. Which of these people is Canadian:

a) Howie Mandel
b) Jim Carrey
c) Pamela Anderson
d) Jennifer Tilly
e) Leonard Cohen
f) none of the above
g) all of the above

2) The largest city in Canada is:

a) Edmonton
b) Toronto
c) Vancouver
d) Montreal

3) the longest river in Canada is:

a) the Nelson
b) the St. Lawrence
c) the Mackenzie
d) the Yukon

4) Canada has the longest coastline in the world.

5) Canada has the longest national highway in the world.

6) Which is bigger; Alberta or Texas - but not by much! And Quebec is bigger than both.

7) True or false - the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America. When the Bag Lady wrote this quiz, she was under the impression that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America - traces of them have been found in Newfoundland. One of her readers (thanks, Christine!) pointed out to her that St. Brendan of Ireland quite possibly was here 500 years before that! So technically, the answer to this question might very well be false.

8) The name Canada is an Iroqouis word meaning village or settlement.

9) All Canadians have spent time in an igloo - true or false, unless you count the snow houses we all built when we were kids!

10) What colour are the Bag Lady's eyes? Hazel, but they change colour according to her mood and what she is wearing - from blue through grey, to bright green, to almost brown, so most of you were right - well, except for Melissa, who thought they might be magenta...! (and, right now, thanks to rubbing Lakota Rub on the Rancher's sore back, they are bloodshot because she didn't realize Lakota Rub has cayenne pepper in it and she tried to take her contact lenses out... ow, ow, ow!)

The Moment You've Been Waiting For!!

The Bag Lady has been hard at work on another Canadiana quiz. She has torn up several. She liked the multiple choice format, but then decided that she wanted to do something different, that would involve a little more participation. Unfortunately, that required a lot of thought on her part. She didn't want to make it so difficult that no-one would play, but she is well aware that most of her regular readers are smarter than average (and all of them are smarter than she is!) so it had to be challenging. She finally decided that a combination might be the answer!

So, without further ado, here it is.

1. Which of these people is Canadian:

a) Howie Mandel
b) Jim Carrey
c) Pamela Anderson
d) Jennifer Tilly
e) Leonard Cohen
f) none of the above
g) all of the above

2) The largest city in Canada is:

a) Edmonton
b) Toronto
c) Vancouver
d) Montreal

3) the longest river in Canada is:

a) the Nelson
b) the St. Lawrence
c) the Mackenzie
d) the Yukon

4) Canada has the _________ coastline in the world.

5) Canada has the _________ national highway in the world.

6) Which is bigger; Alberta or Texas?

7) True or false - the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America.

8) The name Canada is an Iroqouis word meaning _______________.

9) All Canadians have spent time in an igloo - true or false.

10) What colour are the Bag Lady's eyes?

Random Tuesday

Here is a random picture taken out in the Bag Lady's pasture the other day. She is hard at work on making up a new quiz for you, but isn't done quite yet.



Almost all the snow is gone, except for what was plowed into piles. The Bag Lady is itching to get to work in her garden, but she knows it's too early (and far too wet!).

Hope you have a great day.

Meanwhile, Back on the Ranch...

The Bag Lady waited to write her post this morning because she was hopeful that she would find something exciting when she went out to check cows this morning. Unfortunately, nothing has changed, except that the first calf is a wee bit bigger. He's still the only calf, though.

One thing did happen when she was outside this morning. Four trumpeter swans flew over! The Bag Lady struggled with getting her gloves off, dragging her camera out of her pocket, waited for it to turn on properly, then whipped it up and took a video..............of a grey and dismal sky, in which you cannot see the damned swans. Sigh. She has seen more swans in the past 10 days than she has in the 14 previous years of living on this ranch. Of course, she can't prove that, because of her prowess in photographing the empty sky they just flew across.

She hopes everyone enjoyed her little Canadiana quiz this week. She is thinking that perhaps she will do another one sometime soon. But she's going to try to make it a little more difficult.

In the meantime, if you like quizzes, Missicat has posted an Americana quiz on her blog, so whip on over there and see how you do!



And here are a couple pictures the Bag Lady has taken this week. This was a couple mornings ago - it had rained a little overnight, then froze:



And here is the sunrise this morning.....


Have a great weekend!

Answers to Canadian, Eh

Here are the answers to the Bag Lady's little Canadiana quiz yesterday.

1) How many provinces are there in Canada?

a) 12
b) 4
c) 10 British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatcehwan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland/Labrador
d) 7


2) How many territories are there in Canada?

a) 2
b) 6
c) 1
d) 3 - Yukon, Northwest, Nunavit

3) What is the capitol of Canada?

a) Vancouver
b) Toronto
c) Ottawa, Ontario
d) Ontario

4) Where is Alberta?

a) Eastern Canada
b) Western Canada
c) Northern Canada
d) somewhere in the middle

5) Which country is larger?

a) Canada is the second largest country in the world, right behind Russia.
b) United States
c) China
d) Australia

6) What is Canada's national emblem?

a) beaver
b) igloo
c) maple leaf
d) grizzly bear

7) Where is Vimy Ridge and why is it important (oh, wait, this is supposed to be multiple choice... give me your best guess.) - Vimy Ridge is in France, and was the site of the most significant battle (for Canada) during the first World War - it's importance to Canada is explained here

8) What is the capitol of Alberta?

a) Calgary
b) Saskatoon
c) Edmonton
d) Vancouver

9) When is Canada's "birthday"?

a) Aug 1
b) July 4
c) July 1 (1867)
c) Oct 1

10) Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada?

a) Celine Dion (currently PM of Vegas, apparently!)
b) John Diefenbaker (served as PM from 1957 - 1963, Conservative)
c) Stephen Harper has been in office since 2006 - Conservative Party
d) Pierre Trudeau (served as PM 1968 - 1979 and from 1980 - 84, Liberal)

Hope you had fun with this. The Bag Lady might just do another quiz sometime soon, because she had great fun organizing this one!

Canadian, eh?

The Bag Lady, as some of you know, is a proud Canadian. She embarrassed herself yesterday in her comments section with her lack of knowledge of American geography (thinking that the Blue Ridge mountains extended into Kentucky. Apparently not!) so she decided to design a little test for all her American readers to see if their knowledge of Canada is any better than her knowledge of the United States! (She's betting that she knows more about the US than most Americans know about Canada, because most Canadians do... sad, but true!) But don't worry, she is also betting that some Canadians won't be able to answer all the questions correctly either!

1) How many provinces are there in Canada?

a) 12
b) 4
c) 10
d) 7

2) How many territories are there in Canada?

a) 2
b) 6
c) 1
d) 3

3) What is the capitol of Canada?

a) Vancouver
b) Toronto
c) Ottawa
d) Ontario

4) Where is Alberta?

a) Eastern Canada
b) Western Canada
c) Northern Canada
d) somewhere in the middle

5) Which country is larger?

a) Canada
b) United States
c) China
d) Australia

6) What is Canada's national emblem?

a) beaver
b) igloo
c) maple leaf
d) grizzly bear

7) Where is Vimy Ridge and why is it important (oh, wait, this is supposed to be multiple choice... give me your best guess.)

8) What is the capitol of Alberta?

a) Calgary
b) Saskatoon
c) Edmonton
d) Vancouver

9) When is Canada's "birthday"?

a) Aug 1
b) July 4
c) July 1
c) Oct 1

10) Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada?

a) Celine Dion
b) John Diefenbaker
c) Stephen Harper
d) Pierre Trudeau

Have fun!

What a Difference a Year Makes!

The Bag Lady wanted to show you a little comparison between this year and last. This picture was taken on the weekend, out in the pasture, looking west along the fence line at the 'top' of the pasture:

This picture was taken last year, right around the same time. This is the dug-out on the western edge of the pasture, to the left of where the above picture was taken:


The Bag Lady couldn't take a comparison shot of the dugout itself because the snow was still too deep to get there!

The geese are back, though, and there is some open water here and there for them. On three separate occasions, Trumpeter Swans were spotted flying over the ranch on the weekend, but each time, the Bag Lady didn't have her camera ready! This was the only picture she managed to get - just as they flew behind the trees in the bottom left of the picture: (click to enlarge and see if you can find them in the tops of the trees...)


Trumpeter Swans nest in this area, but it is very rare to see them, and the Bag Lady is disappointed that she wasn't quick enough to get pictures for you. She will probably not see any more of them, but if she does, she will try harder to photograph them!

Definitely Spring!

(Look at what the Easter Bunny brought!)

Spring has arrived on the Bag Lady's ranch. Here is the first calf of the season, about an hour old:

A few days ago, the Rancher cleared some snow off of the highest part of the pasture, and this cow took advantage of the dry ground there to have her baby.

Being the first calf of the year, he is getting lots of attention from all the cows - here he is, being scrutinized by one of the other cows while his mother watches closely:


The weather was very cooperative yesterday - warm and sunny - which gave this little guy a good start in life!

Mud Season

The Bag Lady spent yesterday cleaning. She crawled up and down ladders and climbed on countertops and cleaned the tops of her kitchen cabinets (OMG, the greasy mess!!) and washed some walls and still isn't anywhere close to being finished..... sigh. Either her kitchen cupboards have somehow multiplied, or she is getting slower in her old age, because she doesn't seem to get nearly as much accomplished in twice as much time as it used to take.

And the cleaning products are not as good as they used to be, either. Mind you, the Bag Lady's eyesight isn't what it used to be, so if she misses a spot or two, she probably won't be able to see it anyway, so it all works out.

The weather has been fairly mild and mud season has arrived! Poor Princess has to have her feet wiped every time she comes in from outside. She is fairly compliant, though, and will lie down and wait patiently while her feet and belly are dried. She does know exactly how many feet she has, so the Bag Lady has to make sure she wipes each one completely before she moves on to the next because there's no going back! The Princess leaps up and runs as soon as she is released.

The Bag Lady has been faithfully checking cows every day, but so far there are no calves. Several of the cows look like they are getting very close - they just aren't ready yet. Which means the Bag Lady has nothing much to blog about! Rest assured, as soon as something exciting happens, she'll let you know!

In the meantime, with tomorrow being Good Friday, she may take a long weekend away from blogland, so Happy Easter/Passover to everyone!

Thpring Thaw

The Bag Lady had a busy day yesterday. She had to go to town to run some errands and do some shopping. She got a coupon book from Costco, and there were several coupons for things she uses, so she picked up a few things that she didn't need right this minute, but will, eventually.

One of those things that she didn't really need at all but will use, eventually was a pack of Febreze. There are three different cans in three different scents. Of course, she had to open it and smell each one to find out which one she liked best. They are all nice, but she thinks the Febreze people are wrong about one thing. Spring does not smell like that at all, at least, not around here! Spring around here carries the unmistakable and admittedly unpleasant odour of poop.

Yup, all that manure that the cows have been dropping all winter is starting to thaw, and starting to smell. It is not nice. The Bag Lady has become accustomed to it over the years, and barely notices it any more. There are worse smells - thawing horse poop smells even worse; at least, as far as the Bag Lady is concerned! But it is a fact of life on a ranch. Spring doesn't smell like flowers, it smells like shit!

But notwithstanding, spring is still the Bag Lady's favourite time of year. She loves the warming of the earth, the melting of the snow, even the thawing of the poop!


But enough about poop....

Here are some pictures the Bag Lady took this morning (and one from yesterday morning) to share with you spring's progress!

This was the sunrise yesterday morning:



And guess what? It came up again this morning!!



This is out in the pasture - a sign of how much it melted yesterday (this puddle was not there the day before!! And yes, there is poop in this picture!):



Still lots of snow on the lawn, though:


But the driveway is peeking through, and muddy!


The best news of all? The Bag Lady saw a couple of flocks of Canada Geese when she was driving home from town yesterday - a sure sign that spring is here! Yippee!!

It's Monday!?

So.

The Bag Lady entered her sunrise picture in the contest. The contest opened for public viewing on Saturday, so she and the Rancher slipped in and had a look. There are over 30 other photographs in the competition, and some of them are fabulous! In fact, most of them are fabulous. The Bag Lady is pretty sure her photo is not going to win, but that's okay.

There are also 14 original artworks entered in the competition, and most of them are pretty good. A couple of them are really good, and one of them is fabulous. The competition is a "people's choice" sort of deal - whichever painting garners the most votes wins. And whichever photograph garners the most votes wins in the other category. The Bag Lady and the Rancher cast their votes for the fabulous painting. And the Bag Lady is pretty confident that her photograph got at least one vote (she peeked at the Rancher's ballot.....)

This is only the second year that they have added a photography section to this contest - in previous years, it was open only to original artwork - but the photography portion has generated a lot of new participants.

In other news, the Rancher's uncle had his surgery on Friday, and is recovering. He did not react well to the anaesthetic, which made for some interesting moments for the nursing staff, but once the medication wore off, he settled down. Now he just has to get healed up and things can get back to normal - well, as normal as things ever get around these parts.

The weather is slowly warming up, which makes the Bag Lady happy. It would make her happier if it would warm up a little more quickly, but she knows there's not much she can do about it, and at least the days are getting longer! There will soon be calves to contend with, too, so the Bag Lady is hoping for some warmer nights.

Friday Foto Fun

The Bag Lady is stealing a page from cousin Leah's blog - Leah posts wonderful photos on Fridays.


These are from the Bag Lady's files - she sees so many wonderful sunrises and sunsets, living in the country, and has a compulsion to photograph all of them! She manages not to do that, but sometimes she can't help herself! Here is a sunrise from last autumn:



And a mid-winter sunset:


Do you get to see sunrises and sunsets where you live?

Princess Swami

Bath time for the Princess.....



This was actually taken some time ago, but the Bag Lady was scrolling through her photographs looking for inspiration and came across this picture. The Princess has quite an attitude about taking baths - she never seems to think she needs one!

Picture, if you will, a cartoon dog with all four feet planted on either side of the shower stall door, and you will have a pretty fair idea of how the Princess reacts when it's bath time! The Rancher has to pick her up and carry her into the shower stall. Of course, it's the Bag Lady's job to actually give the Princess a bath....

Once she is in the stall and the door is shut, she resigns herself to actually having the bath, usually planting herself on the floor of the shower stall with a huge sigh. But if the bathing process takes too long, the Princess will start to protest. Softly at first, but gaining in volume and intensity until it's a full-blown, pathetic wail!

The Bag Lady has learned to hang the towels over the door of the shower stall because as soon as the door opens, the Princess leaves at full-throttle! She heads straight for the living room and crawls under the coffee table, which is her safe haven. This is where she hides from thunderstorms, or other loud noises, and where she disappears to in any and all dire circumstances.

Spring is just around the corner, and it's a guarantee that sooner or later, the Princess will tromp happily through a puddle, or roll in something impressively smelly, with nary a thought to the fact that, in order to live in the castle with her subjects, she might possibly have to suffer through another dreaded bath!

Frame Fiasco

The Bag Lady has had a terrible time deciding on a frame for her picture. She bought one that was black, but when she put the picture in it, she didn't really like the result, so she decided to paint part of it. She then sent a picture of the framed picture to a couple of friends. They weren't exactly enamoured of how it looked, so she changed it.

Here is what it looked like with the first paint job:





And here is what it looks like now:

The Bag Lady has until 5 pm today to enter her photo in the competition.

What do you think of the frame the way it is?