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?