Linden

Variety is indeed the spice of life, the salt and pepper of existence, the condiment of contentedness, as Alan so rightly said. I think he made up the last two bits.He is quite the writer you know!
 Today more variety from the ever-changing scenery in Linden Gardens, including thunderheads. We had lots of those yesterday, including thunder, but no rain.
Oh, by the way, we had all better be careful what we say on line these days. We might get ejected from blogspot or worse. Look what happened to the little Olympic girl from Greece. One wrong tweet and out she went!

Hydrangeas

Thunderheads over Penticton

Have some Saskatoons!

Anyway, enjoy the photos....

Miscellaneous

God trying to tell us not to use OIL (Unknown Photographer)

Okanagan Fruit

Jennifer's excellent self portrait. Jennifer commented on our Picas photos. 

Here are three quite separate images to make your day.

Icons

Usain Bolt on a London Bus. Now that is an iconic image if ever there was one. He hopes to make more history. Time alone will tell.
 King Richard the Second  had icons of heraldry on his shield, they were an artistic rendering of a small house martin, called a Martlet. They were in red. Now HE made history.
The top university in Canada, Mcgill in Montreal, also has red martlets on its "coat of arms". In fact, the sports community there has as its mascot "Marty the Martlet". Hopefully our grand-daughter will be playing soccer next year for McGill.... she is scheduled to become undergrad number twenty-six thousand and one in the Fall.
Enough trivia. Oh by the way, did you know what Graupel is? It's a German/English word for "Soft Hail".

Martlet

Graupel

Marty the Martlet

"Graupel" is my new word for today.
( All pictures courtesy of Wikipedia )

Flowers

Rose with ears

Mariposa Lily
 ( Calochortus macrocarpus )
Mariposa is Spanish for butterfly; macrocarpus means large seed; the three pointed parts are sepals.

Our Resident Great Horned Owl (With Horns folded Back)

Design for Shoe Shop Display

Verbascum thapsus ( Mullein) (Grows to eight feet)

Lots of interesting flowers are about. Now we have time to look. The Tour de France and the British Open Golf being over. Won't have time next week what with the London Olympics. Didn't know this was their third Olympics until the other day. The last one was when I was 16. How time flies! Oh by the way, our resident pair of owls took notice of our new putting course, especially the box of golf balls on the table. They must have thought they were turtle eggs as they spilled the whole box-full of about twenty onto the grass!  Above is one of them sitting on the fence near the golf balls....

Mahoney Lake

At the start of the trail

Wild Flower with last night's rain

More wild flowers

The Fallen Pine

Curious Cedar Waxwing

Finally we arrive back to our parked car

Yesterday Hanne decided we should try a new walk from the South end of Mahoney Lake. The temperature at 9.30 am was about 25 degrees Celsius so we should be OK without getting dehydrated. We ended up going all the way round! It took about an hour and a half and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a few steep hills but we survived! We found some new wild flowers, and saw several different birds and one ground squirrel. No snakes thank goodness! Here are a few photos....

Fives

Hanne on the i-Pad

Computer Room

Hanne on the Deck, Version 2

Fives is probably so called because the ball is hit with the clenched hand or fist, gloved or bare, and as such was known as a "bunch of fives" meaning fingers. Fingers and hands are also suggested as the origin of the Roman Numeral system. Fingers were used as hand signals for each number. Ten would for example be signed by crossed thumbs or hands, five by the V between finger and thumb, and so on. Another neat idea I came across was in the Canadian magazine "More", in the May 2012 edition. To celebrate its fifth anniversary they had a whole article about the number five. One idea was "The five best ways of spending $5". Another was "The five best ways of spending five minutes". "Five things worth stealing" intrigued me: 1. Five minutes to yourself. 2. A backward glance. 3. The Spotlight. 4. A Kiss. 5. Inspiration. This last one is what I am doing right now, so I will follow their advice and give credit to them. Here is a link.

Sun and Cloud

Jayne and son Tim; Hanne; Laughing in the Rain

Hanne enjoying the sun on our deck

One of our new geraniums

When there is no sun, there are clouds. When there are no clouds, there is sun. We are to have lots of sun in the next week, this is the last day of showers. Between the showers, today we are to try out our new astroturf bocci court.... In the meantime, here are a few photos....