Just a couple pictures… Costa Rica is so beautiful. Everything seems so dramatic there, from the lighting to the wildlife and the sky…

An unusual tree.

Bird in palm.

Reserva Conchal Golf Course.

Pool Chairs.

Iguana.

Ocean vs. Rock.

Red Flower.

Feet on Brasilito. Pedicure, still going strong after 7 days!

Flowers hidden in foliage.

Leaves.

Bar.

Fire Pit.

Reeling in..

Just before the sun disappears…

Where Sky meets Ocean…

It’s true… Costa Rica has beautiful sunsets.

See for yourself!

Taken out in Brasilito, Guanacaste Coast, Costa Rica… off a boat, of a boat!

Happy Canada Day everyone! I hope you all had a good one.

Sadly, I have had to return back from Tofino early. Yes, I had a crazy surfboard incident. 11 stitches on my forehead. If you’d like to see the stitches, click here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! So it’s back to work for me.

Pictures from Tofino coming up soon.

So yesterday, instead of surfing and being on the beach, I spent the day with Allan and my Dad in the garden and in the kitchen for Canada Day. We made hamburgers, garden vegetables, spring salmon, and potatoes. Yum!

My Dad has been meticulously taking care of a garden for as long as I can remember. When we lived in Australia for several years, I remember eating oranges right out of our garden. It’s been a long struggle for our family to make ends meet, but somehow my Dad has always found time to take care of the garden in the morning before work and after working 12 hours a day. I remember helping out in the garden when I was growing up, and eating fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year.

Here’s just a sampling of pictures from our garden from yesterday, and the meal that we cooked up:

Freshly picked veggies and fruits from the garden: HUGE raspberries (my favourite), boysenberries (they are basically large and juicy blackberries), new potatoes, peas, basil, mint, and cilantro.

A view from one side of our garden, click to see where everything is located. Click All Sizes to see the large size.

The view from the other side of our garden, again, click to zoom in.

I used to have a rooftop patio in the west end but had to move all my planters to my family’s house when I moved into Allan’s apartment with no patio for a couple years. Fortunately, our new place has a patio so I’m planning on moving my planters over soon so I can start gardening again.

Lilies…

The blueberries starting to come out…

The plum tree, still green… but they will be ripe and juicy soon!

Fuji apples starting to ripen…

Tomatoes starting to get ready!

Garden-grown garlic drying out (shame I didn’t get that bug in focus!)

Green grapes starting to form on the vine…

Dill! I love eating herbs straight from the garden.

Flowers in the garden…

Our family’s secret recipe for hamburgers! Lots of fresh herbs and onions from the garden, and lean organic beef.

Hamburgers all cooked up from the charcoal BBQ with hickory smoked chips.

New potatoes and fresh garden vegetables (all except the broccoli)..

Grilled spring salmon (just caught last week) on the BBQ and grilled zucchini from the garden! Yum!

Yes, we definitely enjoyed some home grown and home cooked food yesterday!

How did you spend your Canada Day?

So I’m sitting in the airport, they’re already pre-boarding the flight. The real question is if I can publish my blog pots before the plane leaves

So here’s some photos from my Montreal trip… I had an hour yesterday to walk around, so sadly these are the only real photos I got from the trip!

Hope you enjoy

The entrance to my hotel…

The outside of my hotel..

Moody lights… seems to sum up the feeling in many parts of the city…

Beautiful church windows and doorways…

Old streets with character…

My hotel was right beside this famous church in Vieux-Montreal..

Beautiful masonry…

What a row of buildings!

Their Canada exists beside our Canada…

Street names in Vieux-Montreal…

Building face…

Bluebird sky…

Beautiful flowers by windows…

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post solely dedicated to my photography so here we go. P.S. Snowboarding with Shay post coming soon, photos from Tofino last summer, photos from the romantic Victoria getaway, photos from sprimg in Vancouver, and I also want to do a “scenes” from Twilight featuring some of my photography but it’s going to take a while to collect those together.

I’m actually feeling really terrible today so I need to get back to bed. Thank goodness I prepared this post last night all ready for the morning.

Anyway.

The photographs here are a mix of my old and new shots. I wanted a theme, so I went with “things with wings”. When the sun starts coming out more frequently and we start transitioning into spring and then summer… I really look forward to seeing all the butterflies, birds, and other critters coming out of the woodworks.

These photos taken with a mix of the Nikon D50, D80, D90 and way back when my Olympus C3030Z.

Yellow Butterfly by a Yellow Flower

Hummingbird, Still

Kissing Butterflies

Kookaburra Bird

Butterfly on a Pink Flower

Wasp

Butterfly with Camouflaged “Eye”

Bee Covered in Pollen

Thanks for looking! Hope you liked them.