True Colours Thursday - CERISE!!

I chose this weeks colour, for my B'Day twinny Snowball, who will be eleven this coming Sunday - this photo of her dressed in her favourite colour, is courtesy of her jie-jie ...
CERISE, a bright shade of PINK, I love in flowers...However, my wardrobe, only contains a cosy Berri & Scarf set, a gift, as modelled here by Woodstock...Though, I wouldn't mind owning this striking handbag as it would match perfectly...
Heading towards the Covered Market yesterday, in hope of a contribution from the Celebration Cake shop, I couldn't help but notice, that HMV & Nipper have had a CERISE makeover...And, re a cake, I wasn't disappointed...
To participate in True Colours Thursday, all you need, is to post a photo/photographs & text, or better still both, on the specified colour of the week. Then, LINK back to me & leave a word here, to say you are playing along.
For this meme only, I have again lifted my 'Comment Moderation' to help visiting.
Everyone, who is or has previously participated recently, is named & linked in my side bar.
AND, I do try to up-date the list throughout the day.
Next weeks colour is TURQUIOSE - requested by Muge of The World of Wonder Turquette, she missed it the first time round, so I dohope she participates again this week!!!
If, anyone has a suggestion for a 'Colour', please feel free to say.

Happy Birthday BJ!

Looking for an appropriate & special image for my talented writer friend BJ, I came across the above delightful doggy portrait.
To me, it has an uncanny resemblance to her beloved Willie!
The painting in acrylics, is simply entitled 'Blue Dog Green' and is by a self-taught artist, whose art blog is studio-middle.

Have a wonderful Birthday BJ!

Two fer Tuesday - Three Valley Gap!

Although, we, or rather, Little Buddy drove for many hours each day, we kept civilised hours, rarely on the road before 9am, with pit stops for coffee & lunch, and always called it a day by 4pm known as Cocktail Hour to us!!!
After driving through Kicking Horse Pass, Glacier National Park & Rogers Pass and Mount Revelstone National Park, our initial overnight venue was the Three Valley Lake Chateau @ Three Valley Gap.

It was surrounded by the sheer cliffs of Monashee Mountains with tumbling waterfalls - the Spring run off had barely started...

Overlooked the Three Valley Lake...And, provided me with my first 'room with a view'...

The resort also, boasted an exceedingly HOT whirlpool & supposedly, heated but decidedly cool indoor swimming pool - we availed ourselves of both, though getting into each the first time caused much merriment!!!

But, the real reason I mention them, is that the pool area was set out like the bulkhead of a steam liner & the walls were adorned with three murals relating to 'HMS Titanic' & her fateful history.

The largest image, was a highly detailed painting of the the ship her-self with the artists name shown below.

Little Buddy recognised it immediately, as that of a a Prairieland classmate of his brother Sir.

Frustratingly the name eludes me now, but as a young man, he had shown artistic talent & LB recalls he moved out to BC.

Regretably, I did not returning to the pool with my camera to take a photo, as didn't think of it @ the time!

This is looking back across the lake to the Chateau as we motored onwards the next morning...

It seems, the discovery of the Gap & 'the Lake of Three Valleys' by surveyor Walter Moberly, back in 1865 was of great significance, as it made possible the completion of the first Trans Canadian Railway twenty years later, that united British Columbia with the rest of Canada!

Twofer Tuesday is the brainchild of friend Jonna.

All you need is two or pairs of photo's on your chosen subjet.

Canadian Travel Tales and Monochrome & Odd Shot Monday - Mountain Vista's!

Little Buddy's & I's recent 10 day long 'Road Trip' together, of some 1800 miles from Calgary, Alberta, Canada; through the Rocky Mountains via the No I, the Trans Canadian Highway; across British Columbia to Vancouver & over to the Sunshine Coast and back via a different Highway, the spectacular No 3 known as the Crow, was truly amazing.
En-route I caught almost every season - Spring/Summer/Winter in that order!
BC has the most stunning, diverse scenery of any Canadian province with mountains ranges, fine lakes, wide fertile valleys & a wonderful coastline.
We viewed a fraction of each, staying in a different location most nights, after motoring, on average, 5 to 6 hours a day!!!
Little Buddy, a confident sound driver took all the strain, so allowing me to sit back & enjoy the ever changing landscape & weather conditions.
His small comfortable truck, elderly or not, did manage the sometimes VERY severe gradients in the high elevation passes, that his Mazda RX7 sports car, still sadly laid up for the Winter in Prairieland, would have taken in her stride.
She, the truck, only threatened to overheat on us once & her well maintained breaks were certainly tested thoroughly on the mountain descents.
Little Buddy will blush now but I have to add, that throughout the whole trip, he couldn't have been more attentive, considerate or loving, thus making me feel special & cared for - it was a particularly nice feeling & certainly added to my enjoyment!
The only clouds on our travel horizion - life is never perfect, was a shadow cast by a little cousinly strife; a worryingly failed medical on Little Buddy's part - his excuse for making the trip in the first place & a massive migraine of mine - unfortunately on one of our only two free days not on the move.
Otherwise, all went spinning well.
It was certainly a memorable drive with my loved one.
However, for once I don't have masses of images to share, as strangely wasn't in the mood for creative photography, even though the open roads give wonderful vistas as this one, shot on the go shows...

Anyway, onto today's memes - Calgary is close to the foothills of the Rockies, so we were soon surrounded by towering snow covered, densely forested peaks.
This one adapted for Aileni's Monochrome Maniacs - is from around the Banff/Lake Louise area...And, snapping away while LB drove, created this interesting picture for Katney's Odd Shot...

Am Back & Blue, naturaly!

For those caring/wondering, YES, I did arrive safely back from Canada last Thursday.
However, the holiday left me, far more drained & tired than any previous vacation has yet.
And, saying 'Good-Bye' to Little Buddy, after our longest ever period of purely 'one to one' 24 hours a day contact, was particularly distressful.
I confess, I foolishly wept intermittently all the flight home; so, personally upsetting was leaving my 'Love' to return to my empty shell of an existence here; especially knowing it's always going to be that way.
True, there just maybe, more stolen moments ahead, who knows?
Still, that was & is still small comfort, as it's not a certainty.
When we are together, we live for the moment & do; and recall with fond nostalgia other happy times shared.
But, we can never make future plans & no matter how hard I try to contain my feelings re this, I fail miserably.
I was therefore, literally shaking with emotional & physical exhaustion by the time I reached Dreamingspires & home.
I wearily, crawled to the sanctuary of my bed & stayed there in an attempt to recoup.

On Friday, it had been long planned, that I join Molly & Taffy and friends to participate in the WELTAF weekend of walks in Cheshire, but I was just too deflated & despondent to do so.
Since then, have slept in late, very late & when awake, drowned my sorrows in my duty-free bottle of Bacardi rum, not wanting to communicate by any means with anyone except LB, who has called each evening since I returned to check on my well being!

Okay, I'm not proud of it, but I've been feeling exceedingly sorry for myself & depressed beyond words.

Consequently, I quite simply, haven't had the heart to Blog that I was back till now.

Even, wondered if I wanted to continue posting @ all, as doing so, about my proposed Canadian trip cast a shadow over it!!!

However, as the saying, often seen quoted on the Internet, rings all too true for me...
"I love my laptop, because my friends live there!"
I will write a little of my travels over the next few days.

And, try to catch up with what's happened in my said friends lives during my absence from Blogland.

To those worried by my prolonged silence - my apologies!