summer in Canada ♥ flowers, flags, fireworks & song

Canada Day (July 1st) was on a Tuesday this year. And it was an extra-long weekend for us, since we were off work Monday as well! Add to that all the super-summery weather we’ve been having (weather we’ve been waiting all winter for) and you get what feels like a real stay-cation 🙂

Admittedly, this blog has shared its share of snowy pics during the months of November thru March/April. And so for today’s post, I thought it might be nice to balance that out a bit with a glimpse of what this place looks like without snowbanks! One snowy scene you may recall is the view from our front door. Here in this vertically panoramic photo, I’ve stitched a few pics into one. By mid-winter, the sight of all this flourishing shrubbery under the clear, blue, blazingly hot July sky will be like soothing therapy for the soul 🙂

As you can see, our neighbours across the street have a Canadian flag in their backyard. I love to look outside and see it flying freely in the breeze 🙂 The little flag on our lawn was planted by a Canada Day volunteer. Every year on Canada Day, our entire city wakes up to find Canadian flags in each front yard…. gotta ♥ ❤ ♥ that! All these photos were taken with my iPad, including the sunrise—dated just past 4:30 AM on July 4th, 2013. What can I say? The sun waits for no one and that’s the last time I managed to wake up early enough to catch pictures of a summertime sunrise … lol… As well, there are four (4) videos attached to this post. That’s a lot, I know… but hope you will agree they are worth it! First up is the inaugural illumination of a locally historic bridge, plus fireworks display. The fireworks did not start until 11:20 PM. It would’ve been a very late night, if we’d gone to check it out in person. Fortunately, this video offers a great view without the crowds and traffic! Next up, is Chris Hadfield (former commander of the International Space Station (ISS) aka my favourite down-to-earth Canadian astronaut) and his brother Dave with their “In Canada” video 🙂 Seriously, this tune has been stuck in my head all week. Happily humming it right now, in fact… lol! And finally, ending this post on a literal high note, Chris Hadfield’s out-of-this-world cover version video for David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is performed aboard the ISS… How C@@L is that!?!

smilin’ in Canada 🙂 ♥ Jackie