Canada Day in Cloverdale

First you have to follows Peppers lead and paint your toes red

To match a little red dress!!!

Then you need a handsome bandit on your arm!!

One to hold you close and cuddle!

You need a large open park with an amphitheater, enough room for 35,000 patriotic British Colombians of all ages to hoot and holler in!!!

You need a diverse crowd of people, celebrating peace and freedom!

An awesome lineup of free entertainment, like Jeremy Fischer, Bif Naked, 54/40, and many others to entertain all day long!!!

Of course you need an incredible close friend

Who knows how to laugh, is willing to tolerate all your struggles, and annoying little nuances !

Family

Great hat wearing Weather

Sound seats, with a wonderful view of the stage!A couple of random patriotic eccentrics to photograph!

A plate of homemade tasting perogies!

Loads of Kettle Corn

A peaceful heart, gratitude, and pretty much you have the most amazing Canada Day event ever experienced at the Cloverdale millennium amphitheater in British Columbia!

Kudos to the police who had hubs of people and traffic under control! Our female Mayor for making sure it was the biggest and best production ever! Outside of a few glitches with fireworks coordinating to the music, I was so impressed with the smooth transitions in such humongous crowd! I guess we're truly ready to host a great show, for the 2010 0lympics!!

Wow, what a day!! I couldn't be more grateful to live in such a generous, peaceful country!! It seriously brings me to tears realizing how fortunate we are! What a spectacular day it was!!!

Sunday Scribblings and Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day big Celebrations will be enjoyed!

A prouder Canadian, I could not be
I wave the flag, in front of me
A liberal land, freely diverse
Varied languages to converse
Countless cultures of every race
Amicably exist in once place

Written by Happytiler

Sunday Scribblings " Vision"

My vision has changed over the years. Thankfully I waste less time on petty annoyances. Now I have a mission. To speak of issues rarely touched. Mental illness is still not addressed as a prevalent societal problem. Articles written usually feature the most derelict schizophrenic, bipolar or psychopath. Yet they are covertly filtered into our everyday life.

It came to light again when a local male went missing; his frantic parents suffered horrifically while the young man manically caught a plane to Mexico without notifying a soul. There was a huge search which included police. The community feels duped now that he has returned after needing his fathers’ assistance to fund the trip home!

Comments left on a newspaper article were extremely judgmental, calling him selfish, childish, thoughtless and much more. I was sad that very few recognized a possible mental illness to be the culprit fueling this deranged action. Possibly depression or a breakdown!

So often families are exposed to these ongoing dramas with little to no empathy from society! Instead the perpetrator is criticized leaving the families on the defense feeling a need to protect their relative. It’s complex, hard to understand yet the mainstream is still vague on the logistics of living with someone mentally ill.

Intruder

He was quiet, loved deeply

So I thought,

On occasion he would cry

About his childhood

Days off we sipped coffee

Seated on the chesterfield

Watching the birds flit

To the food in our feeder

We chatted of future dreams

Building a greenhouse

He taught me to ignore the bugs

And plant the flowers

We gardened together

We sat on our pristine deck

Barbequed breakfast

Pots of marigolds

like tiny oranges

Bloomed in droves

For a moment

It was our glorious

Sanctuary

Then one day

While sipping coffee

Watching the birds

We spotted a rat

Below the tree

Feasting on seeds

We removed the feeder

Knowing

It would never

Be the same again.