the snowberry

i really can come up with no reason for my love of snowberries. i have always found myself drawn to their beauty. i love how just one berry can be sitting on top of a bare thin branch, or sometimes huge clumps hang. i love how my children grab handful after handful and have berry fights with them while we walk through the forest. i love how they find their favorites and then ask me to put the special berry in my pocket. i oblige their wish, and a day or two later i feel something in my pocket and i squish it and it pops. and i find myself laughing in a sort of, annoyed at myself, sort of way. seriously, why wouldn't i just toss it onto the ground when they were not looking. as if they are going to ask me for their berry an hour later. it has never happened. but i have a gooey squishy berry now in the pocket of my favorite jacket...

i found these berries two days ago, when we took the kids to mt doug park to drop our pumpkins into the pumpkin grave yard. it was snowberry heaven. the path was covered with a gorgeous layer of leaves after the windstorm. i have truly come to appreciate the true beauty of each moment, each season. i miss the light airy feeling of the summer sun, but i love the complex rich tones that fall photography brings. 

a boy and his dog

yesterday was another remarkable fall day in victoria. the golden colours and the seeds on the ground. the berries that are still on the branches. left over blackberries, red berries and of course my favorite the snow berries. it all just makes me happy. what also makes me happy is this family. i love this family. i love that we moved down the street from them 7 years ago. that while walking my stroller of babies by their house, a girl about my age stopped and asked me how old my kids were. we realized we both had a son the same age, and the same name. we joked how neat it would be that they would grow up together, go to the same school and become friends. 

they are friends. they are both wonderful boys and they have been in the same class since kindergarden. i love this boys mom. she is a wonderful friend and they are an amazing addition to our neighbourhood. we have shared more than a few after school glasses of wine, discussing our solutions to our childrens biggest problems. all while our four children and her dog run around the house screaming. we don't notice. we have our wine, we are making important decisions.

my friends dog, became two dogs. they added a puppy to their home a few months ago. gosh he is cute. so now they have two yellow labs. one older gentle sweet dog and now a playful happy go lucky shoe eating puppy. both came to the photo session, with the special reason that casey is nearing the end of her life. and its important to have some memories and photos of her and the kids. so i think we managed to capture a few images of a boy and his dog.

halloween

so... those who know me, know i am not a fan. must bring me back to the time i was a clown in a parade in La Ronge Saskatchewan. i got all dressed up. i looked awesome. i cried. people laughed at me. they were looking at me and laughing. i am not sure i ever got over it, i was the exact age my kids are now.  i have no interest in dressing up. at all. but as an adult i love a few things about halloween. 

i love the excitement in my kids faces as they prepare to dress up. i loved the build up to today. i loved carving pumpkins with them. i loved a few weeks back going to the field to pick them with our family and cousins. i loved sticking our hands in the pumpkins and feeling the slime on our hands and cleaning the seeds. i loved leaving the door to the oven open as we roasted them today so that we didn't forget about them in the oven. i loved telling the kids how many times prior to today that i had left them in the oven roasting and forgot about them and burned them.... SO bad the smoke detector had gone off. i loved that today, i heard the seeds roasting. they were dancing on the pan. making popping sounds and actually moving. i had never noticed that before. i was present in the kitchen. i loved that!

i loved that today our pumpkin seeds turned out the best they had ever tasted.

i loved that today my kids were not scared to go trick-or-treating, that they remembered the neighbourhood houses that had scarey things that scared them in years past. and i loved that today they went to bed and i ate my old favorite treats. don't worry, they won't notice. they have a HUGE stash. they are 7 years old now and they can carry a lot of treats in their pillowcases. 

now as i sit here typing this, i know how sick my mom and dad must have been, when i was sleeping in my bed on halloween night when i was 7.

i had a great night with my kids. i love them, so much, and it is not because they brought me chocolate.

xoxo

the sheep next to the orchard

the session was over, the sweet family had left. the rain had started and i happily put my camera away in its broken down red leather bag, zipped it up and threw it on the seat beside me. i was ready to go pick my kids up from their favorite aunt's house. they were baking halloween cookies while i was at my photo session. i was excited to see their creations. 

i started the car and i kept looking at the sheep who came to the fence line when i was putting stuff in the car. it's not like me to break from a decision. a normal thought would be, wow those sheep are so awesome, i should take some photos. then i would think, put it in the memory bank, i will come back another time. things to do, always something to do...

but then i thought, no. its now, the sheep are here now. they look amazing and friendly and they want to greet me at the fence. i am so glad i stopped. it was hard for me to leave. they were just so darn cute. one of them wanted to be my best friend. i just had no idea they were so social. the one guy actually tried to get out many times to come with me when i finally got in the car. so here are a few photos of my new friends. i have to go visit them again soon. they are good listeners, they liked my story.

and my children. they had an amazing time making cookies, while i was busy. i just have to include a photo of their creations. i am told they had no adult help in the formation of the fingers. just the measuring.

and the scary fingers that tasted so good, i had to hide them so tim and i didn't eat them all on the kids!

 

i can't believe this is the third year

for her christmas portraits. i love this time of year. i love meeting up with this amazing young lady. she is one of my favorites! we managed to avoid the rain today too, it started just as we were leaving the orchard. we shot at the lovely Sea Cider Farmhouse and Ciderhouse on the Saanich Peninsula. if you haven't tried their amazing cider, you should!

here are a few quick glimpses into our morning. i seriously would love to harvest just a tiny bit of this girls spirit. she makes me smile just thinking of her.