Throw Back Monday - been there, done that!

Not Quite A Stroll on the Beach

Welcome to “Throw Back Monday”. These are the posts where I’ve gone back and delved into my blog and pulled some posts from quite a few years ago. Yep, I’ve been blogging for a long time… Despite the time warp, it's a trip of sorts, a trip through time.

  Too much work, and no vacation, 

 Deserves at least a small libation. So hail! my friends, 

and raise your glasses, Work's the curse of the drinking classes. 

 ~Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde did have an interesting spin on things. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

   

Just outside the village of Patricia 

 A few years back I was on the road exploring another bit of the country. While I’m calling it a vacation, I'm still thinking about what I’m writing - this story or that. But the guilt at having fled from my computer for days at a stretch is like sand in my shoes or flip flops, easily brushed aside. Anyway, while choosing one road over another that took us on a quaint drive through ranch land with patches of scrub brush giving subtle indicators of what's to come. The villages along this route reference women in one way or another; Princess, Patricia, Duchess, Rosemary, Countess and Millicent. I want to know why but don’t find the answer. 

 But I digress. It was a zig instead of a zag that led to the road to Alberta’s badlands and Dinosaur Provincial Park. There were dinosaurs with absolutely no hint of Jurassic - I hoped. Okay, it was a road sign that sent us down a road to the past. It was a twisted road and took a few turns to get there. And no, there were no sign of dinosaurs, not yet. 

Slow Down for Snakes? 

My rule on wildlife – slow down for anything! Okay, back to snakes – fortunately, there were none. Of course, it was a hot day, and any self-respecting snake would have long ago hunted down shade. 

 The rough, prairie scrub grass opens into a vast, timeworn valley. It's beautiful and yet eerie, especially if you think of it in the context of what it is - a giant reptilian cemetery. Okay, maybe that was slightly macabre, but the truth is that the valley is littered with dinosaur bones. In the summer months, paleontologists come here from around the world to participate in digs. 

 Then there’s the warnings! 

 There are numerous signs, warning of preserved, off-limits sites with notices to leave all bones and fossils where they lay. And then there’s the warnings that are a little more disturbing. Again, watch out for living critters who aren’t as friendly as the dead - black widows, scorpions and, of course, rattle snakes. No worries there – I didn’t venture off the path. Who knows what slithery thing is out there! 

Creepy crawlies aside, it's not often in my day-to-day life that I'm reminded of the ice age or the extinction of the dinosaurs. But when you stand on the precipice of this valley it's like you've been rushed back in time to a place you can barely imagine. The valley is a testament is a reminder of the power of nature and that once, the earth looked nothing like it does now. 

Way back when, when dinosaurs walked the earth. All in all, it was the perfect detour that only created a small zig instead of a zag across a secondary highway and into another world. It was a detour that could kick anyone's imagination into overdrive. 

Did I find a fossil or even a bone - nope. But I did locate a piece of wood that looked amazingly like a leg bone. That is, if you used your imagination Ryshia …the adventure begins today!

Ryshia

                                                  …the adventure begins today!   

July 1 - A Summer Day That's Just A Bit Special!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada's Birthday! To all my Canadian friends and family - Happy Canada Day!

Here in Saskatchewan - the land of living skies - July 1 is looking extra special, we're finally going to get good weather. Or at least it's starting out like that. Here's hoping! It's been the spring of bad weather and the start of a summer that's looking not too promising.

Blast from the past - Troubled Times Ahead

Hiding out in my writer's cave means staying in my basement office rather than moving out to work on the deck. That's something that I've done every summer on a good weather day. So far it's been too cool or rainy to enjoy any outdoor office time.

Another blast from the past!

Saskatchewan is known as the land of living skies and it's been proving that on a regular basis with gorgeous sprawling skies. On numerous inspiration finding walks, I've been enjoying the possibilities that wide open sky seems to promise as it sprawls overhead.

Today's early-morning sky.

In the meantime - Cheers to Canada's Birthday or, if 

you belong elsewhere in the world - cheers to the 

first day of a new month!

 

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

Spring Brings - Writing and Writing Awards

Summer flowers - not quite - but May is here and with that, the promise of summer is around the corner. It's a great month to receive... well, - good news.

My news? I placed in my city's writing award! That meant I had to emerge from my "writer's cave" aka "basement office" to attend the festivities just last week. Besides meeting some great people and reconnecting with others, I received a plaque and a bag of cool stuff including a  sweet little notebook that I'm not  sure I dare deface with a pen .

Prizes and awards aside - I was able to speak with other writers  including a young aspiring writer. That was conversation was incredibly  inspiring,  for it took me back to my teenage years when all I wanted to do was write but I didn't know what.  That long ago dream never left and in the years that followed, it has taken me on an interesting journey. It's a journey where the road still stretches into an unknown horizon.  I'm expecting that there will be a lot more curves in that road that may not resemble those I've already navigated. 

What I know is, writing isn't a race that you win but it is a  journey that you take your readers along on. So let the stories go on.

I'd like to say that's it for May excitement but we're only mid-way through. Who knows what might happen next.

Stay tuned - till next time!

Ryshia

Rules of the Road

In my travels both near and far, I've discovered something that is common everywhere - road craziness. There is always the person who doesn't signal, speeds etc etc.but it's the different traffic rules that can truly broadside you.  Here's a sampling of what I've experienced in my travels.

Cambodia

·  Don't assume that the cab driver with perfect English that you hired to pick you up the next day, is the cab driver you're going to get to take you cross country. 

·  Speed and the ability to understand English sometimes has an inverse reaction. The more you tell the driver to slow down, the faster he may drive.

·  Your driver's continual horn honking does not actually ensure your safety nor get other vehicles out of your way.

Canada

·  The cab driver you hire is the one you'll get.

·  Radar is common and painfully slow drivers plentiful - a rather inverse correlation.

·  Horn honking is rare but glaring and speeding up to cut you off when you signal to change lanes - common

Malaysia

"The left hand side of the road - the left, the left..." 

This from the passenger - coming from a place where cars stick to the right except to pass.

Safe Adventures

Ryshia

The Adventure Begins Today!

In the heart of the Canadian Prairies, is a road that runs straight and unpaved for miles. There are no sign posts to indicate where it leads. There’s only an abandoned stone schoolhouse, the only beacon that can be seen along a road that points straight into the horizon. I imagine that if there were time, it would be an adventure to drive this road to the end. 

And that’s exactly like the beginning of each of my stories – it’s an adventure that I drive to the end. That opening sentence, like this road, runs straight into the unknown. While I know the characters and where I want to take them, there are twists as sometimes the characters and even the villain(s) decides to lead the way. They drop what I consider surprise bombs that are encouraged by me saying “what if” over a coffee break. Those two words can change a lot. 

What is an adventure really? Not too many of us are going to climb a mountain, jump from a plane or, hopefully, run for our lives. But we can shake up our day to day lives, change up our schedule, sign up for a new sport or club or go on the occasional trip – even a local trip. We can also dive into fictional adventure. Books have been my escape since I was a kid back in the day when I road my bike to the library. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't had my share of travel adventures with hopefully, more to come. But in the gaps in between...

If you’re looking for an adventure and you’ve no plane ticket in hand - check out a book. I'll try not to suggest which one.

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

"The border means more than a customs house, a passport officer, a man with a gun. Over there everything is going to be different; life is never going to be quite the same again after your passport has been stamped."- Graham Greene