It was a lovely sunny September Monday .. and DH surprised me with a flight on my Birthday!  What a fun way to spend the day.  While he was preparing the plane and doing all the necessary things that need to be done on a pre-flight inspection, I was able to just wander around, looking up at the sky and then down at the ground.  Interesting things to see everywhere.

Here is one of those lovely little periwinkle blue flowers .. don’t know the name, but they are everywhere and are just so pretty.And the versatile and under-appreciated dandelion!  Good for medicinal purposes,  dying fabric, culinary and, again, just plain pretty.  Remember putting a dandelion beneath someone’s chin, as a child, to see if it reflects and if it does, you like butter?

One of the potted plants at Dakota Cafe, I’d planted this one a year ago, now it has spread, is still velvety soft and there are dainty yellow flowers gracefully growing throughout.  I will propagate this beauty.  Hardy succulents are perfect for the hot summers and don’t need much care at all.  

Anyway, up up and away and soon we approached the Qualicum Airport.  

Qualicum is a lovely airport, it has a terrific restaurant with delicious food, friendly staff.  And the location makes it easy for a little walk to town – we’ve done that a few times.   There are always interesting planes visiting there and we do get a chance to chat with a variety of pilots.

After lunch, time to head back to Victoria … I like these chairs, casually arranged on the other side of the runway, behind the fence.   There is a trail over there and I can just imagine people taking a break, relaxing and watching the planes arrive and depart.

Here is a racetrack up by Duncan, looks like fun and a great track.  

All too soon .. we are back to Victoria ….I love flying and the toughest part is landing when I would really prefer to be up in the air!

I indulged in a fair bit of sky watching .. these formations look like Greyhounds, bounding through the skies!

This reminds me of an ice-cream sundae  .. yum, yum!  Or perhaps peas in a pod?

Such a variety of skies yesterday.. and they were always happy skies ….at one point, I watched a pair of Turkey Vultures, calmly, majestically following gentle thermals that wafted through the skies … I didn’t try to take any photos, they would only have looked like little dots in the sky.  So I just enjoyed their beautiful flying.

So, thoughts on my birthday.  I always feel as if each one is the start of a fresh new year for me.  Just like New Years Day.

I’m infinitely grateful and in my heart I always give thanks to my Mother for giving me this life.

No matter my age, I consistently feel like a kid .. always looking forward to whatever life offers to me and it offers quite a lot.

I am grateful for my many and varied interests and happy that I can get quite enthused about so many things.

Sometimes I make promises that I don’t keep but they are fun to make and always give me a sense of purpose.

Promises like:

• I will do some housework every day
• I will clear up my desk (yet again)
• I will try to go to bed earlier so I can get up earlier so I can do more things .. sigh
• I will watch  my diet better (oh, yeah!)
• I will finish some projects begun a long time ago

Things like that.  I feel extremely virtuous when I strive to fulfill these promises and when I do keep some of them, well, that is like the icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake, my DH surprised with a delicious chocolate birthday cake, complete with flowers and my name and sang me Happy Birthday .. a complete surprise!

I am so very lucky!

Anyway, just a few reasons why I like birthdays so much.

And on with this day!