Experiences with Coffee in Doodle Form

If you're a coffee drinker then you will no doubt scoff at me and my newly found love interest in coffee based drinks. I began to feel a little strange after ordering a frothy, syrupy beverage from Starbucks and drinking it in the time it would usually take me to drink a tea. I expressed my concern to the Canadian. Everything was loud, the colours around me were brigher and my heart was pounding. He took my coffee from me and told me to sit down only to exclaim "how have you drank this much in 15 minutes?!". Apparently one should not drink espresso based drinks quickly.

Lesson learned.

Athens Tour and Taking The Time to Live

I had the opportunity to spend some time with an amazing woman I met through work. She was struggling with getting her head around manual settings on her camera. We spent some time wandering around her property, taking pictures and learning new things. Being creative has afforded me so many opportunities to make connections with fantastic people.

There were many, many pictures that I will share if I get permission (always a good idea when babies are involved). These ones, however, just really spoke to me, they summed up how I feel about Canadian fall, especially the colder, quieter end of fall. It's how I feel about Canada, generally, no matter how busy it gets over here (and it gets busy), the memories I have of my time here are always that of taking my time.

Yes, I am nearly always busy, but much of that is busy-ness that I create, that is a product of my drive, my goals and my dreams. It's not quite the same as the hectic busy that comes from requirement and necessity. Taking time to think about my time in Canada makes me realise just how lucky I am.

Beautiful Minds Inspire Others : Surrouding yourself with creative people

I am very lucky to be surrounded by some really amazing people. I've recently taken to twitter with passion! This path has introduced me to some pretty amazing people, twitter chats and websites. In fact, the online world is generally pretty amazing and I'm forever coming across some pretty epic minds and creative geniuses.

I was lucky enough to stumble across #fireworkpeople, which is a truly inspirational, fast paced twitter chat that happens on Tuesday evenings. They have an amazing twitter presence but there's also a wonderful Facebook group too. There is no describing the amazing feeling you have after leaving one of their lovely chats. In fact, the inspiration took a very material feel for me and encouraged me to create a a fancy quote card out of some watercolour stock I had.

Quote is courtesy of @ansleyvas

Another wonderful inspiration has been April Booth of Monster BD Party. I have spent the last week working closely with April and during that time I was so inspired by her drive and passion to create beautiful little monsters and animals. Watching her create custom piece for me was amazing and I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work with her and see her creative process and general awesomeness. April and her niche are awesome, she does brilliant work.


The internet has brought me together with many different types of artists and creative people that I have been able to draw advice, guidance and general support. It makes all the difference.

One day, I was searching Etsy for shops in my local area when I came across a woman, who, it turned out, had a bit of a similar accent to my own. After chatting for a while, I discovered that we had somewhat similar backgrounds and a friendship arose. Ms P is one of those people who seems constantly inspired and encouraging. I love it. She is always bouncing ideas around, encouraging growth and generally she's a pretty creative lady.

Krista, my all time favourite potter, has inspired me to keep plugging away and just creating because that's what I like to do - so I should just do it. Her work and her craftmanship is amazing but, even more so, her ability to teach and inspire others is fantastic. I had the pleasure of meeting Krista through my day job. There's no way you can be around this lady and not feel tingly optimistic and excited about life and following your own path.

I always read that you're supposed to surround yourself with like minded people and that creating your own mini community of positive and inspiring folk leads to a bigger feeling of fulfilment. I always thought it was rubbish. However, as time has passed I'm continually amazed at just how true that is. Creative people are the best and my life is so much richer with them in it.

What do you look for in your own personal community? Do you look for creativity, warmth, sarcasm or something else?

Golden Retriever Love

This is Buddy.

He's a five year old Golden Retriever and he's a delight.

His family gave him up for adoption because too much was going on in their life and they just couldn't give him the time that he needed.

Here's a little about my companion of 3 months:

Buddy: Golden Retriever

- bilingual -

- reliable, slightly anxious, likes to sleep, enjoys playing with cats -

Likes: 

 sniffing everything

doing spinning jumps when you come home from work

running down the street to smell all flower beds after escaping from my owner

being brushed

dinner time

ear pets

tummy rubs

being splashed by the hose

when the male human plays with me (not so sure about the female one)

cuddles with the female human

sleeping on cold floors

peanut butter, hot dogs, cats, squirrels, turquoise rugs

Dislikes:

being on a lead

being trained

being left alone

hissy cats

the crate

when the cats get attention and I do not

my paws being cleaned

playing fetch more than 3 throws

squirrels being in the garden

people coming onto the driveway

change - visitors/routine

carrots, halti-collars

This dog is the best and, also, one of the most challenging 'projects' I've ever taken on. On the one hand, he's super affectionate, incredibly smart and laid back enough for the lifestyle we lead, on the other, he's not all that smart when it comes to, you know, life choices. 

The other day, he made a bad life choice and ate something that was not dog friendly. It was during this panic about his wellbeing and considering getting him to a vet that I realised that there have been few times when I have cared so much about an animal. For the most part, whenever our cats have been ill, they've known how to deal with it themselves, which I'm grateful for because when a cat has heatstroke it's scary - all those noises and shakiness! When Buddy gets sick...well he's just not very cat like. It was at that moment that I realised that three months into living with this ginger monstrosity, I'd kind of fallen in love. His eagerness to learn, love and just hang out with us is amazing. Sometimes I don't even want to hang out with us; we can be pretty boring peeps but Buddy doesn't seem to care. He's so not perfect and we've had a few issues but I think adopting Buddy will be one of the best things we ever did. The house has never been cleaner (less edible temptations for him), calmer and more homely.

I would happily chill with him in the front room all day.

* Buddy is now doing better, he actually wasn't unwell, just being ridiculous because he has a rather ridiculous owner who panicked.

** We wanted to change his name to George (doesn't he look like a George?) but we decided against it. After all, there are so many other training points that need to take priority.

***It distresses me that the dog is bilingual, sometimes I feel like he's overqualified to be my pet.

The Canadian

The Canadian does not do technology. Well, he does. But he dislikes using it for recreational purposes. He doesn't own a cellphone, his Facebook is not maintained and do not even get me started on his thoughts on Twitter.

I am very lucky that he often allows me to use him as my guinea pig for new photography techniques. For someone who hates technology, he spends a lot of his time with a camera in his face. I am grateful.


This is one of the first pictures I took with my DSLR, it was pretty rubbish colour wise. Recently though, I've been playing with B&W. When I came across this one again, I thought it silly to pass up the opportunity to try and make it look decent. I quite like the end result (minus the noise). What do you think?

Today...

Today... is 11th September.

I wrote a long essay about the lessons I've learnt from 12 years of 9/11 remembrance and the impact it had on my life. But, I didn't publish it because today is not about me.

It's not about politics or the impact that it had on different countries, groups of people or the economy. It's not about the historical importance, the terrorist intent, reasoning or any of those other jigsaw pieces that made up the entire event.

It's about the people who lost their lives on, or as a result of, that day. It's about the families that came home to a lone message on their answering machine, the last one that they'd ever receive from their loved one, or, worse, the ones who came home to nothing and heard nothing, it's about the families all over the world that have seen losses because of the wars that occurred because of this day, it's about the pain and anguish caused and the power of individuals to pull themselves back up and keep going.

Love and compassion mean so much more than hatred and destruction. So, today, I am going to quietly remember and focus on the great acts of love and kindness that were byproducts of that event (the individuals who have demonstrated their love through great acts of kindness) rather than the hate that brought the event about. And, I am going to ensure that I take great care to really appreciate my loved ones today.

Prescott, Ontario in Pictures

Top row: (1) Molly in the new house, (2) hardwood (!) floors, (3) Kitty #2, (4) Pandora charm to represent 'new home', (5) Picnic on the St Lawrence, (6) Temporary wedding ring holder while we clean the house, (7) Hot chocolate date, (8) empty rooms, (9) Christmas, (10) Autumn, (11) Winter just before being stranded at the airport, (12) $5 chairs, (13) focusing on the small decorations, (14) Remembrance Day, (15) Playing chess and drinking G+Ts, (16) Discovering tortoise on abandoned roads.

We have been in Ontario for an entire year! (well, just over). Toward the end of 2012, we decided to purchase and live in Prescott, Ontario. A tiny town situated on the St. Lawrence river, across from the equally quaint town of Ogdensberg, NY. Small town living took some getting used to, as neither of us had experienced it prior to this.

However, it has been such an exciting experience and we have done so much. Living in a small town, although not always as idyllic as we had (naively) hoped, has provided us the leisure to enjoy each others company, to be away from The Canadian's job and to develop our relationship, setting the foundation for our growth individually and as a couple. It's just small changes, like developing a garden, planning to decorate, filling in the big gaping pool in our back garden and just generally making plans and enjoying each others' company, but to us they are precious.

Source unknown (oops!)

A Little Background on Me

The about me section is somewhat sparse, purposely. If you know me at all, you will know that I have a tendency to waffle on, and, sometimes, less is more. If you really wanted to know more about me, you would read this, and since you are reading it I am going to take liberties and presume that you don't mind a bit of waffle. Amitrite? Excellent, waffles are fun and so am I (kind of).

So...questions, questions...

I always get asked why I moved to a small town. Well, the answer is that my partner is one of those Canadian Forces peeps, in that he kinda gets around, goes places, does stuff and, on occasion, his employer tells him he has to move cities. Cities that are 3,000km away. You see, I didn't always live in this town, I lived in Edmonton, Alberta, first. Land of meat, mainly cow, sometimes elk, sometimes caribou. We moved to Ontario in August of 2012, and it has been marvellous.

The next question is: Why did you move here, to Canada, I mean? I moved here because I fell in love. Sickening, cringeworthy, headover heels, in love. I don't like to talk about it too much, because I take it as a given that people would know that I kinda like The Canadian, but, ya never know. He's pretty cool. He's alright. He'll do. Who'm I kidding? I kinda like him a lot ;)

This is closely followed by: Do you like it here? This one makes me laugh, because I fast learnt that 'no' is not an appropriate answer. Then I learnt that I no longer felt like 'no' was a truthful answer, although at one point I would have given anything to go back to England; the culture shock was intense. However, I think that Edmonton didn't help, what with its very cold winters and spread out city. I like compact, I like old, I like trees and walking trails, and nearby cities that are easy to enjoy. Edmonton, for me, didn't fulfil that, although toward the end of living there, I was finding some pretty enjoyable places (centre of Alberta, anyone?). I love Ontario, and I love Canada now. So much so, that perhaps I could be persuaded to say that it is 'home', but let's not jump too far ahead yet!

Do these answer the basic questions? These tend to be the ones that come up the most when I first meet people here, so that's that. 

This is a lake!

Just for fun here are 10 extras about me:

1. My hair is uncontrollable, seriously. It takes big and beautiful to a whole new level of Diana-Ross. It's always changing lengths.
2. My favourite colour is red.
3. I watch TV shows in the background as I work.
4. I did a partial postgrad toward using therapy skills with clients then moved countries, did some more mental health work and then decided mental health work was not for me. BIG turning point for me.
5. Mad skill: organising. Not so great skill: staying on top of said organisation - I need a organisation maintenance fairy.
6. Geek describes me fully. I am so geeky, but I'm learning to own it! Back to Final Fantasy I go. 
7. I am not a big tea drinker, but get me back to my British friends and I could drink 6 cups in 4 hours. I'm not sure if that says more about me or my friends.
8. I was kinda boring at university, if I could do it again though, I'd probably do more or less the same, just without the guilt attached. Turns out I like a quiet life.
9. Mixed up things: it's a big part of my identity. I love my identity, my heritage and my culture.
10. Taking pictures is fun. I love it! But I really wouldn't ever do it professionally. I think that would take away some of the fun for me.
11. (ok, so I slipped in an 11th one) I enjoy playing with photoshop, I haven't developed a style for pictures yet, but it blows my mind that photoshop is filled with possibilities, so while I explore that, there will be all sorts of photographs floating around on here.

What is The Lemon Hive?

What is the Lemon Hive?

A blog based on creativity, development and inspiration. We am so excited to launch this blog and share our personal creative ventures and ideas with you.

If there's one thing we're passionate about here, at The Lemon Hive, it's development and improvement; whether it be the way your world looks, to the way you feel about yourself, we strive to make experiences better.

This is an exciting venture, one that we are eager to share with you, through a series of inspiration, our store and DIY blog posts.

Come along and enjoy the journey with us.