SNAP THAT

I live in Vancouver and we generally get lots and lots of rain over the winter. We get very little snow. This year is very different. I heard it is due to El Nina. While I was away in Kenya in November, a Vancouver friend told me that snow had fallen shortly after I departed on my journey.  I think it was November 17th or thereabouts. That is extremely early snowfall for us in Vancouver.  The snow didn't last but it has snowed several times throughout the winter. Of course this is unusual too. I was out this past Friday for a walk and we had another fantastic snowfall which I was able to capture as I had my digital camera with me.  You can't really tell from but there was quite a bit of snow on the ground after snowing for several hours.  We are expecting more snow this week. I heard on the news that the local ski slopes will have great skiing well into April. I don't ski so that doesn't thrill me but I know it makes skiers happy and if the snow remains on the

Today was a bit of a lazy day. With the cold weather and snow we've been having, I'm finding myself cold, even indoors and not up to doing a whole lot.  I'm only just over my cold but not back to normal routines and I have a busy week ahead. I did some relaxing and a little laundry, tried to read my book, The Girl With a Pearl Earring and watched the Oscars with one eye though I missed all the key award presentations, lol. I got busy making a lentil concoction and some bread for dinner, as well as some blueberry muffins for breakfast. This pot is filled with about 3 cups of lentils and twice the water and some sea salt.  Once this mixture boiled and the lentils were softening, I  added: one peeled and chopped sweet potato, several leaves of chopped kale, 6 chopped roma tomatoes, one half of a large red onion (chopped) and a big spoon of aged miso (probably about 4 tbsp.) for flavouring.  I cooked this all down until the water was all evaporated and the lentils were n

Thank you to those of you who have been following my Kenya series and who have taken the time to comment. I've been enjoying presenting the information about Kenya as much as people seem to enjoy viewing the photos and hearing about the different sights and scenes.  At the bottom of this post you will find links to the other posts in this series on Kenya. Today I have a real treat. I will be featuring the Nakuru National Park.  It will actually take me several posts to share with you everything I want to show you about this wonderful park.  It is particularly poignant for me to share this post now for I just learned that a huge fire broke out on Wednesday evening at the Lake Nakuru National Park and that it is not so easy to put out. In fact, I don't know whether it has been put out yet.  I am writing this post on Friday so I'm hoping the fire will be completely extinguished when it is posted on Saturday. Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner Osman Warfa said the infern

O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:9 (NASB) Click here to see wonderful sky photos from all around the world.

When I get a craving for something sweet I used to go out and buy chocolate bars and be tempted to get other fattening and sweet items at the same time. These days I'm trying to fill any cravings with made from scratch foods. In addition to the diabetic friendly chocolate chip cookies I made here , I've found this super easy raisin and oatmeal cookies. I hope you like them. Recipe Ingredients:  1/2 cup packed light brown sugar (OR 1/4 cup SPLENDA Brown Sugar Blend)  1/4 cup margarine, softened   1 egg plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten   1 tablespoon thawed frozen apple juice concentrate  1 teaspoon vanilla   1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour   2 teaspoons baking soda   1/4 teaspoon salt   1 1/2 cups uncooked quick oats 1/2 cup raisins Recipe Instructions: Preheat oven to 350'F. Lightly coat cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Set it aside. Beat sugar and margarine in large bowl. Add egg, egg white, apple juice concentrate, and vanilla; mix ingredien

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Thank you to my newest follower Clavs. What an interesting user name. I do hope you will enjoy the blog and that I will see you again soon :-) I started this little project a week ago (over two weekends..... I thought it was fairly close to finished when I featured the above photo on Wednesday. See post here . It turns out there was still a fair bit of finishing to do. I didn't take photos of each stage of the process but there was the need to add to each sleeve as well as add a few rows of edgings about the neck and front. After sleeves were added. Then came the buttons and the ribbon.  Whew, I'm glad that little "baby" is done. Here is what it looks like. After edgings, ribbons and buttons were added.  A few close ups are added below. Sorry about the exposure on this one.   I also made this bonnet but I know I didn't make it right. Somewhere along the line I couldn't make sense of the pattern so I made the rest of it up. It didn'