Another Weekend Rolls Around

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday it was a beautiful, bright sunny day.  Today it is very dull, overcast and raining.  Apparently it is the calm before the coming storm.  Our summer is pretty much over but it was a good one. Soon I hope to have some good Fall photos to share.

As I mentioned the other day, the transition to Fall is always a very busy time here and this year is no exception.  I didn't do much quilting for the last week as I'm feeling too tired.  Instead I concentrated on rest, reading and enjoying connecting with friends.

Yesterday I combined a bit of food shopping with coffee schmoozing.  I hadn't planned on shopping but there were some good deals on beef.  That doesn't seem to happen very often these days so I bought some steaks and a roast to divide into several meal portions.

I was also able to get together with a dear old friend who is a year older than my mother.  Though my friend is now completely white haired, she is still as vibrant and joyful as ever. I don't get to see her very often.  She and her husband have always led a very busy life with a lot of travel so I am lucky to catch her from time to time.  I have to say though that she makes much more of an effort to stay in touch than a lot of people do these days so that is very commendable given her busy lifestyle.  It was nice to catch up and perhaps we'll get together again after her next trip to eastern Canada.

I also finished reading this book which I've been looking forward to reading for some time.  

It didn't take too long but I read it a bit slowly.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I put it on hold at the library. I purchased another book on the Dead Sea Scrolls by the same author who is a scholar at a Canadian university.  I first heard him being interviewed on a Christian television program one day and found him very interesting.  So I immediately began searching out some of his books.

This particular book intrigued me because of the preponderance of sensational claims being made these days about Jesus of Nazareth. This book promised a glimpse into the life during the time of Jesus.  More than that it promised to be based on scholarly research and evidence, not just claims based on conjecture.

I learned about what Nazareth was like; whether Jesus could have been a cynic; whether synagogues were around in Jesus day; whether people were literate in Jesus' day and whether Jesus himself was able to read and write; and burial practices and whether Jesus was buried. There were also a few appendices which provided more information on what Jesus might have looked like and whether Jesus' tomb has actually been discovered.  Last, but not least, the book concluded with a reading list for people interested in scholarly works based on archaeological findings, and with an extensive list of the source materials which formed the basis for the conclusions in the book.

This book is quite short.  If you are interested in Biblical stories and their relationship to archeological findings, I highly recommend you add this book to your reading list.

Well, it is also Friday today.  Whenever the weekend rolls around, I find myself thinking about my sponsored children and what I should write to them or send to them.  I have sponsored children in 3 African countries and today I was prompted to write to my sponsored kids who live in Zambia.  I've written them twice already and so far they don't seem to have received either of my letters.  It is a bit frustrating but certainly isn't their fault.  Anyone familiar with the postal system in developing countries knows that sometimes the mail doesn't get to the intended recipients.  I do hope the children receive these latest letters.  I can only imagine how exciting it will be to receive letters from across the globe!  I too will be excited to receive their letters some day.

My sponsored child in Ethiopia is now finished with his program and is on his own. I will no longer have any contact with him. The Compassion office sent me a notice that I could write to him one more time and that they would make sure my letter got to him.  They also sent me a new child in Ethiopia to whom I could write.  The new child is only three years old.  I've never written to anyone that young before so it will be a bit of a challenge.  It will be fun to watch him grow over the years of our correspondence.

Today is also when I participate in the weekly Skywatch Friday meme,so I leave you with a few sky photos.

The first photo is of the last moments of a sunset I saw while on a recent evening walk.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me and my camera phone doesn't take great distance photos.  While I fiddled to figure out how to zoom in (I still don't know how), the sun had almost fully set.  The colour of the sky was much better than  my camera phone was able to capture.  I'm sorry for that.  I'm glad I was able to enjoy it even if I wasn't able to capture it for you.

I like this next evening photo because the sky is bright enough that you can see all the electric wires overhead.  These are the wires that conduct the electricity on which some of our city buses still run though all the new buses are diesel operated.

Last but not least, I am sharing a photo of my container garden.  The gardening season is pretty much over here so this red pop of colour brings me some cheer. Look at all the rain drops on the petals!

Skywatch Friday