SNAP THAT

Those of you who have followed my blog for a long time know that I make a good effort to live frugally and find a bargain for virtually everything. In this new year I am experimenting with going farther afield (on public transit) to buy good quality food rather than just my local grocer.  Last week I shopped at a place called Young Bros. Produce which is across town on the way to the University of British Columbia. It was recommended by a neighbour in one our hallway chats.  As it happens I have shopped here a few times before but it's been many years since I was last there and I did not know the store by name. The photo below will show my produce haul.  It cost $24 Canadian   ($18 US, $27.50 Australian, 16.80 € , 2026 Japanese Yen and 1840 Kenyan shillings).  I found the prices to be quite low compared to most other places in the city and the produce is fresh. All of this produce would cost two or two and half times more if I bought it at my local grocer.  The downsides are

We've broken records for rainfall in 2020 and I haven't felt much like taking photos.  When we get a few days of sunshine like we have over the past several days, it is a pure joy. There were multiple signs of spring on a recent outing.  I don't think I've ever noticed these pussy willows in previous years. I hurriedly snapped a few photos with my phone's camera of both the pussy willows and the croci. Croci coming up Indoors I'm babying these small Fiddle Leaf Fig plants purchased in December.  I've managed to keep them alive through the cold winter months and they will be ready to be repotted in a few weeks time. Two new leaves have come out since mid-December (the small ones at the top). When I purchased the two plants this one in the top photo didn't look like it would survive.  The large leaf at the top had some holes in it. I'm not sure what causes the problem but it doesn't seem to have gotten any worse.

Hi friends, Time is flying by. I'm glad to see the backside of January and say 'welcome' February. January ushered in the New Year quite rudely in my life with sickness (a lingering cold and a weird skin infection for which I've gone to the doctor and a specialist), my nephew's near death accident, a compromised credit card (usual process of investigation is ongoing and I have received my new card), very stormy weather in Canada and in my province with road closures due to heavy snowstorms (highways were closed more than once), record rainfall with accompanying landslides and other destruction (one parking lot crumbled behind a restaurant not too far from me and now the powers that be have decided to shut the restaurant down due to the uncertainty of land stability), the onset of the worldwide global health crisis (my province has tested 114 people and confirmed one case of the coronavirus; Canada has 4 cases overall with 3 in Ontario).  I thank God that through i