Making Slow Progress

The week has flown by! My time has been spent dealing with the missions in Kenya and following up on Jonah's care and stay in hospital. If all goes well he should be released on Friday, Kenyan time.  Thank you to all who prayed for his recovery.

I made a bit of progress reading my latest book by Dr. Don Colbert.

Book #52

I was interrupted at the coffee shop when I went there to read the book of short stories, Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie. A fellow patron who happens to own a used book store nearby started chatting and wanted to know more about the author.  I told him what I know, which isn't a lot and we briefly discussed another of my recent reads, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Then he went on his way and I had to dash to other errands.

Book #53

 ~~~~~~

I've made only a bit of progress on making granny squares. I like how they look so far though after I'm finished making squares and joining them there will be a lot of loose ends to weave in. This part can be quite time consuming.

The rest of the week I've been busy with errands and shopping for a few Christmas presents.  I 'm almost set now. I just have to finalize something for a niece and nephew. I also had to buy some tissue paper which I like to use to wrap around gifts before I stuff them in Christmas bags or wrap them in paper.  Wrapping presents seems to take longer than actually looking for and getting or making the gifts, lol. Tuesday and Wednesday I wrote out most of my Christmas cards and posted the international ones. My Christmas card list is limited to 20 cards this year whereas in some years it has been more like 60.

I was invited to an all day Christmas event on Saturday but have decided to stay home and rest.  I'm also hoping to get organized for the week ahead, do some crochet and hopefully some reading.  Right now I really don't have the desire to make nice with a room full of strangers so it suits me to stay home. I love to meet people but I have to be in the right frame of mind and well rested, otherwise being in a room full of strangers (minus my friend) is a lot of effort if you don't want to stand around looking like an awkward bump on a log.

~~~~~~~

 It's been raining here and sometimes cold. Last night I found it quite warm which was a pleasant surprise.
 At this time of year it is usually raining and warmer or not raining and cold. It is not usually clear and warm.
Given the overcast conditions here right now I'm sharing sky and critter photos from my archives.

~~~~~~~

The first set of photos with pink flamingos were taken at Lake Nakuru Provincial Park in Kenya.

Here is a view of the sky from my balcony taken on a clear day about 5 days ago.
You can see a bird flying in the sky. I think it was a crow. It's a bit hard to tell from the photo.

These small, colourful bird photos were taken at the Bloedel Conservatory in Vancouver. The conservatory has a lot of exotic birds which are always a treat for me to see though perhaps more common depending where you live.

Gouldian Finch at Vancouver's Bloedel Conservatory

 

Strawberry Finch at Vancouver's Bloedel Conservatory

I'm looking forward to the weekend. 

I wish all of you a wonderful weekend.
Thank you for stopping by!

~~~~~

Linking with

Skywatch Friday

Friday Foto Friends

Saturday's Critters

Pastel Sky & Few Critters

I was fortunate to be able to capture some beautiful colour in the sky earlier this week. 

The first three photos were taken from my home.

The photo below was taken on the highway between the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia in the Rocky Mountains during one of my travels to northern Alberta.

The next few photos were taken on my balcony on a hot summer day.

I discovered a beetle which at first I thought was dead in the bird bath.

But upon closer inspection it was alive.

Do you see what appears to be an air bubble over it's head (3rd photo in the beetle series).

I emptied the bird bath into the garden as it needed refreshing and the beetle was able to recover.

This little exotic bird and flowers were photographed at the Bloedel Conservatory.

I'm afraid I can no longer recall the names of either but some of you might know.

If you do know could you leave a comment with your knowledge?

I'm linking up with

Friday Foto Friends

Skywatch Friday

and

Saturday's Critters

Thanks for visiting!
Have an awesome weekend.

Beauty of Birds

"Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

*You can click all photos to enlarge for better viewing.*

Beautiful macaws

Beautiful orchids & a finch. Can you spot it?

Beautiful little finches

Joining in with Saturday's Critters.

Thank you to Eileen for hosting this meme.
I'll also be linking up
Judith for Mosaic Monday.

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend!

Two Parrots & A Cockatoo

I  am finally getting around to sharing a few more photos of the beautiful birds I photographed this summer. 

I will be joining in with host, Eileen at Saturday's Critters.

Thank you Eileen for managing this wonderful meme.

 If
you missed my Skywatch post & brief update on medical missions in Kenya, you can find it by clicking here.

Bloedel Conservatory located in Vancouver's beautiful Queen Elizabeth Park & home to the birds.

Casey, the Amazon Parrot

Kramer, the Moluccan Cockatoo

Moluccans are the largest of the cockatoo family and are extremely intelligent. I've read that Kramer loves peppermint tea, baseball hats, and is a very good dancer.  Sometimes he swings upside-down from his perch and puts on a show.  I was fortunate enough to see him put on a show when I visited though.  He was quite cooperative in posing for photos for me and only put the show on when he had an audience. Kramer has a large vocabulary and says things like "What is that?", "I' m a bird.", and "Let's party" among other things.

Rudy, African Grey Parrot

Rudy is an African Grey Parrot and is about 17 years old.  It is said that these parrots are loving and playful and bring joy and laughter into the lives of all who have the pleasure of knowing one. They are very intelligent birds and are considered to be the “Einstein’s” of the parrot world because of their incredible talking ability. African Greys are considered to be among the most intelligent of all birds, ranking alongside dolphins and chimpanzees for their ability to associate human words with meanings, shapes and colours.  While I was there Rudy was quite quiet and looked like he was trying to catch up on some sleep.  No doubt he gets tired of all the people that watch him every day

Saturday's Critters

The following beauties were all photographed at Vancouver's Bloedel Conservatory last week.

The conservatory contains three habitats: tropical rainforest, subtropical rainforest, and desert. Over 200 birds of various species reside within the dome and are allowed to fly free.

I love the deep, rich colours in these plants.

 

The Bloedel Floral Conservatory houses about 500 species and varieties of plants from deep jungle to desert clime, all within the dome. The conservatory is home to Bougainvilleas and Browallias, citrus and coffee trees, Eucalypti and epiphytes, Euphorbia and various figs, Gardenia and Hibiscus. Magnolia trees share space with delicate lilies, yucca with pteris (ferns).

Perhaps you can just make out the waterfall beyond the palm fronds.

Also on display are an array of tropical fish. 

Koi Fish Pond

If you missed my post about the macaws and cockatoo at the Conservatory, you might want to have a look here.

Today I'm joining in with host Eileen at Saturday's Critters.

Saturday's Critters

Hello friends,

I'm joining up with Eileen at Saturday's Critters today. Stop by and see all the other fabulous creatures featured there. Have a wonderful Saturday!

This is a resident Salmon Crested Cockatoo at the Bloedel Conservatory located in the Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.

Entrance to the Blodel Conservatory

A cockatoo is a type of parrot. See the distribution of the cockatoo in the image below.

Image credit:  Wikipedia

As you can see in the first photo, the cockatoo was at rest and  and very placid. I got several photos of him staring at me intently.

A few minutes later he was squawking loudly and putting on quite the show.

 I think he enjoyed an audience of more than one. Either that or one of the children agitated him.

In any case, it was fun to see the bird in action. I wasn't quick enough to capture it hanging upside down on the branches with feathers puffed out.