First Snow that "Stuck" & Health Care Worker Needs

 Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

Here are a few photos of what the scene looked like off my balcony on Tuesday morning. It snowed all night Monday and this time it stuck around a bit longer. I took these photos just after 6 a.m.  Yesterday when I went out to do some grocery shopping, I noticed that most of the snow had melted but some still remains on my patio in areas where the sun doesn't reach. Snowing so early in the season is highly unusual. I guess the last time that happened was in 1991.

Almost all of Canada is suffering a great shortage of staff in many sectors. Canada's Immigration Minister and the Government of Canada has released it's figures for immigrant or newcomer admission targets for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Altogether newcomers will total  almost 1.5 million people.  Skilled labour in the health care and construction fields have been identified as priorities. 

On the news the other day this graphic was shared about the projected needs for health care workers over the next 10 years.  These projections are just for the province where I live.  The needs for the rest of the provinces and territories in the country are just as great. If the government plans to attract more foreign workers something needs to be done quickly to address the very real housing shortage and it's related issue of affordability.

In pleasurable pursuits I said earlier that my reading goals this year would be modest and they were. I decided I'd aim for 1 book a month knowing I might read more some months and nothing in other months. As it turned out I did reduce my reading as planned but I still read far more than I intended. To date I've read 43 books and almost 16,000 pages. I'm sure I won't make 20,000 pages before the end of the year. Even though I've got another 7-8 books in my reading pile I may not be able to complete all of them. 

I had hoped to cut down on reading and spend more time on crafting and sewing this year. That didn't happen because of decluttering and small household projects that took more time than I thought they would. But I did manage to complete several alterations on various trousers for DH.

In the photos I'm showing preparations involved in lengthening the pockets on a pair of DHs trousers.  When I compared pocket length in various of his  trousers these ones were shorter by about 4 inches. That's a lot. 

I didn't have the right fabric in my stash so I 'made do' with some light cotton fabric. After cutting the shape and sewing the seams, I attached the new piece to the bottom of the original pockets. Those of you who are sewists know this isn't as quick as it sounds. The challenge I have is none of my machines are as able as mom's old Singer treadle machine to sew through several layers of fabric as in the side seams of trousers and jeans.  But I did the job and I'm happy it's done.  The other project was tapering the legs on a new pair of jeans and hemming them. DH has worn the jeans a lot since then. Next up, I have several pair of pants of my own to hem and I'd like to shorten a linen tablecloth I bought a few months ago.   I still have a lot of household stuff to deal with and I think I'd be more able to focus on sewing once these other things are out of the way.

I know some people are already putting up their Christmas trees. I don't plan on setting up mine until some time in December, usually about half way through the month. However I've been buying a few gifts here and there whenever I see something I like.  I can spread the Christmas spending over a longer period of time that way. Earlier this week I was able to wrap gifts for 2 people on my list. The task was made easier by buying some Christmas fabric bags from the Dollar Tree. They are quite cute and made the job a lot quicker. I think I need to get a few more of the bags for the other Christmas gifts I want to give. 

What about you dear reader?  Are you experiencing health care worker shortages where you live? What is your government doing about it if anything? Have you read any good books lately? Are you working on anything creative or have plans to sew anything for Christmas gifts?

This and That

 Hi friends,

It's been a busy week and I've been fighting a cold. It is something I fight every year in October when the weather transitions from warm autumn to cooler autumn. It's a bummer but it is what it is.

This October I have been busy decluttering and I've written about it in this space from time to time, not just in October but over the past long while. Some weeks and months I do much more in terms of decluttering than other weeks and months.  This  month the kitchen seems to be getting a lot of attention and so far I've gotten rid of many items from my small cupboards.  Metal bake ware, plastics and Tupperware which are long past their prime and lots and lots of glass jars, plastic and metal coffee containers, papers, cardboard and so on have been recycled.  I also got rid of lots of small items from the bathroom and many items from the closet, dresser drawers and shoes I no longer fit or need, have been given away. Several items were taken to the storage unit in the building and one standing fan had to be taken to the recycling center. I also have 2 large metal patio chairs which are past their better days. If they fit in the car they too can go to the recycling center.  Otherwise I'm not sure when I can take them.

In between decluttering jobs, I clean the cobwebs from the corners. Literally.  I did this less than 6 months ago but the cobwebs seem to accumulate very quickly as does the dust. I've been trying to keep on top of it all.  There is still a lot to recycle and to get rid of but I'm starting to see a real difference in the spaces in my home. I will keep at it and when I am all done with the tasks I will see what I can do to free up actual floor space.  I am not aiming for a minimalist home as such. But I am aiming to pare down the items I use and keep only what I actually use.  I intend to keep doing my hobbies too and hobbies tend to take up a lot of space.  I am trying to find a happy balance for daily living and for hobbies, some of which may be more sporadic.

I'm still doing Flylady routines almost every day.  It seems to help everything run more smoothly even though I haven't implemented the full Flylady system. Once I get started on doing things and cleaning things I just keep on going.  It means much more is getting done every week.

The weather here has been beautifully sunny this past week with the exception of Friday when it poured rain.  But it has also been very cold. I took some garden photos on Saturday. I'm sharing what might be the last of my garden photos for this year.

 

It has now been about 2 months since I did any work in the garden so I'm amazed at how well the plants have done though many of them are way past their prime.  This week I noticed that the pansies and the petunias are pretty much done. I think it was simply too cold for them as our temperatures went down to 4 at night. The geraniums are still producing a lot of new blooms but I'm not sure how long that will continue. 

Something was eating the leaves in  my garden this year but they didn't touch the leaves of most of the flowers. This is the first time I've had this happen and I'm not certain whether it is pests, rodents, or my neighbour's cat.

 

In any case, I am hoping that I will put the garden to rest by the end of October and wash and cover the patio chair cushions. I don't have storage for the patio things but I do try to keep the cushions out of the rain over the winter and I move the table umbrella and the table and chairs so they are no so directly impacted by the winter elements. As a side note, I read that the Farmer's Almanac forecast is for a mild November and a very cold winter.  The other day, our local meteorologist said that this year we are experiencing La Niña.  La Niña refers to the periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific and is the colder counterpart of El Niño.

The Black Eyed Susans have now lost all their yellow petals.

But the zinnias have new buds! I can't believe it. But they were very late to bloom this year and maybe they are confused.  The photo shows evidence of my neglect of the garden over the past 2 months since summer ended.

When it gets cold outside I usually start baking.  I saw this cinnamon loaf at Mari's Blog called My Little Corner of the World.  Check it out if you like cinnamon and sweets. I misread the recipe and ended up making two loaves but I only put frosting on one of them.  After trying both, I think it is better with frosting.  Overall though, the recipe is to sweet for me and I have to be careful about that due to blood sugar issues.

On Friday I went to the hospital to have a colonoscopy. I had one just under a year ago but the doctor couldn't find the one small cyst she thought she saw during that exam so I had to return in 6 months.  The follow up appointment was delayed due to Covid 19 and I also put off the appointment as long as I could.  But I had to get it over with or forfeit my spot in the GI follow up care and Friday was the day.  This time the doctor had a good look around she discovered I didn't have a cyst after all.  What she saw last time was actually a part of the colon itself. That was good news. 

She did find something, but it wasn't quite a cyst. I'm not sure what it is called but she said they are common and are often left intact. I suggested she cut it out anyway and she agreed. It will be biopsied as per the usual practice. 

The good news is I don't need to have another procedure for 5 years and I'm very happy about that.  Not only do I dislike the preparation but I get very nervous about the procedure itself. They sedate me but I am wide awake as per my preference. Due to the light sedation I didn't even need 10 minute recovery afterward.  They let me go but not before making sure my ride was there as stated.  I took a few photos but haven't posted any with people due to privacy issues.

Photo of the nursing station

Photo of the recovery room before they start bringing the patients in for recovery.

We had snow in the north and at higher elevations (none in the city) for the past two weekends. The record snowfall  created havoc on the highways and some serious accidents as well.

 

 

 

On Saturday we also had a provincial election. I voted by mail in ballot along with almost 700,000 other people.  Approximately 500,000 people returned their mail in ballots on time to be counted but the counting doesn't start until November 2nd.  Even without the mail in ballots, the election was handily won by our incumbent Premier John Horgan.  He now has a majority government by which to rule.  That was his goal when he took a gamble and called an election a year earlier than required. His win is historic in that it is the very first time that the New Democratic Party (NDP) has won 2 consecutive elections in the province.

 

In other big political news, the Opposition Party of Canada,  brought a "No Confidence" motion against the Prime Minister of Canada on October 21.  They wanted to create a special committee to probe the government's ethics and spending in response to the pandemic and a scandal related to the WE Charity.  Members of Parliament (MPs) voted 180-146 to defeat the opposition motion, with the NDP, Greens and Independent MPs voting with the Liberals.  It means we will not have a snap federal election this fall.

I hope things can settle down for awhile with all the politics here.  People want and stable governments to help steer the nation while we recover from the pandemic.

Thanks for reading my post today. Stay safe everyone and do what you can to stay happy and high in spirits. May you be blessed today and each day hereafter. May you and your loved ones have continued health or improving health. May you have the material things and the finances you need and last but not least, may you have the strength and confidence to handle whatever comes in your path. 

 

We've Covered a Lot of Miles

Hi friends,

I am back from my recent travels to visit elderly relatives.

We started our journey at 5 a.m. on Thursday, May 10, 2012.  About 75 minutes later we came upon the scene in the photo below.  I felt it was a symbol that we would have a nice trip.

Entering Kamloops, BC where I visit my mother.

About one hour north of Kamloops and we are well on our way up the Yellowhead Highway.

You can see the outline of our journey on the map below.  Our northward journey took us north east from Vancouver to Kamloops on Highways 1 and 5. We continued along the route shown by the upper purple coloured line which is primarily along the Yellowhead Highway. The route went through Kamloops, Barriere, Blue River, Valemont and on to Mount Robson at Jasper.  We continued through to Hinton where we stopped for dinner.  After a delicious dinner of calamari and caesar salad at L & W's, we drove on Highway 16 east to Edmonton and spent the night in St. Albert, north west of Edmonton at the St. Albert Inn which was very comfortable.  The room rate was about $117.00 Canadian.  (You can click the link in the previous line, to see the hotel rooms and amenities.)

On Friday, we drove on to a small community near Calais, Alberta, along Highways 43 and 34, where we stayed with my aunt (more about that later). If you click on the map, it will enlarge. Locate Edmonton (about the middle of the map) and move your finger/eye along the line that goes northwest until you get to Valleyview. Calais is the first stop to the west of Valleyview.

On Saturday we journeyed north along Highways 16, 43, 34 and 2, to Hines Creek, Alberta, and visited with my uncle who has recently been diagnosed with colon cancer (more about that later). From there we drove along a secondary road west to the town of Ft. St. John, BC.  There we decided to have a late lunch and skip contacting more relatives to visit.  Instead we drove south on Highways 97 and 2, through a town called Taylor and stopped in the City of Dawson Creek, BC, to visit another uncle.  We then drove back to my aunt's place along Highways 2 and 34, in northern Alberta for one more overnight stay.

Early the next morning we drove back to Edmonton, Alberta, along Highway 43.  There we visited with a third uncle who I haven't seen for about 17 years. I've been wanting to visit him because both he and his wife have suffered a lot of health challenges in recent years and they are in their late 70s so you never know what happens. After visiting for a few hours we made our way south on Highway 2, turning west at Red Deer on a secondary highway.  We made our way to Highway 93 so that we could pass through the town of Rocky Mountain House and travel back to British Columbia through the Rocky Mountains.  We connected in BC with Highway 1 and drove back to Kamloops, passing through the towns of Field, Golden, Revelstoke, Salmon Arm, Sicamous, Chase and then finally Kamloops. We visited mom for several hours and then headed home on Highways 5 and 1 back to Vancouver. I was glad to get home as the long trip over a short period of time always tires me out.

This map shows our route beginning at Kamloops but we drove to Kamloops from Vancouver. It takes about 4 hours (includes stopping for coffee/gas).

We were surprised to run into snow just before we got to the Rocky Mountains.

You can see it is snowing at the mountain top.

Snow capped mountains are always so beautiful.

We are entering the Town of Valemount. We are still in British Columbia.

The town is in a picturesque area.

Another shot of the mountains at Valemount.

Here were are nearing Mount Robson which is on the border of British Columbia and Alberta. This day it was shrouded in mist and snow.  Apparently the top of the mountain is often obscured by clouds and/or fog.

A sign tells us we are now entering Mount Robson.

Here we are passing Moose Lake in Alberta. It looks so cold.

If you are a cross-country skier there is a wonderful ski trail through the Upper Moose Lake Loop and the trail is supposed to take you through some interesting terrain with inspiring views

In fact Moose Lake is still very much frozen.

These big horn sheep were grazing on the side of the highway.

I was lucky to be able to capture an eagle flying overhead.

The photos above end in Jasper National Park. The park is one of Canada's oldest and largest national parks.  Established in 1907, Jasper was once seen as an island of civilization in a vast wilderness. More recently, it has become a popular getaway from urban life, and a special place to reconnect with nature.  There are nearly 1000 km of trails in the park, thousands of campsites, tons of wildlife and the largest Dark Sky Preserve on the planet.

Our total travel distance was  2585 miles or 3514 kilometers in 5 days (excluding time spent driving around finding the places we were to visit or doing some shopping).  I will be sharing more scenic photos from other parts of my journey in future posts. Some of them are even more spectacular than those I've shared in this first post.

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The Journey Begins - Vancouver to Hinton

Many of you will know that I recently went on a road trip to attend the funeral of my aunt. It was a very long road trip with my brother doing all the driving.  Along the way we visited an my mom, her elder brother and a sister; all of whom live in different towns and cities.  Part of my decision to go so far at this time was so that I could visit my uncle (mom's brother) since he hasn't been well for some time and he is getting on in age.

Funerals can be very sad occasions, but for me it is also a time I like because I get to see relatives I haven't seen for a very long time. In this case, my aunt had just celebrated her 81st birthday and while that is not too old, she had been unable to speak for about 20 years after having suffered multiple strokes. In the last months, cancer had taken over and she stopped eating 21 days before passing. We look upon her passing as helping her to now enjoy better health in heaven.

We kept good records of the length of our journey and we covered just over 5000 kilometres.  I'm going to be doing a series of posts about our journey so I hope you will come back and travel with me. I will try to post some factual information of the different places we pass as well.

The first photos are maps. On our way north, through the province of British Columbia we passed through the town of Kamloops and then carried on through Vavenby, Avola, Valemount and  the world famous, Rocky Mountains past Mount Robson.   We stopped at Hinton for the night.  You can click on any map or photo to enlarge.

 

Here is a map of Canada so you can situate British Columbia and Alberta. They are Canada's two most western provinces.

The first photos I took were about an hour out of Vancouver. The scenery is always spectacular with the luscious looking and plentiful trees.

There are lots of mountain tops as we pass through majestic mountains which are part of the North Cascades.  The Cascade Mountain Range spans the border between the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington.  They are predominantly non-volcanic but there are certain parts which are volcanic like Mount Baker, Glacier Peak and Coquihalla Mountain. 
Officially these mountains are called the Cascade Mountains in Canada.

We are travelling northeast on on Highway 1.  This highway originates on Vancouver Island.  See the map at the top and you will see a large island to the west of the mainland of British Columbia. That is Vancouver Island.  We will pass by but not through many municipalities:  Port Coquitlam, New Westminister, Surrey, Langley, Cloverdale, Abbotsford, Chilliwack then Hope. I am not completely sure if I have these in order of location but they are more in order than not.

As we reach the town of Hope, the highway separates to take you to various points north and east.

North of Hope we are travelling on Highway 5 or the Coquihalla Highway, often referred to as the "Coq", pronounced "Coke".  I've captured a sign for you in the photo below so you can see one of the many warnings given to driver. I also wanted to capture the wild alpine flowers for you.

These mountain peaks always makes me catch my breath due to their sheer size and beauty.

The photo belows show an avalanche shelter. Fortunately I've never experienced any avalanche when passing through here in winter.  Currently there is a  lot of road widening and improvement work being done between Vancouver and along this stretch of highway. You can see some of the signage just to the right of the shot.

Another hour or so of driving and you can see the geography has changed quite dramatically.  We are now approaching the town of Merritt, British Columbia.  The town of Merritt is nestled in the Nicola Valley and has a population of about 7000 people. Glacial lakes are nestled amongst the grasslands where cattle also graze uninterrupted. This is pure cattle country and quite beautiful too if you like the semi-arid type of landscape.

I tried to capture a photo of the town as we passed by but we were going too fast.  Merritt is always our last stop before we get to Kamloops. Here we take a short break stopping at an outlying place to grab a drink of coffee, water or soda for the final hour's drive to Kamloops.

We are now in our final approach into Kamloops.

I always love arriving for it means a good portion of the journey is behind us!  We are making the approach into Kamloops from the northwest and we are at the top of the valley.  Kamloops is located at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River (north and south).  The population of Kamloops is about 87,000 people. I've noticed a tremendous amount of building going on over the past decade or more and one would think the economy was booming in the city. However doing some research I've read that the population actually declined in 2010, along with population declines in the town of Merritt. The reason is that people have had to migrate to larger cities to find work. Nonetheless Kamloops is a much bigger city than when my family first settled there.

The scene below is one of my favourite scenes of the city as it gives a panoramic view of the two rivers and the main part of the city. At night, the sparkling lights make this a very pretty approach.   Here we stopped and visited with my mom for an hour or so before heading north on the Trans-Canada Highway.

We pass a few very small places like Rayleigh as we head north. The first real small town is called Barriere. I took a photo of the surrounding hills.  There was a huge wildfire a few years ago now which almost wiped out the town .  You can see from the photo that the forest is still recovering.

Barriere, British Columbia is located 66 kilometres north of Kamloops on Highway 5 which winds along the North Thompson River.  The community is 375 meters above sea level.

Legend has it that 
"during the early days of the Cariboo gold rush, an old trapper named MacDonald, hailing from Scotland, was plying his trade in the central North Thompson Valley. Each winter he would stockpile his pelts at Little Fort. In the spring of each year, he would load up his pelt on his old mare, and with the help of a young Chu Chua Indian, he would set out on the old highway for Kamloops.
On one of his annual trips, the old man and his young companion stopped for lunch at the site of what is today: Barriere. Following lunch, the old mare refused to start up again. The old Scot gave her the buggy whip and she suddenly keeled over and died. His Indian companion said to MacDonald: "What  are you going to do now?" to which the old man replied: "Bury her". From which Barriere got it's name.
from a story re-told by local authority: David Baines

A photo of the North Thompson River.

The beautiful and majestic Mount Robson rises before us as we approach the border to the Province of Alberta.  The air was quite cold but there were still a lot of mosquitoes.

I took a lot of photos of this lake you see below.  It is called Moose Lake. I think it is very beautiful. The lake went on for miles and miles.

We saw some cars parked along the way and stopped to see what was going on. People had stopped to look at this huge mammal, the spectacular elk. The light was fading and most of my photos did not turn out but I think you can make it out due to the lighter skinned coat and it's big rack of antlers.   The photo doesn't do justice to the size of this creature.

A fabulous moon guided our way.

We stop off at the Howard Johnson Motel in Hinton, Alberta for a room. It was difficult to get a room in the city. This place was the only one with rooms available. It turned out to be quite comfortable.

The beds were super comfortable. The weight of the duvet was perfect. Not too light and not too heavy. There was air conditioning in the room also to keep it nice and cool.

In most Canadian hotels and motels you will find a coffee maker, complimentary tea and coffee, an ice holder for getting ice from the ice machine, a soda pop machine, a desk for working at and often a mini fridge but not always.  The cost of the room for the night was $109.00 Canadian dollars plus 10% tax.

Well that concludes the first part of my journey. Please join in again for the next part of the trip through Alberta.

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