Canada Day

Hello friends & fellow Canadians,

I'm just popping in to wish all my Canadian friends and subscribers a very Happy Canada Day. 🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦

May you enjoy it wherever you are. 

Much love, peace & blessings. 

Autumnal Equinox ~ Tuesday 4

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4... are you ready for Autumn?

Monday,  September 22 is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of the Autumn season.  

Autumn is the name of the season and fall is the term for the time of Autumn when leaves begin to fall from the trees.   Let's discuss it.....

1. Are there pumpkins or chrysanthemums on your porch or are you planning on putting some out?  

No. Most of us in Canada do not decorate for the seasons. We generally only decorate for the major holidays.

2. Are stores around you showing Autumn clothing and decor now?  Here in New Jersey, leaves on some trees are changing slowly and temperatures are way down. What is it like in your neck of the woods?

I haven't been in the stores for a long time other than grocery stores and pharmacies. A few days ago, I noticed that the pharmacy has their Hallowe'en items out on the shelves. It means that clothing stores and other retail shops likely have their autumn items out now. The leaves have only just started to turn colour but not much yet. 

3. Do you have plans for Thanksgiving yet?

I have thought about the Thanksgiving meal. We'll probably have chicken with stuffing and all the sides instead of a big turkey.           

4 . If we can arrange an autumn trip or get away for you, where will you choose to go and why?

I don't much feel like travelling with all the turmoil in the world. DH has been away in Kenya for some business related matters and to see family. I hope he'll get home before long. He didn't want to be away so long but dealing with the government business can sometimes take awhile.  

If I did take a journey I would only want to go up country a bit. It's fantastic weather and scenery at this time of year. We call the area the Thompson Okanagan, around Kamloops, Chase, Kelowna. I would also like to go even much farther north to Prince George and beyond into northern British Columbia around Dawson Creek and Alberta around Grande Prairie and Edmonton. Autumn is the best season to see the beauty of the area. 

Here is a map so you can have a look (Click on the map so you can read the names).

Also, if you click here you can see some posts and photos of the area I've made in previous postings. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

What's on My Mind & In My Basket

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Happy mid-week to you.  I hope you are all well and good.

I cannot believe how fast May flew by and now we are almost through a full week of June. How did that happen? I seem to say that the time flies by so fast but lately I hear everyone else saying it too! I guess it means we are all getting older.

In sad news there are so many wildfires burning across Canada. It is devastating for many smaller communities and for the people who live in them.  Not only does it affect Canadians but Americans have been saying how their air quality is being affected in various parts of the USA. Unfortunately it isn't even the official beginning of summer yet and the meteorologists are forecasting a hot, dry summer ahead. Hold on to your hats.  If you're the praying type, please keep in prayer for moderate temperatures and more rain.

Here at home in southern British Columbia, we are okay but in the northern part of the province wildfires are burning.  Here in Vancouver, I've found it quite cool.  Despite the local meteorologists forecasting hot weather for several. days I've only felt very warm temperatures on one day and that didn't last all day long.  If I had to choose though, I would far rather it stay on the slightly cool side.

While the weather has been cool, I've been keeping super busy and trying to get as many things done before hotter temperatures arrive.  When it gets too hot I really am not up to doing much except trying to stay cool.  Sometimes I wonder how come I'm always so busy and never seem to catch up to things.

I think it's a combination of getting older and having too many hobbies. When a person gets older, they tend to have more medical appointments and medical related appointments, especially if they have a medical condition. There is always a test to do, medicines to pick up, a specialist or doctor to meet. Then there are also the dental visits and eye doctors which most people have. I seem to have lost my eye doctor and have to find another one because I haven't had an eye examination for quite some.  In my case, busyness is also greater this year.  After several years identification cards need renewal including, government ID, driver's license and my passport.  Two gardens needed to be planted and 2 tax returns needed to be be prepared and filed.  All of it within the same month or two. On top of that, the building where I live always has major projects going on.  While these impact  all residents. My particular apartment has had 2 leaks from upstairs which needed investigation and repair. In fact, the 2nd one is not yet completed.  It's a good thing I don't have to go out to work every day or this would be a difficult situation to manage.

Last, but not least, I always find more work for myself.  For example, the decluttering and cleaning project I started long ago.  Related activities include the purchase of several new furnishings (patio conversation set, storage sofa and adjustable bed and mattress) all of which took time to research and compare options before buying, and the organization of delivery and haul away services. 

Honestly, there is never enough time in a day and I also don't want to waste time.  Time is going by so fast and it's such a precious commodity.  Does anyone else have the same issue with time and too many things to do?

Despite the busyness, I'm happy that I've kept up with some reading and I've also started making more time for hobbies. 

Here are the current books I'm reading or about to read.

An Ocean of Minutes was a of a genre I don't normally read, a dystopian, fantasy novel.  The books revolves around the relationship between Polly and Frank. Frank becomes sick during a pandemic and the medical care he needs is cost prohibitive.  Polly decides to help him by signing on as a bonded labourer into the future. The company she is employed  by will pay for Frank's medical treatment.  Frank and Polly promise to meet one another in Galveston, Texas in 12 years time but Polly ends up being re-routed an additional 5 years into the future.  When she arrives she can't find Frank and the city has changed enormously.  Polly must learn to survive in a totally changed America.  She has with no money, no friends or family and no status in the country.  This begins her search for Frank and the heartbreak that goes along with the search.

Reading this book, at this time, seemed very appropriate to this time and place with all the radical changes taking place right now.

Meet me at the Lake is the second book I've recently picked up by Canadian author Carley Fortune.  I picked it up quite randomly and didn't realize that the author is quite a popular author. 

T he book is about a young woman named Fern who lives and works in the big city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her mother dies and leaves her a Muskoka lakeside resort.  Unfortunately, the resort is in a tight financial situation.  Before her mother dies, she hires a consultant named Will to help get things on a more even keel.  Fern doesn't find out until Will arrives at the resort to begin his work. Will is a former boyfriend bof Ferns, one who ghosted her so there are lots of unresolved feelings.  Will doesn't know that Fern's  mother has died when he checks in to begin his consultancy.

I enjoyed several things about the book such as the settings for the book (Toronto, Muskoka Lakes, Vancouver) and the general story arc.  However, the writing  is a bit too graphic for me when it comes to the intimate situations between the characters.  It's probably quite tame for some people.  But for me, it's a little too much. 

In A House for Alice, Alice Pitt has been living in England for over 50 years. After her husband dies she yearns to return to Nigeria to live out her last years on earth. Her daughters however, are torn over whether their mother should return to Nigeria or remain in London.  Her youngest daughter Melissa, is not only coping with the loss of her father and her mother's departure for Nigeria but her marriage is also breaking down.  I haven't gotten too far into the book but it seems to be about how significant life events can have negative impacts on one's family foundations.

I haven't started the next two books but they look interesting.  I just picked them off the shelves because I was short of reading material at the time. Now I've got too much to read.

The Paris Express is based on a real life event, a French railway disaster of 1895. It's ready for pick up at the local library.

Some of you may know that I started a major decluttering & reorganizing project quite some time ago.  In between these tasks, there have been many interruptions so it's taken forever to make progress.  The main purpose of the project is to create time and space to for work on a number of hobbies. One of those hobbies is crochet.  

In May, I started making some crocheted dishcloths as gifts for friends. I also made an oversized cardigan for a friend who has a birthday coming up later this summer. Earlier in the year, I made a few cushions for a cousin's birthday. I haven't given them to her yet because she is supposed to visit this summer from a city about 1200 km from me. I will give them to her during her visit. I also made a few knitted dishcloths. Before the year ends I hope to work on other hobbies as well. If the weather remains moderate, I may be able to do some of my work outdoors on the patio. That would be ideal as I could play some nice music while I work. Not too loudly though as I don't want neighbours complaining. I suppose I could also just use my phone and wear earphones.

The Dishcloths

The Oversize Cardigan

The Cushions

A Few Pics From a Night Walk

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I went for a walk to do some errands on Sunday early evening. I photographed a few little interesting things along the way.

I was headed to a small mall located to the west of where I live. As I neared my destination, I captured the skyline of the downtown core and the lights of one of the ski slopes.

 

At more or less the same corner, I captured the clock tower of our current City Hall.

I took a photo of the signage at this intersection.  I wanted to remember it as the corner where I found 3 homes that were in a foreclosure sale. I've never seen even one sign of a foreclosure sale in all the years I've lived here so this was a bit startling though not entirely surprising.

This old house looked in disrepair and is one of the homes under foreclosure proceedings.

Two other homes under foreclosure are on the other side of the signage.

Across the street is a beautiful, old Victorian home that I've long admired. Most of these large old homes are subdivided into numerous suites.

I love the stained glass and the big veranda.

After I stopped at the mall, I made my way to Broadway Avenue. I was on my way to Michael's Craft Store but they were closed.  I missed out by about 15 minutes.

After that I hopped on a bus heading further west. I was going to a particular location of London Drugs. Before I got there I spotted this cute little tea shop with its name taken from Alice in Wonderland. It looks amazing but oddly I couldn't find it on google. I'll have to look again another day but Sunday night they were preparing for an event, setting up tables, checking menus and so on.

The street had a very hyggelieg feel about it with the lights around the trees and extra lights in the 'air'.

It turns out that London Drugs didn't have the items I was looking to buy although their website said they had one item in stock. I was told that the website stock information is not that accurate especially if it only says one item remaining. I expected this because I have experienced the same issue before.  It was too bad but not the end of the world. At least I got my steps in.

Sunday the air was much, much warmer than it's been in weeks. I was actually overheating so took my time going about. I'm happy the weather is back to our usual moderate temperatures. I hope you are keeping warm where you are. I know much of Canada has had a significant amount of snow.  Keep safe.

Frugal Food Shopping and Cost Comparisons

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 that the store is very crowded with hardly any room to maneuver and they only take cash.

I bought about a quart of white mushrooms, 2 large English cucumbers, 2 large zucchini (courgettes), 1 small bunch of spinach, 6 small red peppers (capsicum), 1 big crown of broccoli, 1 small bag of green beans, 6 medium to large bananas, 9 small blood oranges, 6 navel oranges. All this cost $24 Canadian dollars.  I still have a small bunch of spinach, some red peppers, broccoli, courgette and green beans left to use this week but am all out of fruits.


Yesterday (Wednesday)  I tried a different place, called Persia.  They have several locations in the city and have very good reviews. 

This haul came to just over $34 Canadian ( $25.50 US dollars,$38.84 Australian dollars,  just over 23 €, 2800 Japanese Yen, 2600 Kenyan shillings).

I bought: 6 bananas, 4 large mandarin oranges, 6 medium blood oranges, 4 navel oranges, 2 grapefruit, 1 sweet lemon, 2 pints of strawberries, 3 small jalapeno peppers, 2 small eggplants, 1 bunch of spinach, a small handful of grape tomatoes, 2 avocados, 1 sangak bread ($2.99), 1 container of smoked paprika $2.99), 900 gr bag of green lentils (not pictured) and one 454 gr bag of black eyed peas ($2.99).  I have plenty of vegetables for the week ahead and lots of beans, lentils etc.

Cost wise it seems fairly similar to Young Bros. Produce on W. Broadway; maybe even a bit cheaper. It has the advantage of being a single bus ride from my home and more room to maneuver my shopping trolley while shopping. It also has alternative forms of payment which for me is far better than only having to pay by cash. I seldom have much cash on me.

 

This is my meat haul from a week ago. There is enough for 3 more dinners.

The meat (ground beef and roast) was packaged into portions for hamburger patties, spaghetti sauce, meatballs, stir  fry (2) and a roast. I also bought a small package of chicken wings (not pictured).  This was all purchased at the usual neighbourhood grocery stores and  cost a total of  $37 Canadian dollars ($27.75, $42.20 Australian, 25.36 €, 3054 Japanese Yen, 2802 Kenyan Shillings). 

 
I bought 10 kg of flour a few days ago.  It was on sale for $9.99 rather than the usual $13.99.  This large bag will last for up to 6 months if I make bread every week or so. I'll need more yeast before I run out of flour.

It's still been cold at night.  I like to have hot  decaf tea or herbal tea to warm up and sometimes have a muffin.  I made Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins last time instead of the usual Blueberry with white flour.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and added bran to the mix of ingredients.  They were delicious.  I prefer blueberry muffins and also cranberry muffins and alternate between these two over the seasons when it isn't too hot for baking.

All in all I'm pleased with the prices I've managed to get on these last few shopping expeditions.  I'm always keen to get a good price on foods and I'm also always curious about how much others pay for their foods. 

What I've discovered over time is that while Canada doesn't have the highest food prices, we certainly are no where near the least expensive.  Our neighbours to the south and some of our farther flung neighbours, like England, seem to pay a lot less for food than we do.  Canada is also such a vast country and the food prices vary wildly depending on where you live.  People who live in the far north, like Iqaluit, and other northern communities, pay an astronomical amount for fresh produce. In the Arctic one cannot grow fresh produce and it is very expensive to have it shipped in.  I can also say that food prices have skyrocketed in the last few years but that is probably true of most countries.

Added: By the way, this is a bit off topic but I wanted to say that I am also trying to change my ways when it comes to plastics. I go through phases of doing well and then not so well with reducing the use of plastics in stores. It can be rather challenging. Then too I am using plastics when I portion out foods for freezing. If I use plastic bags to store breads and muffins I reuse these many times over. But if I use them to store meat I discard them. 

I have actually purchased reusable net bags for my produce but right now I only have 3 of them. I need many more. I also intend to purchase silicone bags for freezing foods when my budget allows. I do use glass containers for storing food in the refrigerator when there are left over items.  All in all, if one wants to reduce or eliminate plastics altogether it can be very challenging at the best of times. One does have to try though for the sake of our environment. You would be amazed that there are now even plastic particles in the air we breathe. Particles which you obviously cannot see. Beyond that, I'm sure most of you are now aware that there is so much plastic in our oceans that ocean life is ingesting it. The problem of plastics is enormous. I cannot get into the issue properly here but I just wanted to point out that I am aware of the issue and my contribution to it. I am trying to do something about it.  Whatever plastics come into this household, are reused as much as possible before discarding. It would be better if stores and sellers did not wrap everything in so much plastic to begin with.

The Last Day of October

Hi friends,

The last few days have been wet and cold and I've been feeling tired and under the weather. This means I didn't do a done a whole lot on Friday except try to organize my calendar and catch up on the housework.

Like everyone else  I've got a lot to do between now and Christmas. Besides the usual Christmas preparations which I started a few weeks ago, I've got many appointments, errands, medical tests, book reading and social engagements.

After my last book review post here I started reading Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. You can read a summary of the book here if interested.

When I am feeling tired and sickly I don't get out as much as I'd like.  However I did get out to the produce store, the post office & the library on the last Saturday of the month of October which was also Hallowe'en.  (If you missed my Hallowe'en post you can find it here if interested).  When I was out I decided to go to a Thai restaurant rather than make dinner tonight.  I had my chicken cashew nut but didn't get a photo of the dish.  I noticed that the dish has changed since I had it last. Instead of a generous helping of red peppers, there was only one piece of red pepper and some green peppers in place of the red. Green peppers cost a lot less than red ones around these parts.

While I was eating, a lot of customers came and left with take out orders.  Each time I've been to the restaurant it has been busy with take out orders.  But today it seemed much busier than usual. I guess that is a good thing and I hope it means the business is not in imminent trouble.  Not so long ago, a long-time Vietnamese restaurant in my neighbourhood closed. Before they did, I'd noticed that they were skimping on ingredients to their dishes and I wondered why.  A few months later, the restaurant was closed even though they had a lot of regular customers and had been around for many years.  I think the business taxes and rental costs here for businesses are just too high. In fact, I heard one popular restauranteur on radio saying he would close his restaurants at the end of this year. Not for lack of customers but because the business taxes were just too high to make the business profitable.

I started reading Crushing Debt by David Trahair, Chartered Accountant. I'm still in early stages of the book and I've enjoyed it so far.  But I'm not sure I will finish reading it.  I didn't realize when I picked up the book that it deals with the subject of what to do when you are faced with debt levels so high that you cannot meet your obligations (e.g. bankruptcy).  I am not needing this kind of help at this moment, thankfully.  If you are interested in the subject and need help, have a look here for a good review and summary of the book.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I thought the book was about.  When I was selecting books off the shelf at the library last week, I just picked up several financial books of the shelf that had intriguing titles. I didn't even read the book covers like I normally do.  I do like to read about finance, debt, budgeting, retirement, wills, estates, etc. Even if I do not need all the information or it isn't immediately relevant, it does add to my knowledge base and over time I retain more and more of what is useful to me.Debt is certainly a topic that is always being discussed in articles and on television interviews and we are always being warned about debt by the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Well our previous Governor, Mark Carney who is now the Governor of the Bank of England.

This article written in Spring of 2015, says that the  38 % of Canadian debt holders now earn over $100,000 annually.  This is roughly equal to the percentage of people in debt who earn less than $50,000 annually. The article goes on to say that the vast majority of Canadian debt is basically a result of trying have the basics of middle class life like education, cars and homes,  rather than trying to achieve the high life.  When you consider that the starter home in Vancouver these days is over a million dollars on average, & many Canadian cities have similar real estate costs, you can easily see what the article is driving at. In this context, it behooves all Canadians to really buckle down and manage their finances well.  It is a constant task.

As I write this post on Saturday night  I can still hear the firecrackers going off.  Every now and then I hear a loud burst.  Sometimes I hear the rain pelting down but it has stopped for now.  The weather forecast for Sunday is for significant rain and I am prepared to stay indoors and try and rest.  I picked up several movies from the library while I was out. I probably won't see them all but I will make a start.  The movies I've picked up include:  War Horse (Jeremy Irvine) , Paris When it Sizzles (Audrey Hepburn & William Holden), The Trip to Italy (Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon), The Hundred Food Journey (Helen Mirren) & Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Gary Oldman). Four of these are movies I missed when they were in theater so I'm very happy to get them now. The last one, Paris When it Sizzles is an old movie that I've yet to see.

While I was out, I also managed to get a few more Fall/Autumn photos. Earlier today (Saturday) it was raining heavily but the sun came out and some blue sky shared it's beauty with us.
 

To the east and south the sky was blue and bright.

To the north and west the sky was dark and cloudy.

The building with a steeple was a church & now contains condominiums.

AUTUMN

by Emily Dickinson (1896)

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

In the last photo of Fall colours, you can see that the leaves are almost gone from some of the trees.

Heavy rains this weekend will finish off a lot of the leaves and ensure the trees are bare next week.

This is the time of year that I really do not enjoy.

I try not to complain though.  If the sun comes out at least once a week I can manage to make it through the Winter just fine.

In another hour it will be time for us in the Northern Hemisphere to turn our clocks back one hour until the Spring returns.

For many it will be a nice time to get an extra hour of rest this weekend.

This is a mosaic of shop decorated for Hallowe'en yesterday.

I am still writing the post, lol.
Much later after fireworks stopped, I decided to watch one of the movies, The Hundred Foot Journey on  my desktop. But I very seldom watch DVD on my desktop and whenever I've tried, I've had nothing but issues.
So I decided to finally upgrade to Windows 10. After everything was downloaded and upgraded, I spent an hour to  discover a way to watch DVDs.  I learned you need to purchase a $15. program from Microsoft.  Spending that money defeats the purpose of getting free movies from the library. So I found a free program to download and finally got to start watching my movie.
I really should get to sleep and watch the  movie later.

.

I'm liking up with Our World Tuesday

Thank you for visiting and have a great week!

Happy Birthday Canada!

It's Canada's birthday on July 1st. She will be 146 years old.

I send my very best wishes for a safe and happy celebrations to all my Canadian blogger friends.

"Do not forget to entertain strangers..."

"Do not forget to entertain strangers for in so doing, some people have
entertained angels without knowing it."
Hebrews 13:2

I've made a new friend from Africa who has been living in Canada for a short time.  When I met him he was very surprised that I had been to his country.  I invited him over for dinner with family members to show some hospitality.  


The first dish is antipasto or some before meal nibbles. I included some salami meat rather mortadella on the dish because I wasn't sure how my guest's taste buds would be.  Moses  loved all the vegetables and gamely tried things he didn't know of like the marinated artichokes.  I learned that the eggplant is known in Ghana as "black beauty". I think that is a much nicer name than "eggplant".

I grilled some home made hamburger patties on my indoor grill. These burgers are not burnt, they are just black from the grill.

Another common summer food here is the potato and egg salad. I let this one marinate over night in the refrigerator and added some red onions for colour and extra flavour.

Last, but not least for the main course, we had some baked chicken. I marinated these chicken pieces in lemon grass marinade overnight. Lemon grass is not traditional to Canada but I have grown to love it in Vietnamese cooking.  I thought it would make a good variation on baked chicken which is a good Canadian dinner staple.  It was delicious and not too strong in lemon grass flavour.

Dinner was capped with drinks of ice tea and other beverages brought by our guest. We also had a dessert of fresh blueberries mixed with bananas. I made a biscuit which we cut and put whipped cream mixed with the berries inside the biscuit. Then the biscuit was topped with more berries and cream.

All in all my guest paid the highest compliment by saying he felt right at home and very comfortable. He also ate everything he put on his plate. I appreciated that very much as sometimes I have guests who won't eat this or won't eat that and they leave too much food on the plate. Those of you who entertain know what I'm talking about.
 
I am glad I was able to entertain a stranger and in doing so have now made a new friend.

Canada Day 2010

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 is Canada Day. 

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.

Canada Day is often referred to as "Canada's birthday".  The occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the county's Constitution was repatriated in 1982.  The Queen of England was here to mark that occasion. 

The monarch is here again today in Canada to celebrate the country's 143 birthday. She is not travelling to western Canada on this trip but I was fortunate enough to see her many years ago. Here she is in Ottawa earlier today.

Photo credit: National Post, July 1st, 2010, Reuters/Blair Gable

Read here about how I spent last year's Canada Day.  This year I plan to stay home and have a nice, quiet, relaxing time.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

On a personal note, I got the breast cancer diagnostic results Wednesday. After testing over a period of a year (involving x-rays, biopsy, ultrasound) I am cancer free. Yeah! This news is a great Canada Day gift.

I don't have to get checked again for another year and after that, every two years, if all is well. I am especially thankful given my aunt just had a recurrence of breast cancer and a full mastectomy last Friday. Her surgery seems to have gone well and she is recovering nicely.

My First Giveaway

I've been blogging for less than a year now and in the process I've learned a lot. I have a lot more to learn from the knowledge and talents of other bloggers so I'm hoping to blog and read blogs for a long time to come.

One of the things I've learned about, and participate in with glee, are the giveaways that various bloggers sponsor. I think giveaways are fun and I always try to participate to show bloggers that I am paying attention to what they write. I think it also shows gratitude for what they do to develop reader participation.

The winter Olympics will be here in a few short weeks so I thought it would be fun to giveaway one of the Olympic mascots. There are actually three of them and I like Sumi best so Sumi is part of the giveaway.

My regular readers know I live in Canada and that I am a proud Canadian so I thought it would also be great to provide a few souvenirs of my country. These few gifts will go in a reusable tote bag with the word "Canada" embossed on the front. This is in homage to the many people out there who I know are into the simple life and want to keep our planet free from as many plastic bags as possible.

Here are a few photos to show you what will be in the Canada bag.

[Pens, stickers, souvenirs, luggage tags and Olympic mascot]

In order to participate, please leave a comment and let me know what you would like to learn about Canada or Vancouver. I then hope to feature a blog post on the winning subject in a future post.

The winner will selected at random and be announced on Friday January 28, 2010, (changed to Thursday, January 227, 2010 to allow time for wrapping and posting) and contacted for address information so I can mail your parcel before I leave town on the same weekend. In the meantime, happy blogging. If you have children or grandchildren, be sure to enter as they tend to love these sorts of things though I've tried to include things that adults might also use (luggage tags and pens). If you are from another country, it would be lovely for you to have some souvenirs from Canada. If you are not from another country, please enter anyway. Everyone is welcome! Good luck