The End of My Week

Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

Today's post is filled with photos. I am joining up with Skywatch Friday, Friday Foto Friends and Saturday's Critters. Thank you to hosts of all these memes. I know it takes commitment and reliability to keep these memes going.

My niece has been here having a short holiday and she will return home tomorrow. We managed to go and see a movie, Christopher Robin (a cute movie), do some light shopping, watch TV, colour, listen to a lot of music on YouTube, go for walks and ice cream and go for a car ride up to Squamish. On other days she went with her brother to spend time at the waterfront.

You can see Squamish on the map below (to the north of Vancouver).

We had dinner in the small town though there wasn't much selection.

We tried to get some photos but I didn't get any good ones of my niece and I. 

For some reason I am not very photogenic at all.
Top it off my niece is not very patient when it comes to posing for photos and she always has her head too high or too  low or never looking at the camera and so on.

The main thing then is to enjoy the ride and get some scenic photos.
(Click on photos for a larger and better view)

On the way to Squamish

This ferry is leaving Horseshoe Bay. Not sure where it's going but probably to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

We continue north on the Sea to Sky Highway.

I'm afraid I didn't get photos of the small town of Squamish.

 I wanted photos of the famous rock cliff where many do mountain hiking. 

It is a challenging trail on the rock called Stawamus Chief.

You can read more about it by clicking here.

The view of Stawamus Chief from the main street of Squamish.

After dinner we were in a rush to try and get some coastline photos while the sun was still up.
Access to the ocean was not possible in town so

we headed south back to Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

Not too far from Squamish you get to the Britannia Mine Museum & the Britannia Mine.

I've never been inside. In fact I've only ever been in this direction for 4 complete round trips over the many years I've lived in Vancouver.  Usually it was to Whistler Village.  Many of you may have heard about it because it is a very famous skiing village where celebs from all over the world visit for winter vacations.

The coastal scenery is spectacular.

I captured the following photos at a view point area near the Britannia Mine.

As we continue south we find a new to me park called Porteau Cove Provincial Marine Park.

It is a lovely little spot with beautiful scenery, a secluded swimming beach, clean toilets and plenty of picnic tables. 

It is definitely on my list of places to return for a lovely picnic on a hot summer day.

The sun was setting at the same time the moon was showing it's face.

Beautiful clouds

Sky gazing

I snapped this photo of  the ferry en route to Horseshoe Bay from Nanaimo. I almost missed it.

Another drive by shot. This one over the Lion's Gate Bridge from North Vancouver into Vancouver. Spectacular colour.

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From my garden

 Friday Foto Friends

Skywatch Friday

Saturday's Critters

I Say Goodbye & Welcome Some Cloudy Days

I said goodbye to a friend of mine recently. We met at church many years ago and haven't been keeping up well with one another since she and I no longer attend that church. She also lived another municipality away.  Though she was very busy packing and cleaning, I wanted to take her for a farewell lunch.

My friend Celia did not want to leave the  City of Vancouver.  But most of the condos in her building were bought out by a developer and thus in the end she had to sell too.  She has purchased a much larger home in her new city. It sounds like a wonderful location near shops and a man made lake with walking areas surrounding it.  Now that all the decisions have been made, a new house and furniture purchased, she is looking forward to the move.  Everything has worked so smoothly in her favour that she believes it was a divine event for the benefit of her future.  I'm quite certain she will enjoy living in her new home.  She has the added benefit of her daughter and grandson living nearby. Her daughter has been coaxing her mom to make the move for some time. As my friend Celia says, she had to be forced and now that she has been she is very accepting of the situation.

Here is my friend answering the phone. She was being invited out to dinner the same evening by yet another former church friend.

Salad Bar

Cabbage and Spatzle?

Beef Roulade and perogies

Breaded trout with beans in mushroom sauce

Bratwurst

A small portion of the desserts on offer

We had a fabulous visit but we visited so long that my throat was dry and parched afterward. The only thing that separated us is she began to run behind schedule for dinner! We had a lot of catching up to do and hopefully we'll have a chance to visit again in her new city.


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On another subject I haven't participated in a long while in the Saturday's Critter's meme. I'm not sure why but it never seems to be the right time for me to take photos of animals or creatures of any kind.

I found one bee or wasp while I was taking photos of the geraniums.

The seagulls were photographed on my recent harbour cruise. It's always interesting to watch birds flying against the wind.

The last photo is of 5-6 seals lying on the logs, also from the harbour cruise.

Can you see them?
Click to enlarge and it will be easier to see the seals.
I'm afraid I don't have a good lens to zoom in close enough.

I'm a bit behind in posting as I still have a post to share with you about the harbour cruise.


Joining in with

Saturday's Critters

Thank you for joining in.

If you missed my Skywatch post you can find it here.

Have an awesome weekend.

News

I awoke to news today that was upsetting. The young orphaned boy I wrote about here and here has passed due to complications of cancer. He was barely 20 years old.

" Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

James 4:14

I want to thank those of you who gave to help his medical bills and to those that have been praying for him.



The comfort is that he will never suffer again and as a Christian he is with his Heavenly Father.

 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” 

John 14:1-4

I was feeling rather emotional today upon hearing the sad news. Mostly because this boy is an orphan.  He's had a hard life so far and had to fight this terrible cancer. No doubt he went through periods of not really understanding what was happening to him especially during the chemotherapy sessions which weakened him a lot.  I am also grieving for the fact that he will never have an opportunity to reach his potential here on earth though in Kenya that is a very hard thing to do when you live in poverty.  Right now I am glad that this young man will never pain and poverty again.

In addition to the comfort of the biblical promises, I often find comfort in God's creation and from seeing nature close up.  Today it was in my garden.

I could hear the birds singing so beautifully.  Their warbling drew me outside.

I wasn't able to capture the birds in photo.  They are very well camouflaged in the trees and they fly away so quickly.  But I was delighted to find bees enjoying the flowers in the garden.

Beyond the enjoying the birds and the bees in the garden, I enjoyed the beautiful colours of nature.

I like the flowers and plants reflected in the bird bath.

This photo was taken a few months ago at Westham Island.

Joining up with Eileen at Saturday's Critters
and
Weekend Reflections.
Thank you for stopping by.

Have a wonderful weekend wherever you are.

My Little Garden

My little garden has been subjected to a lot of heat so the flowers aren't doing quite so well. I water them it but haven't much energy in this heat to really spend time deadheading. Pansies don't do so well in excessive heat and they do need regular deadheading. All the other flowers are also struggling. My anemones which I thought were going to do very well bloomed early and promptly died.

The loops got into the cabbages and the beets but I still haven't caught any of them. There seem to be a lot of ants this year too. My little cherry tomatoes are now starting to ripen but the romaine lettuce is so-so. Good thing I don't really grow the garden for food. At this point, I am experimenting to see what will grow but hope soon that I can actually grow a bit for food needs. The only food I expect to harvest from my garden are the cherry tomatoes and the hot peppers.

The cherry tomotoes should be ripe and ready to use soon.

This busy bee was so excited flitting from plant. It really didn't know where to land but kept coming back to this red geranium. 

I've had a particular species of  butterfly come by daily too but I'm afraid I don't know the name. It is a simple, pale yellow coloured butterfly.  But the birds who used to like to splash at the bird bath, haven't been around. I'm guessing they too like the shade. Plus with all the smoke around, I think it would be hard on their little lungs. At least it looks as if my garden is feeding the butterflies and the bees, if not the humans and the birds.

Thank you for your visit.

I've got some treats lined up in the next few posts so I hope you will drop by again soon.
 

Enjoy the rest of your week!
xx