Blue Monday, April 11, 2011

How would you like to take a spin in this little blue number? * wink.

On another topic altogether, I managed to get rid of the clutter below. Someone from the local Freecycle kindly came and took it off my hands. I feel so much better that someone else will get some use out of it. I never like to throw things away and would have to take it to the charity shop if I couldn't give it to someone. Next I'll be on to shredding all my old paper records.  This can be done a little at a time.

Have a HAPPY BLUE MONDAY!

Click here to join Smiling Sally and the gang for Blue Monday submissions.

More Signs of Spring

Glorious sunshine graced part of my day. As I walked home from church, I took these photos of beautiful spring flowers to share with you.

THE CROCUS

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Beneath the sunny autumn sky,

With gold leaves dropping round,

We sought, my little friend and I,

The consecrated ground,

Where, calm beneath the holy cross,

O'ershadowed by sweet skies,

Sleeps tranquilly that youthful form,

Those blue unclouded eyes.

Around the soft, green swelling mound

We scooped the earth away,

And buried deep the crocus-bulbs

Against a coming day.

"These roots are dry, and brown, and sere;

Why plant them here?" he said,

"To leave them, all the winter long,

So desolate and dead."

"Dear child, within each sere dead form

There sleeps a living flower,

And angel-like it shall arise

In spring's returning hour."

Ah, deeper down cold, dark, and chill

We buried our heart's flower,

But angel-like shall he arise

In spring's immortal hour.

In blue and yellow from its grave

Springs up the crocus fair,

And God shall raise those bright blue eyes,

Those sunny waves of hair.

Not for a fading summer's morn,

Not for a fleeting hour,

But for an endless age of bliss,

Shall rise our heart's dear flower

You can join Smiling Sally and the gang of blue lovers over here.

Yellow is the favourite colour of many people who join in at Mellow Yellow Monday.  Click here to see what I mean.

Blue Buttons ~ Blue Monday, October 25, 2010

 "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

Robert Brault

One day I was sorting all my buttons by colour. I found this set of blues and near blues. Now I wonder what I'll use them for as I have buttons in several colours! I could make some crafts with them I guess as I don't make enough garments that will require so many buttons.  Whatever I decide to do with them, I know the buttons in various colours including these blue ones, are ready to be used.

At first blush you may wonder what my selected quotation has to do with buttons.  It just strikes me that life is made up of so many little things and that we need to enjoy the journey that we call life. This journey that is made up of many little steps and little events and some big ones now and then. Some people have trouble enjoying what they feel are the mundane things of life. Things like sorting buttons or organizing the desk, the household, the car, etc. I feel fortunate to find JOY 
not just in the doing of these things but in the contentedness that comes from having accomplished these small goals.

How do you feel about these mundane tasks like sorting buttons? Do you have a lot of buttons too? How do you organize them?  What do you do with them?

Join Smiling Sally and friends here for more Blue Monday.

Blue Houses, Blue Monday, July 26, 2010

Join in the Blue Monday fun at Smiling Sally's blog.

Scenic Sunday & Blue Monday, Play on the Beach ~ July 24, 2010

On Saturday evening a friend from out of town and I decided to treat ourselves to a play under the auspices of Bard on the Beach, an annual Shakespearean Festival held under white tents with red flags set up on Kitsilano Beach.

Both of us like Shakespeare.  But beyond that we were enthralled with the idea of having a barbeque dinner during the intermission.  After that, coffee and dessert and the topping on the cake, a comfortable seat in the beachfront park to watch the annual fireworks competition, "Celebration of Lights". What a fabulous idea all around.

The play was lovely. I was soon stopped from taking photos of the stage but I did manage to get one.

The evening's performance on the mainstage is entitled "Much Ado About Nothing". I've copied this descriptive summary from Wikipedia for you in case you are unfamiliar with it.

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero. Benedick and Beatrice are engaged in a "merry war"; they both talk a mile a minute and proclaim their scorn for love, marriage, and each other. In contrast, Claudio and Hero are sweet young people who are rendered practically speechless by their love for one another. By means of "noting" (which sounds the same as "nothing," and which is gossip, rumor, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar. However, Dogberry, a Constable who is a master of malapropisms, discovers—unbeknownst to himself—the evil trickery of the villain, the bastard Don John. In the end, Don John is captured and everyone else joins in a dance celebrating the marriages of the two couples.

Unfortunately, I cannot show you any original photos of the actors but some of you may have seen the film of the same name, directed by Kenneth Branagh. In the movie,the lovestruck Claudio, sings a beautiful called "Sigh No More". I found it on youtube.com and offer it here for your listening and viewing pleasure.

My friend (and I) awaiting the start of fireworks.

Here is a scene earlier in the evening of all the boats gathering on the water to get a good position for viewing the evening fireworks.

Here is shot taken at the start of fireworks. I'm afraid that is all I have. I did manage to remember to take my digital camera however I forgot to take an empty memory card. It is a pity I am unable to share with you the finale of the show as Spain did a fantastic job of it. Simply beautiful. Wish you were there to see it.  Maybe next year?

Join in here for more Scenic Sundays. Please also join in here for Blue Monday hosted by the lovely Sally. For a delightful new recipe involving strawberries, click here.

Swimming Bags

My regular readers know I have started swimming lessons and exercise class that is geared for arthritis sufferers.

Swimming lessons started first but are only once a week, while exercise class is twice a week. I'm enjoying the swimming lessons more than the exercise class which is on land not in the water. My knee joint pain flares up with exercise on land and interferes with the walking I ordinarily do. I'm hoping this pain abates with time.  If it doesn't, I will start sitting on the chairs provided to do the exercises.

The swimming lessons seem much better for the joints because of the buoyancy of the water. After swimming lesson I might practice what I have learned before I go and sit in the warm whirlpool for about 20 minutes and soothe stiff neck and back muscles. After I cool off, I might have a quick cold water shower then go into the sauna.

These are two of the "blue" bags I've used to carry my towel and wet things after swimming. Both of them are lined with plastic.

First up is my horse bag. Mom gave this bag to me many years ago and the plastic inside is starting to peel off. I may try to line it myself when the lining is totally gone. I am not really a "horsey" gal but I really love this bag, especially the "blue horse". It has one zippered pocket inside for keys and change and a pocket on the outside for your cell phone.

Next up is my brilliant blue "batik" bag. It isn't really batik but has a batik like pattern on it. It has mesh pockets on both sides for your water bottles and a little zip bag inside to keep your change and keys.

The two bags together. You can see they are almost the same size.

It is amazing who I've been meeting at the swimming pool So far, I've talked to many of the women and in particular three stand out.

One woman is a former refugee from Vietnam. She originally lived in Japan but ended up coming to Canada with her family due to the high cost of living in Japan. She doesn't swim but likes to use the sauna. Then I met Marie, a pensioner who hails from Nova Scotia. She is a black woman and says people always think she came to Canada via the underground railway but she never even heard of the underground railway until people started asking her that! She is as afraid of the water as I am and had some amazing stories of near drownings in Yellowknife and in the Caribbean. She noted my swimming instructor's methods and wants to learn to swim from him also. The third lady is Nala. She came to Canada with her family over 40 years ago from Fiji. She only went to grade 4 and she asked for my help in ensuring her housing application was correctly submitted. I readily agreed. 

Nala was so thankful that she promptly shared her phone number and provided a standing invitation to her home for curry dinner sometime.  Now I really don't like to take payment for a good deed, but I would love to get to know her better so I may take her up on it when I have more time.

As you can see, I am enjoying the swimming lessons for more than the swimming. (I've met some interesting women in the exercise class too but there is less opportunity to talk with them before and after class).

Happy Blue Monday.

Click here for more Blue Monday posts from around the world.

Blue Monday, June 14, 2010

Due to travels and busyness, I am late with my Blue Monday submission. I hope you like the flowers. If you look closely enough you can see a bumble bee.  Gotta love them too since they make the wonderful honey.

For more Blue Monday photos see here

Blue Monday on June 7, 2010

This restaurant called Senor Froggy's has lovely teal blue topped tables and wonderful wall plates with various shades of blue. The food is not bad either!  The food is Mexican themed and there are several types of salsa of which you can have as much as you want.

Drop in at Smiling Sally's blog and have a look at more beautiful blues.

Blue Monday on May 31, 2010

Franz Kafka's house in Prague (close to the castle), Czech Republic. I love this shade of blue *smile.

Click here to see more Blue Monday submissions.

Big Blue Bowl of Congee

It has been awhile since I had Chinese rice congee in my big blue bowl. Rice congee is a type of rice porridge/soup eaten in many Asian countries.

In this instance, I had mixed meat congee with a sliced Chinese donut (not sweet) on top.  I had a side dish of noodles with veggies, seafood and chinese mushrooms. I got these dishes from the restaurant in my building on one recent, cold and rainy day.  The congee hit the spot and the blue bowl is always my favourite as it is just the perfect size to have a generous serving without things spilling over.

Thanks for joining me on Blue Monday. 

For more entries from around the globe, please click here.

Beautiful Blue

It is amazing how many people I've found on the who love the colour blue. I happened across these people as I was browsing blogs not as a result of searching for them. It warms my heart because I too love blue and I love that I can look at what other people find in the colour blue.

This weekend was initially supposed to be a lovely, dry weekend, then Friday night I learned that it was expected to rain. It has been doing a lot of that this spring so I still don't have my garden in.  When I woke up this morning it was quite gray but progressively the sun came out and the sky turned blue and it became quite lovely.

My tentative plans to go to knitting class didn't pan out so instead I enjoyed the day lounging, grazing (eating food here and there rather than eating a meal), telephoning family and friends and answering telephone calls. Normally I do not enjoy talking on the phone. Long calls often interfere with plans to run errands or watch a favourite program. (I am a bit of a quiet freak though some of my friends likely won't believe it, lol). Don't you know it but phone calls always seem to be timed for the worst possible time when you're right in the middle of something. So thank goodness for the voice messaging service because I usually end up having to return phone calls.

Earlier in the week I had gone out to purchase potting soil for the 7 or so pots I have. This year I will plant some herbs in the containers. If I have containers left over I will plant some geraniums and pansies as well. I've always loved both types of flowers and these are usually what I plant in the containers.

I got a small start on the container gardening by putting new soil in the pots. I also potted one container of rosemary and one container of lemon balm. Here is my lemon balm in a blue ceramic pot.

I still  have much more to do in planting the containers and in putting in the garden. I hope to get a start this week if the weather will cooperate.

And guess what? Though I missed out on the knitting class, I have made arrangements for private lessons which is actually turning out to be better since it is on my own schedule, close by and also no more expensive. Even better I will have individualized attention. I learn best this way. I can't wait to get started!

To cap off my day, I'm having some wonderful Kenyan tea with fresh mint in a beautiful blue Chinese tea cup. Won't you join me in a cup?

And how did you spend your weekend?

(Click on the blue bird at the top of this entry to see other Blue Monday participants.)

Blue

blue, blue, blue.
any shade will do.
out of all the colours in the wheel,
it seems i like this one more,
for real

{Joyful Servant, 27-06-09}

in my walk in the brilliant sunshine yesterday, i happened across this lovely old building, with beautiful, blue, exterior walls and crisp, white trim.

it reminded me very much of fairy tales, my trip to prague and wedgewood china.

the lovely metal gate in black, is also perfectly framed by the lovely blue wall.

the side of the building is in the shade giving the
exterior walls a much fuller body.

as i was snapping these pictures, i was reminded of seeing the writer, frank kafka's house, in prague, czech republic.
the particular house i'm recalling is small and located near the royal palace.

some day i would love to get back and see more of prague!
the city is so alive with coloured buildings, blues, yellows, russets.....
lovely ♥♥♥

[caption: frank kafka's house number 22, credit: prague.net]