At the Half Way Mark in the Month

I had a super busy day on Monday, October 19th (approximately the half way point of the month) and it was the start of a very busy week.  While I ran my errands the rain stopped and sun came out so I snapped a few photos to share on Skywatch Friday this week.  I hope you enjoy. 

Dinner was quick:  stir fried pork cubes with Swiss chard from my garden and daikon radish (and spices) and a dish of stir fried noodles with a variety of vegetables and chili garlic oil.  I ended the day with a clean sink and all the dishes put away. I mostly wash the evening dishes, cutlery and pots and pans but I don't always finish the job. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf because everything put away makes the evening and the morning much nicer.

This month is flying by so quickly. We had two family birthdays a month apart (and celebrated them differently due to Covid).  We also celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada on October 12th and cooking a traditional dinner takes time whether it is for 2 people or 10 people .  I'm doing a major declutter of paper.  I've been going through a long, long process of fully decluttering my home and I am  now on the paper files. I've got so many that accumulated mostly while my late mom was ill. I didn't want to throw anything out. Now I've got to sort through it all and keep only what I really need of hers, my late sisters and also my own paperwork.  It feels good to finally get rid of paper that have been cluttering my space and my mind for so long. 

I have also been getting rid of larger items, not just items from the kitchen cabinet and closets. I could finally be offloading the very large power wheelchair which is taking up a lot of space near the entry way.  Friends of mine have been fund raising to replace the battery and charger and ultimately gift the chair to a paraplegic lady who can really make use of it. The fund raising efforts are very slow.  But it sounds like they have more than enough now to at least have a technician come over to evaluate everything.  I will know more in a week or two.

I've also been busy learning a new routine for running the household and though I'm not fully on board with the program it is a big help. I suppose any method one uses to keep on top of the household is helpful. I never found the household maintenance to be very difficult when I was younger.  I guess I have slowed down a lot because these days the running of the household seems to take up more time. I think the key is to find an approach you like and stick with it and consistently apply the routines.  If anyone is interested, check out FlyLady or Diane in Denmark, both of whom are on You Tube. Diane actually was a Fly Lady mentor for many years and still teaches others how to implement the system.  I enjoy her sparkly personality and motivational pep talks.  What I like about the system so far is that many things are done in 15 minute increments.  As they like to say, "you can do almost anything in 15 minute increments".

I'll be linking up with Skywatch Friday later this week. I send you my best wishes for a beautiful and safe weekend. If you missed my post about Kenya you can read it here.

Delicate Blossoms

Despite all the rain the blossoms are coming out in full force. 

It's a bit hard to see them with all the gray in the sky.

I played with the effect (called "Rouge") here for a little variety.

These photos were taken on Thursday, March 5th, another very rainy day.

We are expecting a bit of sunshine this weekend.


Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Enjoy your weekend.

A Sunflower Sky

I hurriedly snapped these photos as the light was quickly fading.

~~~~

Walking through the community garden after watering I could see that many sunflowers had already dried up and died.  The plot holders probably haven't watered in quite some time.

Many sunflowers in other plots were much taller than mine too.  

When I was assigned a plot I was told not to plant a very tall variety. I guess some people don't listen well or their sunflowers were self seeded from last year's tall ones.

Nonetheless I was pleased the sunflowers came up and that they got as tall as they did (they are over 6 feet tall).

~~~

It's been a busy and a quick week.

My niece and I had a whirlwind visit with me trying to keep her occupied and busy for the time she was here.

Her brother took her to the annual air show but this year they went to Chilliwack

which has a free air show rather than the one they usually go to in Abbottsford.

We didn't know the one in Chilliwack was free. It just fell at the right time in the calendar.  The free entrance was a bonus and my niece had a wonderful time.

Other than several long walks to the garden and to and from other places, we also went to see the Disney movie, The Lion King.  We both enjoyed it a lot.  The scenery and animals are so realistic looking.
It made me want to go to Kenya again soon.

~~~

Tuesday we went to the annual Pacific National Exhibition (PNE).

 There we went to went to see the farm animals and the always fun, Super Dog show.
My niece had a lot of laughs watching the dogs run through their races.
 

We went early to the dog show to get a good seat.

The dogs move so quickly that it is hard to get a good photo.

Of course we also had corn on the cob, ice cream and a few other goodies that we don't get to eat on a regular basis.

I was seated at the pretzel place having a salty pretzel while my niece had a vanilla one.

It was a very hot day. Thankfully there were several places to fill your water bottles and it seems each year they improve the seating. Of course the seats under the shade get taken up quickly.

After each activity,  my niece pronounced it as her favourite one.
That is a good sign and means she has been enjoying herself.

Nonetheless she is anxious to get home to her own bed. 

She loves to come each year but she is basically a homebody.

Before she goes home we are going to the beach on Wednesday.
On Thursday we will have a small dinner to celebrate her birthday. Her brother will bring the cake.
Then it will be time to get ready for the journey home on Friday.

~~~~

In a year or two, I'm hoping to take my niece on a plane trip. Before then we have a lot of 'training' to do like getting her a bit more independent and less fearful of doing things like climbing stairs, riding the city buses and so on.

 ~~~~

A cousin I see about once a year, sometimes twice, will be visiting in another week or so.
Unfortunately it seems my building will be turning the water off for the days she will be here.  I guess they are upgrading the boiler system.
I have to make some inquiries so I can properly prepare.
I always enjoy a visit with my cousin. She is usually only here for a very short time but this time I told her she needs to stay a bit longer so we can enjoy some outings.  She was game.
When we were teens we were the best of friends but then for many years life took us in very different directions.
In later years we kept in better touch due to my late mom's ill health and now we try to keep in better touch.

~~~

 Linking with Skywatch Friday

 Take care and have a lovely week.

A Month of Skies

I thought it would be fun to do a series of sky photos taken over approximately one month in February and March 2019.

Vancouver, BC, March 12, 2019

Edmonton, Alberta, March 19, 2019

Edmonton, Alberta, March 18, 2019

Jasper area, BC - AB border, March 15, 2019

Nairobi, Kenya, February 17, 2019

Storks getting ready for night, Nairobi, Kenya, February 16, 2019

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Have a wonderful weekend!

A Busy Week Ends

I made it to the end of the week!

I trust my American readers had a fantastic Thanksgiving.
There is always so much to be thankful for and I've been reading some of your gratitude lists this week.

There is lots to report on the missions in Kenya and in other things too.
I've organized everything by subject so you can skip ahead to those areas of interest
My photos are sprinkled throughout this post.  All photos are from my archives with the exception of the baking photos & the graphics.

 MISSIONS OF HOPE, KENYA

The first bit of good news is that my friend Jonah in Kenya was released from hospital on Sunday. Since then he has been staying in a small hotel in the city of Nakuru and seeing the doctor for follow up. Tuesday was the last follow up visit and on Wednesday he expects to return home to Kericho.  He is still a bit weak but the doctor said he will recover his strength in time. He had been incorrectly diagnosed with food poisoning when in fact he had Typhoid Fever. It is the first, and hopefully last time he will contract this disease. I surmise that he picked up the bacteria at the small hotel where he stayed and ate in during his most recent trip to Nairobi.

 Lake Elementeiti, Kenya. You can just make out the lake through the trees

In other news, I've met a young medical student in northern Kenya who finishes his residency training in a week. I met him through an Indian woman I've known for many years. She lives in Guwahati.  She ministers at various Christian meetings in India through Word and song.  When I met her she lived in Mumbai and then returned to Mizoram, her home state after marrying an American.  She now makes her home in Guwahati.  She adopted the young medical student as her spiritual son and I told her when I next get to Kenya I will visit him and take photos for her and give her a report.

The young man is in the very last stages of his medical training. He needed help with his rent and food for this month so I offered to help him.  The amount was very modest but so much needed.  After paying his rent he shared the food he purchased with his grandmother who raised him after his own mom died. His biological mom died because they were impoverished and she could not afford medical help. Before she died she told her son she wanted him to be a doctor so that he could help people like her. It is amazing that he was only 5 years of age when his mother spoke these words but now he will soon fulfill her wish and his destiny.

In a week I will send a little more money for his grandmother.  This will help her get through the Christmas season because her grandson will travel to Nairobi where he volunteers with the Red Cross during school breaks.

In January 2019, he returns to university for one more class and after that expects to graduate in May 2019.

Kenya has very high unemployment hovering close to 90 percent but this young man should be one of the fortunate ones and be snapped up by one of the hospitals.  Medical personnel are very much needed in Kenya and there is currently an inadequate supply of doctors in the country.

Another student I am assisting has just returned to university for his final year of a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. Actually he graduated a year ago and we celebrated his achievement.  Unfortunately the university's program was not accredited and in order to get recognized he must take another year of study. He isn't alone in this.  When he enrolled at the university he and his fellow students were told that the program would be accredited.  By the time they graduated they found out the accreditation had not been achieved.

What it means is they must all return to university for one more year to get accreditation.
After he graduates he hopes to get scholarships to enable him to study abroad and possibly find employment before returning to Kenya. 

The other engineering student I was helping was not able to find steady employment.
After 2 years of  start and stop jobs where I assisted him with starting all over again several times I told him I was unable to continue supporting him if he couldn't find work or create a job.
He was able to secure a small loan from the bank.  Sadly the loan was insufficient for the purpose of opening a small hair salon and barber shop.
I matched the loan to try and help him get established.  Even with the loan funds I've provided it is a very modest start and it is difficult to get things going.  There have been various challenges to the business operation but he is trying hard to make a go of things. It is really up to him now to make or break because he doesn't have many choices.
Young men in Kenya have a very hard time to find work. In fact anyone who isn't very creative at creating their own business will find it very difficult to provide for themselves and to get married and start a family.

I am really praying he will succeed so he and his girlfriend can marry and he can also help provide for his disabled mother.

There is much more to report but I will save it for another post.

YARN

It's been a busy week working on my long list of 'to dos' which included several shopping forays to buy yarn.

In my last post I wrote about how I'd purchased and lost, the yarn I bought for the afghan I'm currently crocheting.

Once I got home I  called several stores where I'd stopped on my way home but none of them had my bag of yarn.

I was resigned to buying the needed yarn again so on Tuesday night I went back to the store. When I got to the cash desk the young lady that helped me on Sunday said  that I had left my shopping bag behind. She blamed it on her distracting me. I wasn't upset in any way because she had distracted me due to trying to find various discounts to save me money.

I was very happy to find my yarn.

Not only did I get my yarn back but I realized I actually needed just a bit more yarn.
I was able to purchase the required skein  for 55% off the regular price.

It was a nice bonus. 

Another nice bonus was the young lady who served me.

I often have wonderful service but this young lady was extra special.

She was so pleasant and kind and it was nice just to see her smiling face again.

I wish we could all be like her. It makes life so much brighter when you meet happy people.
 I'm now at the point of joining my granny squares together. I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish it but once I'm done I'll share a photo.

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

I've decided to give one of my finished crocheted afghans and some knitted dishcloths to my brother and his wife for Christmas. I told him he can use the afghan to keep his knees warm this winter (see more about this below under "Personal"). I've also been purchasing a few additional gifts and gift wrap items from the dollar store in my neighbourhood. Tomorrow or Friday I'm hoping to go to a different dollar store in Chinatown. I hardly ever get to the Dollar Tree (DT).  Whenever I'm on You Tube I see so many vloggers talking about their DT hauls and the fabulous things they make with the things they get at the DT.  Basically I need a few things to add to a basket I'm putting together for a young lady. It's a kitchen and baking theme. Earlier I purchased some baking pans and a Bundt cake pan. I will add various gadgets and utensils, oven mitts and some food items to the basket. I'll likely add a few of my knitted dishcloths too.

 I also purchased two Christmas gifts for the brother who lives locally.  I already gave him the gifts because I want to make sure he fit the slippers (he did). I also wanted to make sure he liked and would use the charging station I bought for his phone and devices.  He seems to like the charging station but I know he hasn't actually tried to use it yet. I will be making up a stocking for him to open on Christmas Day so he has a little something that is a surprise.

 I had a chance to put my new smaller tree together though I haven't had a chance to decorate it yet.  It already comes pre-lit so it doesn't need much.  I'm still keeping my eyes open for a white table top tree.

Last but not least, I've purchased a few items for myself as I like to do each year.  All items were purchased from Canada's home shopping network (TSC):  a pair of warm shoes with fuzzy stuff inside (Sketchers), gel soled slippers (Tony Little) and cashmere socks (Pajar). I haven't purchased any cashmere socks for well over 10 years and have been keeping my eye out for them. I finally found the best price on TSC and ordered them. I thought if I liked them I would order more but now they have sold out of their stock.  I haven't received my order yet. There have been mail delays due to a rotating postal strike but the order should be arriving soon.

I captured a lone gull bobbing on the water. There were a lot of them that day but I like this one off by itself.

PERSONAL

My brother had to go to the Emergency Room (ER) for observation a few days ago. He started hobbling in the morning and by the time he was at work he could barely walk due to acute pain in his knees. After testing the doctor diagnosed him with arthritis and gave him an injection of pain medication.

I had this same thing happen to me a few years ago though I didn't go to the ER. I waited a very long time to tell my doctor about it. When I finally did she sent me for x-rays and confirmed my fears about osteoarthritis.

When I first started having knee pain I could barely walk for 4 months. I went to the acupuncture doctor several times a week for several months.  When I didn't get any relief I just stayed home because I was exhausted from dragging myself around.  In that short space of time I gained 40 pounds and it took me years and very diligent effort to lose it.  Along the way I learned about rehabilitation walking poles, whole body vibration and curcumin.  These 3 things have kept me walking.

READING

I made some progress reading The Couple Next Door.  It isn't the usual kind of book I read but I am enjoying it so far.  You can click on the title to read more about it to see if you are interested.

Fellow blogger Diane at Photo Diary also recommended 2 books by Zimbabwean author, Diana M. Hawkins.
I purchased the ebook called Shadows along the Zambezi

 and recommended the Vancouver library purchase the second booked called Shadows over an African Heart.

The library agreed to my recommendation so I can borrow the book later and others can enjoy it too.

I believe these two books deal with the difficult subject of elephant poaching. 

Can you spot the gull atop the Inukshuk (the stone man)?

HOUSEHOLD

I started putting up the new curtain rod. 

I have to do this job in stages because it requires a lot of getting up and down on the little ladder and making sure

everything is as straight as possible because each bracket requires two holes.

I see there are actually 4 brackets in the box, not 2.  This is great because the sales lady told me there were only 2 brackets and I almost bought 2 more to make sure I had enough.  Now I won't have to purchase any more.

When I was out running errands I came across some free stuff outside of a thrift store. 

There were 4 tiles with printed scenes on them. I took two of them and the other two were scooped up by another woman.  When I put my two tiles together they make the face of an elephant and its tusks. I've put them on the wall behind the chair in my little reading area. They coordinate with the afghan I made for myself at the start of the year (the one on the top of the pile in gold, grey and off white colours).

 

BAKING

I made some cinnamon buns using the the same recipe I made bread with last weekend.

I made enough dough to also make one loaf of bread since all the other is gone.

The buns turned out perfectly. I used very little sugar and a lot of cinnamon spice.

Now that I've made bread twice in such a short time I probably won't be baking very often in the foreseeable future.
 I might bake something for Christmas (cookies or squares of some kind, maybe buns) but I don't really need that much since my family is not very large.

I try to capture the birds flying in the morning but they are very fast.

 Take care everyone.
Thanks for visiting.

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Hello November

Hi friends,

It's been raining heavily for much of the past week so I continue with my decluttering. Actually I haven't been decluttering so much as I've been posting my decluttered things for giveaway and arranging for people to pick things up. I took the photo of the sky and trees a few days before Halloween just before the heavy rains started. I love the colour of the leaves and the blue of the sky peeking out above the clouds.

I've been busy making my crocheted afghans and trying to finish the ones I'm gifting. My hope is to find time to make a few others for possible sale but we shall see how things go.  The berry coloured afghan is finished but I must still weave in the loose ends before it will be ready for gifting.  I tried hard to get a photo without shadows but it is difficult getting indoor shots at this time of year.

I also finished the other afghan I shared in my last post (the gray and gold one below) but didn't take a photo of the finished project yet.  The third afghan I am currently making is the same colour way as the gray and gold. I must  have been getting too tired as I ended up ripping out almost one third of it today. Actually it is the 3rd rip out I've done in 2 days due to mistakes I didn't like.  I don't usually make a lot of crochet errors but lately haven't been getting enough sleep.  I really love to crochet. I find it very relaxing and gives my hands something to do during long, dark, rainy nights.

Last week I was decluttering and this week I was posting stuff for giveaway and communicating with people to arrange pick up times.  The big balls of yarn I gave to a missionary ladies group that I've donated to before. they have a large group of industrious woman who are always making things and sending them abroad to Asia and Africa.  I love knowing that things will be put to good use and benefit others.

In future I will not be buying so much yarn in advance of actually needing to use it.  I thought I was saving money by buying yarn on sale but it takes too much room to store and if I haven't used it in 3 years then it's not likely going to be used soon.  My new approach is to buy one or two skeins at a time for projects I am currently working on though I also still have a stash of smaller skeins in a few colour ways. You will likely see some of them on this blog in a future project/s.

 

The photos below show other things I was able to give to others. After buying velvet hangers for my closet I had 70+ plastic hangers in a variety of colours to give away. Someone gladly took them off of my hands. I also had various tops and jeans, shower curtain and bath mat and an artificial Christmas tree (not in the photo) to give away.  I'm still waiting for someone to arrange to pick up a few smaller items at a mutually convenient time.

I meant to share the next photo long ago. I took it a year ago in October down at the English Bay sea wall on one of my walks. I stopped to buy a coffee and saw this gentle, old dog quietly waiting for his master.  He was very sweet.

 

I took a photo of the ducks down at the same beach. I like the way the sun is shining on the water.

A week ago Friday I went to dinner with two friends, one is a missionary to Taiwan.   It was really nice to chat with Cindy and find out more about her life and work in Taiwan. She has already worked in Uganda, the Philippines and Canada's far north. She's spent the majority of her time in Taiwan and it is her home now. She loves the people. I still remember the day we prayed for her at my former church as she was preparing to leave for Taiwan. I haven't seen her in many years and we had a good catch up.

Here is a photo of what the day looked like early evening Thursday on the first day of November.  We have a rain warning starting around dinner time tonight and ending Saturday morning.  As you can see by the photo, my plans to clean the garden up at the end of September never came to fruition. It's still a job I have to do and will try to do in the next little while in preparation for the winter months.

Good weather for one of my other main hobbies, reading.
Here are my current reads.

I found this November inspirational verse on line.

 

It will be  a good reminder for me to remain positive as we head into my least favourite time of year weather wise.


Here's to November.
May you have a blessed and adventurous one.

Thank you for visiting :-)

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