Enjoying May Skies

There have been some lovely skies this month.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday.

Click on the link and you will see more awesome skies from around the globe.

Have a lovely weekend.

Sunrise

Now and then I am blessed to catch a sunrise. This is one from a few days ago. 

We continue to have odd weather. It hailed again.This is the 2nd time in a week.

The hail looked like snow. I couldn't believe it but speaking to a cousin of mine just yesterday I learned it was snowing where she lives. It is rather late in the season for that. While we were talking on the phone I saw one reporter from her city (Edmonton) bringing the news of their recent provincial elections. The snow was falling and blowing wildly about him. Brrr.

The hail did a bit of damage to my garden plants.  I didn't realize that until I uploaded these (and other photos) and saw the damaged  leaves.

 I think they will be hardy enough to get beyond it.

I apologize to my readers if you haven't seen me much this week. I'm recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning. I seem to be on the mend.

How was your week? 

Joining in with Skywatch Friday this week.

Have a look there for more awesome skies from all over the world.

Painted Sky & A Little Girl

Psalms 78:23

Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven;
- See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Sky#sthash.cSKl3iRK.dpuf

Psalms 78:23

Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven;
- See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Sky#sthash.cSKl3iRK.dpuf

 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
    and opened the doors of the heavens;

Psalm 78:23

Psalms 78:23

Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven;
- See more at: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Sky#sthash.cSKl3iRK.dpuf

 ~~~

 The changing sky never ceases to amaze me. 

Despite all the rain that fell and the gray days we had, I was  awestruck by
the beauty to be found in the sky this week. 

~~~~

On the other side of the world and under the same sky lives a little girl named Fidelis Muthoni.
Carrying her is Joseph Wambau, the young man that is trying to help Fidelis and her mother get to Canada this month for much needed surgery. They need our support because the surgery in Canada is free but they do need to raise travel funds to get from Kenya to Canada and to have living expense money while they are in the country.

I would be grateful if you could spare a few minutes to do what you can to share the information about Baby Fidelis more widely with your own circle of contacts and friends.
You can find all the necessary information at this link

 http://www.snapthatpenny.blogspot.ca/2015/04/saving-angel-fidelis-update.html

The more people who know of the baby's situation, the more people who will be reached that might help baby Fidelis.

If you have limited time but want to make a donation, you can do so through Pay Pal.

Here is a link to the Pay Pal button  http://hopefoundationkenya.org/donate.html
Please mark any donations as "Purpose - Baby Fidelis" so the funds get to the right child.
The Hope Foundation which is based in Nairobi, tries to help many orphans and disabled children.
Identifying the funds for Fidelis makes sure that it is earmarked for her travel and not to the general needs.

Thank you so much for your help!

~~~

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.
Check out the link for more awesome skies from around the world.

Bluetiful Day

One day I was running errands in an area of town I seldom get to. I've had to go that way a few times in the last few months. 

Since it has literally been years and years since I have visited this part of town, the area has changed considerably.  Whenever yuppies move into a neighbourhood, they change the area dramatically by renovating houses, opening new shops and wonderful cafes and coffee shops.

I will have to return in future to check out some of these "new to me" places.

 On my last foray to the eastern part of the city, the sky was an absolutely beautiful blue, or "bluetiful".  It had been threatening to rain all day but the afternoon turned out to be fantastic.

I'm glad I ventured out after all rather than staying indoors where I would be snuggled against the elements. 

I mentioned that this part of town is changing dramatically.  Actually all parts of the city are changing dramatically.  No matter where you look new building and highrises are going up.  I don't usually take photos of the buildings that are going up as there are plenty of those. 

In the photo above, the building was difficult to cut out of the picture.  I also thought that the building added to the "flavour" of what is happening in the neighbourhood.

While I was trying to capture the sky and the contrail I noticed a bird flying by.

Birds in flight are always a nice surprise. 

A few days earlier before these blue and white sky photos were taken I was in a totally different neighbourhood in the centre of the city.  I was there to photograph more tree blossoms.

I wasn't the only one with this idea.

I crossed paths with at least 5 people in a matter of minutes.

We were all taking photos of the lovely tree blossoms.

 It was a very bright, sunny day with no clouds in sight.

I also took photos of beautiful red rhododendrons in full bloom but these photos were overexposed.

 I'm still learning my new camera and perhaps this summer I will get some better photos of flowers.

 

Thank you for visiting (and commenting).

Linking up with Skywatch Friday
I Heart Macro

Intersection of Hastings & Granville

I was in downtown Vancouver just over a week ago.

I took these fun shots of the city sky at the corner of Hastings & Granville Street.

A Blessed Easter weekend to you and your family.

 

Joining in with Skywatch Friday

Images from La Belle Province Pt. 2

Thank you for all of your sweet comments on my last post. Your visits and your encouraging words mean so much to me.

Let use continue on our journey through Quebec. My last post and images on this trip can be found here.

It is only our first day in Quebec and we are very tired. But our first item of business is to visit with and pick up my elderly cousin, seen in the first photo.

 Then we travelled to Lanoraie and picked up her younger (80 year old)  sister. Seen in the next photo.

Then we travelled to a small town called Louisville.  It is a small town located near the mouth of the Wolf River (Rivière du Loup) on the north shore of Lac St. Pierre (Lake Saint Pierre).  The population of this town is just over 7000 with a predominantly French speaking population.

 Here were are driving on the main street of the town.

You will find this informational map on the main street of the town and near the Catholic Church.

This area was originally part of the Rivière-du-Loup Seignory. This seignory was formed in 1665 by Intendant Jean Talon and granted in 1672 to Charles Dugey Rozoy de Mannereuil, officer in the Carignan Regiment. The seignory was thereafter also known as Rivière-Mannereuil for some time.

This statue is a monument to Charles du Jay, founder of Louiseville & Lord of Manereuil

You might wonder why we bothered to go to this town. It is the place where our first ancestors to Canada settled centuries ago. At that time the place was called Rivière-du-Loup, but changed it's name in 1879 to Louisville to avoid confusion with another Rivière-du-Loup in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region.  The new name was a tribute to the daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Caroline Alberta, who was expected to visit the area in the same year.

The next few photos are of the countryside near Louiseville and of the Town of Lavaltrie where we were treated to a lovely dinner before retiring for the evening to the Town of Lanoraie.

After a short time looking around the town center we took a drive in the local area and came to the river.  As you can see it was very high due to heavy amount of rains over the Spring of 2013.

We also came across these colourful fishing huts nearby.

Since I published my last blog post and photos I managed to finish reading 4 more books (A Week in Winter, Committed, Tapestry of Fortune and Don't Break Your Heart Cookbook) toward my reading goals and am working on the 5th one (Half Blood Blues). The books were not so difficult to read so I didn't spend all my time reading this week.  However the books put me past my modest reading goal for the year (24 books) so I've increased my goal to 28 books. If I pick up another book or two  before year's end, that will be a bonus.

The drive back to Lavaltrie for dinner.

On Friday I was invited to lunch to the home of some friends from Tanzania. I spent all afternoon at their home while the lunch was being prepared.  Afterwards I had lots of time to visit with the couple and their two children. They have an exceptionally large home so it was nice having all that space to enjoy. The husband is here completing his Ph.D. in Linguistics and his wife hopes to get into a Master's program soon.  One thing that touched me is that before lunch, the father asked his son to pray. His son is going into Grade 1 next month. His son asked for a blessing on the food and also asked our heavenly Father to help him as he wanted to be a good boy. I thought that was so special.

There was beautiful colour in the sky over Lavaltrie.

I didn't want to be rude and take photos of the food but it was an interesting and very large lunch.  She made some fried salmon fillets, brown rice, kale with avocado, some kind of soup with green beans and tomatoes and whole wheat chapati (bread).  For dessert she made a spelt and whole wheat banana bread and some fresh fruit (watermelon, apples, blueberries).  It was so kind of her to go to all that preparation. Her father is a diabetic and so she is extra sensitive to preparing appropriate foods.

I didn't get a photo of the Asian restaurant where we dined but I did snap a few shots of the area.

More restaurants with a European flair and another church in the background.

I love the blue coloured building and the pink sky above.

Local signage.

This week I will be joining in with a few memes

Blue Monday

Our World Tuesday