So Much Beauty ~ Skywatch Friday

I started the day with clear blue skies as in the first photo.

Before night fell, I went to the community garden and was there for a short after doing this and that around the home. Most of the people in the park were dog owners;  taking Fido out for their evening business. Other patrons were clearly reluctant to leave and lingered on to talk or play the guitar and sing.  I enjoyed a mini conference while relaxing nearby to the songstress.

I'd gone to the garden for a bit of weeding and came home with a nice amount of strawberries. Unbeknownst to me my DH had already weeded so I was relieved of my responsibility.  The strawberries were definitely a lot tastier than most purchased at the stores but they were also a lot dirtier. You know you can't really wash berries because they spoil more quickly once moisture gets on them..  I washed and used about half of them right away in a smoothie right away and froze the other half.

Earlier in the day I was doing a whole lot of small jobs that just never seem to get done when there are a mountain of daily, larger chores to do.  I always feel accomplished when I manage to clear away some of the smaller tasks.

I wound all the large skeins of yarn into balls

I also got rid of a lot of packaging materials.

Earlier in the week I captured these beautiful skies.

Thanks so much for stopping by my Skywatch Friday post for this week. Have a wonderful weekend.

May 29, 2025 - Skywatch Friday

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Happy weekend ahead to you all.

Today I'm sharing photos from a recent walk to a small local park. I was able to capture the sun going down.

It was a beautiful evening.  The next day it rained heavily.

Thanks for visiting my Skywatch Friday post.

Skywatch Friday ~ May 16, 2025

Hello everyone,

After some sunny but not yet quite hot weather, we are now getting more spring showers. You know the old saying?  April showers, brings May flowers. But it feels much colder than usual at this time of year and though I know there are flowers elsewhere, mine aren't yet at that stage.

Anyway, I take the rain as it comes. I don't mind it as long it isn't raining heavily for weeks on end as it can sometimes do.  We west coasters get out and about no matter the weather.  Today I had to get out for a walk and do some errands.  I don't carry an umbrella anymore and since it was more than drizzling, I stopped to buy a plastic rain poncho at the dollar store.

After running errands I stopped for a Japanese Bento Box of Chicken Teriyaki and tea to warm up.  It was delicious.  

Once I got home, I finished crocheting a set of dishcloths. This is the first time I've made this pattern and actually the first time I've made a crocheted dishcloth. Normally I make a simple knitted version.  I picked the pattern from a YouTube video. The pattern is called Berry Pattern.

I hope you are enjoying the weather and the skies where ever you are. Thanks for stopping by my post for this week's Skywatch Friday.

I Forgot it Was Time for Skywatch

Hello everyone, 

It's now the wee hours of Saturday morning. I'd forgotten all about Skywatch Friday hence this late post.  Of course I knew it was Friday but it was a very busy day.  I was waiting for 3 deliveries, 2 of which came very late in the day and the 3rd came not at all. It's been that kind of week; very busy and some things not going to plan but all is well.

Friday was a spectacular day before the rains started late in the day. Too bad I had to stay indoors waiting for deliveries.  But I did manage to get a few photos.

From the balcony

On West Broadway Street near Heather Street

On West Broadway near Michael's Craft Store

Broadway, the street above, has a new underground subway tunnel. Construction is currently underway for the six new stations that will serve the new line.  See the yellow line in the map below (click to enlarge) and the red dots or circles. The circles represent the new stations.

Extending the line to the west (left side of the photo) from Arbutus to the University of BC (the green space) is one of the priorities for the Greater Vancouver region.  Continuing the line is basically down to a question of the funds required to do the remaining work. At the same time, the Translink Authority which manages all the public transportation in the Greater Vancouver area, has approved a significant number of improvements to existing services and additions to current services through new bus routes and more frequency on the busiest of bus routes. I'm not sure yet whether my route is affected but I hope we will get more frequent buses since it takes so long to get anywhere even though I don't live so terribly far from most places I need to go.

Thank you for stopping by my Skywatch post.  I hope you're enjoying the weather and the beautiful sky wherever you are in the world.  Note:  Over the past several weeks I've had issues trying to link up with Skywatch. I've tried several times this morning and will continue trying until I can post. Thanks for your patience.

Easter Weekend ~ 2025

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Another Easter has come and gone. I hope yours was a special one.

We had our Easter dinner on Easter Sunday or what many call Resurrection Sunday, the day that Jesus rose from his grave after being crucified on Good Friday.

This year I decided to make it easy on myself in the kitchen. Instead of roast ham or turkey with all the fixings, I made a sheet pan dinner of small potatoes, asparagus and salmon covered in olive oil and herbs.  For dessert we had a fruit flan. 

Dinner was delicious and best of all I didn't feel so tired out like I usually do when making the holiday meal. 

On the sacred holidays I'd rather be thinking about the reason for the season, especially at Christmas and Easter instead of slaving over a hot stove. Right now too everything is in disarray at my home.  There are all kinds of boxes, bags and furniture that either has to be sorted or taken to the landfill. This kind of situation doesn't lend itself to having people over as much as I'd like to host a few people on special holidays. It will have to wait until things are more organized.

On Saturday I had errands, the main one was to go to an advance poll and cast my vote for the federal election. The voting day is April 28th but advance polls were open for 3 days over the long weekend and there was a record turnout of voters. I had to wait in line a bit longer than usual and I was glad to get out there once finished because I was too hot in the small room. Everything went well though. The elections here are always well run in my opinion and things tend to go quite smoothly. On my walk to the polling station I took the following photos. This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday this week.Sorry it's late but I had an issue with trying to upload.  This has been a problem over the past month. 

It had been a lovely day but you can see the clouds forming.

After voting I stopped for a light dinner of Pho Noodle Soup and shrimp salad rolls.  It was delicious. By the time I left to go home, it was pouring rain. I was glad I had the warming soup to sustain me because it was also quite chilly and I wasn't quite dressed for heavy rain.  I had to walk a few blocks in order to catch the city busy for my short ride home.

Easter Monday saw me getting things organized for the week ahead. I also visited the community garden to weed and plant seeds.  I planted 2 varieties of sunflowers, carrots, watermelon and leeks. I'd like to plant some kale if I can find some seeds soon.  I may or may not plant tomatoes.  I think it's a bit early for a wide variety of seeds and nursery plants but the community garden contract stipulates that our gardens must be fully planted by the end of April each year. It means I start buying seeds and sometimes starting them, sometime in February or March. I buy locally not through mail order and so the options are limited.

While at the garden I ran into someone I knew from university many years ago when we were both working at the Law Faculty. It turns out she is a newcomer to the community garden and we had a nice chat and updated one another on our personal news and other people we both know in common.  It was nice to have a visit with her. 

That's how my weekend went. I was pleased with my balance of work and relaxation. I hope you had a great weekend too. Thanks for visiting and please come again soon. 

Skywatch Friday ~ Last Friday in March

Hello and welcome to Friday's Skywatch post,

It has been raining so very heavily now for what seems like forever. It makes it difficult to go anywhere. But today it stopped raining and the sun came out. I couldn't get away early but in the late evening I went to the grocery store for a few items and snapped these night photos.

It was much warmer than it has been in a long while and it felt so good. You can see some of the apple blossoms are out in full force but haven't started to blossom on other trees.  I'm hoping it will be sunny more frequently soon so I can get out and enjoy the blossoms more fully and during the day too.

A few years ago I learned that many of the city's cherry trees were gifts from Japan.  In the early 1930s the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama in Japan gifted 500 Ojochin variety cherry trees to the City of Vancouver, British Columbia.  The trees were meant to honour the Japanese-Canadian veterans of WW1.  A few years later, Bunjiro and Kimi Uyeda, a local business owner and philanthropist couple, donated another 100 cherry trees to the city's park board.  The citizens and visitors alike have been enjoying the blossoms ever since. Today we enjoy thousands of cherry trees all over the city and they are in full bloom from late March to about the end of Apri with some areas starting earlier and some starting later.  Right now there is a Cherry Blossom Festival going on. I've never attended myself because it's often still cold and blustery and it's also a very busy time for me in general.  But the moment the sun shines and I have a few spare moments I get out and take some photos.

You can tell the weather was warmer as people are walking around without heavy jackets. It was so nice not to feel the chill when I went out. I don't need heat but I do like the temperature to be a bit higher than frigid, lol. I snapped this photo of the pretty tree with Christmas lights. The tree will likely remain lit all year long. 

During Covid, the city put seating in many streets all around town so people could visit outdoors instead of in their homes. After things got back to more or less normal, the city decided to continue with these outdoor seating areas and they've become a nice place to rest or visit, or both. Sometimes they have live free music. I noticed they added several tables and chairs on the opposite side of the street (the side on which I'm standing to take a photo).

On Wednesday the sun came out and brightened the day a bit. I managed to capture a bit of blue in the sky.

Thanks for joining me on Skywatch Friday.