Skywatch Friday Vancouver

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Happy Friday to you all. I hope you are all doing well.

Thursday was a beautiful, sunny day here in Vancouver. I had an appointment downtown and walked back to the main transit station to return home. Along the way I took these photos to share with you.

Vancouver Art Gallery (with red banners) and the Vancouver Hotel just to the left in the photo.

Robson Square in the heart of downtown, UBC downtown campus

View looking south from Robson Square, Vancouver courthouse just beyond the trees in middle

Part of the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel

Adjacent buildings reflected in one of the Wall Centre towers

The Vancouver Courthouse

Nelson Street going east

I'm linking up with Skywatch Friday this week. 

Thank you for stopping by!

First Snow that "Stuck" & Health Care Worker Needs

 Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

Here are a few photos of what the scene looked like off my balcony on Tuesday morning. It snowed all night Monday and this time it stuck around a bit longer. I took these photos just after 6 a.m.  Yesterday when I went out to do some grocery shopping, I noticed that most of the snow had melted but some still remains on my patio in areas where the sun doesn't reach. Snowing so early in the season is highly unusual. I guess the last time that happened was in 1991.

Almost all of Canada is suffering a great shortage of staff in many sectors. Canada's Immigration Minister and the Government of Canada has released it's figures for immigrant or newcomer admission targets for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Altogether newcomers will total  almost 1.5 million people.  Skilled labour in the health care and construction fields have been identified as priorities. 

On the news the other day this graphic was shared about the projected needs for health care workers over the next 10 years.  These projections are just for the province where I live.  The needs for the rest of the provinces and territories in the country are just as great. If the government plans to attract more foreign workers something needs to be done quickly to address the very real housing shortage and it's related issue of affordability.

In pleasurable pursuits I said earlier that my reading goals this year would be modest and they were. I decided I'd aim for 1 book a month knowing I might read more some months and nothing in other months. As it turned out I did reduce my reading as planned but I still read far more than I intended. To date I've read 43 books and almost 16,000 pages. I'm sure I won't make 20,000 pages before the end of the year. Even though I've got another 7-8 books in my reading pile I may not be able to complete all of them. 

I had hoped to cut down on reading and spend more time on crafting and sewing this year. That didn't happen because of decluttering and small household projects that took more time than I thought they would. But I did manage to complete several alterations on various trousers for DH.

In the photos I'm showing preparations involved in lengthening the pockets on a pair of DHs trousers.  When I compared pocket length in various of his  trousers these ones were shorter by about 4 inches. That's a lot. 

I didn't have the right fabric in my stash so I 'made do' with some light cotton fabric. After cutting the shape and sewing the seams, I attached the new piece to the bottom of the original pockets. Those of you who are sewists know this isn't as quick as it sounds. The challenge I have is none of my machines are as able as mom's old Singer treadle machine to sew through several layers of fabric as in the side seams of trousers and jeans.  But I did the job and I'm happy it's done.  The other project was tapering the legs on a new pair of jeans and hemming them. DH has worn the jeans a lot since then. Next up, I have several pair of pants of my own to hem and I'd like to shorten a linen tablecloth I bought a few months ago.   I still have a lot of household stuff to deal with and I think I'd be more able to focus on sewing once these other things are out of the way.

I know some people are already putting up their Christmas trees. I don't plan on setting up mine until some time in December, usually about half way through the month. However I've been buying a few gifts here and there whenever I see something I like.  I can spread the Christmas spending over a longer period of time that way. Earlier this week I was able to wrap gifts for 2 people on my list. The task was made easier by buying some Christmas fabric bags from the Dollar Tree. They are quite cute and made the job a lot quicker. I think I need to get a few more of the bags for the other Christmas gifts I want to give. 

What about you dear reader?  Are you experiencing health care worker shortages where you live? What is your government doing about it if anything? Have you read any good books lately? Are you working on anything creative or have plans to sew anything for Christmas gifts?

Tuesday 4 ~ Light

We are experiencing a heat wave this week and Tuesday will be very hot. After that it will cool a bit each day. I'm not sure what the rest of the summer holds since our warm weather came very late this year unlike last year where we battled constant heat and wildfires or smoke from wildfires. It seems that kind of weather has moved on to central an eastern Canada, parts of USA and Europe. Please stay safe and cool wherever you are.

~~~~

 Welcome to another Tuesday 4 by Toni Taddeo.

 

Let's talk about light, okay? You light up my life.. shine a light in the darkness, Miller Light. All kinds of light but how about at home?

1. Are you afraid of the dark? Is night or day your favorite time?

I'm not afraid of the dark in general; only if I am alone walking in the dark anywhere. Late at night or very early in the morning are my favourite times because it tends to be cooler and quiet. 

 2. Do you have night lights in your home?

I have a night light that plugs into the socket in my bathroom. When I use it I don't have to turn the hallway lights on if I get up in the middle of the night. I don't always use it though because light keeps me awake.

3. How low do you set your air conditioning?  Do you adjust it through the day?

I don't have any air conditioning though I wish I did. I do have a few fans and I turn them on and off all day long during hot summer days or when the air is stagnant.

4. Do you keep any outdoor or indoor lights on all night?

I don't keep lights on outside all night. In fact, it is forbidden by the strata by-laws to have light bulbs outside. I pretend I don't know that and I have a few solar lights in the garden to enjoy at night when I look out. Inside I only have the bathroom light which only throws light once it's dark. I don't use it all the time as light tends to keep me awake when it filters through the cracks around the door.  

Late at night I read or knit and sometimes watch TV. It seems I concentrate better when virtually everyone else is sleeping. (The photo shows 3 books I'm currently reading).  Thanks for stopping by!

A Sunny Day

 Last time I posted about the cherry blossoms on a rainy, cloudy day.

Today I'm posting a photo of the beautiful day we had on Friday. It was only one day. Today we are back to rain. On Wednesday it is expected to shine again and hopefully will be warming up after that.

On Thursday night I found it very cold in the house and I was wondering why. It's because it snowed at the higher elevations overnight. I woke up to a beautiful sunny day and fresh snow on the mountains.

Can you tell I'm excited about spring?

Thanks for stopping by.

Cherry Blossoms are Here!

Hello everyone, 

I'm a bit late to the Skywatch Friday party. My excuse is it's been a very busy week and I didn't have much of an opportunity to get sky photos.  It's been raining heavily all week!

However it's cherry blossom time again and I was able to capture a few of the beautiful blossoms. The following photos are not retouched so you can see how dull the sky was when I took the photos. It is hard to see the colour of the cherry blossoms but they are still so pretty and soon the sun will shine here.

 

 

Have a wonderful Friday and thank you for stopping by!

Joining in with Skywatch Friday.

The Temperature Has Dropped

It's been a very busy week and it isn't over yet. At least it's been a productive week so far. I've been doing a lot of catch up to paperwork, appointments, old tasks and a little cooking, cleaning, knitting and reading in between. 

I completed a few books this past week or so and started on a number of new ones. All of the books are very interesting.I'm still reading An Arctic Man.  It isn't such a long book but it is chock full of information and new place names so I only read a bit at a time.

The late Andre Leon Talley is someone I used to see interviewed on television quite a lot so when I heard he had passed, I wanted to read some of the books he wrote in the latter years of his life. The Chiffon Trenches is quite an information packed book and shows me how widely this man was travelled and how many people he knew in not just the fashion world but the world of high society. He tells it like it is about certain people and some have called him catty for doing so. Honestly I don't know how you can write a truthful book and not come across as somewhat catty if the people you are mentioning were not so nice.  Apart from all of that I enjoyed the book a  lot and I personally didn't find anything in it that was so badly maligning anyone. In fact, I think he tried very hard to speak to the positive things about everyone he knew. 

(As always you can click on photos for an enlarged view).

Very interesting & informative and all about those in the fashion/society world.

 

I've started the middle book and the end book, Burke's Law, all very good.

I am constantly uncovering new to me stories about Jewish experiences during WW 2. The book The Dressmakers of Auschwitz was very eye opening. I had no idea that there were Jewish women whose skills as seamstresses were in much demand during the war and at internment camps no less.  This particular book is not a novel but is based on real life experiences of several women whose skills were in demand and their heart breaking stories.

Opened my eyes to a new to me story about the Jewish women who sewed for the Nazis.

A few dishes made recently.

Beef stir fry and a lot of vegetables over steamed noodles

Roast chicken,Caesar salad, mixed mushrooms/onions/asparagus

Taco Soup

Baked salmon, quinoa, mixed veggies (mushroom,/bell pepper/broccoli/onion)

 

Late at night while it's cold I make a hot cup of tea and do a little knitting. I am always in need of new dishcloths and I also gift them to friends near and far.

 

Earlier this week I heard the weather report of possible snow in Vancouver. It didn't happen as anticipated but the temperature did drop two nights ago. The first few photos show the fresh snow on the mountains and a fairly clear sky with beautiful patches of blue.

Fresh snow on the mountains on Tuesday night

It was a clear day to see the mountains in the distance.

I love the snow covered mountain tops.

Then tonight, the snow really started to fly. I snapped this photo as I was returning from a quick grocery shopping expedition. I tried to capture the snow in video but my short films are poorly done.

Wednesday night the snow was flying as I ran an errand to the grocers.

I'll end here and wish you a fantastic rest of your week.

Food & Other Things

I'm still trying to shop frugally and buy healthy things but I do still eat snacks that aren't quite good for me.  I don't usually do my main grocery shopping on Saturdays but didn't feel like going out earlier this week so today it was. It was time because I'm out of bananas and berries and most vegetables.

I bought most of the fruits, vegetables, milk and bread at a local grocery store call Nester's Market. The price was just over $40. Canadian dollars. I forgot to purchase the milk I originally went there to buy.

 

So I stopped at the pharmacy on my way home and bought berries, frozen dinners, milk, fabric sheets, snacks and a health supplement.  The cost was about $88. with the supplement taking up almost a third of the cost.

I didn't have my receipts handy when posting these photos but I will post them soon.

I was craving something for dessert the other night so I made this blueberry loaf. It's actually a muffin recipe to which I added a fraction of the sugar in the recipe.  I baked it in a  silicone loaf pan. I don't know why I did that. I really don't like the texture of muffins or sweet breads that are baked in a silicone pan. I find the silicone is good for bread baking though. I'm not sure why that is. This loaf was made with a mixture of spelt and white flour. I am not so good at figuring out the healthiest flours to use and I restrain myself from buying alternative flours until I figure out what works best and what I can bake. Do any of you have a healthier flour to recommend where one can bake and use the flour in the same quantities as if you are using white or whole wheat?

Blueberry loaf baked in silicone loaf pan.

I didn't eat today so by the time I went out to do the grocery shopping I ate at McDonald's. I didn't eat most of the fries and today the bun was super sloppy. They were having a deal on Big Macs. Long ago when McDonald's first opened in my town in the north, the Big Macs were the thing to get. Personally I found them sloppily made from the beginning so never ate them until recently. This one was not good at all though the ones I've had in the last year have all been quite fine. The drink was good. Some kind of mango - pineapple smoothie. 

Knitting is one way I try and relax while also doing something constructive. I enjoy knitting but haven't branched out too much. I have made slippers in the past but I think they are too slippery to wear, pardon the pun.  So I stick to dishcloths.

This is one of the newer books I picked up at the library. It's very interesting and well written. I'm reading it very slowly.

I'm still working on the Fly Lady system. I never did get into the zone cleaning but I do the other routines quick regularly. I've started the kitchen clear out on Wednesday's to try and help me keep the refrigerator cleaner than it usually is. I tend to buy too much and have to cram everything inside. Then food goes to waste. These days I'm shopping less frequently, buying less and trying to meal plan so I can reduce what I need to buy. I'm in early days with this. Gosh, in the old days I sure didn't need to keep on such a schedule and everything was cleaner and tidier than I'm able to keep things nowadays. I think it's a combination of getting older and not caring quite as much.  But now I want to get everything in order for a multiple of reasons.

 

 

In addition to Wednesday's refrigerator clean out, I usually wash and change bedding on the weekend.

It's nearing the end of February and it's still chilly outside at night. The mink sheets are getting good use and are nice and cosy against the skin.  It's supposed to be sunny later this week. I'm certainly hoping so because I've been trying to get to the beach for photos. It will make a change from indoor activities no matter the weather but I would rather go on a warmer, sunny day.

I'm making changes to the blog and haven't hit on an agreeable combination of fonts and colours. Please bear with me as I try to figure it all out.

I'll be very busy this coming week with a few appointments so it may take awhile. How are you keeping yourself busy during these pandemic times? Where I live people many conditions have now been lifted as we try to navigate through a different way of living with the threat of world wide diseases.  Earlier this week the majority of pandemic restrictions were lifted. People are getting ready to return to their work places if they haven't already.  People are still pretty disciplined about not getting together socially, especially with those that have underlying health conditions,  Public activities like sporting events, concerts, weddings and funerals are now open. Masks and vaccine passports are still required in my province though not in every Canadian province.

Wednesday is Anti-Procrastination Day

Hey friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope the week is going well for you.  It's been a bit busy for me but not with anything major. I just have a lot of little things to do and small things to catch up on. Don't you find that little things seem to take more time somehow?

I completed the murder-mystery by Canadian author Shari Lapena. I enjoyed it but the ending left me a bit disappointed though I think someone else may find it suits them fine. I don't want to say more because I know many of you are fans of murder-mystery novels so I don't want to give anything away.  Currently I'm reading, The Lemon Tree Hotel and Arctic Man both of which are good for different reasons. However I  wouldn't say they are totally engrossing.  Just satisfying and satisfying is good enough.

I'm still working to try and keep the meals tasty and interesting.

These are a few of the meals we had in the past few days.

Stir fried beef and onions and stir fried noodles with chili and vegetables.

BBQ Ribs and Kraft dinner with side of coleslaw (coleslaw not in photo)

Curried cauliflower & split peas served with rice and homemade chapati

Penne-pasta-lox-n-spinach with caesar salad.

BBQ-salmon-pilaf-salad

 

I think I mentioned that I try to follow the Fly Lady household routines. One of the big principles is to clean and shine your sink at least once a day. I try but often it seems like I don't get to it until very late at night.  It takes me so long just to wash the dinner dishes after I've finished eating dinner. Now and then I get ahead of the game and it always feels good to have a nice, clean sink.

Yesterday I paid the fee for the community garden and asked my nephew and his girlfriend to take over the plot once again this year.  After that I'll decide whether I want to continue renting the plot going forward. My nephew and his girlfriend gained some valuable gardening experience and I was able to focus on my patio garden and also catch up with a lot of projects and tasks at home.

One of my favourite days is Wednesday which is called anti-procrastination day in the land of Fly Lady. I usually am able to get one niggling item out of the way on that day, sometimes two.  I think it helps me to stop thinking about my long list of items during the week if I have a dedicated day to work on them. Of course, if I'm up to it I can also work on such tasks on any other day.

Errand day is on Thursday and I usually run to the post office, grocery stores and the library. Actually grocery shopping usually takes me about 3 separate errands on different days but Thursday is the main shopping day and some weeks I don't have so much to buy. Tomorrow I am expecting a package and I'm looking forward to it.  If it turns out to be helpful I will write about it in a future post.

Friday I'm also expecting a long awaited delivery of grass fed beef from an area where the ranchers were flooded out in November. You might remember me writing about the floods and the destruction of a major highway from Vancouver to the Interior of BC and beyond. I'm surprised the rancher has anything to deliver but I'm anticipating they won't be able to fulfill all their orders, possibly even mine so we shall see what happens.

We had some sunny days last week and fog earlier in the week. The weather forecast was for possible snow today. In fact it is did snow but barely and it quickly melted before the rain started.

As you can see, the sky is very gray and not very interesting unless there are some distant lights to look at.

Other things keeping me busy are liaising with long distance friends and relatives, watching a lot of Netflix, daily devotions and prayer and the daily things that keep the household going.

What about you dear reader? What things kept you busy this week?

Whatever it is you are doing, I hope you are keeping healthy and happy.