Thursday, November 1, 2018

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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Friday, October 26, 2018

A Busy Last Week in October

Hi friends,

I've been busy since I last shared in this space.

The weather has turned cool and the sunshine went away. We are now getting liquid sunshine. Sadly I didn't have an opportunity to get to my much desired walk in the park.  I'm still hoping to go soon and will share any photos I'm able to take.

In the meantime the weather has me doing domestic things.

First up, I made some delicious Butternut Squash Soup. It included carrots and potatoes and was even better than I anticipated. I also just love the autumnal colour. If you haven't made this soup yet you can find some good recipes at allrecipes.com


I'm currently making two different afghans. One is in the photo below. The other one (not pictured) is done in two colours: berry and magenta. I ran into some issues being able to get enough yarn for the latter. I started making it with my stash and when I returned to Michael's to purchase more yarn I discovered this yarn is now out of stock. I managed to find a very close match in a different brand of yarn as I don't have time to go searching for the same yarn or to try and find it on line.


A week or so ago I ordered  100 flocked hangers in violet colour just to get away from boring black.


The above hangers replace the large garbage bag of plastic hangers which I've advertised for giveaway. If no one wants them I'll see if I can donate them to a thrift store or other.



The hangers arrived late last week and on Thursday night I finally managed to start changing out the hangers in my bedroom closet. I ran out of hangers and am expecting another 100 in a few days. That will be more than enough. 


I like the look of uniformity that the new hangers give. 
It is kind of hard to tell due to all the patterned clothing but they are organized by colour and type (not by season). 
I still have plastic hangers to change out which you can see to the left. I'm saving the very large and sturdy plastic hangers to use in the coat closet.

The following photos are from my archives.










Thank you for visiting.

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Thursday, October 18, 2018

Fall Colour & Sunshine

I went to City Hall to try and vote in the advance poll for a new Mayor and city Councillors. The line up was so long and I had many other errands to run so I decided to wait until Saturday which is when the regular poll will be open.

City Hall (front)


Back (northern view) from City Hall. Downtown is in the distance.


We've been having fabulous Fall weather this past week or so and the fall foliage is still on the trees but just barely in some cases. These photos were taken on my walk to City Hall.








The next several photos were taken on the weekend. Look at the tree on the left side of the photo below. It's completely  missing half it's leaves.





The large building complex in the photo below is nearing completion. You might recognize the tower from many of my earlier posts. I've been watching it go up for what seems like years though I think the construction started in earnest  last October.


I've heard that the tower is ready for move in though I'm not sure when the move in date is. The condominiums were sold out several years ago.


There will be a grocery market on the ground level. (The tower peeking out in the back is the one I've featured numerous times in my blog posts).  This is a higher end market called Nester's. There is already a branch of this grocery market a short 10 minute bus ride away to the south but this store will make grocery shopping extremely convenient for the resident owners. In fact there there is another food store just behind the building across the street.


I spotted this cute puppy at the park. He really didn't want to walk and laid down on the grass to protest. Eventually he followed his master and they went ahead in the general direction that I travelled.


Time has been flying buy as always. I'm still not quite 100% healthy though I'm learning I always feel sub par during the Fall months. It is my favourite season but I always seem to be sick for much of it with low grade fever, headache and fatigue. At least I can still enjoy the seasonal colour and I still try to keep up with a schedule as bet I can.
 The weather is supposed to remain good for a few days.  If I have time I will take a walk around a lagoon in the park downtown soon.  We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I'm making good progress on an afghan I've decided to make for a friend's Christmas gift.  She doesn't read this blog so she won't find out what I'm making.

I have plans Thursday for surprising my brother for his birthday. Not a party as such because he has his own plans but a little something to mark the occasion. On Friday I will go to dinner with a friend and a lady missionary to Taiwan. Saturday is voting day and somewhere in between I have errands and the walk I'd like to take.  I hope to share photos in this space later.

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Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, October 11, 2018

Another Week Goes By

 Welcome everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying the month of October so far.

Another week has flown by. I didn't get out to take new photos because I'm still under the weather but these photos are relatively recent. 

The weather is still beautiful here after a few days rain.

The forecast is for sunshine for another week or so.
I'm hoping to get out and enjoy it






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A Few Scenes from the Week

Hi friends and fellow bloggers, Here are a couple of snapshots to end the month.  Wishing you a fabulous end of November. See you in the mon...