Warm & Cold

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are all well. Today I want to share photos I took on Wednesday. The day started off sunny and warmish. I went to the community plot in the late afternoon (first photo) and by the time I left it had turned cold. 

In this photo you can see how bright and beautiful the sky was before it began to cloud over. Today is now Friday and it was very cold when I returned home from a late outing. It's supposed to start raining soon and I expect we'll have unsettled weather for the rest of this month which is the norm. I'm glad I went to put the compost in the garden on Wednesday because I sure wouldn't feel like doing it now.

Thank you for stopping by.

I'm joining in with Skywatch Friday. 

Tuesday 4 ~ Cowboys

Cowboys

painting by Mark Maggori

 It's time once again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.  We're talking about cowboys this week.

1.  Do you like western style chuck wagon cooking?  Stews, chilis, beef steaks, BBQ  etc.?

I like these kinds of food in moderation. I especially like stews with cubes of beef.

2.  Do you make a good chili or do you know someone whose chili is the best ever? Beans, meat or both? 

I used to make a great chili but it seems I've lost my touch. The last few times I've made it it wasn't that great. I use beans and meat, usually beef. Sometimes cubes of beef and sometimes ground beef.

3.  Who is your favorite cowboy movie star?

I can't say I really have a favourite cowboy movie star. I liked almost all of them except Clint Eastwood.  For some reason I didn't like him in cowboy movies but I did like him in other later movies. John Wayne was the actor who seemed like he was in almost all the cowboy movies that played on our two television channels growing up. 

4.  Do you have a favorite western TV show or movie

I liked all of them. I'm not sure why because I never was really into rodeos, horse riding or living on a farm. I attended the rodeo every year because virtually everyone in the family and community did.  The Fall Fair happened at the same time and that was more my idea of fun. The one movie that sticks out in my memory is The Big Trail featuring a young John Wayne. It's about hundreds of settlers in covered wagons moving westward from the Mississippi River. You can watch it on You Tube for free. I did also enjoy all the western shows on television like High Chaparral, Big Valley, Cheyenne, Bonanza among others. I also enjoy Kevin Costner in the movie, Dances with Wolves. 

It Snowed, Again!

 Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are doing well.  It snowed again and has been quite cold since Thursday or so. We had a big dump of snow on Saturday night so I've kept indoors and worked away on decluttering.

I made excellent progress over the past few days and got to sort out a lot of smaller nooks and crannies.

All month long I've been participating in something called a daily declutter challenge.  The challenge is to let go of at least one item each day so the decluttering habit is formed and it doesn't take hours to accomplish.  I have a lot of small items to get rid of because I'm down to the fine-tuning of the major decluttering project I've been working on for awhile. In the fine-tuning stage, it takes me a lot longer to go through every area of clutter and make the decisions as to what to do with things. I tend to collect a lot of paper items and a lot of little things that don't seem to 'fit' into any category of items, a hodge podge, if you will.

I've been surprised to find so much junk in all the places that I decluttered. I suppose it's understandable since some of these small areas haven't seen the light of day for decades.  Literally.  Anyway the month will end in a few days and I'm trying to get as much done as possible. The below items are much of what I've offloaded since Friday.

I've been decluttering something every day this month but I've also been crocheting so I can have a break from the task.  Thursday night I ran out of yarn for the blanket I'm making and I'll need time to go to the craft store to buy at least one more ball to finish the project.

I haven't had time to delve into the books I picked up recently at the library or to finish listening to the audible Spare.

In March, I look forward to getting into these books and planning the community garden for this year.

What plans do you have for the coming month?

Beautiful Friday Sky on a Cold Evening

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I keep thinking Spring is around the corner but my hopes keep getting dashed. We had an unexpected bit of snow on Wednesday night and on Saturday we are expecting up to a foot of fresh snow. Knowing that I went out tonight and did a few pressing errands.

Here are some of my night shots.  There seemed to be a lot going on including an explosion that happened at the dinner hour just before I was about to get off one bus in the heart of the city. I heard a lot of sirens after that. Later I learned the sad news that 2 were treated for burns and lacerations due to the fire which they believe was caused by some kind of underground electrical vault fire. My bus had passed the site where the explosion occurred just seconds before hand and some passengers that got on the bus seconds later says there was smoke and balls of fire coming from the side of the building. Roads, buses and skytrain in the vicinity were all closed or affected in some way but I was on my way out of the city before that happened.

Here are some photos I took while I was downtown. I'm joining in with Skywatch Friday. Please join in too.

Thank you for stopping by. Have an awesome weekend.

Another Month is Almost Over

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope all is well with you. I have been super busy and not able to blog much or visit your blogs very often. I continue to have issues leaving comments on many blogs but when I can leave one without difficulty, I do. I'm not sure if you too are having problems leaving a comment for me because I have noticed that there are very few comments left on the majority of my blogs in this new year. It's quite possible that it is simply because I haven't been able to leave comments for you. If you have been experiencing any difficulties leaving a comment for me, please do send me an email and let me know.  Follow the link at the Blogger Profile page (you may need to click on the 3 lines/dots at top left of the blog).

The weather here has been frightful. I've been anticipating an early Spring but instead we seem to be having winter over and over. The forecast was for snow on Saturday and quite a lot of it (up to 1 foot or 30 centimetres depending on where one lives in the city). I was very surprised to go for late afternoon walk on Wednesday and find myself under snowfall. It was also quite chilly. Fortunately I recently purchased a puffer coat to keep my legs warm in cold weather and I was able to use it. It's already paid for itself in the 2 weeks I had it after buying it on sale. I do have a faux fur coat which is very warm too but I cannot wear it when it's raining so I bought the puffer coat for those occasions.  I took these photos after it stopped snowing and on my way back from the library.

As I write this post I'm getting very annoyed at yet another blogger problem I've been experiencing lately. Whenever I go to edit and tonight, when I go to add photos, a new page comes up called "Post Edit" and it doesn't have any buttons and from that page I can do absolutely nothing except read what I've already written. Is anyone else having this experience or know what to do about it? In the last 6 months I've had so many problems with Blogger compared to all the previous years of blogging with absolutely no issues whatsoever. I didn't figure out the issue but I found a way to work around it. I have to use Google Chrome rather than Safari and that is helping the site to do what it is supposed to do. Sometimes I can leave comments too when I use Google Chrome. 

I'm beginning to think it may be time to move onto another platform. Alas, it won't be anytime soon because there are a lot of other things competing for attention: garden plans, family needs, household organizations and do it yourself projects, technology needs and health management. There is never a dull moment these days, is there? I know everyone else is dealing with most of the same things.

My cousin was visiting from Alberta and we had been planning for long to get together to celebrate her birthday. I haven't seen her since before Covid. Unfortunately she came down with a bad cold and the next day I did too. So she and her sister dropped by and we had a very quick visit and exchanged gifts. We're hoping to have a proper visit in the summer.

While I have been convalescing I started a new crochet afghan. This one is very large as it's meant to be a proper blanket for someone tall to snuggle up in. I found some of the ones I was making were simply not long enough even for me, a shortie. I like them to cover the feet and all the way up to the neck.

This is about 75% complete. The yarn colour is variegated 
and sold as you see it.

In the month of February I've been working away at getting rid of more things and have decluttered numerous items every day. Mostly these are small items because I have already gotten rid of the larger stuff during all my other decluttering projects. I was surprised to see how much 'trash' I've been storing. The items are small so you don't really notice them until you start collecting in a pile. 

An example of small bits I've been storing - 22 items now in trash.

I've been doing a bit of reading too. Here are my latest finds. I haven't gotten too far into any of these books yet. The book Spare by Prince Harry was being offered for free on Audible books. I'm not sure if the offer is still available. I put it on Hold at the local library but it will be awhile before I get it so I can listen to it on audible and then I won't need it from the library.

I picked up the book, little family by Ishmael Beah, because I'd read his debut book Child Soldier years ago. It was a superbly written and insightful book. The other book is fictional and deals with the current topic of internet dating and some of the scams that go on and have made the news around the world.

Last but not least, I'm sharing my 'free' ficus tree. I bought it off Amazon using reward points from my telephone and internet service provider. I also got the fairy lights off Amazon. The lights are strung together on very fine copper wire. There is a total of 66 feet of wire. what a nightmare. The wires get all tangled no matter how careful you are. I hesitate to remove the wire and redo the stringing because I didn't do a very good job but I'll have to be in the right frame of mind with nothing better to do before I try it again! Even so, I'm loving my tree. It will go in the corner near my sofa and replace all the live plants that have occupied the space but don't thrive given the cold and lack of light. If you are eagle-eyed you'll spot containers behind the tree waiting for paper to be shredded and trashed. Yet another project.

That's it for now. I hope to get on a better track with posting and commenting in March if all goes well.  Until then keep healthy, happy and reasonably busy.

Saturday Skies & A Quick Walk

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day and I took an unplanned walk and shopping expedition. Part way through I stopped for Bento Box dinner which was very yummy.

The weather was quite warm and the sky cleared a bit here and there.

The sushi restaurant is located on a very busy street corner and right across the street from where they are building the new Sky Train station (Main Street & Broadway) for the Broadway Sky Train extension.

The dinner was delicious.

Thank you for stopping by.

Even though I'm a day late to post I will be linking up with Skywatch Friday.

💗💗💗

Spring Plans

Hi friends, 

Are you all looking forward to spring?  The community gardeners are gearing up and plans must be made because there is a contractual obligation to plant the garden by May 1st.  My nephew's girlfriend is still interested in gardening and so we're trying to get her a plot of her own. We should know soon enough. If she doesn't get one this year she can continue sharing mine. My DH Jonah also loves the garden and takes a walk to the garden and park every day in summer. This year he might also share a roundabout plot with another gardener so we can plant some veggies there.  

I didn't do much in my patio garden last year.  Largely because I heard the strata management was investigating the garden membranes and awaiting a report about whether they need replacement. It seems they do need replacement and one of options for strata members to consider is to do away with the gardens altogether with the exception of what you plant in a container.  Not everyone in the building has a garden that has a retaining walls, dirt and trees like I do. Some people have much smaller patios and no gardens, some have large patios and no gardens, some have enclosed sunrooms and no gardens and some have large patios and a decent sized garden. Over the years it seems like there are more and more rules to follow largely due to critters in the city. We can't even feed the birds or grow vegetables. We can still plant flowers.  I think most people with no garden will not support the idea of replacing everything for those that do because of the cost and also the cost of living increases. I'm okay with this outcome to be honest. I too don't want to be shelling out extra money for a garden I don't really enjoy with the unpredictable climate we've been having year after years for many years now. The decision about the garden will be made soon. In fact I'm surprised I haven't received notice of the Annual General Meeting though it should be delivered any day now.

I loved my garden when it's done well.  But I'm at the point where I really don't want the responsibility of the garden any more.  Not only is the weather very unpredictable but I'm not a natural gardener and I don't keep to a gardener's schedule very well.  I have one bush that has such extensive roots that it's very difficult to grow anything in the rest of the garden. I have another tree, my favourite Dogwood. It died last year after hanging on for several years. I'm not actually sure what happened to it because my neighbours Dogwood has done very well compared to mine but that corner of my garden isn't very good in general for growing as the sun very seldom reaches it and it remains cold a lot of the time. On my neighbour's side, the sun's rays reach her Dogwood tree a good deal of the time.  Perhaps that is why her tree is much healthier. 

There is also the building's structural issues to consider. I understand there are some concerns about the weight of the gardens and the impact on the structure. To be honest, I wondered about that when I first moved in.  Not only is the dirt very heavy, but some gardens like mine have bushes and trees planted in them. When you add the weight of all the watering, it can all get very heavy indeed.  So I've come to appreciate there are lots of good reasons for eliminating the buildings 'planted' gardens.

Indoors there are plans underway for gardening too.  I started buying plant soil so I can replant my succulents and tropical plants. I  got started on the planting but before I can finished I to find some of pots which I stored outdoors.  For now I've cleaned off the mantle. My it sure collected a lot of spilled dirt from the plants over the winter .  I've made do with the pots I had indoors but I may need to repot the one in the terra cotta planter.  I love terra cotta pots and largely use them outdoors.  The colour doesn't go well with the gray, white and black theme on the mantle.

I'm loving my new flameless LED candles.