Season of Completing

Like many people I have projects and tasks that get started or envisioned but take time to finish due to distractions or other priorities.

This past week and a few days I've turned my mind to trying to finish a few things. I didn't completely finish but I made good progress on: reading, knitting and paperwork.

This beautiful coffee table book below is a book about famous gardens in Paris. I read about several of the gardens though if I ever get to Paris I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to remember what I read. I'm so used to seeing English gardens (which I absolutely love) on television or in books and I wanted to broaden my horizons a bit by reading about French gardens.

Author: Zahid Zardar, Photographer: Marion Brenner

Here are just a very few photos. Of course they look much better in the beautiful book.

Monet's garden

Rooftop garden

While I was catching up on watching several recorded television shows I wanted to make use of my hands.  I decided to use up some small bits and pieces of yarn left over from my winter of knitting dishcloths by making a few "crazy" dishcloths.  I call them crazy because I just use up the yarn and join them together when I no longer have matching or complementary yarns to use in the completion of one cloth.  The cloths are only being used to wash my dishes not as gifts so it will only be me that sees them. I really enjoy using cotton knitted dishcloths a lot and go through a fair number of them each year. I also use them for cleaning around the house especially in the bathrooms.


In others indoor tasks, I've made ever so slight progress on sorting through paperwork. The 3 bags of paper that are in the photo have been sorted once (there is even more paper as I also have mom's paperwork to go through). They need much more sorting before I can decide which ones need keeping and which ones can be destroyed. This kind of work is my least favourite thing and I not only have my own paperwork to sort but I have my mom's too. I do procrastinate in this area just because there is so much of it that needs mental work and I have a multitude of things to distract me.

This photo captures about a third of what I have to sort and organize.

It's good to take a break from paperwork after a few hours so I went off to a festival and spent several hours of enjoyment there.

The festival was organized by people of African descent and I think (and hope) it will be the first of it's kind in Vancouver. It was a bit on the small side in terms of food offerings and stalls with arts and crafts or information but it was a good first start. There was a band stand with various entertainers throughout the time I was there and a handful of stalls selling African goods and food.

 

You can see the sign "Central" in the background. That is the train station where you catch the train to Seattle. It is also where you catch the Greyhound bus to just about anywhere or buses to Vancouver Island or Whistler where people love to go skiing.

The park in front of the train station is called Thornton Park. The organizers of the African festival selected this venue because it is very close to where the first blacks settled in Vancouver. 

Kayode Fatoba, the artistic director of the festival had this to say about Thornton Park and surrounding area in a 

"Hogan's Alley was sort of  the first settlement of African Americans who came during the gold rush" 

That alley is the unofficial name for Park Lane, a T shaped block that ran from Main and Jackson Street in between Prior and Union Streets.

 In some of their publicity the festival organizers stated their vision:

The goal of the platform for this year is to establish itself, while using the input gained to build on subsequent years. Culture and Art festivals are an amazing way to form strong bridges of which the team will look towards showcasing public art, installations, modern and traditional based showcases, night markets, crafts fair and musical performances. With a focus on rejuvenating the spirit of Hogan's Alley, this platform will work with a wide range of city groups, main street businesses, and at large Vancouver organizations to bring awareness to Vancouver’s prominent and growing African community!

These women must sit for hours and hours to have their hair done like this.

Headline singer from Nigeria. Too bad most of the crowd had gone home by then.

Musicians listening to other musicians.

Booth with goods from Ghana in foreground, other counties in background

 

I love how this man is listening so intently to the elderly woman.

I like this red print dress. Very pretty on the dark skin.

 

This seller came all the way from Edmonton, Alberta

This young lady, Desiree Dawson won an award for talent. She is an awesome vocalist.

I spoke to the vendor of this booth who has these sandals beaded by the Maasii women in Kenya.

These sandals were $45. Canadian a pair. Not bad when you consider the extremely high cost of postage that must be paid to ship things to Kenya and back.

 For my dinner I had injera with beef sauce and some kind of vegetarian sauce (I think yellow peas) and some cabbage and carrots along with a bit of yogurt. I have had similar dishes and I like it very much but I do not like the injera once the hot food has made it soggy. I prefer the "dry" injera around the edges.

Here is me relaxing in my zebra print maxi dress.

Shortly after I took the photo of myself, I met some people from Morocco and Ethiopia. It was fun meeting them and they were very interesting. The young woman I started talking to first was Moroccan and she was speaking Hebrew with an Ethiopian woman.
It turns out they both met in Israel which was also fascinating. I spent a very enjoyable time talking to them, and the Moroccan woman's father who immigrated to Canada in 1968 and her boyfriend who is Canadian but has travelled to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and spent time doing some humanitarian work there.

All in all I enjoyed the festival.

I look forward to seeing it again in years to come.

 I also love the accessible location and think it is a prime location to attract a larger crowd once more people become aware of it.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Sky Over Richmond

I took in the new Star Trek movie tonight. It was an IMAX 3D experience with prices to match. But it was worth it to see the newest movie in the Star Trek franchise and to experience it in 3D. I was surprised that the seats were not as big and comfortable as I'd expected though. I've had better seats in a less expensive theatre in town.

The movie itself was great. If you like space movies or Star Trek movies I'd recommend it. Let me know what you think after you've seen it.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday
and
Friday Foto Friends.
 Have a wonderful weekend.

Mid-Summer Update

Hi friends,

It's been a few weeks since I posted last. How have you all been?

On my end I've had two visitors come and go. I enjoyed the time with them and look forward to their visits again next summer.  But for now I need to catch up on rest and house work.

My recent guest left on Friday. While she was here we had a lot of time for visiting and watching television as well as some walks and movies at the theatre and in house. I wanted to take her to a play under the stars in Stanley Park but she preferred to stay at home and watch movies. That worked for me too.  On Friday I escorted her home and at the same time had a long overdue visit with my mom.

While my guest was here I also had a surprise phone call and visit from my former Sunday School teacher and her grown children.  They have been coming the last few summers so the mother can visit her childhood friend who lives in Vancouver.  Though their trip was very quick we were able to squeeze in a visit before they departed. They kindly stopped along the way to visit my mom. I delayed my trip by one day to give them a chance to visit in private with mom.

When I visit mom I usually take time to clean and organize her closet, dresser drawers and snack food basket.  This time it was obvious that someone had spent time to organize her closet and they did a very nice job of it. It was a pleasant surprise and gave me more time to spend with mom and also attend to her medical care needs. It turns out she is fighting an infection and antibiotics and I wasn't aware of  that.  It probably explains why she has been sounding so tired this past week. She was on her 2nd day of a 7 day course if antibiotics when I visited.

I'm home again and catching up on my own sleep and errands.

I was able to pick up my glasses and order some contact lens.  I developed an eye infection and have had to spend a few days wearing eye glasses.  I'm not used to wearing glasses and my eyes have been sore from the strain. I'll likely be back to wearing contact lenses before I get used to the glasses. I've also had some major dental work done which I've been putting off all year due to illness or busyness.  I'm glad that the dental work is finally getting done and I'll be finished with it all next week.

The weather here has been unsettled for weeks. It means every day we get heavy cloud cover, sunshine and also heavy rain. I don't mind it but my garden hasn't done that well due to the inconsistency and too much water at times. I have enjoyed the blossoms that did come out though something ate all of the kale leaves and the cherry tomatoes just as they were ready to ripen. The snap peas did quite all right. The hot peppers didn't grow. It was probably too wet for them.

I put away the chair cushions due to rain. the pavers need a good cleaning but rain will dirty them again.

In the next few weeks I've got a lot to do. I have household projects to do besides cleaning. I've had these on the back burner because I haven't had time or motivation to get them done but I'm hoping to do them soon. I only have a few weeks before I have another visitor so we will see how far I get.  I also want to catch up on reading since I've gotten far behind. I'm still reading The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan. I am now 60% finished. I'm also reading Babbie Mason's Daughter of the Most High and Brian Hardin's Reframe.

I've also taken out several books from the library including:

 

  I've long been interested in raw eating so I've borrowed several books on the subject. 

I doubt that I will be a convert to raw food but it will be good to know more about it. 

Carol Alt, former supermodel looks the picture of health and has written extensively about raw food so I've taken out several of her books. 

I was intrigued by her saying she also eats meat.

 I always thought those who eat raw only eat vegetables and fruits. I clearly have a lot to learn.

~~~

Update from Kenya

My primary focus has been on helping the young girl who ran away from an arranged marriage. She has been in hospital since I posted last time. She has gone through ups and downs and as of yesterday was transferred to a different hospital for more advanced treatment. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Both of the university students I've been helping have done well in their classes receiving high marks except that each of them had one course where they only achieved a low average grade.

One of them participated in his graduation on Friday. 

The other one will graduate sometime in 2017. 

 ~~ 

Thanks for visiting. 

This and That

It's that time of the week again! It is raining cats and dogs here at the moment. Tonight on the evening weather report I learned that is has been anywhere from 4-11 degrees cooler at this time than last year around the same period. I could tell just because by this point last year we were in advanced stages of water restrictions.

Though water restrictions also started early this year they did not escalate. My garden isn't doing terribly well with the inconsistent temperatures and inconsistent watering. I've neglected to water on days when I thought it was going to pour and didn't. Then I've watered only to have it pour rain the next morning. I'm grateful for a good soak of the earth though. It  usually seems to perk things up a bit in the garden.

Though we've been having rain I managed to get a few sky shots on a dry evening (click photos to enlarge).

On the day I snapped these photos I was strolling along the street and stopping at various furniture stores. I'm keeping my eyes open for a set of chairs, new or lightly used.  I snapped a few photos of this and that. I saw a lot of vintage furniture (not antique but several decades old).  There used to be many antique stores in my neighbourhood but most have fallen by the wayside or moved to other neighbourhoods.

I rather  like this teak dresser but don't need one.

A few vintage chairs but not what I'm looking for. 

The chairs below are made of wood salvaged from an oxen cart.
I love them but am not sure these are the ones for me.
They are probably a bit too rustic for my indoor needs and other decor
but they are nice and very comfortable.

I stopped at many more places.
I have my eye on chairs made from salvaged wood. The chairs are in shaker style and have a nice
smooth finish.
I haven't made up my mind so the search will continue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

News from Kenya

 I've been involved in assisting a young teenage Samburu girl who is 13 or 14 years of age.
Her parents arranged a marriage for her for 30 cattle and 6 camels.
She ran away to a rescue center to escape the marriage so she is now all alone in the world and dependent on well wishers.
The missionary at the rescue centre asked my friends to take her and put her in school where she can be in hiding and get an education.
That was working out until she got a bad case of pneumonia.
During treatment and evaluation, a heart problem was discovered.
The school didn't take any action to help her so my friend did and she is now in a hospital several hours away that specializes in diseases of the heart.

She was very weak upon arrival but I am cautiously optimistic.  She seems to be improving though I have no idea yet about her prognosis.

I can only imagine what a scary proposition to be all alone in the world like she is.
The school has been good to give her an educational placement but they have not responded to any of her medical needs.
 I've been trying to help her through my friends there.
My friends are in a difficult and awkward position too. Should the girl not survive, her family will need to be notified..
If you are a prayer warrior please say some prayers for her.
I won't share her photo here because of her situation.

Ernest who was in hospital recently for infection complications cancer surgery is now home and recovering. He seems to be doing much better now. I am hoping they have managed to eradicate the cancer but it will take time to know for sure.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday
and
Friday Foto Friends  today.
Thank you for stopping by.

Canada Day and a Few Beach Photos

Another Canada Day has come and gone. My visiting cousin and I started the day with a bit of shopping at Oakridge Mall.  We then carried on to Granville Island where the International Jazz Fest is happening.

Granville Island had a host of  festivities organized for families.  They even had it's own parade but these were all over with by the time we arrived.  We hadn't planned to participate in these events because we were on our way to the fireworks display.

While at Granville Island we had a small snack and listened to this wonderful duo of buskers.  I didn't get their name but the man in red had a fine singing voice and the keyboardist was very good too!

We then boarded this little ferry boat to go across the water to English Bay.

The small ferry was quite busy.

Once on the other side we took a nice long stroll.

It was already approaching 10 p.m. when I snapped these photos with my cell phone and so the light was not that good.

We were having fun enjoying the scenery and  ambience but we had to hasten our walk along the beach to get to the fireworks venue on time.  We decided to walk rather than wait for the bus because of how slow the buses can be in the West End.

We walked along the beach past Sunset Beach and turned onto Cardero Street where we walked toward Coal Harbour.Our destination was Harbour Green Park along the waterfront from where we watched the very nice fireworks display.

I took a 5 and a half minute video but don't have time to edit and upload right now.  After the display we took our time walking east along the waterfront (out of view of this graphic image).  Everyone was taking their time talking to friends and enjoying the evening.  We stopped and had gelato and visited with a few women who were also enjoying their evening before heading home.  Later we continued our easterly walk past the  newly built convention center and Canada Place and beyond to the bus that would take us home.   We didn't arrive home until 1:30 a.m. and both of us were completely wiped out. My cousin kept saying how much she enjoyed herself and it was nice to know that she enjoyed her short visit.  We've made tentative plans for some touristy things to do next year.

Thanks for visiting :-)

In closing let me wish all my American readers a very happy and safe Fourth of July!

My World This Week

Hi folks,

I hope you are all having a glorious summer so far.

The past several weeks we've been having a lot of rain. Almost every day has been cloudy or overcast but also the sun does come out too. It has been pretty good from my point of view.  Today the sun is shining brightly and it is expected to be sunny all week before a bit of rain on the weekend.

Sunset shot ~  July 26,2016

I've been busy with missions in Kenya. Two of the young men I know are supposed to graduate this year; one a bit earlier than the other.  As always in Kenya there is a "glitch". The earlier graduand has worked very hard to get to this point. He told me his grade is missing for one class taken 2 years ago even though he wrote the exam! I've heard of this problem before where the university says that a student did not write certain exams (sometimes many exams).  The students then begin a long process of paying to have the problem "sorted". If they can't or won't pay they have to re-do their courses in hopes of graduating. Some cannot afford to re-do and so they lose out on their years of hard fought education.  In the young man's case, his problem is one missing grade.  Many of his fellow classmates are suffering too because they've been told they are missing more than one grade. I'm praying for this man to be vindicated and allowed to graduate as he rightfully should be.

Update: June 28/2016 ~ I am very happy for my student friend. My intelligent young friend managed to outwit (my description, not his) the administration. He found his exam paper (with proper approval) in the university archives and not only that, showed them he had achieved an "A" grade! So he will graduate on time. The other student has been advised and thankfully has all his documents showing all grades received over the years.

In other news, the young man who had cancer tumour removed from his face (see post here) has been undergoing chemotherapy in his small town. He has suffered weight loss and hair loss but otherwise seems to be progressing as expected with his treatment.

Ernest, who has been to the hospital in Nakuru on two separate occasions for liver cancer tumour removal and follow up treatment for sepsis seems to be recovering well at home.

Another older gentleman I helped a bit with hospital costs has succumbed to leukemia and been laid to rest. My friends had to go and escort his body from a hospital in Narok. He leaves behind a wife and several children as well as many friends.

Joseph, laid to rest on Saturday, June 25th, 2016.He fought a good fight.

Another friend completely lost his house after working so hard to build it. The government's contractors recently bulldozed the house along with the houses of many of his neighbours.

My friend's house in rubble

He was also charged a significant sum of money for planting trees.  The trees were planted as a noise barrier to his property which is adjacent to a road. The government is expanding what was once a country road way and paving it so they have expropriated the property of many landowners along the roadway. This process seems to have happened very, very quickly.  Many were caught totally unaware including my friend.  Those that knew right away barely had time to do anything. It takes time and money to have a plan. They had neither.

Trees cut down after being "improperly" planted along the roadway.

I just think of all the loss of funds for electric and water connections and the loss of personal property not to mention the house itself.  Sadly all the neighbours along the roadway also lost homes and possessions.

Roadway being expanded

 
These are not wealthy people.  They have no insurance.

Besides which insurance probably does not cover this kind of thing.  I am not sure if the government will ever compensate them for expropriation of their property. There is always talk of compensating people for this or for that.  Though the intention may be there at upper echelons of government, seldom does the money get to the grassroots people. The funds are eaten up in the scams and scandals in which most government officials are involved. Efforts are being made to tackle corruption but it is still rampant.
One friend is still waiting to be compensated for health expenses incurred last December! He has been told repeatedly to "wait".  Finally last week they told him they must wait until the new budget funds flow.  Even then many of his receipts have been rejected for "rubbish" reasons and so he won't get a significant sum back which we were expecting.

In happier news, my friends assisted a girl's boarding school with getting some new beds. The boarding school has been set up to help impoverished girls get an education and escape horrors such as female genital mutilation (FGM).  They need a lot of things and the beds were a huge blessing to these young girls.

Praying over the gifts.

Someone has contacted me about possibly donating reusable sanitary pads and I'm hoping that I can connect the gift with these young girls who can surely use them.

The needs represented by the lives of the people I've mentioned in Kenya  are multitudinous but God is able to deliver and help. He cares about the people of Kenya as much as he cares for you and I.  The hope we have is what keeps my friends in Kenya, and I, going forward.

~~~~~~~~~

Here at home in Canada, I've also been very busy.  It's time for multiple dental appointments, both for cleaning and for restorative work. It is also time for an annual check up for the surgery for the retinal tear I had two years ago. I'm not sure how long they will monitor it.  I'm also still waiting to hear when I will have my annual diabetic eye specialist check up. Last time I met with the eye specialist we discussed eye surgery.  But for now I still haven't made a decision.  Instead I've decided to get a new pair of glasses.  They will have the progressive lenses and UV protection so I don't need to worry about sunglasses.  They will have anti-glare and transition brown lenses.  I hope they will be fine because the last pair were a dud. I couldn't wear them for more than a few minutes at a time no matter how often they were adjusted. I wear contact lenses and seldom wear glasses but I might wear glasses more often if they were comfortable and fit properly. Fit affects vision when the lenses are progressive.

It was a relief to finally get to the dentist for cleaning and repair work. It has already been a year since a temporary crown was done and in the meantime a front tooth chipped in two places.  I didn't want to wait any longer. The work will be completed during a break between summer guests.

Like many diabetics I have a constant battle to keep the blood glucose numbers under control. Right now they are better than they have been in a long time. My challenge is to try and keep it that way. One key thing I need to work on is getting R-E-S-T and that includes getting to sleep earlier.  It is a work in progress but I am making progress.

I will have company soon.  One guest arrives Friday and leaves before the next guest arrives on July 4th. My second guest will visit for a few weeks and then I will go and pay my mom a visit.  In mid August I have another shorter term guest.

It's a good thing I got my small garden planted early this year otherwise I wouldn't have had time to do it. At least when my guests arrive my garden will have some blooms.

I hope your summer is going well.

Joining with Our World Tuesday

Sky in June

Hi friends,

I hope you have all been faring well.

Since my post about the rain damage and flooding in the northeastern part of the province I've spoken to one of my cousins who lives there. Thankfully she didn't have any rain damage to her home. Her married daughter and children who live in the next town over were out of town when the rains happened. They managed to make it back to home on back country roads before those roads were shut down as regular highways were impassable. I haven't heard of any horror stories (that doesn't mean none have occurred). About 213 people were stranded in back country areas after roads were washed out. I read that generators, fuel and food were being taken to them though am not quite sure how it was getting through.

On Monday and Tuesday this week meetings were being held in some communities to help people apply for Disaster Financial Assistance which is administered by the Provincial government.  This assistance is available to homeowners, residential tenants, small business owners, farmers, charitable organizations and local government bodies that were not able to get insurance to cover disaster-related losses. The province's Transportation Minister says crews were working around the clock to get highways and roads back in order. Five of 6 highways were re-opened and another will be reopened on Saturday though it may take awhile longer to get all lanes opened on every highway.  The financial cost of mitigating all the flood damage is very high especially when combined with the annual costs of forest fires. The provincial government is calling for more federal funding aimed at programs to prevent floods and wildfires due to the fact these are now happening with greater frequency.

Down in the south where I live the weather has been quite unsettled this week. There has been a mix of sun and rain all week. I've been fortunate to get out in the sun several times this week. I don't like hot weather but I do like sunshine. So when the weather is mixed sun and cloud it suits me fine. Tonight it started raining and I think tomorrow there will be more rain.

There was a very interesting movie about a man I'd not heard of before. It stands to reason since I am not a mathematician and this man is from India. The movie is called "The Man Who Knew Infinity".  It was playing at a very late hour but I decided to go and see it.  I'm sharing a trailer for the movie. If you like it I recommend you go and see the full movie if only to learn more of the genius upon which this story is based.

I've been making slow progress on  many things on my 'to do' list which is why I am not posting so frequently these days. I'm enjoying the slower pace as I've scaled back a lot on internet time. I am still visiting many blogs and so many of you will have received a visit from me.

In closing, these are my sky photos for this week's Skywatch Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope to see you soon!

Rain Damage

A map of Northern British Columbia. The areas affected by flooding are in the Peace River Distrcit (NE BC)

I'm not sure who took this aerial photo but it was one of the first ones I came across on line. It showed me just how devastating the flood is.

Here is some drone footage of the flooding. It also gives a good overview.

Photo credit: Chet News, M Gomez

The Canadian National Railway (CNR) service between Prince George in north central BC and Ft. St. John in the north, is not running. If you look at the tracks going over the water in photo above you will see how precarious some of the railway tracks now are.

The Highway 97 south of the town of Chetwynd to MacKenzie is closed. Here is some film footage of the highway taken just before it was shut down.

Altogether the people in the far north are "hemmed in" and a state of emergency has been called. Hospitals in some towns are accepting emergency patients only. Mother nature has spoken yet again.  Apparently the City of Dawson Creek had a record rainfall on Monday, June 15, 2016 of 89.8 millimeters.

Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) is now available to eligible British Columbians in the Peace River Regional District area, including Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Fort St John, Hudson’s Hope, Pouce Coupe, Taylor, Tumbler Ridge and the First Nations communities of Saulteaux and West Moberly who may have been impacted from the major flooding that occurred this past week. A  public meeting will be held on Monday, June 20 at 7:00PM at the Encana Events Centre to help people access the DFA.

I encourage my reader to view the drone footage. Even under water you can see how beautiful the area is at this time of year. I grew up in this area of the province and so I am concerned about the people there. As a child I walked through this park area many times to reach school. It is so hard to believe it caused a flood because the water levels were always quite low and the creek was often more like a trickle. That's the difference a heavy rainfall can make.

Sky Watching

I spoke too soon at my last post here about not getting heavy rainfall on Monday.  That night we had such a torrent of rain that there was significant flooding in one part of the city. We don't usually get floods here despite the fact we get a lot of rain. 

I also saw on the news tonight that there has been significant rain and damage in a small northern city called Dawson Creek. Not Dawson City in the Yukon,  but Dawson Creek which is located at Mile "0" of the Alaska Highway. Dawson Creek is in the beautiful Peace River District in northeastern British Columbia.

My small garden is okay even with all the extra rainfall.

Here are a few photos.

The cherry tomatoes are starting to grow.

The snap peas are also growing.

The rodents are still eating my kale. I've planted a few more but have been too tired to try and cover them with netting.  My starter seeds of lettuce did not germinate well and whatever did was picked and eaten by the crows. The crows also ate all the sunflower seeds I was trying to start so instead I've planted some seeds directly in the ground and covered and watered them well.  We'll see if they will grow.   I let the English cucumber stay too long in the nursery pot but it has been planted, as have the peppers. We'll see how they do. The recent soaking of the soil will help a lot.

The heavy rain was also good for the pansies and violas. Though if one looks closely you can see that a number of leaves got too much water.  I've found these plants like more water than hot sun and it can be difficult to keep them happy when the sunny days are plentiful.

I love pansies. 

This year it was difficult to find any so I only have 2 small pots of them. 

Normally I have about 5 pots of pansies of all colours.

This colour of petunias looks rather nice. I also have deep fuschia coloured ones.

The sky was rather dull by the time I took photos. 

I missed the opportunity when the sun came out.

I think we will have more rain tomorrow (Friday).

Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm joining in with Skywatch Friday today.

A big 'thank you' to our faithful

Skywatch Friday team of Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia.