I Say Goodbye & Welcome Some Cloudy Days

I said goodbye to a friend of mine recently. We met at church many years ago and haven't been keeping up well with one another since she and I no longer attend that church. She also lived another municipality away.  Though she was very busy packing and cleaning, I wanted to take her for a farewell lunch.

My friend Celia did not want to leave the  City of Vancouver.  But most of the condos in her building were bought out by a developer and thus in the end she had to sell too.  She has purchased a much larger home in her new city. It sounds like a wonderful location near shops and a man made lake with walking areas surrounding it.  Now that all the decisions have been made, a new house and furniture purchased, she is looking forward to the move.  Everything has worked so smoothly in her favour that she believes it was a divine event for the benefit of her future.  I'm quite certain she will enjoy living in her new home.  She has the added benefit of her daughter and grandson living nearby. Her daughter has been coaxing her mom to make the move for some time. As my friend Celia says, she had to be forced and now that she has been she is very accepting of the situation.

Here is my friend answering the phone. She was being invited out to dinner the same evening by yet another former church friend.

Salad Bar

Cabbage and Spatzle?

Beef Roulade and perogies

Breaded trout with beans in mushroom sauce

Bratwurst

A small portion of the desserts on offer

We had a fabulous visit but we visited so long that my throat was dry and parched afterward. The only thing that separated us is she began to run behind schedule for dinner! We had a lot of catching up to do and hopefully we'll have a chance to visit again in her new city.


~~~~~

On another subject I haven't participated in a long while in the Saturday's Critter's meme. I'm not sure why but it never seems to be the right time for me to take photos of animals or creatures of any kind.

I found one bee or wasp while I was taking photos of the geraniums.

The seagulls were photographed on my recent harbour cruise. It's always interesting to watch birds flying against the wind.

The last photo is of 5-6 seals lying on the logs, also from the harbour cruise.

Can you see them?
Click to enlarge and it will be easier to see the seals.
I'm afraid I don't have a good lens to zoom in close enough.

I'm a bit behind in posting as I still have a post to share with you about the harbour cruise.


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Saturday's Critters

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If you missed my Skywatch post you can find it here.

Have an awesome weekend.

Change is in the Air

Reading these gardening books

Reading this unusual horror book. Not my usual genre.

Ahmed Saadawi is an Iraqi novelist, poet, screenwriter and documentary film maker. He won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for Frankenstein in Baghdad. He lives and works in Baghdad.  The novel is set in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq. If you wish to read more about the book you may do so here.

Vietnamese Pho Noodle soup with basil & beans sprouts + a roll dip & tea

After a good run of many sunny days we are now having a few cloudy, cool days.

It is supposed to rain. I hope we get a good soak for the garden.

This is the high rise going up.  You can see the clouds gathering. Change is in the air

The high rise under construction is part of a large development. The rest of the building is behind the high rise. Altogether the development takes up a good half a city block. I'm not sure when the development is scheduled to open but all the condos were sold out years before construction began.

Small hotel immediately across from the high rise development.

The blue sky is peeking out from behind the clouds.

The hotel and high rise are located next to shopping, restaurants, pharmacies, coffee shops and so on.

The people living there will enjoy the neighbourhood and they will have spectacular views of the city especially at higher levels.

The high rise proposal came with a lot of back lash and push back from local residents but it will soon become a reality. Since the approval of this particular high rise, similar development has now been approved in one or two other areas where this simply would not have been possible before. That is no doubt why people fought so hard against it but in today's world in Vancouver, there is no where to build but up. 

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There is no where to build but up.