First Snow

We've had our first snow in the city! We had our first snow on the mountains a while ago, but overnight or early this morning, we had our first snow down below. I think the snow is very early this year.

It is coming down heavily right now on the patio but it looks like small balls of hail and not light fluffy snowflakes. Can you see the flakes falling in the photo? If you click the photo you can see the "snowflakes".

Skywatch ~ November 18, 2011

What can be better than a glorious red Maple tree against a beautiful sky on a sunny day? 

Fall Series 3

First, a note about my blog. I've had a continuous stream of changes as I've tried to upload a new look and a new banner. I apologize if things didn't always 'gel'. I was having photo storage issues. I think those are temporarily resolved once again.

I'm continuing with my Fall theme. Soon Fall will be over in this part of the world and I want to capture the beauty of the season while it's here!
These photos were taken on different days in different neighbourhoods. 

I was trying to capture the falling leaves as the wind blew them off the trees. Can you see the falling leaves, like snow? So pretty too when they blanket the ground.

Fallen leaves on the ground always made me a joyful child and young adult, kicking my way through leaves with a song on my lips. I especially remember this during my university years. I loved the invigorating air as I'd make my way from class to class from one end of the campus to the other.  This day I felt like kicking through the leaves but that wouldn't have been good for my sore leg.

This intense colour of the maple tree was so pretty against the robin egg blue sky that I just had to use it for my new header.

I love this clump of leaves at the base of the tree. They look so artfully arranged.

 My photo storage issues were caused by blogger saying I've reached my photo limit so I've deleted numerous blog posts from blogger and photos from the web album. I have to make time to resize all my photos in the photo storage before uploading them to the posts.

I've just been busy juggling a number of things and not doing any of them properly.
Hopefully things will ease up in the New Year.
Thank you for your patience with me.

  Enjoy!

Kipngeno Goes to School

A long while ago I wrote about Kipngeno, a bright young man who graduated from high school and wanted to be a nurse. Several times we thought we had a donor for him to go to university and several times our hopes were dashed.

Jonah, of  Missions of Hope has now enrolled Kipngeno in university in Kisii Town, Kenya where he is majoring in pharmaceutical studies instead of nursing.  Kipngeno is now living out his dream because he started university studies in September.  But he faces great financial challenges ahead.

Kipngeno kept busy on the farm while he waited for his time to start university studies.

If you can help this young man reach his dreams through sponsoring his education at university, please contact me.  You would be changing a life for the greater good.  We need to know soon whether someone can help this student continue with his education in January.

Jonah pays a visit to Kipngeno. Jonah is on far left, Kipngeno on the far right with his lab coat and stethoscope, a friend of his in the middle. Can you imagine how excited Kipngeno must be?

 You can help publicize this need  by using the share buttons below.
You will never know how one simple act can change someone's life. Just think, you might
be responsible for getting this story into the hands of someone who can actually help Kipngeno.

That would be awesome!

Kipngeno will get a valuable education and a chance to be lifted out of poverty.  But he will also be added to the ranks of the medical profession. Kenya is greatly in need of medical personnel. According to Oxfam, in 2006,  there were only 14 doctors for every 100,000 people.  Compare this to Canada which has about 32,000 doctors (and almost the same number of specialists).  This is about 1 doctor for every 850 people (if you don't count the specialists).  In Canada we are experiencing a shortage of doctors for our needs.
Food for thought.

Fall Series 2

We've had some beautiful sunny weather since yesterday. It made me linger along the streets as I made my way to the latest acupuncture session.  My regular readers who have been commenting and cheering me on, please know that my leg is getting better. It is just a very slow process.

Now here are the Fall photos.

I love the dappled sunlight on the multicoloured leaves of the trees.

At the top of the photo you can see one of the ski "hills" in the local area. I don't live right in this neighbourhood but I can see the lights of the city and on this mountain at night.

There is a very busy city corridor at the end of this street. That is why there are so many cards parked here on the side of the street. In addition, many businesses and residents only have street parking.

When the winds whips up as it has been doing, the trees quickly give up their dried leaves and you get a carpet of leaves on the ground.  They give a nice crunching sound under the feet :-)

I liked this house. As I was walking by I saw the shadows of the bushes against the brick red house. After getting home and looking at the photo on line, I saw a dream catcher in the window. Dream catchers are said to catch your bad dreams in the webs. They are an Aboriginal (First Nations) item but have become very popular amongst the general population. Something like the South American 'worry dolls'.

 

It doesn't matter what the weather is. There is always someone who is so "tough" they don't need a jacket when mere mortals like me would be shivering without one.

The colours of Fall always make me happy.

What makes you happy dear readers?