A Beautiful Day After All

 Hi friends, 

I awoke today to a beautiful day.  That was a very pleasant surprise as I thought we were going to have another gray, overcast day.

I didn't go anywhere but having a beautiful day always makes me feel like doing more work inside.

While I'm busy this weekend doing the usual routines of cleaning, cooking and laundry, I am also trying to rest, relax and enjoy life.

I've been feeling a little more tired lately so I am trying to take it easy a bit but still keep busy if that make sense.

I didn't do the Fly Lady routines in order or keep on top of it all but I did do the routines as best I could. I also did some other "projects" such as decluttering my closet and one dresser drawer. I gave all the clothing items to one young woman who wanted them for her mother and grandmother. I am always pleased when someone will take and use the clothing because to be honest, I didn't even wear half of the items. The other half were worn once or twice. As I've lost weight my sizing changes and also I no longer need most of those items so off they go.

Other projects included:

• cleaning the cupboard where I keep plastic items and some bake ware. I got rid of a lot of it that was no longer usable.
• purchasing some new bake ware on line which I expect will arrive in a week or two. It will be nice to have something pretty to cook and present Christmas dinner in. The bake ware is from the Temptations line which many of you may be familiar with.
• sorting through my cedar chest where I keep duvets and sheets. I thought I had items in there to give away but I must have cleaned it out last year. I did notice though that the fitted sheet in the only set of white sheets I have, was terribly yellowed. I have only used them once and they are kept in a cedar chest so I'm not sure how they got so discoloured. I thought to give them away but decided I would try to get rid of the stains. After much effort on my part, the sheet is almost fully white again.  In a week or two I will clean it again and it should be perfect. At the same time I cleaned my sheets I cleaned a white, cotton safari jacket I have had for years.  In the last several years it was starting to yellow and discolour at the collar, sleeves and cuffs.  I also had a few pillow case protectors that started to yellow and I was able to get all of these items nice and clean. I still have a lace tablecloth that has a few yellow spots.  The next time I do the sheets, I will also trwat and wash the table cloth.
• making a loaf of French bread for the first time. It turned out well though I have to work on shaping. The outside was nice and crusty and the inside was nice and soft.
  

 

• making Cream of Broccoli soup for Sunday lunch.  A few days ago I found a bag of broccoli crowns on clearance sale for  $1. This is a photo of the soup before it was blended.
  

 

•  making a French Apple Cake. I had no plans to make an apple cake but someone posted a photo of the apple cake they made and I thought I had better use up the apples that were slowly going too soft. I've made apple cake before but this is the first time I've made French Apple Cake. I didn't have ice cream with it but it was really nice and I think I will make it again one day soon. Here is a link to the recipe I used in case you are interested.

 

Beyond cooking, cleaning, a few errands and household projects, I also watched a few movies and read some books. On Netflix I watched a few movies. One is called "The Inheritance" (not to be confused with the play of the same name) recommended by a friend of mine. It is a thriller/mystery and was good in a creepy kind of way, though not a horror movie as such. I also watched a cute movie called "Carrie Pilby", an American comedy/drama.  Book wise I'm making my way through "The Minimalist Home" which sets out yet another method of decluttering your home, and "The Convenience Store Woman", a quirky book about an unmarried Japanese woman who works at a convenience store and has to contend with the judgements of her family and co-workers.

Monday is Thanksgiving Day here so I will likely take the day off from reading blogs.  I have to prepare dinner and I want to enjoy a slow day of cooking and relaxing in the process. 

I wish you all a happy rest of your weekend and a pleasant week ahead.

Lakes Bogoria, Baringo and Nakuru in Kenya

The waters of several Kenyan lakes in the Great Rift Valley have been rising and in the process flooding many hotels, farms and residences.  Thousands of people have been flooded out of their homes and many businesses have lost their livelihoods. 

The flooding follows many months of unusually heavy rain but illegal deforestation and climate change also contribute to the problem.  What is happening is very alarming and threatens not only the people but the wildlife.

Lake Baringo is freshwater and Bogoria is salt water. At one time these lakes were one about 12.5 miles (20 kms) apart but now are so close together that experts fear they could contaminate each other and further threaten wildlife and the people.  The lakes have risen at least 30-40 feet and are rising daily.

Even Lake Nakuru adjacent to which Kenya's 3rd largest city, Nakuru is situated, is flooding.  I read from one tourist who said that the Baboon Point I showed you about a week ago (see this post) shows that 75% of the park has been flooded. This seems totally unreal to me.

Attacks on people by crocodiles and hippos have escalated, many schools and hospital have been flooded or cut off from their student and patient groups and wildlife has had food supply affected.

Given the back drop of all this sad news it makes my memories and my photos all the more important to me. I may never get another chance to enjoy and experience what I enjoyed in earlier trips.  Many of the pelicans and flamingos have disappeared from the lakes and I'm not sure where they have gone.

Here is a video for those interested in seeing the rising lakes. In the first few minutes you will see a huge building with thatched roof. That is the Soi Lodge located on the shores of Lake Baringo and where I stayed when I visited the area.

This is a photo toward the lake from the Soi Lodge.

 

I was greeted by ostriches at the entry to the lodge.

 

Here are a few photos of pelicans taken at Lake Baringo and the last photo of flamingos was taken at Lake Nakuru.  I had never seen flamingos or pelicans before and it was a real treat.

I am linking with Eileen and others at Saturday's Critters.

 

If you missed my Skywatch Friday post, click here.

Sky Over Vancouver - Thankgiving Weekend 2020

 

I mentioned the other day that we were expecting rain this weekend. Today is Friday and the heaviest rain was expected today. It is also a bit chilly. Right now the temperature is 14 degrees Celsius (approx. 57 Fahrenheit) at 5:30 p.m.

When you live in a place where you get a lot of rain life goes on and so you just press on. I don't really mind the rain but I like to have days of sunshine in between. 

Joining up with Skywatch Friday this week.

Update:  October 10, 2020:

On Saturday I was so pleasantly surprised to see we had a lot of sunshine and clear blue skies mixed with white fluffy clouds.  Another thing for which to be grateful on this Thanksgiving weekend.

A Little of This and That

Here are a variety of photos from my garden. I'm reluctant to put it all to bed until the rains begin for the season of winter. We are having sunshine this week until Thursday. The rains will be here in time for Thanksgiving. It will rain for almost a week and then the sun is expected to come out again but I notice the temperatures will be quite frigid. I guess I'll need to try and get things done outside around that time.

I've been busy trying to keep up with the Fly Lady routines after participating in the Fly Lady Babysteps "course". Everything is going well, perhaps better than I expected. 

I surpassed my reading goals back in August so I've slowed down in my reading habit. I just completed the 3rd book in a series by Lesley Downer. I really enjoyed the first two books and I also enjoyed the 3rd one but not quite as much. I believe there is one more in the series.

Currently, I'm reading The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker.  I've seen the author here and there on You Tube and I'm enjoying his book so far.   It's doubtful I'll be implementing Mr. Becker's system though I agree with his philosophy of getting rid of unnecessary things so you can enjoy the things you deem necessary.  I also just like reading about different approaches to major decluttering like the Kon Mari Method, Swedish Death Cleaning, the Fly Lady and so on).

I've got a simple dinner in mind for Thanksgiving as there will only be two of us and no guests this year. Ham (I'll save the turkey dinner for Christmas and New Year's dinners), sweet potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, maybe some scalloped potatoes too, a few crunchy veggies (crudités) instead of a salad and a pie of some kind. Perhaps cherry pie just to be different.  I always make more than enough food so we can enjoy leftovers and I can make ham and pea soup once or twice. Soup is always good but especially at this time of year when the weather starts turning cool.

What about you dear reader? What is the weather like where you are? Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? If yes, what will you have for dinner and what will you remember to give thanks for in 2020? As for me I am very grateful that my family members and friends far and wide, are safe and that I am safe. I had a bit of scare last month when a friend of mine had a family member test positive for Covid in the country of Kenya. Thankfully they had very minor symptoms and are fully recovered.

Thank you for stopping by. I'm joining in a little late with Our World Tuesday.

Rhinos and Baboons

These photos are from my archives and were taken in Nakuru, Kenya, East Africa. 

The first photo  was taken from the north side of Lake Nakuru on a return trip to see the Menengai Crater.  You get a glorious view of the lake as you approach the city from the north.  I will try to share photos of my visit to the crater in another post. Today's post is about Lake Nakuru and the wildlife park situated there.

 

The next view of the lake is from Baboon Cliff Point in Lake Nakuru Provincial Park.  The point is situated on the western side of Lake Nakuru and the views from the top are fantastic.  It's one of my favourite spots in the park.  The name derives from the fact that so many baboons are living in this particular area of the park.

I'm only sharing two of the photos of the baboons. There were so many baboons and they are quite mischievous. They will enter your car and take things if you are not keeping a close watch.  The monkeys do the same.

Here you can see baboons climbing all over the parked cars.

The rhinos in the next two photos were an awesome site. These rhinos are called black rhinos though the colour can range from brown to grey.  The World Wildlife Fund for Nature Kenya  has been working with the government and other organizations and people of goodwill, to save the black rhinos from poaching and loss of habitat and so the population has more than doubled over the past 25 years.  You can read more about black rhino conservation needs and efforts here. Sadl, the Northern White Rhino is virtually extinct. Just over a year ago, Kenya harvested the eggs of the two last white female rhinos in the northern part of the country.  They are hoping to fertilize them with the sperm of the last male white rhino that died in Sudan in March 2018.  You can read more about white rhinos here.

I took a little time to see many wild animals both in zoos and in their natural habitat while I've been on missions trips to the very poor in Kenya.  I feel so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see many of these wonderful creatures in their natural habitat.  My hope is that through the good will and good work of people in Kenya and around the globe, these majestic creatures will not go extinct while we can still do something to save them. The largest threats to their survival are poaching and loss of habitat.  If you love wild animals please consider a gift to those that work in conservation.  If, like me, you are interested in alleviating the suffering of the very poor who barely eke out a living, kindly read more at the various links on the side bar and consider being a change maker along with me. During this global pandemic they are suffering even  more than usual.

I hope you enjoyed this brief post on Kenyan wildlife. I'm joining up with Eileen's, Saturday's Critters meme today.  Please come and visit this space again soon.

Enjoy your weekend and stay safe.

Fall in Vancouver

 I'm continuing the Fall theme in this post. 

The trees photos were taken on Tuesday late afternoon when I was out running errands. I was looking for one small item and ended up having to go to four (4) different stores to find it. It is a simple little thing called a plate or tray hanger. You used to be able to find them almost anywhere.  Now I think they are becoming extinct though you can buy them on Amazon.  I found what I wanted at Michael's. The fact is, I knew that Michael's carried what I needed because I looked on line first.  But I was hoping to find them in one of the small stores near to where I live.

In the short video I am standing in the parking lot of a grocery store and looking down over Broadway Avenue. One block to the west (to the left of the scene in the video) they are connecting the street with a subway line that will eventually go out to the University of British Columbia.  This transportation option is long awaited and long overdue. The building of it has already started.

Once I picked up what I needed at Michael's, I was famished and had this lovely Teriyaki Beef Bento Box for dinner. The small restaurant where I ate was packed with diners.  They were mostly police officers on meal break but I was too tired to look for another restaurant.  At least the restaurant did have hand sanitizing and social distancing measures in place.

The next few photos are of my garden  and were taken Thursday, October 1st. The blooms are hanging in there so I haven't plucked anything up yet.  In fact, if I have time in the next week or so, I hope to try out my brother's camera lenses again.  I think the photos below were taken with my camera and the prime lens that came with it.

Here are a few more photos from Tuesday night's outing.

I found these apples growing on this tree amidst the high rises. I didn't pick them.

This blue sky photo was taken on Monday night.

 A book I recently completed and can recommend is:

It's a book about slavery, the underground railway and the magical, mystical powers of some of the people who helped their own as best they could. I did not know before reading this book, that the author and journalist, Ta-Nehisi Coates, has also written a Black Panther series for Marvel Comics. That was a happy connection for me as I very much enjoyed watching the movie, Black Panther.  I was saddened by the recent loss of one of it's lead actors, Chadwick Boseman, who by all accounts was not only a fabulous actor but a very fine human being. The more I read about him and what he did in his short life, the more I realize what a great loss it really is.  May his family and loved ones be comforted and may his legacy continue to impact many people around the globe. ♥♥♥

 

 Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you all. Stay safe.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday today.