Those Pesky Pills

Those pesky pills that appear on clothing are equally annoying with towels. I recently purchased 4 new towels on saturday, two dark blue ones and two tan coloured ones. In my rush to launder them I put them in the washing machine together. Big mistake! All the towels have pilling all over them.

Thankfully I have a trusty gadget which I purchased many years ago. I am not sure the name of it so I will simply call it a pill remover. Usually these are small gadgets that fit in your hand but this one is rather large. I am so glad I purchased it. Though I don't use it that often, it has more than paid for itself over the years.

I took a photo of the pilling on my dark towels and the pill remover. You can see that the pills are rather large.

After several minutes of moving this gadget all over the towel (as if you are mowing the cotton threads), the towels are looking better. I have completed removing the pills from the tan coloured towel and have half finished the darker ones. I will continue in the morning with the better light.

You can see in the photo above that the "catcher" in the pill remover has captured all the dark blue fuzz.

I am so happy for having this gadget. It not only saved me the frustration of removing the pills painstakingly by hand (or with some sticky tape wrapped around my hand) but also saved me from losing the clean look of my new towels.

I would be interested in knowing what method you use to remove pills from your towels or sweaters.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

It was a glorious day of sunshine today in Vancouver. My first day out since my return the other day. I snapped this shot of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church just as the sun was setting.

Comfort Foods

This week was a time of comfort foods for mom and I. We were blessed with a gift of moose meat. Today I cooked some up and this is what we had for dinner.

It was so good that mom kept saying "this is so good", and when she finished, she said she couldn't eat another bite. I didn't bother with any starch accompaniment. We simply had baby greens, radishes and sticks of English cucumber. Mom doesn't like salad greens chopped into pieces so that is why the salad greens look as they do. But they are good no matter which way you eat them! I also stir fried some slices of red pepper with mushrooms and stalks of celery. This mixture is what is obscuring the meat somewhat in my photos.

The moose meat has been cut into slices off a slab, pounded and dipped into flour on both sides before frying in hot oil. One must use enough oil so as not to dry out the moose meat which is very lean. Read more about the moose meat here.

Earlier this week, I made pan fried bannock. I've blogged before about oven baked bannock. See here and here. For the pan friend version, you omit the oil/shortening from the recipe. Once you form your rounds or pieces of bannock to be cooked, you heat some oil and fry the bread, turning it over once it has browned. Once cooked on both sides, you lay it on strips of paper towel to blot out the excess grease. Eat. It is especially good with butter and jam.

Here is a picture of what the fried bannock should look like.

Just as I was finishing this blog, mom's daily aide came for the night service. Lo and behold she brought some minced buffalo meat. See a photo of a buffalo here. Wow, we are so blessed.

Scenic Sunset

Southwest facing view of the mountains in North Kamloops, BC.

Sky Above the Valley

This was the sky above Kamloops this week.

The Sky's the Limit

For more sky photos see here

Tree at Dusk

This is a photo of a tree I took at dusk against a dark sky in late Fall. I thought the red berries looked so pretty.

Aboriginal People's Heritage reflected in Winter Olympics 2010

I am very proud of the Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony which incorporated so much of the First Nations and Aboriginal culture into the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I didn't mention it in my post last night about the Opening Ceremonies but Aboriginal presence and participation was one of the highlights of the show for me.

The First Nations of the traditional territories on which the games are being held were recognized as heads of state and seated directly behind the Canadian Prime Minister and the Governor General. Four totem poles were raised from the centre of the stadium, and greetings were given to the crowd (and the world) in the languages of the four host First Nations (Squamish Nation, Musqueam Indian Band, Lil'wat First Nation, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nation), as well as English and French. The arms of the totems were raised in a traditional gesture of greeting to welcome the athletes and the world. The Aboriginal peoples later formed a welcome circle to prepare for the forthcoming Parade of the Nations and danced traditional welcoming dances as the athletes entered the stadium. In addition to the representation and welcome by the four host First Nations, there were representatives of the 52 tribal groups of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, the First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

[Photo credits: Canoe.ca]

[Photo credit: gymnasticscoaching.com]

This year's Olympic medals are stunningly beautiful and so unique. They reflect the First Nations heritage of Canada, and in particular, British Columbia, the host province for this year's winter Olympics.

It took a team of people two years to make this year's medals. It was a collaborative effort between Canadian Aboriginal designer/artist, Corinne Hunt, internationally renowned industrial designer, Omer Arbel, the Royal Canadian Mint, Teck Resources Limited, and VANOC’s in-house design team.

The medals are made from master artworks created by Corrine Hunt, a Vancouver, BC-based artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Hunt chose the orca as the motif for the Olympic medals. Each medal is hand-cropped and no two are alike so each Olympic medal athlete will have a treasured and unique creation.

(Orca panels)

The orca, designed across four panels in the style of a traditional West Coast First Nations bentwood box, is often associated with the attributes of strength, dignity and teamwork.
The first of Canada's medals is a silver medal won by Jennifer Heil, from Spruce Grove, Alberta, for mogul skiing. Congratulations Jennifer! You make us Canadians proud.

In closing let me link you with the video to the full Opening Ceremonies.
I could not embed it so I've linked it here.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/collections/collectionid=40427/index.html

I decided to put this up after my dear blogger friend, Laura from Paris asked for suggestions. If you look at the bottom of the video screen you will see a long bar divided into several parts. The main portion of the Aboriginal participation is included in the first bar. You can also go to the link for more Olympic coverage.

Birds, Thrifting & Catalina Chicken

It has been a very busy week of cleaning, shopping, laundry, care giving, and cooking. I also had an important meeting while here in Kamloops & I must escort my elderly relative to the doctor's office on Thursday so my trip home has been delayed by a week and a half.

My mom has been looking for a new doctor for well over a year as there is a terrible shortage of doctors, especially those willing to take new patients. So when we got the call from a doctor's office where mom has been on a waiting list for several months we jumped at the opportunity to see the doctor as soon as possible.

The winter here is still dull and since I go out every other day or so, it isn't much fun to snap photos. I did however enjoy capturing some photos of bare trees. The sun was out bright and early this morning for the first time in over a week so. The brilliance of the sun made me realize that it won't be long before this city enjoys the beautiful Spring weather they always get. It won't be long before the trees in the photos below are wearing leaves.


One thing I love about the bare trees is you get to see the bird's nests and they always make a wonderful picture don't you think?

I had a treat today as the birds in the tree below were singing so loudly. I later realized that they were happily feeding at a bird feeder and most of the birds were not visible to me. I did manage to capture one or two in a photo. Can you spot one?

While I was out and about I went thrifting and was quite pleased with my finds. One of the things I purchased was a lovely needlepoint cushion. I was so delighted with it though upon closer inspection, I see that the needlepoint is factory done. I only paid $1.99 Canadian and so I think it was a good buy.

I also purchased a nice bohemian bag for sauntering down the street with in the summer when I don't want to carry a larger bag. I also bought a beautiful plum coloured chenille scarf. The bag was a $1.99 and the scarf was 99 cents.

I decided to treat my mom to a new dish today. It is called Catalina Chicken and it only requires 4 ingredients (chicken, cranberry sauce, onion soup mix and catalina salad dressing). The chicken was delicious. I must thank Katy my new blogging friend and you can find her recipe here. Mom and I enjoyed the dish a lot!


After dinner, I watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver. I was deeply saddened to hear that the young Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died while training on the luge run. I was touched that he was not forgotten in the comments made by Olympic officials and participated in the minute of silence in this young man's honour. If there is any comfort at all for his family, it is that this young man died living out his dream and he was so happy to be at the Olympics. His hard work and dedication were not in vain. May he be an inspiration to all who challenge themselves over the coming two weeks of Olympic sport.

Images of Kamloops

I am visiting in the Interior of British Columbia this week in a town called Kamloops. It is about 4.5 hours drive from my home to here.

The weather and scenery in winter is rather dull. It has been foggy all week but today the sun came through. As you can see there is very little snow here. Kamloops doesn't get much snow in winter these days but this year has been very mild both here and at home in Vancouver.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures. Perhaps you can see that the geography is quite dry and this is a semi-arid area with some desert scenery and temperatures in summer. It can be quite lovely on a nice day and the area is a wonderful area for those that love ranching or the great outdoors.

Come with Me for a Spell, Relax & Enjoy the Sun in Mount Pleasant

Like many people who are having their winter, I am missing our beautiful Spring and Summer. I made this slideshow with music last Spring and want to share it with you now as part of my series on living in Vancouver.

This little slideshow is of the neighbourhood known as Mount Pleasant or South Main (SoMa). This neighbourhood once known as a working class neighbourhood has undergone gentrification since the early 1990s. It is one of the up and coming neighbourhoods in the city. It is home to many first time buyers & young urban professionals. On a given weekend when one is out shopping and running errands you will more than likely bump into one of the local media personalities who live in the neighbourhood.

This area got it's local flavour and colour from a former stream. In the late 1800s, early 1900s, the area was known as Brewery Creek due to the number of breweries that set up in the area as a result of the nearby stream. Vancouver's City Hall is also located in the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood.

Enjoy the tour!