My World Tuesday - May 25, 2010

I was on a walk earlier this week and wanted to share some photos of the houses in the area. If you look at the map below, the area in which I took these photos is represented by the purple house icon.

Many of my blog readers are from Australia and Africa and are curious to know how we live in Canada and what the houses, shops and tourist sites look like. This post will give one little peek into some of the housing here though there are many other neighbourhoods with many styles of houses and apartments.  This particular neighbourhood is a well established one and the costs of a detached home in the area would run upwards of $1 million Canadian dollars. Perhaps they even cost more than that as a fabulous two bedroom condominium here can now cost over a million dollars at the higher end of things. That is a lot of money but these are by no means the most expensive properties in the city.

You can check out the real estate market and see what is available in different parts of the city at this site used by realtors.  Click here.
Enjoy the tour.

Click here to see more scenes from around the world.

Blue Monday ~ May 24, 2010

I took these photos of blue signage on a recent trip to the interior City of Kamloops. 

Read more about Kamloops here and here if you like.

Join Sally and the gang for more Blue Monday here.

Another Scenic Sunday in Vancouver

In one of my walks this week I took this northward facing shot. In the distance is the City of Vancouver. The high tower in the background is a great place from which to see the sights of Vancouver on a sunny day by going to the observation deck at the top of the building. If you'd like to read more about the tower click here.

I will be posting photos of houses in this neighbourhood for my foreign blogger friends who are interested in how we live in Canada. You can find them on my blog on Tuesday. 

Click here to view more wonderful scenes from around the world.  

http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

A Rose is Sweet ~ Simple Joy Saturday

I was blessed this week with roses blooming in my garden.  I love flowers of all kinds and I especially love roses. This one comes from my garden. It comes from a rose bush that was in my garden when I moved in to my apartment. It has always been a spindly plant and I'm afraid I don't tend to it well. Yet it gives off such pretty blossoms each year. Only a few blossoms though and so they are rather precious to me.


Thinking about the beautiful rose brought to mind the famous Shakespearean line about roses.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Meaning

What matters is what something is, not what it is called.

Origin

From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1600:

JULIET:
      'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
      Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
      What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
      Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
      Belonging to a man. O, be some  other name!
      What's in a name? that which we call a rose
      By any other name would smell as sweet;
      So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
      Retain that dear perfection which he owes
      Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
      And for that name which is no part of thee
      Take all myself.

 

Please drop by Jan's new meme, Simple Joy Saturday by clicking here and tell us about your simple joys.

A Beautiful Sunset, Skywatch Friday

This was the view on many nights from my hotel room in downtown Vancouver. Some of my old readers will know that I stayed in a hotel for 4 months last summer after a fire in my building. It was nice to be away but nice to get home too. After all, a hotel is only novel for so long *smile. One thing I do miss is the fantastic water views and sunsets. 

Thank you for dropping by and a big shout out to all my new readers. You make me happy and I hope you will come again soon.

For more sky scenes from around the globe, click here

A Little Bit of Knitting and A Little Bit Italian Chicken

Well today (Wednesday) was a very busy day dashing to the medical laboratory for early morning tests, stopping at the post office, doing some thrifting, dropping in on my travel agent, stopping for a lunch of Thai food, stopping at the dollar store, then rushing home to do some laundry, boil some beans and put the dinner on.

At the thrift stores I bought a number of skeins of yarn and various sized needles. I only go for "newish" yarn and needles that are not bent and well worn. I am creating my stash for when I want to branch out with new projects. For now, I am focussing on improving my very newly learned knitting skills with a simple dishcloth pattern. So far I've made four. I finally felt like I could knit on the fourth one. I am on my way! Yeah!

Here are my four facecloths. I will probably give the green/blue ones to my mom and keep the other two for myself. A friend has already asked me to make several but I want to practice other things right now as well as get better at knitting before I try to knit for others.

Given the busyness of the day and the fact it started raining I felt like having something comforting. I don't know what to call this made up and simple recipe so am calling it A Little Bit Italian Chicken *smile.


Recipe:

- 4 medium to large chicken thighs with legs attached
- Italian seasoning
- 1 large can of diced tomatoes
- a handful of parsley.

I baked the chicken pieces with a sprinkling of Italian seasoning on top. The chicken was baked at about 350 Farenheit oven until crispy brown. Once it was browned, I drained out as much fat out of the pan as possible. I then added a large can of diced tomatoes to the chicken along with some chopped parsley and more Italian seasoning. Continue cooking at same temperature for another 20 minutes or so.

Side dishes

Brown Rice
Red Kidney Beans


I bought dried beans and soaked them overnight changing the water twice and rinsing them after the 2nd soak and just before boiling. After such a long soak it didn't take so long to cook them by bringing them to a gentle boil for about 45 minutes. Now if you decide to make your beans this way, you can cook them longer or shorter depending on how crunchy you like your beans.

I like bland foods more than some so if the rice and beans are too bland for your taste you can add other seasonings. Likewise with the chicken, if the tomatoes and Italian seasoning is too bland you can add something like crushed garlic to the "sauce" before baking.

To serve place one piece of chicken leg and thigh on plate alongside a few scoops of rice. Top the rice with your beans and the tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper as needed and a sprig of parsley to garnish.

Another Sunrise ~ My World Tuesday

All week I have had difficulties sleeping. I go to sleep but wake up all night long. I don't sleep well at the best of times but this week was the worst in awhile. I pulled an all nighter last night.  Since I was awake at sunrise I took some photos.

I never cease to be in awe of a beautiful sunrise or sunset.  I also love all of natural creation and any living or growing thing. I know that's a lot but I simply love God's creation.

Click here to share your world.  http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Big Blue Bowl of Congee

It has been awhile since I had Chinese rice congee in my big blue bowl. Rice congee is a type of rice porridge/soup eaten in many Asian countries.

In this instance, I had mixed meat congee with a sliced Chinese donut (not sweet) on top.  I had a side dish of noodles with veggies, seafood and chinese mushrooms. I got these dishes from the restaurant in my building on one recent, cold and rainy day.  The congee hit the spot and the blue bowl is always my favourite as it is just the perfect size to have a generous serving without things spilling over.

Thanks for joining me on Blue Monday. 

For more entries from around the globe, please click here.

Simple Joy Saturday

My Kenyan friend, Pastor Jonah's auntie is ill with a form of nose cancer and requires surgery. Since they are humble villagers the cost of the $900. Canadian/US required for the treatment is astronomical and beyond the means of individual villagers.  So they held a Harambee on Saturday (Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, eg. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili).

Here are photos of the Harambee.  You can see they went into the night with the fundraiser even though it was raining. These gentlemen are counting the funds.

Here is auntie addressing the participants.

I was pleased when I learned they raised $400. of the $900 fee required.  That is less than half of the total required but is a significant amount of money for those that only earn a few dollars a day.

Please pray that this family would be able to raise the rest soon to give this auntie the best chance at successful surgery. Thank you.

 Thank you to Jan of Australia for creating the Simple Joys meme.
Click here to participate.

Flight Paths: Skywatch Friday ~ May 14, 2010

The following photos of flight paths were taken at different times of the day. The first one was taken at around 3:00 in the afternoon. There was a buzz on the streets and lots of hustle and bustle. I paused to view the sky.

The second photo was taken around 6:00 in the morning. I so seldom get to see the sunrise so this was a real treat.

I love the stillness of mornings, don't you?

Click here fore more sky photos

Sunrise in Vancouver

A glorious day awaits. I hope yours is a great one!