Canada Day 2010

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 is Canada Day. 

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.

Canada Day is often referred to as "Canada's birthday".  The occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the county's Constitution was repatriated in 1982.  The Queen of England was here to mark that occasion. 

The monarch is here again today in Canada to celebrate the country's 143 birthday. She is not travelling to western Canada on this trip but I was fortunate enough to see her many years ago. Here she is in Ottawa earlier today.

Photo credit: National Post, July 1st, 2010, Reuters/Blair Gable

Read here about how I spent last year's Canada Day.  This year I plan to stay home and have a nice, quiet, relaxing time.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

On a personal note, I got the breast cancer diagnostic results Wednesday. After testing over a period of a year (involving x-rays, biopsy, ultrasound) I am cancer free. Yeah! This news is a great Canada Day gift.

I don't have to get checked again for another year and after that, every two years, if all is well. I am especially thankful given my aunt just had a recurrence of breast cancer and a full mastectomy last Friday. Her surgery seems to have gone well and she is recovering nicely.

Slippers in My World

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Yesterday I was practising knitting a sleeping sock to wear instead of slippers.  But I got frustrated. No matter what I did, I kept goofing on my rib stitch pattern. After many tries, I gave up for the time being. I need to be able to concentrate on the stitches more so will wait until I am better rested.  This photo shows my progress to a certain point n the sock, but I've since unravelled it all and will try again another day.

Today I tried a new pattern for slippers rather than socks. This one requires me to cast on stitches in the middle of a project so I had to figure out how to do that. It took me awhile to find a satisfactory method and I can now do it! Yeah! But I will have to work on the actual knitting with more care. I made a model of it just so I know how the whole thing goes together.

Next, I will now focus on making this slipper and making the purled seams properly as well as the ribbing at the toe. This is a great little slipper; a classic pattern and once I get the hang of it, I can make it in several different sizes for the Kenyan orphans with the Missions of Hope.

Blue Doily, Blue Monday & Socks

I've been making doilies this past week. I finished the second one a few days ago and I simply love the turquoise blue colour. Though this pattern is called Pineapple Blossom and pineapples are yellow/gold when ripe, I think the turquoise thread really brings out the pattern nicely. If you would like, you can see my first doily here.

Next thing I am working on is my first pair of knitted socks. It seems like a simple pattern but I've started over and over again because I'm not used to knitting a rib stitch. I'm working it in a 2x2 knit and purl rib stitch (or at least the first part of it) and I keep goofing. Unravelling the stitches and picking them up again took a little getting used to and I don't unravel all my mistakes. If I can make the first sock, the next one will be much easier. That is always how it goes for me.

I'm hoping to make some of these socks as sleeping socks (instead of slippers) for some of the orphan children near Kericho, Kenya. Many of them don't have adequate blankets and I think the socks will help to keep them warm at night, especially in their winter months.  Socks are easier to ship than afghans or quilts, especially when you want to send a lot.  If I have funds, I prefer to wire funds so that blankets and mattresses can be purchased there by the leadership.  This helps the local economy and also saves a fortune on shipping costs.

If you would like to help with these needs by sending funds or hand made goods, please let me know.  Perhaps you even have a group of women you know who would be pleased to get together to make things and raise funds to ship them to Kenya. I'd be happy to put you in touch with the leadership.

For more blue Monday, click here.

Shoes, Shoes

Not a day goes by when I don't think about Kenya. My hopes and dreams are for the lives of the men, women and children of Kenya to be improved, even in small ways. I am especially focussed on Chepkurbet, Kenya where I have personal contacts. You never know how touching someone's life, even in a small way, can impact them in a huge way.

Today I leave you with one photo and link to a story which you can read here.

Can you imagine needing shoes? I know that in times past here in Canada even there were many who were too poor to buy shoes. That was long ago and today I have never see anyone going bare foot because they have no shoes.

Shoes. They are such a simple thing to us and one I hope we don't take for granted.

If you would like to know more about how you can help these Kenyan children get shoes, please contact me (kerichoyjoy[at]gmail.com).

Have a wonderful day wherever you may be in the world.

Taking Stock

If you are like me I'm sure you often wonder where the day goes.  More often than not, I ask myself, "what did I accomplish today?"  I sometimes need to reflect on this question so that I can feel I didn't waste my day. This is a little hold over from my working days. Though I am now retired, I still like to make progress on tasks, especially since I'd like to get organized for my bright future, and I have a list of goals for 2010.

Today was a day for taking stock and assessing what I did. I started my day with coffee and a sandwich on healthy ancient grain bread (no breakfast today). I also had several glasses of water and a few cookies from yesterday's baking batch. I spent some time responding to blog comments and visiting other blogs. This was great since I haven't had enough time for visiting blogs and leaving comments for several weeks.

I then filled and started the dishwasher and put in a load of whites for the laundry while I watched some television and turned the hose on to water the garden. I also filled some buckets of water to water where the hose doesn't always reach and to water the containers.  Later, I had a shower and collected my mail box keys and cloth shopping bags and headed to the grocery store and post office. I also took in my recyclable bottles to the bottle depot where I made $1.15 for the Snowflake Jar (see the column to the right).

My container garden.

After returning home I began making dinner (grilled pork kebabs and mushrooms, a vegetable salad and home made dressing as well as some boiled red potatoes). I took my medicine and cleaned the refrigerator of rotting produce (this is food that was wasted when I went out of town) after eating. I washed the vegetable crispers and lined them with clean paper towels before putting in all my fresh fruits and vegetables.

Next, I vacuumed the kitchen and the master bathroom. White ceramic tiles show everything! I then folded my load of laundry though the towels and night clothes are sitting in the front room waiting to be put away.

I am making my second crochet doily right now. I wanted to make it in navy blue for a friend but the thread is too thick so I am making it in aqua instead. It looks lovely so far.

I spent some time on-line researching the differences in crochet thread and looking for free crochet patterns. My research confirmed what I've learned from the experience of using a particular brand of cotton thread. I'm thinking of ordering cotton thread on line in future and perhaps that way I can get more selection in colours and quality.  I also learned there are so many free patterns on line so I quickly downloaded some patterns I may want to make in future.  I hope I an find them when I need them.

Late in the evening I gently hand washed my first Pineapple Blossom doily and laid it to dry overnight on a towel and gently stretching it into shape. The instruction book said this was blocking but other crochet booklets I've read call for blocking with commercial starch (and even a sugar and water solution) and pinning the doily into shape using rust proof pins. If I find the doily needs more body I will get some starch and re-do the blocking.

After reflecting on my day, my only issue is not enough hours in the day to do so many projects as I'd like in crochet, knitting, quilting, photography, web design, etc. I like this problem though. It is a much better problem to have than not having enough  enjoyable things to do. I'm thankful I have a long list of things to do.  More than that, I'm thankful that I am making progress on the things on my list.

How did your day go?

(Graphic credit: Mike Paul's blog )