Day Trip to Kamloops, My World Tuesday

Driving to Kamloops, BC. We are at the highest elevation of the mountainous highway.

Passing by Merritt, BC.  One hour left to go before we get to Kamloops.

Today my brother, my cousin and I took a day drive to Kamloops to visit my mother.  We left around 7:45 a.m. and arrived in Kamloops at 12:30 p.m. after a leisurely drive and several stops. I only took a couple of photos along the way.  After stopping for some lunch we arrived to visit mom. She was waiting in the dining hall anxiously keeping watch for us and was so happy when we arrived.

We visited for a time in the dining hall and I showed her the shawls and dresses I had brought for her. She loved them all.  After visiting for awhile my brother went to pick up my niece who lives about a half hour from where mom now resides.  When he returned, we left my brother to visit my mom in private while I took my cousin for a look around the facilities and took my niece to see the new rose garden that is now open at the facility.

As soon as we opened the door to the garden, the fragrance of the roses was heavenly.  I took a few photos as the blossoms were so lovely.  There were about 6 or 7 varieties of roses in the garden but I took photos of these beautiful red blossoms only.

Afterwards, my cousin and I took mom to her room where we tried on her dresses as best we could given she was sitting in her wheelchair. My guess is that the staff will cut the new dresses up the back to make them easier to wear. Hopefully they won't wash them. I will have to retrieve them later and sew some seams up the back.  She loved both dresses but I think the red one particularly caught her eye.  While we were trying on her dresses my brother drove my niece back to her home.

We visited awhile longer with mom and took her back to the dining room for dinner before calling my nephew to come and meet his auntie for a quick visit. We visited with him briefly in the parking lot before we departed at 5:45 p.m. for the drive back to Vancouver. He usually wants a real quick visit so we were careful to take little of his time. This time he asked why the rush, lol. We may seem him this weekend when he makes a trip to the big city.  Soon he will be moving to my city permanently as he has given up his job to return to university and complete his Bachelor of Arts degree.

We made it home at approximately 9:45 p.m.  We were all very tired as none of us slept well last night but all in all we had a fruitful and pleasant visit.

For more scenes from around the globe please click here.

Three Bags Full and Two Dresses

For some time I've been meaning to clean the cushion covers of 4 Kapok filled cushions I purchased a long while ago. I finally got around to it today. Kapok is seed hair fibre from a Kapok tree and looks and feels very interesting.

The job was a little more difficult and time consuming than I bargained for but thankfully it is all done now.

I had four cushions to open and empty of it's Kapok contents. Kapok grows on trees and has a cotton like consistency. It is rather soft and fluffy and this made the work of removing it a bit of a challenge.
You can read more about Kapok here.

Particles of kapok dust flew all over the place and got on the freshly vacuumed carpet. My cousin who is visiting and who had vacuumed was not so happy with me but the job had to be done. After a few years of wear the cushions were becoming flattened and that was the other reason I needed to open them. After refilling the cushions I was left with three. I need to buy more Kapok to fill up the remaining pillow.

I've left one cushion open so you can see a glimpse of the kapok. I've basted the other two cushions to ready them for stitching.  Given the cushions were now filled to the brim, it was challenging to stitch them closed but I managed. No need to be perfect as they will likely go into cushion covers.

Another sewing project today was to sew over the seams of two dresses I had made for mom while I was in Kenya recently. Before I left I asked her if she wanted anything from Africa and she said she would like a dress.  So I got her two of them as they were such pretty colours and her birthday is coming up at the end of the summer. I will deliver them both to her tomorrow.  She knows they are coming and she is rather excited about getting them.

Isn't this a pretty colour green? I almost kept this fabric for a dress of my own. I had big pockets placed in front of both dresses so that when mom sits in her wheelchair she can still reach into her pockets without any problem.

This red colour is beautiful. Mom will love it. The red pockets are not visible against the deep red background of the dress.

Now mom will feel that she can experience a taste of Kenyan culture. Though I'm not fully sure if this patterned fabric is really African, my friend there said it looked like some fabric they call a star pattern. I hope he is right.

This same friend teaches me a lot about Kenyan culture and about his own Kalenjin culture. I learn something new all the time. Recently on his own blog I learned about Kalenjin burial customs when he lost his uncle whom he called elder father because he was the eldest male sibling of his father.  Please read more about it here .