Waning Days of Summer

Summer of 2015 has gone by in a whirl. I don't feel that I had time to sit and breathe. 

I reflected the other day on what I really accomplished in summer of 2015. 

My conclusion is that the summer was devoted to family celebrations so this is a good thing.

In late May, my nephew graduated with his first degree (Bachelor of Arts in Psychology) so there were several events (graduation, reception and dinner) devoted to that. There were also new clothes to buy and gifts to think about.   As most of you know, all this takes time beyond the actual days of specific celebrations.

It was all fun and since then he went on his much anticipated trip to Europe.  He is now back to university in a Master's Program and will focus on Behavioral Neuroscience. Basically he is studying what happens to our brains as we age and has already been doing laboratory research for the past several years while doing his undergraduate work.

In June I paid a visit to my mom and there is always a lot of preparation involved in getting her the different things she needs between visits.

In July I prepared for my niece's visit for a week and we celebrated her birthday with her brother and other family members while she was here.

In mid to late August I was busy preparing for another trip to see mom. This included shopping and making a few items of clothing.

My brother and I travelled together as it was mom's birthday and we all celebrated together.

Other family members like my nephew had celebrated with her a few days earlier.

It was nice that mom had multiple visits and celebrations.

Now that it is getting to be the middle of September I am catching up on some of my own needs.

There are always a host of things to do: blood work, diabetes workshops, foot care, eye care, etc.

I've been busy going for my annual eye check and eye specialist check. Actually this year I went to two separate eye specialists.  One of them repaired a retinal tear I had last year.  Now I go for follow up check ups. I don't have to go so often. Now it will be once a year.

The other one monitors the general health of my eyes to catch any diabetes related issues.

Thankfully everything is fine on the eye front. 

The retinal tear is fully healed and I have no diabetes related eye issues.

When I went to the optometrist in June, she said my prescription has not changed much.  This meant  I didn't bother with any new glasses this year.

Instead I bought a year's supply of contact lenses as it is much cheaper to buy for a year rather than 3 months at a time.

Today's eye specialist said the contacts sit very well on my eyes.  That is a good thing since glasses cause problems for me like eye strain and headaches.

My blood glucose reading (A1C) has significantly improved since my last blood work done 3 months ago.
 In fact, it is better than it has been in at least 15 months.

My blood pressure is normal too.

All this was very good news.  It gives me the motivation and encouragement I need to stay on track and to even ramp up my efforts wherever I can.

It is so important that my blood glucose gets normalized so I can lose the weight I've gained since being diagnosed with diabetes.

It has been a frustratingly long and slow process to get healthier.  Now I realize that my efforts didn't work so well without the right medication.  Every bit of good news is welcome and my doctors know that my aim is to get off the medications completely.  They believe it can be done.

I heard on the weather report that today and tomorrow will be some of our last, warmer summer days.

So after my appointments today, I had a nice walk home and captured these sky shots

and this flowering bush. 

I'm not sure what this plant is.

It looks like a hydrangea but the blooms are rather long for a hydrangea.

The odd shaped blossoms might have to do with the very hot weather and lack of rain we've had this summer.
Update: Georgene, one of my readers correctly identified the bush as a Crepe Myrtle. Thank you, Georgene!

I hope you've enjoyed your summer whatever you've done.

I wish you a beautiful Fall/Autumn.

If you are on the other side of the globe, I wish you
a beautiful Spring and Summer.
 

Thanks for stopping by.

Joining up with Skywatch Friday and Good Fences.

On the Road Again

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends

And I can't wait to get on the road again

"On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson

Another whirl wind trip has been completed.
I got home very late on Wednesday and was quite tired but had some missions business to attend to in Kenya.

That done, I tried to do a number of things: call my mom to let her know I arrived safely home, partially knit a new dishcloth, view & cull  trip photos and prepare this post.
I thought it would be nice to share a lot more photos this time of the road trip especially since the weather was quite variable throughout.


I'm not sure what happened but it took several tries before the mosaics were successfully saved.

Starting out in Vancouver it was raining. I didn't start taking photos until almost in Chilliwack. Here is a map just to help situate you if you are not so familiar with the Province of British Columbia.

 A map is always nice to situate oneself. We travelled from Vancouver through Burnaby, Surrey, Chilliwack, Hope, Merritt and Kamloops (Merritt is located just south of where it says Logan Lake).
Clicking on the collages/mosaics will enlarge them a bit.

Highway & weather between Vancouver and Hope

The weather conditions in both directions was much the same each way; raining in the Lower Mainland and 

scattered cloud in the Interior. 

The gusts of wind were quite chilly. Most definitely not like the past few months.

Highway and weather between Merritt and Kamloops

A small group of 5 enjoyed a combination of Chinese cuisine topped off with sodas and white cake as per my mother's favourite cake. It was all quite the starch overload today. 

I compensated by having water and a chicken Caesar Salad for dinner as well as the requisite road beverage, coffee!

The tops, skirt and care package here were all gratefully received but the telephone has to be exchanged since the new set didn't have clips to attach to clothing.

As always I managed to tidy the dresser drawers and closet, cull the clothing and put away all food snacks.
It is always a quick journey requiring days of preparation to make sure everything is done just right.
This trip went very smoothly and enjoyably.

I hope your week is going well.

Skywatch Friday

and
Mosaic Monday