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

Another Trip in the Works

Since I posted last we've had a major wind and rain storm here in Vancouver. I was without power for the better part of a day and night but my power was restored in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  There are still over 30,000 homes without power. In addition to a long power outage on Saturday evening, I also had a fire alarm near midnight. It was nothing to do with a fire but you just never know so out you go. Thankfully I wasn't asleep yet but many of my neighbours were wearing night clothes.  I didn't take any photos of the storm damage but click here for today's storm update and to see the extensive damage.

Now that our hot weather is behind us and Fall on the way I will likely be waxing a bit nostalgic about the beautiful summer flowers.  However this year was so hot that it was hard to enjoy the flowers and some (most) gardens, including public gardens really suffered for lack of water due to lack of rain and resulting water restrictions.

Mosaic of summer flowers from a previous summer.

Other than the bit of weather excitement I've been busy all week with shopping and sewing for my mother.  I've got a lot to take her in terms of clothing and snacks on this trip and we will also celebrate her birthday with a bit of food and cake. I've coordinated my niece's arrival time to join my brother, mother and I, but haven't booked a room yet for our meal.  If there is no extra room available we will  make do in a corner of the dining room.  The main is just to visit and make sure mom is comfortably prepared for the coming Fall.

Normally I don't post a long list of what I'm taking for my mom but I thought this time it might be interesting to post a list and have something I can reference later.

Shopping

Snacks:

- 20 small juice (orange and apple)
- 3 cans smoked oysters
- 30 cans cocktail wieners
- 3 cans snack tuna packages
- 1 package whole wheat crackers
- 1 can sardines
- 1 bag popcorn twists
- 3 types of hard candy
- 2 packages Cup-of-Soup

 Toilet Articles

-  face cream
-  body cream
-  bar soap
-  Vick's Vapour Rub
-  hand wipes
-
Other

- cordless phone set
- 1 plastic mason jar sipping mug with straw
- 1 small plastic Tupperware container
 
Clothing:

- 2 nightgowns, labelled and modified up the back
- 1 undergarment, labelled
- 2 knee high socks and over the knee socks, labelled
- 2 winter sweaters, labelled
- 2 tops (see below)
- 1 skirt (see below)


Over the past week I've shopped for various kinds of fabric to make 2 tops and one skirt. I only intended to make one top.  Then decided I'd rather make everything now rather than have to make it in a month or two and mom would be going without all the things she needs before my next visit.  When shopping or buying fabric  I always have to try and coordinate colours and clothing needs with what she already has in her closet. It isn't always easy to find just the right thing in the right colours.

The home made clothes are basically done.  I just need to add elastic to the skirt waistband and cut the tops up the backside and sew the edges down. I do this for all tops, nightgowns and dresses whether home made or store bought and I also label everything. These are the items I've made:

- 1 multi-coloured green/brown top

- 1 multi-coloured plum top

- 1 crushed velvet brown skirt

I have to finish the neckline on this one. The brown skirt is under the top.

When I look at my list it doesn't seem quite so long or involved. But when I'm trying to buy everything and put it all together (example finding appropriate fabric, sewing and coordinating all the colours in existing wardrobe) it does take a lot of time. It also takes a lot of financial resources to do this on a regular basis (just one can of wieners ranges from (97 cents each to $2.69 each).

I  try to find as much as possible on sale including the fabric. This time I was able to buy fabrics for the tops at approximately $32 total.  I will get 4 tops out of them (2 for mom and 2 for me which I'll make later). I also got the skirt fabric at a good price ($15).

Altogether Mom's home made items cost me $23.  $31 (or about $10.33 each, excluding thread.).  Overall I think I got good value out of the projects which took about 7-8 hours total to make as I had to re-do one neckline.  It takes me long because I give myself lots of breaks in between when I have to do other things. One can sew things for even less money than I've spent.  You can really shop around especially if you aren't limited in the type of fabric you need to buy. You can also find fabric ends, clearance fabric and even use the fabric from clean second hand clothing. I might do this myself if I wasn't in a hurry and if the clothing was just for me.

Plum/burgundy top. Still need to hem and finish sleeves

In addition to shopping and sewing, I've finished one more book toward my reading goals of 45 books for the year. I'm behind schedule by 1-2 books. I also managed to fit in a bit of knitting and made 2 dishcloths. It's been well over a year since I knitted any dishcloths and I discovered I'd forgotten how. I had to look up the pattern again and relearn how to do a yarn over stitch. I made quite a lot of  cloths 2 years ago and have been using the stash for my own needs and for gifts but now am running low. I need to make a new stash of cloths and these two will be added to it. I'm thinking of far away friends that I want to gift and one of them is finalizing building a house (and doesn't read this blog).  The kitchen is yet to be done but things are coming along well. I'll be making them in various colours for myself and others too. I find this little project quite relaxing and practical.

I'm linking up with Our World Tuesday this week.

Have a wonderful week full of good things.

Beauty of Birds

"Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best."

Bernard Meltzer

*You can click all photos to enlarge for better viewing.*

Beautiful macaws

Beautiful orchids & a finch. Can you spot it?

Beautiful little finches

Joining in with Saturday's Critters.

Thank you to Eileen for hosting this meme.
I'll also be linking up
Judith for Mosaic Monday.

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great weekend!

Beautiful Wisps of White

There were some interesting clouds in the sky yesterday but only one of my photos came out clearly enough to post. 

I was actually trying to capture the moon which you see in the photo below. Fast moving clouds meant it would only come into view intermittently.  

There are sure to be some excellent shots of the moon on line this week as the first of 3 supermoons occurs August 29, 2015.

I can't take night shots so I'll be looking for your photos.

I'm joining up with Skywatch Friday this week.

I hope each of you has a great weekend. I'll be by to look at your sky shots.