Another Friday Has Come and Gone

 Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope you are all doing well and keeping happily occupied as we move on toward Christmas.

I'm keeping busy but not feverishly so. This year I have been thankful for being made to slow down and get a lot of 'old tasks' done. I have enough to keep all my waking hours occupied.

It was raining very, very heavily earlier in the day.  When it stopped I took a few photos to share.

First up is this little beauty.

On Thursday night I made ham and bean soup with the leftover ham I roasted on Sunday or Monday. I made Métis style bannock bread to go with it. It was not the best bannock I've made but it was tasty nonetheless.  If you would be interested in making it, there is a recipe or two on line.

The box from Amazon was delivered on Tuesday and contains the shelves I have yet to put together. I haven't done it yet because I've been painting one of the walls in my entry way and touching up some of the bedroom doors and bathroom areas. I have more to do along those lines. The main priority is to get the entry way properly painted and move a small armoire from the living room to the wall area so I can rearrange the seating in the living room.

Well I better go and eat my dinner while it is fresh. Tonight I've made steamed rice, salmon and a few cut up veggies like cucumbers and tomatoes sprinkled with lemon juice.

One last look at the sky before I go.  I zoomed in on the mountains. You can see all the fresh snow.

Enjoy your Friday. 

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

A Journal of Activities

 Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

Just checking in here to see how things are going with you. Since my last post I've been busy trying to get things done. I've also been getting back into reading which is one of my favourite activities.

I finished reading, The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel.

 

It is a very touching and poignant book in so many ways. The story line involves an American woman who marries a French man and settles in Paris. Shortly thereafter the Germans occupy the city and her husband becomes involved in the resistance movement unbeknownst to her. When she finds out she wants to help too but her husband vetoes the idea. After his death she does get involved in harbouring members of the Allied forces and helps many get to safety. The rest of the story revolves around her love life and what happens to her as she is sent to concentration camp in Germany. I highly recommend the book. Now I'm reading a few others including another book by Kristen Hormel called, The Winemaker's Wife.

 

In  non-fiction books I've been enjoying a large coffee table book devoted to the late Elizabeth Taylor's jewellery collection and the stories behind the pieces. The other book I will be reading is called The New Bohemians Handbook, a book about the Bohemian style of decorating.  I will have a lot of eye candy to look at as I get ready for Christmas.

Of course this year we will not be able to get together with loved ones or invite others over for dinner. Today (Monday) the Covid 19 restrictions were extended until January and for weeks people have been encouraged to refrain from getting together with those they don't live with due to the very high Covid-19 numbers.  For me this isn't a big change because I've been doing this since last March.  The only real change is the directive to wear a mask in all common or public places.  So whenever I leave the house I must put a mask on.

Given that there isn't a need to do a lot of preparations for others this year, I have been concentrating on mailing Christmas cards both locally and abroad and finding and wrapping presents for mailing. All of that has now been done.  I just have a few presents to hand deliver to my nephew and his girlfriend. I'm waiting for one package for his present and it is supposed to be delivered in about 10 days time then we will get together in a socially distanced fashion to exchange gifts.

Before I could send my niece her Christmas parcels I had to do some sewing.  Since the sewing machine was out on the table I decided to do some much needed sewing and hemming of trousers. I've been procrastinating about it for ages but I finally completed 4 of them on Monday night.  It's so great to get this done.  I have at least 4 more to do. One of them is the red one lying on the table. I purchased it on clearance (no returns) and it is both too long and too large so it will require taking the waistband apart and redoing it all to take it in a bit. The pants is palazzo style and the material is stretchy so it requires different needles and is more finicky than I like to do. I am not a seamstress so it always takes me time to work up to the effort involved

I've also been getting a few home deliveries for things I need personally and things needed around the house.  I've been waiting a long while for some of the items and managed to get a good deal on everything. One of them is a new towel set though the hand towels haven't arrived yet. I love the blue colour. Normally I'd like blue but it is never the right shade of blue and I get tired of white or gray towels.  These towels arrived at around 5 p.m. and I washed them right away and put them out. They are very soft and larger than my usual towels.

I'm hoping to paint my bathroom soon and put up some shelving and so on. that will be for a future post whenever I get to it. On Wednesday I'm expecting a set of metal shelves on casters which I'll need to put together. I finally decided to purchase the unit after eyeing it for many months on Amazon. I'm hoping it will help me organize my kitchen a lot better and make the work flow far more efficient.

There are 4 pair of pants on the hangers.  The printed leopard is for Fall wear and the white print is palazzo summer wear, it's very nice and lightweight for those hot days.  The other two are yoga pants or athleisure wear for around the house and local errands.

It reminds me I have another purple leopard athleisure pant which I really like but it is far too big and requires significant alterations.  I think I'd like to try and make them over but they are not just straight legged design so it required more work and will have to wait until the new year.

In my effort to help the environment I never put the returnable bottles and containers in the garbage. I save them all up and take them to the recycling depot.  If I am not up to it I put them in the recycle bins or give them to the people on the streets.

I found out that one can put cans and bottles in these blue bags and return them to the recycle depot for drop off rather than wait around. The depot then deposits money into an account that you set up rather than you have to wait at the depot for them to count and give you cash.  A few weeks ago we delivered a lot of cans, juice containers and so on and I got back $20. This was after saving the containers for quite some time.

You can see the big wheelchair is still occupying space in my home. I really wish it was gone but my friends haven't fully raised the funds to purchase a new new battery and charger so the chair will be with me for awhile yet. I believe they have raised about 2/3 of the needed funds.  The woman who needs the chair, really needs the chair because she is paraplegic and has already been waiting about 8 months.  I hope they will be ready to collect it soon.

Last but not least, on Friday night I was shopping at a different grocery store than the one I usually shop at.  I ran into a friend there whom I have not seen for many months. He said he wanted to send me a gift card but since we bumped into each other he would give me cash instead.  What a nice surprise that was. I decided to buy some fresh salmon and made it for dinner on Saturday night. It was delicious.

For the remainder of this week I will continue sewing; hemming, 1 or 2 pair of pants and possibly making a few cushions inserts for the kapok filling I have.  I am hoping to sew up some muslin squares and stuff them.  These are cushion inserts only and I will have to buy or make the cushion covers later. One cannot wash kapok so if the insert covers get dirty you have to take them apart and then you get kapok fluff all over the place. For those that don't know what kapok is, it's a tree fiber that looks like cotton, feels silky to the touch and is sustainably harvested.  The other thing I want to do is wash the carpet and bring up the Christmas ornaments from storage. If time permits I hope to put together the metal shelving and organize it.

We are back to very heavy rain so I won't be going anywhere. Besides I must stay home to receive the items to be delivered.  I was able to capture these scenes on December 4th while it was still dry. These were taken around 7:20 in the morning and there was a pretty pink in the sky.

I may not be posting on line in the next week or two but as always I hope to visit some blogs.

Thank you for stopping by.  Enjoy whatever you are doing this season and keep safe.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

 

Welcome to December

This beautiful scene greeted me Monday. 

There will be more scenes like this for another week or so as I've read that we will have dry, relatively warm, sunny weather until about mid-December. Thereafter it should get a lot colder due to the effects of  La Niña, the colder counterpart to El Niño.

Welcome to December!

 

I started reading a new book. It's digital and from the library but for some reason it won't download for offline access. It means I have to read it on my browser. It's an easy read of the romance genre. One of those books that you don't have to think about while you read.  

 

I wanted to read that kind of book right now since I'm  busy with lots and lots of  'to dos', sending Christmas mail, household tasks, and looking for deals on things I need for the house.

Some sewing was involved in preparing one of the packages so I was a bit late it getting it prepared. Now that I've dusted and cleaned the grime from the sewing machine, I really should try to sew up a few other items before I decorate for Christmas.

I finally folded and boxed the too large patio cover back up. It fit into the box much easier than I was anticipating though not as good as when I bought the item new.  That's usually the case so it will have to do. By tomorrow I hope to have it returned and refunded. I'll try again and this time order on line though it may take a while as all packages are slow to be delivered right now. Canada Post is dealing with a record 2 million items delivered daily. This far surpasses their usual 1 million items delivered during Christmas. The postal business has been booming during Covid 19.

Right now I'm cooking up some cabbage, onion, potato and ground beef soup in a tomato broth. I was going to skip the ground beef but this will be our dinner so I decided to add it for more satiety.  There will be plenty left over for Friday although I have plans to make fish and chips for dinner.

 

Late at night, when I cannot sleep, I get out the app and colour. It's so addictive and I love the pretty colours.

I hope you all have a pleasant and safe weekend. Thank you for stopping by.

Joining up with Skywatch Friday.

The Sky Over Me in November

Yesterday's sky was quite dramatic and the rain came down in buckets for much of the day. I moved my patio table against the wall and put on the new table cover I purchased last week.  It's a cover that covers the table and chairs but it is extra big and I don't like the look.  I'm going to box it up, return it and buy a smaller cover for the table. I already have a cover for the chairs which I will stack as it takes up less space.

 

Believe or not, the geraniums are still producing new blooms but not as prolifically and everything in the garden has pretty much seen better days. My main hope is to get the patio furniture put away properly before throwing out the container plants. I did manage to wash the patio chair cushions, buy the patio table and chair cover and try it on. Next I'll have to buy the new patio table cover and then everything can be put away properly.  I'll have to wash the table again as it got wet in the meantime and wipe down the chairs so they don't rust with water pooling on the arm rests. Those of you who have garages can just store everything in your garage but here in the city many of us do not have a separate garage or even extra storage spaces.

This next two photos were taken on Sunday, November 15, 2020. I barely remember what I do from day to day because the routine is pretty much home based.  It's a good thing we take photos, lol and can find the dates on the photo files. 

The last sky image is a colour by number painting I did on an app. I haven't done any of these paintings for several months but on Wednesday night I spent hours painting.  It's so easy to while away the time on the app and before I know it hours have passed by.  I'm not sure why I find it so appealing. I think I just like seeing what colours take shape and how quickly I can complete a picture since some of them are rather complicated. Wednesday night I completed them in record time as most of them were quite simple.  This particular scene speaks to me of northern Canada and Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) though I don't think there are mountains like that in the very far north.

I've been running back and forth to the post office to mail cards and letters and also to pick up packages that never arrived. I've already had to cancel one order coming from California because the company is going out of business due to Covid and I needed to get my refund before then.  The package had tracking but the information was confusing and the parcel never did arrive after 2 months.  I also ordered parcels from a Canadian company.  They are not using Canada Post as their delivery service and they are several days past the estimated arrival.  Supposedly they have now arrived so I'll check tomorrow at the post office.  Last but not least, I also ordered a parcel from an Etsy Store based in Montreal, Canada. I ordered several weeks ago and the package has not yet arrived.  The package came with free shipping and I didn't know until after I ordered that there is no tracking number provided. So I do hope it eventually arrives.  Since Covid 19 pandemic was announced, the parcel service is very hit or miss. For quite some time the post office was operating at half capacity at their main distribution center.  I think they are now staffing up for the annual Christmas rush. I've noticed that the small postal outlet where I go, they have been inundated with parcels, mail and in store customers. It has always been a busy postal outlet but nowadays it's just crazy busy.

~~~~

I've been busy cooking as usual. I suppose most people are these days and with more restrictive Covid measures in place things are not likely to change soon.

Saturday I made a ground beef soup with lots of veggies (potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, celery) and macaroni in a tomato broth. Mom used to make a variation of this with home made biscuits and it is really nice to have on a chilly night. I wasn't up to making any bread so we had sourdough store bought sliced bread.

 

 

Sunday was roasted ham with mashed potatoes and green peas. We had leftovers on Monday and snacked on it here and there since then. I also cut up some pieces and froze them along with the bones to make ham and pea soup on another day. The ham looks much bigger than it is because I took a close up photo.

On Tuesday I made Sweet and Spicy Korean Ground Beef with rice and slaw. It's the second time I've made it and it is quite good so I see it becoming a new staple whenever I have ground beef and don't feel like having the usual.

Wednesday we had spaghettini and meat sauce as well as garlic bread with enough for leftovers on Thursday. It looks a bit strange in my bowl because I put spaghettini on the bottom covered with sauce and Parmesan cheese, then I decided to add more on top of that.

I've been feeling hungrier with the advent of the cold weather so have been back to having more protein smoothies and snacking on dark chocolate covered cranberries and cashew nuts or mixed nuts. 

I'm not doing too much reading right now as I'm trying to catch up on my very long list of 'to do's. I had good success this week with making 2 personal phone calls that I've been wanting to make. I also did a follow up call with a credit card company that is very remiss in handling disputes. I told them today that if they have not received the form they requested (and which I've sent 3 times with the first time being in July), that I want them to know I intend to lodge a formal complaint about their handling of this matter. I was dismayed to discover that though I faxed the latest copy of the form to them on November 13th, they cannot even tell me that they received it because it takes 10 -14 days to 'reach' the system. I asked if they can receive documents by email and they said 'no due to security reasons'. So ridiculous and I am not impressed. I told them I will call back on November 27th.

I am however feeling very good today because at least I did make progress on another matter which has been occupying my mental space and managed to make a few phone calls and emails to move the matter forward. I still have more 'to dos' requiring phone calls and various other follow up but bit by bit they will get done. Thank goodness I have the time during Covid 19 as ordinarily I would find it difficult to find the time to get these things done. I know some people are bored and finding they are not happy with having to stay home and limit their lives but there are others of us who maybe also don't like having to stay home and be cut off but nonetheless we are finding it a blessing to have 'found' time to get things done. Hopefully we can all look forward to 2021 with more optimism and joy. For many of us, it's all in the perspective.

 

 Keep well and keep safe.

Joining in with Skywatch Friday.

Friday is Here!

Hello everyone,

The week has gone by so fast I forgot it was Friday!

I'm sharing some beautiful sky shots from November 7, 2020. We had such a beautiful, sunny few days and I was very grateful for them. At this time of year they are few and far between.

On Tuesday I mailed some parcels to my niece and nephew for Advent. I still have to prepare their Christmas presents. It has been raining all week and this past Wednesday we had a holiday when we pause in our day to day activities and remember those men and women who have served us in the various wars. In addition to remembrance, I used some time in the day to prepare snail mail to send to a friend.

Despite my desire to get the garden cleared up and patio furniture put away by the end of October,  I still haven't done it. Today is Thursday and it rained more heavily than usual. But tonight I went out and purchased a patio table cover to help in the task. My plan is to wash the patio chair covers and the patio table and cover them all up for the winter.

 

I've been busy this week dealing with a few small items I've been procrastinating about for one reason or another. I didn't do any decluttering.  But one floor fan went to the recycling center. Even though it works, it is on it's last legs. As always there was lots of paper and containers that needed to go to recycling too. Those ones I just take to the recycling room.

A few days ago, our top doctor in the province brought in new restrictions due to ever climbing Covid 19 numbers and the country's top doctor recommended wearing 3 ply masks. I went out and bought another box of masks in addition to what I already have on hand. I also bought toilet paper and hope to buy some more this weekend. I don't go crazy and stock pile but want to make sure I have a reasonable amount of paper on hand this time in case more measures are brought in in two weeks.

We have at least been eating well during this rainy, cold season and I've probably spent more energy thinking of a variety of meals each week and more time cooking them than I normally do. It keeps me occupied during these difficult times and also makes me think of ways to use a variety of fruits and vegetables and other foods that I find in the weekly sales.

This first dish is roast beef covered in bacon before the final roasting. In the pot are onions, cauliflower and red peppers. On the side I made brown rice and green peas.

Another day we had spaghettini topped with a stir fry of big prawns, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and red peppers in a garlic-soy sauce. Wednesday night I made ham and pea soup but didn't take a photo.

Did any of you watch the Country Music Association Awards (CMAs) on Wednesday night?  I did and I watched it again on Thursday night on my PVR to enjoy the performances a 2nd time. Especially wonderful was seeing the great Charley Pride who received the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. I remember listening to Charley Pride as a young teenager while I babysat the neighbourhood children for my pocket money. He was really inspiring to me then and he continues to be with his fabulous career and his deeply humble nature. I always wondered how he handled being a "cowboy" as a black man since he would definitely be in the minority.  The CMAA show was great and I enjoyed all the performances by the various bands and performers some of whom I'd never heard of before. I also enjoyed the co-hosting and singing done by Reba McIntyre and Darius Rucker, two great talents. Those of you who are not country music fans may know of Darius Rucker from his days fronting the band, "Hootie and the Blowfish". The band still exists but they took a long hiatus of 10 years while Darius pursued a solo career in country music.

Thursday night I made roast pork with onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms. Side dishes were mashed potatoes and green peas along with some gravy. It was very chilly outside and I got a bit wet running to stores in the rain so the dish really hit the spot tonight.

Apples seem to be a big feature in the stores right now. I bought a bag of Pink Lady and I'm snacking on those. I also bought a bag of Gala apples which I will likely use to make apple pie or apple crisp, perhaps both. I always think of this beautiful scripture when I see a beautiful apple.

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."  Proverbs 25:11

This verse reminds me how important it is that we have the right words to say at the right time. I am often in the position of having to know just what to say as it seems people I know do like to talk to me whenever they are going through difficult times. This week a friend of mine is going through marital distress. I try to say the right things that would not only be scriptural but also comforting. I sure hope that things work out for the good of everyone in this situation.

 Last, but not least, I enjoyed a few pomegranates this week.

 “Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates
With choice fruits, henna with nard plants," Song of Songs 4:13
 

Pomegranates are so delicious. I love the juicy seeds and I'd like to get more.  But soon we'll be fully in the season of mandarin oranges and I buy a lot of oranges in the lead up to Christmas.

I remember a funny story from when I was very young, in Grade 4. A boy in my classroom used to come to school every day with his lunch which consisted of 1 package of deli meats, 1 entire loaf of white bread and 1 pomegranate. He ate it all every day. I remember being amazed by that and also being intrigued by the pomegranate which no one else I knew ate. In fact, I only knew the name of the fruit from the Bible but no one ate it that I knew of except for this one boy. It's funny the memories that remain with us through our lifetimes. I often think of that boy when I eat a pomegranate and wonder what happened to him. I don't recall his name.

With that I wish you all a wonderful weekend and a safe weekend ahead.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.