FIRE

My son-in-law took this video last night and it was used by BCTV for their lead news story.

Nothing ever happens in  Ladner but last night the fire crews were earning every penny they ever made. We saw the smoke and went down to see what was going on. By then the white apartment building you see was gone. It had jumped across the street and took out some townhouses. They were watering down the houses nearest the burning building. That red one you see is a brand new house and carriage house behind it. There are empty lots where more houses were going to be built but hadn't been started yet, which is actually good. Let the fire department get closer. The video was taken from the high school lawn.

My daughter and her husband heard the fire engines and live only a couple of blocks away so were there pretty well when it started to get bad like you see it. It took about 20 mins to level that building. The smoke was unreal. I've never experienced anything like it.  I told DH I didn't want to stay in that smoke so we didn't stay long but still I had to have a shower to wash my hair and I threw our clothes in the laundry right away.

It was a seniors apartment building, which is even sadder than young people - it's hard for them to readjust and start over. Everything is gone. But everyone got out safely so that's the most important thing. They think it was a bbq on a balcony that started it.

I haven't done much sewing. I made another set of place mats but they're all same same.  Just oval. I'm still hand quilting my daughter's quilt. I told her maybe I'd have it done to give her for a Christmas present and then I wouldn't have to buy her anything. She told me just for thinking that I have to buy her two presents *LOL*

This is a long weekend in Canada. Basically it was started cause the government needed an extra statutory holiday to even out the paycheques - Geesh. Each Province calls it under it's own name I think. We call it BC day anyway. Next town over has a big Sun Festival celebration including a two day Antique Fair with really, really good dealers. I look forward to it every year. I've gotten some really nice things there.

Gratitude: I'm grateful that I live in a community that will come to the aid of those in need. Those seniors will have more than enough to start over with all donated by caring people.

Gifts of Grace - July

Here is July's applique/embroidery block from Val Laird's Gifts of Grace. I think I should have made the lettering a more toned down gold but I like it anyway. I love mushrooms, especially red ones with white splotches.

 We actually have summer here today.  I think in BC summer must be like Forrest Gump - "Summer is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get." So today is 28C (@86F), too hot to really do much. I cooked a roast that we can eat cold for dinner with some cole slaw. I've given up on Deli meats. I mean I never paid much attention to them before. I thought they were higher quality than packaged meats. Then one day I asked about the salt content in the turkey breast because of my renal diet. The kid at the deli went in the back and brought out this wrapped, supposed, turkey breast and showed it to me. Turkey breasts aren't round like that and they don't come in a Maple Leaf wrapper. And they don't have a way high salt content. Well, I guess unless they fed the turkey lots of potato chips maybe. So I guess deli meats are reconstituted turkey bits slammed together, cooked and wrapped. Ick.

We were hoping to get the boat in the water today. But yesterday we pulled it out of the shed and husband fired up the engine. The engine works fine but the hydraulics don't, which means you could sit by the side of the dock and rev all you want but the engine won't lower into the water so you're not going anywhere. So he's working on that now.

We try to involve Michael in these things when possible. A lot of the time he rolls his eyes and is annoyed that we are asking him to do things he doesn't want to. When we were done testing we asked him to drive the truck forward a bit into the garage (the shed is behind the garage). Because we'd been working with water the grass was sodden and the back wheel spun. Michael was upset but DH showed him how to put the truck in 4WD and explained how that works. The truck went ahead smoothly.

When we'd finished and the boat was back in the shed and the truck in the driveway Michael was looking at the spot where he'd spun the wheel and he was VERY upset that he'd done that. I told him it would have happened to anyone, it happened to DH when we first put the boat in there. Michael just shook his head, got down, and began pulling tufts of grass out of other places and trying to cover up the mud *LOL* He was fixing it. Gotta love him. It took quite a few reassurances for the rest of the night to get him to finally say okay. Once he stopped mentioning it I hope it really was okay, that he wasn't still feeling bad about it.

 I did vacuum on Friday and I did get my book finished. Now I'm almost done another book I started on Saturday. Darn this reading habit. I was told about this new book. It's called House Rules and it's about an 18yo boy who has Asperger's Syndrome and is arrested for murder. A lot of what the book says I know is true and I know I am extremely lucky that Michael doesn't have all of the more trying difficulties that this mother has to deal with. And yet there are things that are the same and I'm nodding my head and saying yes to myself. It's a sad read, for me, but it's also gratifying in that it confirms that I'm not imagining things, I didn't cause things, things just are what they are.  And some things make me smile because I know the disorder, I know the literalness and inability to lie that goes along with it.

I was glad to see that this book and another one that I have ordered in, when available, aren't on the library shelves. They are out being read and hopefully not by people who deal with Aspergers but people who can learn from the books.


Today's gratitude is I'm grateful for libraries... if there weren't libraries I'd go broke buying books.

Pin Cushion/Organizer

I made one of these for myself last year and I absolutely love it. Of course I do a lot of hand work so it's really good for keeping my scissors and stitch ripper handy and the little bag is great to have any time. You can use it to throw away wrappers or Kleenex or whatever too and then it just unbuttons to empty. So I made this one yesterday

I made it from fabric in that bag of so called scraps I got for $2 at the Thrift Shop last week. I was only going to make one bazaar item a week but I just had to try this one. The pattern is from Tip Nut They are not for retail selling but this is charity so I hope it's okay. She has amazing patterns, craft ideas, recipes and more. I got the link originally from Molly, she's the Queen of Links if every there was a Queen.

It's nice here today. A bit chilly in the wind but overall a pleasant summer day. I know I should be outside working but it's my vacuuming day plus I'm reading the novel Keeping the House and it keeps hopping into my hands. Very good book. I'm about 3/4 way through now. I'd had to put it down to read a couple of other books and am just now getting back to it.

Hope everyone is having a good Friday.

Table Runner

I've been wanting to get this up all day. I'm proud of this one. It's a free pattern from Quilt Bug  This one is called a table topper, I call it a table runner - tomato, tomato - wait, that doesn't work in typing. Anyway you know what I mean. She has some absolutely wonderful patterns. I'd forgotten.

This is for the bazaar again. The focus fabric I fussy cut for the middle is like a drapery or upholstery fabric but I love the design and it works really well for a focus. It has a neat texture. I have lots of fabric left so am going to make at least one more. I may switch the fabrics around, I'll see. 

I had one heck of a time with the binding. The first try didn't work at all. Then I tried sewing it down... major mistake. So I took it off and resewed it and instead of trying to do the quilt corner turn I took a small tuck. I only used the quilt corner turn idea on the ends. 

Also next time I think I'll quilt as I go. It would work well with this pattern and save time not having to stitch in the ditch to quilt it. 

It was a beautiful day again today but really too hot to be working outside so finishing this up was the perfect project. 

Then I went down to the store and picked up hamburger so when DH walked in the door all I had to do was hand it to him and say "Barbeque" and dinner took care of itself *LOL*

Oh, and by doing a search on the internet I think maybe what they were filming here was Fairly Odd Parents. I have no idea what that is cause it's on Nickelodeon, which we don't get in Canada. It must be an adult thing even though it's a cartoon. There was a lot of swearing in the video clips I found. 

Filming again

I wasn't feeling well on the weekend so didn't get a whole lot done. But antibiotics have done their job and I'm feeling much better. I did a few little jobs like sweeping off the patio and returning pop cans. I got $23 for them so we decided to go spend it on dinner. I wish I'd had my camera - actually DH did have his in his truck but he didn't tell me that.

We went to a waterside pub and sat outside. There are two restaurants beside each other, one was packed. So we went to the one next door. It was pretty empty but maybe it's because it's a pub so children aren't allowed. We sat outside on their patio which is covered. The sun hadn't gone down yet but at 6:30 in the evening it was so calming to watch the sun gleaming off the water and pleasure boaters just floating around. Can't wait til we can do that too. The food was delicious. Fresh caught Halibut and chips. I'm not supposed to eat potatoes but for some reason during the summer all rules go out the window. Hope I don't damage myself too much.

On the way home we noticed they were setting up to film again. This happens a lot here. It's a small quiet town so not difficult to close off a couple of streets. The sets were so adorable. That's when I found out DH had a camera so I jumped out and took some photos. I should have gotten closer but there you go. My daughter was looking at the pictures last night and said they look like Disney sets like Roger Rabbit. They do actually. The guy guarding wouldn't tell us which move/tv show they were filming. They never do.

One of the buildings they were using is an auto repair shop that renovated a couple of years ago and is just so cute. It fits in with the heritage of the town but also looked so cute as an ice cream parlour.

The next part of the building they used also as an auto place. Notice the A has fallen off and put back in in chalk. The original A was lying on the ground.

Down the street a lawyers office has been changed into a bicycle store

I had intended to go down the next morning when the plastic covering was off the bikes in front but didn't make it. 

And there was the cutest bus stop sign, which unfortunately was washed out from the sun shining on it, but this little kid was sitting on the bench so I took a photo anyway. 

Haven't done any sewing. Yesterday was my busy day of the week. Besides laundry we were totally out of food so I had to go shopping too. Then my daughter came over to do her laundry here. 

Today I need to iron. One problem with summer is that a lot of the clothes are cotton and that means a lot of pressing. I hang things to dry but collars, etc need a little press.  So do pants. I'm also working on sweeping off our patio so we can finally get it power washed. 

Gratitude. It looks like another clear week ahead and the boat is finally, FINALLY, ready to get wet. It will take some practice. DH hasn't steered a boat since the 1960's. But he's just so darn smart when it comes to these things. 

Chinamen and Bargains

I'm not a rude person, however I am getting so totally ticked off by all the comments that are left in Chinese that I have to say something. When I was a child (early 1950's) people were not so politically correct. The man who picked up the laundry next door was referred to as the Chinaman. It's the rudest thing I can think of to call these people. They don't have personal blogs.. they are advertising something or other, in Chinese, and I don't read Chinese. I also know it's not called Chinese, it's Mandarin or Cantonese but I can't tell which is which and so I will be even ruder by calling it by something that doesn't exist.

There, that feels better - not as good as if they would stop, but better. Yes, I have complained but I don't know if it's about these people cause I can't read it and Blogger will only accept one complaint about each person.

Now to my post.

I do get the occasional bargain but yesterday I hit the jackpot. I really need to stop going to the Thrift Shop. The things that I buy there lately are for the bazaar at the church and I don't get reimbursed. Not that I mind but since we bought this computer I need to be careful.

We have a chair that was in our living room. When I bought DH a Lazyboy there wasn't room for the other chair anymore. It's in great condition but I can't even give it away because it's too large. It has lovely large arms and is great for curling up in. So I went to the Thrift Shop with a photo and asked if I could take it there. They take chesterfields and other household stuff. The supervisor said no, that it was too big. But I couldn't just walk away, I just had to go in and look at the fabric shelf. And look what I got!

2.5m of good quality blue corduroy that will be perfect for book bags and other totes for $5

A meter of backing for some placemats and a table centerpiece that I have fabric for. This is poly, which I don't like, but it will work. Got it for $1.25

And the piece de resistance, scraps... large scraps .5 meter minimum that are absolutely perfect for making those pincushions and bags that go on the arm of a chair for $2.00! Hard to see but there are 8 pieces

And in the mail I got a FQ that I had ordered on eBay to make my husband a bookmark or two. He wanted M&M and the beads like the embroidered ones I made for the bazaar.

So now I have my sewing cut out for me but with this nice weather my first priority is to keep working on the yard. I'm putting down landscaping fabric and bark mulching around the edge of the yard so hopefully next year there will be very few weeds, just the things that I want. 

Oh, I forgot, a gratitude huh? I'm grateful that Michael has agreed to at least try medication again. His behaviours have been wearing me down. 

I'm kind of back. My computer was totally trashed. It probably had a virus. We worked on it for a day and a half and even I, who usually have the ability to fight frustration, was ready to throw it out the window. I asked DH to please remove the glass cause windows are expensive. He's suggested we use it for a boat anchor cause the boat doesn't have one *LOL*

So I now have an iMac. I doubt we can afford it but here it is none the less. The screen is stupid big.. 21". It was the smallest I could get in a desktop. The desktop was way cheaper than a laptop - by about $800. And it's all wireless and it's light so I could move it around the house if I really wanted to. Even though I'm having a bit of trouble using it because I'm so used to a PC I have to say I really like it. 

I also discovered that you can rent movies from iTunes for 99 cents. I don't see any I'd want to rent but I might one of these days and watching it on this screen is like watching a small TV. 

So this is where I'm at now. It's a lot cooler here now than it was. It's actually really nice. in the high 70'sF I'd say. But that's a little depressing too. I have so much work to do outside cause the weather was too cold and wet and then way too hot. So it's a mess out there and my poor house is suffering from neglect too. I hate feeling overwhelmed. Oh well, take one thing at a time and you'll get there right?

I also finished the July Catalicious Block. Having tea with Rilo.

Off to straighten up or something. Hope you're all having a good day.

Out of Commission

Won't be around for awhile. I downloaded a toolbar from Zynga on Facebook and it's totally trashed my computer. Things are corrupted all over the place and I'm going to have to go shopping for a new one.

I'm using DH's computer to type this but this thing is a real dinosaur and we never know if it's going to work or for how long.

I've lost a whole lot of stuff. I swore I was going to back up to a thumb drive - even have one sitting there in an unopened package - and I never did. So I've saved what I can. Lost all my favorites and email addresses. Guess I'll be starting from scratch so if no one misses me and doesn't write to me then  I'll have lost them. I do have my yahoo address that I use on here so I have the addresses that way but others who wrote to me on my personal account are out of luck.

  I didn't go to church and do that announcement cause on Saturday night I felt like I was going to throw up and I had nightmares all night so was exhausted by the morning. We did do sandwiches this morning with the 5 of us that I'd called and apparently the minister did ask for help for me.  I'm so glad today is over. We also had to go to a new lawyer this afternoon to update our Wills which is never fun, especially when I am so concerned about what will happen to Michael.

Nervous

Most people don't believe me but I am really very shy. I'm shy to the point of seeming stuck-up sometimes cause sometimes I'll see a neighbour or whatever and go out of my way to avoid them, not because I don't like them but because I'm too shy talking to people sometimes. What if they don't know who I am? What if I say the wrong thing? What if they don't like me? It's very difficult.

This month the woman who is in charge of making sandwiches to be sent into Vancouver's East side is on holidays. I got an email saying "Shirley's in charge." What?? Oh my. People have way too much confidence in me; I guess because I can be friendly, and I like to help, but I never let people get close enough to me to really know me. Most of the people I loved are gone now starting with my dad when I was 13. It hurts too much when they leave me and so as a defensive mechanism somewhere along the line I decided not to get too emotionally involved cause no matter who they are they are going to leave me at some point. The only problem I've had since was when my mom died. As for the others I cried when they went but my grief doesn't last too long.

Anyway, this hooks into my shyness that I've had forever, I was born that way. I got a call on Thursday from the woman who is going to take the sandwiches downtown... not something a lot of people from out here in the sticks are willing to do. She can't do it on the 19th, our regular scheduled day, but she can do it on Monday. So I decided to call everyone to see if they could come on the 12th instead of the 19th.

The phone calls were hard. When I was a secretary I had to make phone calls and I was okay with it but that was my job and it wasn't personal, it was business. I'm always glad when I get an answering machine cause then I can leave a message that way and they can call me back if they want - at their convenience, I won't be bothering them.

On the other hand, being summer a lot of the regulars are away. I did manage to find 5 other women to help but 8 or 9 would be better. Plus there may be people who are still expecting it to be the 19th that want to join in that I don't know about.

So tomorrow I have to go to church, something I don't do in the summer cause there's only one service at 10am. A lot of them are from a different service than I go to cause we have a joint one in the summer so I don't know them. But I called the minister and asked if he could announce the change and ask for help. Unfortunately he likes the church to be more like a family. He doesn't consider himself "in charge". He's just one of us. Therefore I have to go up to the front and tell everyone about the change and make my own appeal for helpers. I don't want to do it. I was a wreck when I had to do the offering. I was sure I'd trip or drop a plate or something. I never volunteer for that anymore. I like to be behind the scenes. I like making things for the bazaar here at home. I like helping make sandwiches but not be in charge. Argh. So I've been kind of frozen with fear the last couple of days.

It's funny how sometimes we don't see ourselves as others see us. I went to family week at a rehab center one time. At the end of the week they have a get together of all the people there and have speeches from the men leaving (this was a male rehab). When they asked if anyone from the family group would speak our leader said yes, Shirley. What?? I was petrified! I didn't know any of these people and I had to get up in front of them and give a little speech off the cuff? Yikes! Afterwards one of the women that had been in our group said "I didn't know you'd prepared a speech." I didn't prepare a speech. I didn't even remember what I said. But it must have been good cause the head of the center asked me if I'd come back once a month to hold an afternoon session with the family group. I said no. We lived about 2 1/2 hours from this place and I had a hard enough time getting there for this one week because of my panic and anxiety attacks.

So I know I can do it. Maybe I'm better if someone asks me to speak when I'm not expecting it. Then my conscious floats away and my unconscious comes up with the right words. But I sure don't *want* to do it.

I'm having another few Jane Austen days. DH is away for a few days at an airshow so I get to watch my favorite movies. Actually since it hasn't been long since I had my Jane Austen week I only had 2 movies to watch that I hadn't seen recently. I have Masterpiece Theatre's Emma and Mansfield Park. They were well done but I guess to fit into their time slot there was a lot missing that was in the books. Especially Mansfield Park was missing one of the key points. They were good though. If I hadn't read the books I wouldn't have missed the parts. DH may stay an extra day and since I'm out of Jane Austen I think I'll start early and watch Anne of Green Gables which I haven't seen for awhile. It's a 2 disc set so a long movie. I need to get some handwork going this afternoon.

It clouded over last night and was cooler for sleeping and it feels a lot cooler today. It's only a couple of degrees cooler but there is a slight breeze which makes a difference and it's not so hot in the sun.

The thing with Gratitudes is sometimes you have to fake it til you make it. So my gratitude for today is that I have challenges in my life that help me overcome my fears.

Over 50

I received an email from a friend yesterday that is priceless. It really does reflect what life is like for people who are 50+

Life has changed so much in the last 50 (okay almost 60) years. I guess since the end of the second world war. Before that there was change.. electricity, automobiles, airplanes, but not so much technologically as in say the last 30 - 40 years.

Some background. When I was 5 we got our first telephone ever. My parents couldn't afford it but one of my sisters had been left standing waiting for a group from the church and no one showed up. The leaders couldn't reach my parents to tell them the event had been cancelled cause we had no phone. So they stretched the budget and got us a phone - a party line which most of you younger ones have never heard of. It wasn't like 1-800-Lavalife, it wasn't really a party. We had to share our phone line with someone else that we didn't know. Of course that did make for interesting listening if we picked up the phone to make a call and they were talking. Of course it wasn't a portable phone or a cell phone. It was a phone with a receiver that weighed about 10 pounds and you prayed that none of your friends would have a 0 in their phone number!

We didn't own a television until I was 10. It was a used black and white thing with rabbit ears and poor reception. By rabbit ears I mean these:

Not these

My mother didn't have a vacuum. We had hardwood floors so she used a dust mop and she had a carpet sweeper for our accent rugs in the livingroom/diningroom. She finally got a second hand canister vacuum when my parents were finally able to afford a modest home in 1960

She eventually got a more modern Hoover but still used this in the basement until the 1980's when her basement flooded.

Our car was a 1929 Model A Ford which my dad had owned since about 1939. He kept it up on blocks in the winter and drove it in the summer to get to our cottage and back. It didn't have GPS, it didn't even have a trunk. We 3 girls had to balance ourselves on the luggage stacked on the back seat.

I don' have a photo of the original but ours was green where this one is tan and it had those skinny rubber tires.

I could go on but enough... I just wanted to show the contrast between what I grew up with and what the world is like today. So here is the email.

Over 50

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.
The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating" You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered,..... No, but I do toot a lot."

My gratitude for today. I'm grateful that I have email friends who send me things like this to help me start the day with a giggle.

Who Turned Up The Heat??

Remember a week or so ago I commented that the furnace was running when I got up in the morning? Okay, maybe I didn't blog about it, but it was. End of June. We had the worst, coldest, wettest (sp) spring on record. Yesterday we had a beautiful day. Today we're pulling out the portable air conditioner and all the fans. It's 90F here today. We're right near the ocean so we have cooler temperatures than inland. My parents-in-law are living in 106F. Luckily they have a trailer down in Sumas, Washington so are able to get out of the condo and down to where it's a bit cooler among the trees... but not much cooler. Streets on Vancouver's East Side are being patrolled handing out bottles of water to the homeless.

People don't have central air conditioning here cause it's never really hot enough to need it. By the weekend they're expecting rain again. I hate to say I'm looking forward to it after complaining so much this Spring... but I've changed my mind about heat. I like warmth, I don't do well in heat. Luckily my sewing room is on the bottom level of the house and it stays cool down there even in this heat so I may have to go nose around down there and see what I can do. Don't feel like sewing but I could fondle my stash or something *LOL*

DH has been working hard fixing up the boat he bought. He can't just buy things and enjoy them, he has to tinker. A lot of tinkering was necessary on this one, which is why we got it so cheap, but he always overdoes so insisted it needed new seats. The new ones do look more comfortable I suppose. It is a 1976 original, which come to think of it our daughter is too although I think she fared better than the boat over the years.

Here are before and after photos. He's painted the floor too.

He also fixed the wiring and sanded and shined up all the aluminum parts.

And named it. Caelig is Scottish Gaelic for Young Lass

Now if we could just put it in the water it would be great. Especially on a day like today. It's supposed to go back to being hot next week so hopefully by then. If you're wondering about the flag in the background it's the Newfoundland Flag plus some mildew from hanging outside in the workshop for a few winters. The center stripe is supposed to be white.

Today I am grateful for fresh drinking water straight out of the tap. There aren't many places aside from North America where our tap water is safe for drinking.

Name That Bloom

I was going to call this post Name That Bug but my daughter was over last night and knew what it was. I have no idea how she knew, I sure didn't teach her and DH didn't teach her cause neither one of us knew what it was. He did, however, notice that there were 3 of them on that poor plant. The other two were smaller. Closest I could come on Google was a Colorado Potato Bug but we're in Canada so it either wasn't a Colorado bug or his radar got messed up. So here he is:

That's a New Guinea Impatiens he's sitting on so he was large - about 1.5" Apparently he's a 10 striped June bug. Don't know what they're doing here in July and don't know what they're doing here period. I thought June bugs were an eastern thing. However the Weed Man people called last week and said white grubs had been spotted in the area and did I want them to add that to our spray. I said okay and now I know what the white grubs are he's talking about. June bug larvae. The grown ups are probably up on the hanging basket cause they don't want to be on the lawn with the pesticide (actually it's an organic pesticide that Weed Man uses, their weed killer is organic too).

Now I need the help of blog friends who know about houseplants. See I bring things home, water them sometimes - usually forget about them and ignore them - and if they live I love them. I've had this one for quite awhile now. I need to dust it's leaves, poor thing. But yesterday DH noticed this bloom type thing on it. There's only one. The leaves seem to be purple underneath so that's a clue, and it's turned out to be kind of a vine idea. It also lives in our front hall which faces North and gets no direct sunlight, mostly gets dim light. Anyone know what this is?

I just fertilized it cause that's a kind of neat bloom. Actually it looks kinda gross if you look at it the wrong way.

Went out and power washed most of the deck this morning. We still have summer so what the heck. Things get so filthy here cause we're near a coal port, farmland, and things are so wet here in the winter that things turn green.

Now I'm off to the roadside market to get some fresh local corn for dinner.

Today I'm thankful that I'm still healthy at my age and can do things like powerwashing myself rather than having to hire someone to do it.

Summer!

It's here! It's here! Summer! And it's going to stay all the way until Thursday. And if we're lucky maybe after that too. Now I wish I was a gardener. You would not believe the smell when I walk out onto our deck. Our neighbour is like a master gardener and the smell from her garden drifts over on the breeze and it's heavenly. I love the smell of summer.

DH was getting frustrated trying to put the seats in the boat so he asked if I wanted to go sit outside at the deli have a coffee and a piece of carrot cake or something. Well sure I did. It was so nice. As I said in my last post I love people watching. We had to go to the one on the east side of the street though cause even though the sun is shining it's still cool in the shade.

I'm feeling much better today. I think it's because I've finally gotten over the early morning on Friday and I have more energy. The sun doesn't hurt either.

Haven't done much quilt wise. Yesterday I did trace out some of the pieces for the free quilt pattern from The Rabbit Factory that I got the fabric for last month.

DH has lost his sense of smell. Apparently it can happen. He's even been to a specialist and there's nothing that can be done. So today I have to say I'm grateful for my sense of smell because with the garden next door I can sit on our deck, close my eyes and get lost in the smell of summer.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope all my American friends are having a good day. We're having apple pie for dessert in your honor and will see if we can find a place locally to view the Fireworks display from Pt. Roberts, Washington.

I've been feeling lost today. I'm still very tired from Friday. On days like today I have to constantly remind myself of the positives in my life. But you know when we're having a bad day we can't order ourselves to buck up, tell ourselves that it could be worse. Whatever we are feeling is real, whatever our issues if they are affecting us negatively we need to acknowledge them, not stuff them down. Stuffing our feelings down will make us sick. It can cause dis-ease.

Once I acknowledge my feelings then I can see if there is something that I need to do personally. If I am in pain emotionally, grieving, etc. then I need to allow myself to heal without being so hard on myself.

But today all I am suffering from is the "blues". The only thing I can do about that is look around me and think about all the positives in my life.

We decided to go out for dinner last night so I wouldn't have to cook. I love having grown children. You get to do things like that, there isn't as strict a schedule when it comes to mealtimes, nutrition, etc. So we went for Ribs at a place that has tables and umbrellas outside so we could enjoy the fresh air and watch life go by. We were sitting next to the nicest young men and one of them struck up a conversation with us. He's a long shoreman but there are parts of his day that he has down time so he reads 3 newspapers a day and is well versed in what is going on in our world. He's a natural clown too and kept us in stitches so it wasn't a doom and gloom type thing.

Now I knew that Greece was in trouble financially, and I knew that Iceland's bank had closed (my neice's mother-in-law had quite a bit of money in the Icelandic Bank and lost all of it). What I didn't know, because I read newspapers so seldom, is that now Spain and Portugal are suffering financial difficulties too. I don't notice what's going on because here in Canada we are seemingly flourishing. It came as quite a shock to me to realize that basically what's going on means that Europe is flailing and that there are going to be changes in the World order. There have not been changes on that grand a scale in my lifetime.

So today I am thankful that I live in Canada where there is peace and stability. I don't have to wonder where my next meal will come from or where I'll sleep tonight. I feel safe.

Life Lessons and Choices

I missed posting yesterday cause our internet was down most of the day - and so was I *LOL* So I will post two things I am thankful for today.

I'm thankful for life lessons. It used to be I would berate myself because I'm not a morning person. I felt "less than" those who could bounce out of bed at 6am or even 7am. Not anymore.

I'm thankful that I've discovered that I am who I am. My body clock does what it does and that's okay. Trying to "bounce" when I'm not ready for it puts me out of commission for a couple of days. And that is "allowed".

Yesterday my husband had to go to hospital for a test - routine, his dad has cancer and the sons have to be tested occasionally to make sure they haven't picked it up genetically. Thankfully these tests always come back good. However sometimes his appointments are scheduled for 8am. He's a morning person. When he makes appointments he makes them so he can get them over with early in the day and have the rest of the day free. Getting to this hospital from here requires leaving home at 7am to get there by 8am. This makes getting up at 6am a necessity, especially for me cause even by 7 when we leave I'm still a zombie. I have to go with him to drive him home because they usually give him a sedative. He could have taken a taxi and I could have picked him up but for me to go in with him even paying for parking is cheaper than a taxi. So I go.

And the above leads to my thankfulness that I have choices. I didn't used to realize that it was okay if I didn't dust or vacuum on schedule. Even if I was exhausted I had to get it done. Not any more. Friday is my vacuuming day. Because I was so tired from getting up so early I had a 3 hour nap instead. The crumbs will still be there when I've recovered enough to vacuum.

Realizing that I have choices is so freeing.

Over the last couple of days I've made 4 placemats for the Fall Bazaar.  I'm doing one thing a week. The fabric they have is not always good, it's all donated. These turned out nicely I think except for the poly fabric they gave me to use as a backing and which I also used to make the bias binding. But they look okay and I've never been to anyone's house where I've turned over my placemat to see what the back looks like *LOL*

I didn't crosshatch both ways because it was too time consuming and I think this holds the layers together well enough.

Someone else, Patricia I think it was, said she watched our Canada Day celebrations on TV. So did we. I love the Queen. I always have loved the idea of the Royalty... however I didn't pay taxes in her time so don't know what it would be like to still have her as our Queen. The thing I really don't understand is if she is no longer our Queen, and the Governor General was the Queen's representative when she was our Queen, why do we still need a Governor General? But I don't understand politics.

We did turn off the entertainment portion part way into it because they were using French singers. Guess most of our English ones who are any good have gone to the States. And we don't understand French. The singers were very talented and the music was nice but I like to know what the words are saying.

So I can't be grateful I live in a unilingual country cause I don't and it is a bee in my bonnet.

HAPPY BLOGGERS

I've been thinking. I said I was going to do it and here we go. I thought July wasn't a good month, but is there a month that is a good month? Maybe January after all the letdown of the holidays and the bills that are rolling in, but there's no time like the present.

For the next month I'd like to ask all my fellow bloggers to post a positive thought a day. There are no rules. I know that sometimes it's more helpful to list a complaint and then list something positive. If that works better for you that's fine, but the purpose of all this is to focus on the positive, and there are always positives. You can post it at the beginning of your post or at the end.

I'm grateful that I live in an area where I can hear the songbirds sing all day long.

In other news.

I finished my Gifts of Grace block for June. I kind of had to force myself cause I'd rather keep quilting on my daughter's quilt but I want to get these and the Red Brolly catalicious blocks done so I gave myself a few breaks here and there. I always say "This is my favorite". They're turning out very pretty when you see them in person. This one is also very appropriate because Kindness is what we want to spread with our positive posts.

Our weather is definately not July. I don't know where our July went.. actually there were only a couple of June days and a couple of May days as well..  has anyone seen our missing months?

Today is Canada Day and for the first year it sure doesn't feel like it. It's no weather to be having a BBQ or a picnic in. Our low last night was 10C.. which is 50F! Actually our furnace is running right now. DH is cold. He just got back from a very nice, not to mention warm, week long trip to San Diego and Palm Springs with his father and brother. Guess the switch from 105F to 50F is a bit of a shock to the system. 

Off to do some sewing. I did manage to make 4 placemats for the bazaar the other day but now I have to make some bias binding to go around the edge.