Changes Sometimes Occur!

Ever since the college expanded its campus in our neighborhood, about 20 years ago - and began charging students and visitors for parking - shopping centres and neighborhood streets have been overcrowded with the cars of college students looking for a place to park for free.

Street by street, neighbours have petitioned the city to limit street parking.

Terry has been an active advocate for years...

So it was gratifying for him to see signs go up on our street a few days ago.

So glad it has happened before winter - when city snowplows often struggle to clear the snow from our street because they can’t get through the cars parked on both sides of the street...

It takes a lot of work and advocacy, but sometimes change happens!!

Thanks to our neighbour, Mary, for catching this moment in pictures.

Play is Good Exercise!

One of my mother's sisters lost 10 pounds in one month - babysitting her grandchildren. Retired (like me), she normally lived a sedentary life, much like I do... But for that one month, she was always on the go.  A lot of her walking was up and down stairs.

I thought of her when I arrived in Toronto to help look after my granddaughter. My right knee and hip were bothering me. Doing stairs was a struggle. Would I lose any weight?!

After 3 weeks, I felt great! No need to think about physiotherapy for my knee or hip now! Playing with a three-year-old was great exercise!

One day, in fact, I climbed 13 flights of stairs, according to my phone app. (But I didn’t come close to my aunt’s weight loss record... In three weeks, I only lost 2 pounds!)

Calling 9-1-1

The sound of honking horns made me look up.

Through the window I saw a young man lying on the side of the road next to the sidewalk.

Had he been in an altercation? I didn’t know. But he was having a hard time getting up.

When he stood up, then fell back down, I decided to call 9-1-1.

No-one answered.

As the phone kept ringing, I watched through the window as a taxi stopped. The young man got in and a moment later got out. Another taxi appeared. He got in that one and drove away.

Seeing this, I hung up.

A moment later, my phone rang. The 9-1-1 operator was now calling me.

I told her why I had called. She wanted to know details: taxi identification numbers... which I couldn't remember.

Thinking about it later, I decided that - if I ever need to call 9-1-1 again - I’ll only let the phone ring twice before I hang up. That way I'll be able to use my phone to take notes and photos, until the 9-1-1 dispatcher calls me back.

Baby Surprise

When they discovered that our three-year-old granddaughter would soon be a big sister, several great-aunts gave her dolls that were babies - to practice on.

 She took her new role seriously...

The dolls became the daily focus of her concern...

When her real live eight-pound baby brother arrived home from the hospital a few weeks later, she wanted to hold him...

But she was puzzled: Why is he so heavy?!

She expected him to be as light - and easy to carry - as her dolls!

"Detailing"?!

While in Toronto recently, I went to a car wash with my three-year-old granddaughter and her dad.

She was intrigued by all the things they were doing to their car, cleaning it inside and out.

I was more interested in learning why washing a car by hand is now called "detailing"!!

Where did that term originate?!!

(I haven't been able to find out.)

Trying to Help

A few weeks ago, Terry and I headed to Toronto and Guelph for two special reasons:

Terry was going to help our daughter move from one apartment to another. When she first mentioned her move, he said: Well it's too hard for me to help you this time. I'm getting older, you know...

The next time he talked to her, I heard him say: We need to check into renting a truck...

It's hard to stop doing what you've always done!

A few days later, our Toronto son and his family drove to Guelph with me to check out our daughter’s new home and neighbourhood.

For my part, I was planning on staying in Toronto to babysit our granddaughter while her mother was in the hospital having a baby... And as we all know, one is never quite sure when that event is going to happen...

I spent my time enjoying my three-year-old granddaughter, playing make believe games...

I thought about the three times I was in the hospital giving birth to my own children... I was more nervous about this new birth than I was about any of my own...! (Or maybe I've simply forgotten!)

Sometimes standing by and watching is harder than doing things yourself!

Hot Coffee

I have the bad habit of preparing a cup of coffee, then walking away from it to do something else. When I return to it, it's lukewarm or cold...

My son introduced me to a cup that solves the problem...

Linked to an app on his phone, this cup somehow warms the coffee to a designated temperature and keeps it warm.

I'm not sure how it works. I see no electric connections, though it sits on a special (recharging?) saucer when not in use. 

But it was nice to drink coffee that got warmer instead of cooler...

I'm not sure how that happened. My son was in control of the app.

Second Pottery Sale

Last Saturday was a popular date for church bazaars in our community - and I held my second "annual"  pottery sale. Terry and our older son offered to do the sale this year, as I was out of town.

They sent me this photo of their set up...

I hope they had fun!!

Puzzle Solved!

A few weeks ago, I shared a photo of one of the things my mother brought with her when she moved to Ontario... But I had no idea what it was...

My daughter sometimes reads my blog...

Not long afterwards, she sent me a photo - the mystery was solved!

It's a bead loom!

My mother loved to make tiny bead necklaces - like this one...

I didn't know she used a loom to make them!

Waiting for a Baby Brother

How does a three-year-old spend her time once she knows she’ll soon be a big sister?!

Practicing baby care - with her dolls - of course!!

Doing a Children's Puzzle!

I guess I don't do enough puzzles!!

This one is for ages 3 plus...

And I had to work at it for 15 minutes to get it done!!

Early Winter

Snow and wintery weather have come early this year...

In Ottawa...

And Toronto, where the weather is usually warmer.

Thanks to technology, a question like “What’s the weather like where you are?” brings photos through cyberspace...

These photos were taken in early November. Winter has surprised us early!! Toronto trees haven’t even all lost their leaves.

(Will spring come early, too?!)

Unfortunately, there isn’t any correlation between early winter and early spring. In our part of the world, weather is often a surprise!

What to Do with This Lovely Needlework?

I'm not the only one going through things - and getting rid of them!

Recently a good friend offered me remnants of fabrics that she doesn't expect to use. Among the pieces was this lovely piece of cross stitch she purchased in Pakistan years ago... (It's lying on the old quilt she gave me...)

Could you use this?!

Maybe...

About a meter long by four inches, it was possibly created to be a border on a jacket or coat... How could I use it?

It would make a lovely design on a pillow... But it's so long! (I would hate to cut it...)

Maybe I could frame it...

(Hmmmm... Still wondering what to do...!)

Where... but the library?!

I was checking our library catalogue online to see if our public library had copies of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Talking to Strangers.

Where but the library would the title Talking to STRANGERS be auto corrected to Talking to STRANGLERS?!!

Murder mysteries are so very popular. The library must have hundreds in their catalog.

Plastic... in Tea??

Recently I came across an article that pointed out that many tea bags contain plastic, either as part of the mesh bag, or part of glue that seals a paper bag shut.

The article I've linked to isn't the article I first read... There are a lot of articles about this problem out there...

Add hot water to the tea bags - and one is not only drinking tea, but a little plastic as well!

I've always thought of plastic as sort of a neutral substance...

Is it bad for the body?!!

I don't know - but to be on the safe side, I may start buying bulk tea!

In the meantime, I have a lot of tea bags in the house. I guess I'll only know if they are glued or in silky (plastic?) bags when I open them up!

Learning to Take a Picture!

My three-year-old granddaughter loves my camera - a simple one where the lens pops forward when you turn it on.

She wants to try to take pictures with it - but the pictures usually end up being blocked by her fingers...

It's awkward to hold a camera with little hands without grasping it in the middle...

(Actually I have the same problem trying to take landscape pictures on my phone camera. Holding it sideways, I sometimes block part of the photo with my finger, too!)

Recently, I explained how to hold her hands - and look to see what she was photographing...

There... almost!!

(Maybe if I bend a little lower...)

I got it! she said...

And she did!!

A "Need" to Write Down Our Stories

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on photo books, a task I have been meaning to do for a long time.

It's harder than it looks - and quite time-consuming.

I have to be in a "zone" to do it... No distractions to interrupt my train of thought, as I choose the photos I want to keep and then write the text - a story of a special vacation or a certain year in the life of our family.

Recently I moved my old laptop into the basement - to be nearer the modem - which makes uploading photos quicker, I think... We changed internet providers a few months ago. Our new service is a lot cheaper, but our new modem signal doesn't always reach my favorite sitting area which is one floor up, at the back of the house. So I've moved to be closer to the modem.

This dark basement space was well-used when our children were young and our sons played video games with friends, or our daughter wanted to be left alone to watch her own TV shows. But in recent years, it hasn't been used much except to store things we don't need very often, among them... my mother's photo albums.

Looking through them from time to time, I see that she too felt the need to organize her photos when she retired. The albums look well-worn, as if she looked at them frequently.

As I make my own photo albums, I realize that I'm probably doing them for myself as much as for anyone else... I derive great joy from looking back and remembering...

Latest Crafty Project...

Like most crafters, I have a lot of unfinished projects in my upstairs sewing/craft storage room...

When I completed my last sweater - the yellow one, knit top down - I discovered that I had partly-finished afghan tucked away in my yarn stash. I was using the Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern shown here...

Over the years, I've made two afghans using this pattern... Both are popular with the TV viewers in the family.

But I've had to add a border to both to make them long enough.

It's a very easy pattern to follow - rows of 24 stitches in garter stitch, back and forth, turning at the corners. I could probably even do this stitch while traveling on the train or in a car.

I'm not sure who this afghan will be for - but I'm enjoying making it. It's also very satisfying to use up yarn from my stash upstairs.

Deadlines... and Stress!

A while back I mentioned that the operating system on my old laptop will no longer be updated as of January 1.

I'm not sure whether I should  try to update the operating system... There are other computers in the house with the new system, and I prefer the look of the old one.

So January 1 is a deadline that looms in my mind...

At the same time, I've been "harvesting" photos on the old computer - creating photo books using my digital photos stored on the computer. I've created four in the last month, and there are three more I'd like to do.

The photo company keeps sending me coupons for a generous discount on future photo books - but the discount expires a week from today.

This too has created a deadline of sorts in my mind! I retired so as NOT to have DEADLINES!! I'm not used to stress like this!

But, on the plus side, it is making me stop procrastinating...

(Maybe I need more stress in my life - to get more things done...!!)

My Type 2 Diabetes Update

A few weeks ago, I went off a type 2 diabetes medication because I thought might be causing my muscles and joints to swell. I was having a hard time walking, especially doing stairs. After three weeks, I'm feeling less stiff, though still not as limber as I used to be. (I talked to my family doctor about going off the medication and she supported my doing it.)

In the meantime, I decided to go meatless to see if a vegan - or mostly vegan - diet will help me. I'm definitely going to avoid eating meat and fish, though I'm not sure about milk products...

I read an interesting summary of recent research, published in 2018, on the link between a plant based diet and type 2 diabetes. There is enough research evidence showing that following a vegetarian diet curtails type 2 diabetes that I 'm going to give it a serious try.

In the meantime, I'm adding organic soybeans to my diet... soaking them overnight before adding them to the  vegetarian soups I make in order to eat more vegetables.

It's an interesting culinary adventure - trying to cure type 2 diabetes with the right food!

Click here for a link to the online article that I found so interesting I've read it twice. It's from the University of West Virginia.

Woman Mystic - From 1000 years Ago...

One of my "hobbies" in retirement has been learning about Christianity through its 2000-year-old history...

A few years ago, I first came across the writings of medieval mystics who were women. I have especially enjoyed translations of their writings by a young woman named Carmen Acevedo Butcher I'm currently reading a book of daily selections called A Little Daily Wisdom: Christian Women Mystics.

In it, I found a lovely poem/hymn written almost 1000 years ago by a woman called Hildegard of Bingen, who - as the 10th child in her wealthy family - had been "given" to the church. A child prodigy, she went on to be a brilliant writer and speaker.







Here is the poem that I found so lovely:

God's Soul is the wind rustling plants and leaves,
the dew dancing on the grass,
the rainy breezes making everything grow.
Just like this, the kindness of a person flows, touching
those dragging burdens of longing.
We should be a breeze helping the homeless,
dew comforting those who are depressed,
the cool misty air refreshing the exhausted,
and with God's teaching we have got to feed the hungry:

This is how we share God's soul.

Learning About Life

I’ve been hanging out with a three-year-old...

So I welcome this reminder that we learn from each other. 

What can I learn from this three-year-old?

To welcome new challenges...

And to take advantage of every opportunity to have fun!

Dealing with the Dome... In Windy Weather

One of the neighborhood signs that winter is approaching is the annual raising of the large plastic dome that covers the college soccer field.

In winter this large bubble serves as a gym for a number of sporting events.

This year I wondered if the college had purchased a new dome... In late October - around the time the dome usually goes up - I saw large plastic rolls being loaded onto a truck.

Why would they be loading, rather than unloading them?

Then the weather got windy...

A few days later, the dome went up... My neighbor Mary happened to see it happen...

Like a balloon, it needs to be inflated.

I wonder...Is this the old dome? Or have they replaced it with a new one?!

A New Look in Our Front Yard

This is a tree I killed two years ago when I sprayed a herbicide on the gout weed that has infested our front garden bed.

The gout weed survived, but the tree died - or at least most of it did. Terry recently trimmed off the branches.

On one side, at the bottom of the trunk, a few leaves are still growing.

Recently my neighbor Earl (Mary's husband) offered to cut it down.

Now that the trunk is down, I'm hoping that next year it will sprout again - if some of the roots are still alive.

Then we can begin the growing cycle again.

I'm looking forward to the gardening I'll be able to do around the stump until it grows again... (Or should I say if it grows again?!)

According to the rings, the tree was 12 years old... For some reason I thought it was older than that.

Vegetarian Food

I've decided to eat mainly vegetarian food - after reading more research on the benefits of plant based diets for type 2 diabetics...

It would really help if I ate out in a vegetarian restaurant once or twice a week, I mentioned to Terry.

He agreed...

Years ago, we had two favorite vegetarian restaurants where we would eat with our daughter, who at the time was vegetarian...

So a few days ago, we headed back to the Green Door - a buffet where you pay by the weight of your plate.

It's always delicious!

I love the variety! I know we'll be back!