Sunday and Monday's events

I had the pleasure of going to St. Paul's on Sunday morning.  The Sunday School children took part in the service and in my opinion, they did extremely well.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up in front of everybody and read the lessons or participate in the service in any way.

Well done children!

There was an excellent speaker there from the Presbyterian World Service and Development Agency which is part of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.  Her name is Dr. Kathryn Hare.  She talked about the work done by this arm of the church such as teaching communities how to grow new crops and increase  yields for more nutrition and food.  Vulnerable children are receiving an education as well.  HIV and aids patients are being cared for and supported.  Injustices are being combated through a shared commitment to human rights. 

The list could go on and on, clean water, health care, help for refugees and emergency relief.  This agency works to address the root causes of poverty to ensure people have real hope for the future and develop self-sufficiency.

For more information, please see their website:

www.presbyterian.ca/pwsd

I had brought a young friend with me and she was warmly welcomed by the congregation and felt very much at home.

Sunday afternoon, I had an invitation for tea from Rosemary in my building.  We had a most enjoyable visit for several hours. 

Unhappily, I felt unwell as I had not slept for two nights and was unable to go out to Lit Live that evening.  The winner of the Acorn Plantos Award is Chris Pannell for his poetry book - Drive.  I was very sorry to miss this event as I had looked forward to it.

Most regretfully, again I did not sleep that night and my day has been quite unproductive due to that fact. 

I did some much needed filing and did a little bit of jewellery making then took my library DVD's back just to get out for a while and see something different than four walls.

With this new system, I could not figure out how to renew my things so I asked the librarian how to do it and she told me how. 

I find a week is very short to be able to borrow DVD's so I renewed them for more time through the internet.

Tonight is one of my favourite nights for television, with Little Mosque on the Prairie as well as Midsummer Night murders.

Thanks for reading my blog and have a good day!

The lack of manners on some people

As the weather was very pleasant out today, in contrast to yesterday; with the sun shining, the snow still glistening where the traffic has not soiled it, I decided to take my DVD's back to the library and look at the market again.

On my way, I saw a lady fall from the bus back door into a snowbank which was quite high.  Her feet were still in the door and the door started to close.  I yelled so the driver would not take off with her being dragged and put my walker aside and pulled her with all my strength to safety.

I am just glad that I saw it happen and that I was there, but it would have been a nice thing to say "thank you" to me.  All this person did was  brush herself off and go.  It reminded me of the time when I was on an escalator in Toronto in the subway system and this frail old lady started to fall.  I was younger then by about 15 years and thought I was strong enough to catch her.  Unhappily for me, we both ended up falling and to give you a word picture of what happened, I was the whale and little little bird like lady was the bird on top of it.

Happily for her, she was not hurt and thankfully for me, a fellow heard my yells and turned off the escalator before my scarf was caught in the teeth of the machine.  I ended up going by ambulance to St. Joseph's hospital and being in an arm cast for several weeks.  At least this little person said thank you and then sped off!

I sometimes despair of human nature.  Then somebody does something nice and I have hope again!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

New Creation this afternoon

The snowy day, the cozy apartment, the sleepy cats all contributed to my contentment this afternoon as I peered outside and saw other human beings struggling through the banks of snow.

I have done my fair share of wading my way through waist deep snow where I grew up in Quebec.  My contentment is my creative side which came out very strong this afternoon.

I took a beautiful Amethyst stone and wrapped it in non-tarnish silver plated wire, made the stems with Amethyst crystals from Swarovski.  In my opinion, it is very beautiful and quite unusual.

Here is a picture of it.  It took a long time to do and I still have to make the necklace part. Perhaps if I remain snowbound, I will work on the necklace part tomorrow.

Here it is.

Against a purple background

Against a white background

This is my protype.

The new look at the Farmer's Market, Hamilton, Ontario.

Today was the opening of the market and since the weather had calmed down, I decided to venture out before the real storm hits.

The market had many people there,  some out of curiosity like me, and some who were there buying lots of food!  Business seemed brisk for the vendors..

It looks nice but I think the stalls are quite a bit smaller but I do like the fact that they have tables and chairs around for people to sit on.  I enjoy going to the market not only to buy my food but to also people watch so I am particularly glad to see the tables and chairs there.

I have to say, though, that the downstairs part is really very cold, with the doors opening from York Blvd..  I was planning to sit at Julia's coffee place and chat with her but it was just too cold, so I bought the coffee and carried it upstairs to one of the tables and sat and people watched.

I bumped into several people I know in the market which made it very pleasant for me!

I, personally, am glad to see all the vendors back.  I hope they make a go of it as they work hard

Will be inside for the next few days due to the storm which is starting tonight sometime. 

Thanks for reading my blog and have a good day!

Trying out my new camera

I had to purchase a new digital camera as my old one (about 4 or 5 years old) had inner troubles that would have cost more to repair than the camera was worth.

Thus, I have been practicing with the new Nikkon one.  It is very small and compact.

Here is a sample with my favourite subjects:  Boots and Tiger

Tiger and Boots

The two good buddies

Tiger

Tiger

Boots

Now just to spice up the blog a little bit, I shall write a little  rhyming poem.

                                                   There was an old cat named Tiger
                                                   Who enjoyed, of all things, to swagger
                                                    This orange and white thingamajig
                                                    Who believes he's Mick Jagger.

As for Boots, let us also write him a little poem so he doesn't feel left out.

                                                   You are a mischievous little fellow
                                                   Whose underbelly is like jello
                                                   Almost as white as marshmallow
                                                   Which makes a cozy bedfellow.

Now that I have had some fun with rhyming poetry, let us talk now about a lovely potluck supper I went to tonight.  When one door closes, God opens another, and this is exactly what happened this weekend.

I tried for one day to get through to Wheeltrans in Toronto but it wasn't until 5:30 p.m. that I finally got an live person.  I was put on the waiting list and hoped against hope that I would get a ride once I got to Toronto.  It was my friend Margaret's 91 or 92nd birthday and for this occasion, I really wanted to be there.  Alas, all my efforts were in vain.  Wasting from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday with about a half hour lunch break, dialing every couple of minutes was extremely frustrating. 

I was unable to get a ride so had to stay here. However, as I said, it turned out well in spite of the frustration I felt.  I was reminded of a potluck supper and movie night at St. Paul's, so I made an Iranian rice dish and brought it.  It went over very well and was quite unusual for most of the people there.

The movie was the Scarlet Letter but I only stayed for the first part as it would have been a four hour movie.

Here are some shots of the potluck part of the evening.

The set table before most people sat down

The happy eaters

There was a lovely variety of different foods and everything was very tasty.  We all had a good time and shared lots of good humour and stories.

All in all, a lovely evening. 

It seems that this camera may be a little better than my other one, as the shot of the table came out better than ever before.  It is dark wood panelling in St. Andrew's Hall and my shots there were never good.  This one is okay.  It will take me a while yet to get good at this camera though, as it is very small.

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you had a good chuckle with the two joke poems about the cats.

Have a great day!

Toronto Star and the Toronto Public Library to kick off short story contest | Canadian Immigrant

What a wonderful chance this is for short story writers to send their work in for the chance to be published in such a well known paper such as the Toronto Star.

I certainly am going to send some work in.  There will be fierce competition as the prize money is fantastic!  The money is nice, but the prestige is even nicer!

How exciting this is for me!






Toronto Star and the Toronto Public Library to kick off short story contest Canadian Immigrant

The many uses of jewellery pliers

I haven't used my toaster oven for a long time as the knob had broken in two and I found it hard to turn the inner round knob by myself.

My son dropped in this morning and made an excellent suggestion.  "Use your pliers Mom" and this way it's still workable.

Now why didn't I think of that myself?  In any event, my jewellery pliers have come in handy for not only making jewellery but to turn on the toaster oven!

What a smart  and practical son I am blessed with!

Speaking of jewellery pliers, I have decided to branch into making children's jewellery as well.  As a former day care teacher, I have always loved working with children and as a jewellery designer now, I can bring delight to children once again.  I will make jewellery which will be of good quality and can be kept as a keepsake.  What a treasure that will be for the little ones and what a joy it will be for parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles to find something precious for their loved ones which will last and last and at the same time bring back happy memories when they are older.  Who knows, perhaps it can even be passed down to another generation.  I just love that idea.

I remember when my two darling 10 year old twins and their Mom visited me here in Hamilton, I gave each of the children some jewellery.  They were so happy for this and the little girl mentions it often even though it was a year ago January when they came. 

It made me happy to see them happy.  Children are such blessings and are our most precious gift from God, a trust from Him.

Every adult can "mother" a child and be a positive influence in their lives.  I have one Toronto friend who never had children and yet she used her many sterling qualities to be a positive influence on so many children she came into contact with.

What a legacy to leave when one departs this earthly life!

Thanks for reading my rather mixed news blog today.  Have a great day!