Thanksgiving E.L.W. potluck

A lovely decoration for Fall in the church hall.

Thanksgiving Potluck – E.L.W. October 20,2009

The day could not have been nicer as the E.L.W. ladies gathered together in the Church Hall for their annual potluck luncheon to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Happy chatter filled the room as people lined up to pick from the delectable array of home cooked food set before their appreciative eyes.

Individual tables, decorated with fall leaves and white mums with greenery graced the cream coloured tablecloths. It was very well attended with a wonderful variety of food.

After the main course, a programme of hymns, poetry and a short talk by Pastor Frank was held. Once the business meeting was finished as well, the desert table was laid out and people helped themselves to a scrumptious feast of sweets.
All in all, another success story for the E.L.W.

July 4 in Hamilton, Ontario

Olga, a gal I have known almost since I arrived here. She is from Columbia. She also designs lovely jewellery and it is worth a visit to her booth at Pier 8 to see her work.

A close up of some of the beautiful flowers at Gage Park.

Gage Park - "It's Your Festival" - the pony rides for the children $5.00 a ride.

Right now I wish I could turn the speaker off who is broadcasting from Gore Park! The loudspeaker is so loud that I can hardly hear the news on the T.V. I'm all in favour of religious freedom but I also think other people who live nearbye have the right to have peace and quiet in their homes! I am sure that the few people that are listening in Gore Park do not need the loudspeakers so loud!

I wonder if they would allow that in a residential area on the mountain? This is a new group, haven't seen them before. Tomorrow, the regular group will come and they, too, think people are deaf!

In this respect only, it will be good when winter comes as groups do not come then.

There also is a group that comes from Toronto. I guess Hamiltonians must be really terrible people if people from another city come.......

Well, enough of my rant. It is very irrating when you cannot even hear yourself think! It has been going on since 5 p.m. and now it is almost 7 p.m.

Anyway, in spite of the loudspeaker blaring, I had a great day. I went to Gage Park for "It's your Festival". I only stayed about an hour and a half at the most. It was mostly for children or if you wanted to buy crafts. I did take some lovely pictures of the flowers though and of the pony ride area.

A friend of mine was planning to go today but I did not see him there so perhaps he went later than I did. It's too bad, as it is always nicer to go with somebody than alone.

In any event, I had seen enough and hopped on the city bus and went to where the Shuttlebus came in. Went down to Pier 8 to see my friend Olga and the craft area which is there every Saturday. I really enjoyed that and she introduced me to quite a few people with whom she was selling. It was her birthday today so some friends had brought some yummy cake and they gave me a piece of it. I stayed chatting with her and her friends for about three quarters of an hour, then I went to sit near the water and be quiet.

Since I was near the Sheraton Hotel when I arrived back from Pier 8, I went up to the second floor to the Latvian exhibition. Lovely embroidered work, silver jewellery, hand crafted wooden chests, people dressed in traditional clothing. Very beautiful and well worth the time to see it.

There is a conference in Hamilton of the Latvian community and they all are staying at the Sheraton Hotel.

I decided to treat myself to lunch/supper at Toby's Restaurant in the Mall. Had a lovely chat with the sweet young waitress there. She was telling me how she saved up her money while in High School and bought herself a car and paid for her insurance as well as her college education.

A delightful young person. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her.

I came home, tired but happy. Sorry I missed seeing my friend at Gage Park but unless people meet each other at a designated spot, it is almost impossible to find anybody there.

Oh well, another time.

E.L.W. Mother and Daughter event

On Tuesday, May 19th, 2009, the women of St. John's gathered together in the evening hours to enjoy a Mother and Daughter event. All women were welcome, and all ages turned up which was lovely. As is normal for this event, much singing, many beautiful poems, some personal reminisces, and a guest speaker were the order of the day.

Our guest speaker was Pastor Loretta of Grace Lutheran and she gave a very powerful talk on Placing Your Life before God, as based on Romans ,Chapter 12. The message was originally done by Eugene Petersen.

Pastor Loretta's talk reminded us that grace means trusting in God, not being dependent on our possessions. She talked about her experiences with various runs, stair climbing expeditions and how she was one of many trying to raise awareness of various diseases and causes by participating in these events.

After Pastor's interesting talk, the programme went on.

The evening ended with the Hospitality Committee serving up another delicious feast for those in attendance to enjoy.


A very worthwhile event to attend, both for spiritual enlightenment, good fellowship and, of course, lovely refreshments.