Pretty Vine

I thought this was a pretty sight in the neighbourhood the other day, I did paint it recently when it was at an earlier stage.  Thanks to Martha for identifying it as 'Morning Glory'.

Here is another photo on the same fence:

Lux wrote a wonderful list the other day of '6 things she would never do to her kids', I thought it was an excellent list:  never compare them, never laugh at their dreams, always be there for them,  never shelter them from reality, show them respect, and share your faith.  I think my mother taught me to always be there for my children, she has always been there for me.

And this is the time of year that I go looking for my agenda book for next year, how about you?  I've always had an agenda book since my early teens.

Sunday Sketches - Sunrise

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! I did a sunrise on an index card today in watercolour pencil. I chose this quote to go with it:

               At sunrise, everything is luminous, but not clear...Norman Maclean

Joke, A Moral

I got this funny joke from Weekend-Windup, there is a moral here.

One night four college students were playing till late night and could not study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning they thought of an idea to avoid the exam. They made themselves to look as dirty with grease and dirt.

They then went up to the Dean and said that they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their return the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back and they were in no condition to appear for the test.

So the Dean said they could have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked him and said they would be ready by that time.

On the third day they appeared before the Dean.

The Dean said that as this was a Special Condition Test, all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of two questions with a total of 100 Marks.

1. Your Name.......................... (2 MARKS)

2. Which tire got burst? (98 MARKS)

a) Front Left
b) Front Right
c) Back Left
d) Back Right

Paint Party Friday - The First Leaves

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! This piece is called 'The First Leaves', pointing to the end of summer. I noticed a couple of leaves already falling last week. My art is done on an index card in watercolour crayon and outlined with a fine point marker.  My daughter L was hesitant about this piece, so childlike she said.  Whatever, I thought it would go well with my photo below.

Neesie just gave me the idea to outline the leaves, so here is the outlined version too.

Here is the photo I took:

Sedum Autumn Joy

Here is sedum autumn joy, a harbinger of fall. I took this photo in the neighbourhood recently. This perennial flower will become deep reddish in colour as fall progresses. It is very drought tolerant too.

Husband M, son K and I went to see the movie 'Hitman Agent 47' last night, only about 5 days after opening. It was K's idea, he loves the fast cars. I have to say I enjoyed it, in spite of myself. Apparently it is a series of movies, these Hitman movies, based on a video game.

 K told me to try playing the Timeplay game with my phone.  This theatre runs these games before the movie and you have the chance to earn SCENE points towards free movie tickets.  First you have to 'select' your auditorium, easy enough.  I was hopeless, in one of the games, I was supposed to 'swipe' an image across the phone screen at the right time to win points.  At the end of the game, the winners are displayed on the movie screen.  Some guy called 'Ansen' seemed to be the number one winner of all the games.

On Blogging

I was thinking how much our virtual blog world mirrors real life. For example, you establish relationships with friends, they come and go. For example, Keith of Musings got married and moved to Germany and we didn't hear from him for 100 days. I was genuinely glad to hear from him as all his friends surely have felt the same way.  And now I am following his lovely wife Beate, the blog family grows!  We are happy for our blog friends and sad for health issues, and so on. Blogging is so much a real part of my life, how about you?  In everyday conversation, so often I will say, 'I learned this from 'a friend', it could be flooding or drought in some part of the world, some safety tips, that I would otherwise have been unaware of.  Then there will be the (kind) gossip of what happened to so and so.  This year, I even experienced the sudden illness and death of a blog friend, I still think of her from time to time and wonder how her husband is faring.  It made me realize how tenuous our hold on life is.  but that is another topic.

Canada's next chip flavour

Lay's is having a contest to choose Canada's next flavour of potato chips. Here are the choices that you can vote for at lays.ca/flavourhttps://www.dousaflavour.ca/en/. I did buy all 4 flavours and we wasted no time sampling them. Potato chips disappear in our house thanks to husband M and son K. I do try not to buy them too often. Anyway, our favourite flavour is Montreal smoked meat, and for me, followed by the scalloped potato flavour.  I noticed you can vote once per day until September30, 2015.

Lunch Downtown

My sister from Florida was visiting with her husband a few weeks ago, they like to come here in the warm summer months. One day I took her downtown to meet up with some of her friends. We had a great time, had lunch at a pub and spent some time visiting at one of the friend's condos.

Downtown Toronto

Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding

Steak and Mushroom Pie

Sunday Sketches - Toad

This toad is done in watercolour pencil on an index card, inspired by a photo I saw on Adam's blog. Happy Sunday Sketches!

Family Reunion

Here is an interesting list for you today:

We have been having a lot of summer visitors from out of town, relatives we don't see very often at all. Last night we had a wonderful reunion dinner at a restaurant with cousins from my dad's side of the family. We had never met one cousin's wife and kids. My departed dad had about 9 siblings some of whom have also passed away. So there were 5
children from 4 of the siblings there last night. It was kind of a neat cousin gathering, we are all in our fifties now.

Paint Party Friday - Peeking Through

I took this photo of this coneflower peeking through a fence recently and decided to sketch it in watcolour pencil and fine point marker on an index card. The coneflowers are blooming everywhere at this time of year.  Happy Paint Party Friday!

Here's my photo:

Life is short

Here's a funny one for you today:

This is a wonderful story of a Toronto dad and his 2 young boys honouring their late wife and mom with a round the world trip.  They even have a blog which you can subscribe to and follow their experiences.  I was struck by the fact that life is short and they want to live life to the fullest in memory of a special woman.

Ivy of Happy Whisk told us about microgreens which I didn't know about, did you?

They are the early leaves from various plants and vegetables that can be quite delectable.

Yay for Watermelon

Here is a funny one for you today:

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I read this great article on the benefits of watermelon the other day.  I had stopped eating it when I heard how much sugar it has, but it is obvious the nutritious benefits outweigh the sugar problem.  Apparently it helps with blood pressure, acid reflux, Alzheimer's and many other health issues.  It has Vitamin A, C, potassium and 2 cups are only 80 calories, with no fat.  I am definitely going back to eating this delicious fruit, it was a favourite to begin with.

Creative Tuesdays - Summer Days

My 'Summer Days' piece for Creative Tuesdays is done on an index card in watercolour pencil and crayon. At my age, the pleasure of summer comes to me in the variety of fresh, local fruit and vegetables available in the season. Cherries, corn on the cob, peaches, and even juicy minneola tangelos lately. I just read that a minneola is a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine and mine were from Peru, not local!  So do you roll your corn on the cob in butter?  (I don't actually, lol).   Thanks to Michael for hosting.

History and Entrepreneurship

I think I got this joke from Martha's blog:

This is a wonderful story written by Angus Skene a Toronto architect, on the history of the huge Shoppers Drug Mart Canadian chain. The Kofflers, a Romanian jewish family moved to Canada in 1895 for a better life. Leon started a self-serve pharmacy when most goods were still sold behind the counter. He became a successful entrepreneur. After he died, his 17 year old son, also an entrepreneur, expanded Shoppers Drug Mart to the huge chain it is today.  Father and son seemed to have the knack of teaming with the right people, helping to secure their ambitions.

Here is a great tip to recycle postal bags from Ann.  All you need is a hairdryer!

Sunday Sketches - Morning Glory

This 'Morning Glory Vine' is based on a photo I took on a walk through the neighbourhood. I thought it was interesting that it had 2 differently coloured flowers. It's done in watercolour pencil on an index card. Thanks to Alexandra for always hosting Sunday Sketches.

Family Reunion

Last week my cousin invited me to lunch.  He said his parents were in town, and also a visiting uncle and his wife.  So I took son K and my mom to meet with everyone.  There were 11 of us in total.  We tried this new'ish Japanese restaurant.  I thought these were pretty dishes they had at the table.

I enjoyed talking with my aunt and uncle on my deceased dad's side of the family.  Apparently we all share a love for all you can eat oysters on the shell and crab.

Paint Party Friday - Castle in the Mist

My 'Castle in the Mist' is done on an index card in watercolour pencil and crayon. Happy Paint Party Friday!

The Street Light

I've been noticing this street light in the neighbourhood. It has been on all summer and I finally decided to report it to the city. I made note of the pole number and located the correct department in the online services and am assured that the problem will be addressed within so many days. There is even a service request number which I can use to check the status of the request!

Old String Game

I vaguely remember playing this string game over and over when I was a kid, do you?

If I liked beer I'm sure I'd like this new butter tart beer created in a town just outside of Toronto, in Ontario.

And it looks like they have found an obesity gene. There is obviously a lot more to understand about how it works.

One of my sisters is in town, visiting from Florida.  She says they were about to land in Toronto yesterday, the plane touched down, then suddenly swooped back up into the air.  The pilot later announced that he saw another plane taking off on the same runway just as they were about to land so he had to do that.  It was a very scary experience.

Funny Minion

For a bit of good news, son K has secured another field placement starting in September.  Fingers crossed this one will be better than the last one which did not work out.  Time will tell if he is meant to graduate with a full college diploma next year.  He already qualifies for a certificate.

In the news, the Toronto library is rolling out book machines at Union Station, a major transportation hub.

And there is a tadpole disease threatening frogs.  The frog population has been in decline for years and according to the article, some think we are in a mass extinction of animals and amphibians similar to the dinosaur age.

One for the readers

I thought this was a good one for the readers out there:

Here is an interesting sports story. A young baseball fan used hockey tape to make his own hockey jersey featuring a new pitcher David Price. Twitter got a hold of it and Price is giving the young fan an authentic Price Toronto Blue Jays jersey!

Sunday Sketches - Castle Window

This piece is done on an index card, I was inspired by all the lovely ICAD pieces I have been seeing on other blogs. This is my view from an old castle window, we just had a blue moon in July, so perhaps this is a celebration of that!  Happy Sunday Sketches!  Thanks to Alexandra for hosting.

Feast for one or two

Son K had an old friend visiting from out of town recently. The friend said he wanted to eat Chinese food, so they went to a restaurant that the friend likes. This was what they ordered for the two of them. K said his friend ate most of it himself as K wasn't that hungry! This friend is very athletic, 21 years old, and I have no doubt he is able to burn off all the calories.

Paint Party Friday - Cave Swimming

I was inspired by all the ICAD drawings I've been seeing on other blogs and decided to do my painting on an index card today. It's done in watercolour pencil and crayon. Want to join me for a cave swim? Happy Paint Party Friday! Thanks to our hosts Eva and Kristin.

My bug story

Here are some interesting mosquito facts for you. Only female mosquitoes bite. DEET is safe. Citronella, garlic, bananas, eucalyptus oil are effective repellants and so on.

On the topic of insects, here is my bug story for the day.  We were unpacking groceries from the car when I noticed a bug on the egg carton.  I told husband M to flick it off.  Then I noticed the bug landed on its back on the driveway.  It seemed to be struggling so I flicked him onto my finger and deposited him right side up onto a flower.  Then I got my phone out but before I could snap a photo he flew off!  Yes, bugs do fly! 

Thing 2

Well husband M's credit card was compromised last week.  I just happened to go online last night and checked our balance and there were 2 unknown transactions on there $1500 in total...apparently manual transactions as opposed to electronic.  We think they are able to copy the credit card number even if they bring those machines to your table!  Well at least we caught it within a week of the transaction and the card was blocked.  However there will be an investigation.  Have you had your credit card compromised?  It has happened to daughter L a few years back, and this is M's second time. It does make you go into panic mode.

Anyway, this post was just going to be on a more pleasant topic of cupcakes:

Daughter L's friend is headed off to Europe to finish her studies in medicine. Her friend threw a going away party and L decided to bake her some red velvet cupcakes in a Dr Seuss theme as it was the theme of the party. We were able to taste one, it was so moist and delicious!  It was a buttermilk cream cheese type of icing with blue cotton candy on top.  The trick with the cotton candy is that it has to be applied 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

Creative Tuesdays - Picnic

Welcome to Creative Tuesdays' "Picnic" theme. I am bringing a charcuterie board to the picnic, won't you join me? It is created with light rye bread slices, swiss cheese, salami, proscuitto, and pastrami slices, olives, mustard and some sweet chili sauce why not?  It's done in watercolour pencil and outlined with a fine point marker on good quality brown cardstock (6" x 6").

Cheesecake with Sour Cherry Compote

I finally got around to getting a plain cheesecake to go with my sour cherry compote, it was yummy!

Sunday Sketches - Atop the cliff

For Sunday Sketches, this piece called 'Atop the Cliff' is done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour crayon and pencil.

A Good One

Welcome to August!  It is the Civic Holiday long weekend in Canada.

A friend invited me for a lovely walk and lunch yesterday, her treat! She is a very good friend, she even invited son K to come along as he was free. It was hot and sunny but the day before was even hotter so we were good.

Here is an intriguing story I found for you in Canadian news. A baby could inherit millions if a DNA test can prove she is the daughter of a murdered millionaire. The millionaire's brother was trying to block the testing. The baby's mother would gain a nice lifestyle although the millions would be held in trust until the baby turns 19.