Pretty

I was out walking last week and took this photo, I thought the plant looked so pretty spilling over the fence.  It was a warm, sunny day at the end of the summer.

Yesterday was a busy day. After dropping K off at school, I went to Walmart to get a can of maple syrup and some Cadbury chocolates as a gift for a colleague of M's who is in town for a few days from the U.S. They have all the Halloween candy out already. I needed some other things and couldn't help thinking that Walmart seems to sell everything. K asked me to find some silver jewellery cleaner, and I did! Of course they had 3 varieties of maple syrup for me to choose from. Then I needed a new bottle of soy sauce and they had that too. I even found some low sodium canned salmon that I thought would be good for my mom (and me come to think of it).

Then I took my mom for her checkup at the heart doctor. It went well and her next checkup will be in 6 months if all continues to go well. She is living with congestive heart failure but at the moment you wouldn't know anything was wrong with her. Heart failure's like that.  Oh, I met this other lady in the doctor's office who was dutifully pushing her father's wheelchair around.  It turns out he's 91.  She told me at this age, you have to be careful with offering  too much help because it's important for them to retain a sense of independence and dignity.  I'll have to remember that.  She let him get up slowly on his own and walk the few steps into the electrocardiogram room.

At any rate, it was a good day.

Creative Tuesdays - Kitchen

Welcome to Creative Tuesdays - Kitchen. I actually own this reproduction antique washstand but not the pitcher and basin. Hope you like this kitchen vignette I came up with!

Please be sure to visit the other talented participants!

Cute

I received this in an email the other day and thought it was cute:

Yesterday, I met with some friends visiting from abroad. We had a lovely lunch, exchanged gifts, took photos and enjoyed chatting with each other. It felt like Christmas or a birthday and we all loved our gifts, which none of us were really expecting.

 Did you notice the full moon last night?

Sunday Sketches - Potted Orchid ACEO

Welcome to Sunday Sketches!

Do you remember what you were doing on 911?  I remember it being a sunny morning, I had just dropped the kids off to school and was driving to a new dance class.  Then I heard the confused announcement on the radio.  It sounded like a small plane had crashed into tower.  Then more news came, and it sounded a lot worse.  When I got to the class, I remember thinking 'how will they rescue the people?  Could they land helicoptors on top?'  Well, we know the end of this tragic, awful story.
It's a sombre day today.

As for my Sunday Sketch, the  beautiful potted orchids I have at home inspired this work.  I selected a few of the flowers to draw and made up my own imaginary potted arrangement.  The dark coloured pot is meant to contrast against the white background.  I left the background white because I think it suits the arrangement.  Thanks for stopping by.
Please visit the other participants to see what they did today!

Unicycle Juggler

I went for a walk with my friend S on Labour Day earlier this week and there was a juggler on a unicycle on Main Street entertaining the crowd.

Paint Party Friday - Orchid ACEO

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I've done an Orchid ACEO for you today.  This beautiful orchid plant that I have at home inspired me to draw a cross section of its flowers.

Please stop by the other participants to see what they did this week.

A new restaurant

This past weekend, we decided to try an Ethiopian restaurant with some friends. It was an interesting experience and I took some photos to show you. The lighting was subdued, so the photos are a bit dark, sorry.

They have a sponge-like sourdough flatbread called injera. We asked for forks, but it's normal to break of bits of the flatbread and use these bits to sop up the various stews and sauces.

At the end of the meal we wanted to try the Ethiopian coffee as we had heard their coffee is very good. I would compare it to a muddy Turkish coffee. It's served without milk and you can ask for sugar. They served the coffee in a type of ceremony where roasted coffee beans were passed around each table so we could appreciate the fresh aroma. Then small cups were brought out with burning incense as pictured below. The funny thing is we thought the incense was rock sugar and put some in our coffee. We even tasted it and realized it wasn't sweet. Then the girl told us it was incense and brought us some sugar. We had a good laugh about this experience.
We ate well, although I would have to admit it wasn't my favourite food. However, it was an interesting experience. One of our friends seemed to be really enjoying his food and ate his whole injera. He also loved the coffee.


This is a meat and vegetable combination platter. There is a tossed salad in the middle, surrounded by beets, lentil, peas, collard greens, beef, chicken, lamb, cabbage. The lentils and chicken were very spicy.





This is a chicken dish




This is a vegetarian platter containing peas, beets, collard greens, cabbage and spicy lentils. The tossed salad had hot jalapenos.




This is injera, a spongelike sourdough flatbread





Coffee is served in small cups with burning incense as part of the coffee ceremony




Incense