Cheesecake Brownies

Daughter L baked these cheesecake brownies for her company bake sale the other day. She made enough so that we could have some too. They are so good, sigh.

Blogeratti mentioned on his blog about a town called Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada that has eliminated homelessness.  I thought this was amazing in terms of humanitarian good.  I found this wonderful article that describes more about the intitiative.  Medicine Hat is providing housing for those who need it. The mayor opposed it for awhile but realized the program saves the town money.  Another 'motivation for Clugston's change of heart was a shift in his view of homelessness. Rather than viewing homeless people as too lazy to get a job, he began seeing homelessness as a symptom of both a disease -- mental illness -- and of the stigma faced by those suffering from it.'

Creative Tuesdays - Postage Stamp

Here is my 'Postage Stamp' for Creative Tuesdays. The loons are done on an index card in watercolour pencil. Thanks to Michael for always hosting. A letter to the U.S. really does cost $1.20 Canadian at this time.  The Canadian one dollar coin is nicknamed the 'loonie' after the common loon also pictured here.

And Michael asked if I would make up a story about my ‘Gifting’ piece that I did for Creative Tuesdays the other day. I came up with this everyday life story, non-fiction:

The Gift of a Good Life

I woke up early the morning of my 27th wedding anniversary. For some reason the anniversary was my first thought. I said to husband M lying next to me ‘it’s our anniversary! So where is my gift?’. He says ‘oh, …I can get you one…’. I said ‘I’m just teasing!’. I really was.

The phone rang at around 9.30am. I thought, ‘oh no, not the duct cleaners again’. I noticed from the call display that it was a local number and decided to pick up. It was a gentleman asking for a donation to a charity. It was to support blind kids playing sports, apparently I had donated last year. The words ‘blind’ and ‘kids’ made me decide to give a donation. He thanked me and assured me that I would receive a tax receipt, even better.

As I hung up, I realized this was the perfect anniversary gift, a donation to a worthy cause, on behalf of M and myself.

Soon it was time to run my errands. It was a beautiful fall day, sunny and crisp, the leaves on the trees dappled with sunlight. I could just get away with wearing only a sweater, I didn’t need a coat.

On my way home later on, I noticed a wedding taking place on Main Street. The bride’s beautiful, lacy, white gown glittered in the sunlight and it looked like a happy party. A wedding on my anniversary, what a treat today I thought!

Daughter L came home with a lot of desserts from her company bake sale that evening. She had some little brownies, meringue cookies, gingersnaps, etc. Then we all went out to a nice dinner as a family.

It was certainly a day of ‘gifts’, maybe every day is, if you look hard enough. I am thankful for … not a perfect life, but a good one.

My Pumpkin

So I got my seasonal pumpkin. Hope you are having a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving weekend!

And have a slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream for the long weekend:

And in the news some brilliant scientists have won the Nobel prize in Chemistry. They are such brilliant people, discovering that cells repair DNA and pointing the way to possibly disrupting cancer cells' DNA repair mechanism.

Sunday Sketches - Pink Sunrise

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! This is a pink sunrise I did on an index card in watercolour pencil and crayon. Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Fall Chrysanthemums

It was such a clear night last night, I could see so many stars even though I am in a populated area.  It made me think, we are sure not alone in the universe!  I also thought, 'why wasn't it like this the night of the lunar eclipse/blood moon?'

You will see a lot of chrysanthemums planted around here at this time of year:

Paint Party Friday - Rosehip

It is the Canadian Thanksgiving Long Weekend.  

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! Thanks to Eva and Kristin for always hosting. I did a greeting card in watercolour pencil and crayon inspired by a rosehip bush that was still blooming in the neighbourhood a few weeks ago.

Wedding Anniversary

It is my and M's 27th wedding anniversary today.  We didn't make any special plans, we usually just take things as they come.  The Canadian Thanksgiving Long weekend is upcoming, so we plan to gather with the extended family then.

I've been snapping some fall leaves to share with you today.