Recent Photos

On my walk to the other morning, I heard the bird before I found it high in a still bare tree.  Good thing it has a bit of red on it.  The morning sun was wonderful and it was singing grateful I am sure to be warmed a bit.

This is an adult male House Finch. 

The song is beautiful and attracting.  I have seen a few of these in my walks over the years.

Really glad to see this one recently.








Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
I loved this book about a baby girl born in India.  The first daughter disappeared upon birth.  Sad practice but boys help with the farm work.  The mother Kavita stood up for the second daughter and brought her at 2 days old to an orphanage in Mumbai. She is given a name - Usha. Then, a long journey from the country side to the big city for a mother who had just given birth.  The sacrifice had to be made.

The other half of the story is the mother in the United States who suffers infertility and how she comes to adopt the girl from the orphanage now named Asha. Her husband is a doctor from India so the daughter looks like her dad but not really like her white mother.  This does cause tension in their relationship later as a teenager.

The daughter does not want to be a doctor but a journalist.  During college she is given the opportunity to spend 1 year in Mumbai to do a project on the families living in the slums. She is welcomed by her father's family and she learns about family in a wonderful way.  A grandmother, aunties, cousins, and others welcome her, host her, help her with the language, and guide her as she goes to the slums for interviews.

During this time the marriage of her parents is falling apart and they separate. She meets her husband every week for the weekly call with Asha so she will not find out about the separation.

While in India Asha searches for her birth parents.  She does learn that they are now living in Mumbai.  She does come to appreciate her Indian heritage.  Very good book.

I am cooking so much more than I usually do now that I am staying home all the time.

I did stock up on groceries as the peak is around the corner they say and I expect the restrictions to get even tougher.  I think I can last till mid May without going out for groceries again.

I have to confess that I did buy frozen french fries for a treat sometime in the next few weeks.

This is Curry Veggie Soup made with the left over ingredients from Curry Cauliflower. You can find the recipe in this post.

I took a long walk yesterday morning into the river valley. It was cold when I started out just after sunrise but warmed up nicely. 

By 9:00 am the runners were out in groups no social distancing.  I don't get it!

Love the Walterdale Bridge in our river valley.

I took tons of photos so I created a mosaic of some of the better ones.

I will have to plan on getting home by 9:00 am from my morning walks to avoid the crowds.

The theme for Flickr Macro Monday this week was "Yellow".   We are seeing a lot of dandelions which is understandable.

I did shoot several objects for the challenge.  On the right is a small glass lemon.  It is very beautiful and I love this shot.

You can check my Flickr photo stream SMDPics to see what I submitted.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday #76 hosted by Angie.

Through My Lens #237 hosted by Mersad

Color my World hosted by Betty