Sylvia's Simple Shots

I finally took a trip to the University of Alberta Botanic Garden this year.

I chose a day when rain was not predicted to fall which turned out to be Saturday.  There was an art walk taking place and several weddings but that is the way it goes.

These gardens are always wonderful.  The temperature was around 21c which made it shirt sleeve weather.  I brought myself a snack for halfway through.  I met neighbours on  my way out so I was later than I had planned.  I arrived around 10:20 am and left shortly after 2pm. 

There is the Kurimoto Japanese Garden, the AGA Khan Garden, Indigenous Garden,  and much more.

There are domes set up which I expect have been there since they reopened during COVID.  The Gift Shop is gone and the butterflies in the Tropical Showhouse are also gone.  I had a wonderful day with tons of photos some of which will likely end up in my annual photo calendar.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was a great read.  A short book filled with adventures.

"To realize one's destiny in a person's only obligation - the Alchemist"

I think with Mom and Dad now gone I am having to redefine the parts of my life that they occupied.  Feeling a little adrift and looking for ways to find a new path.

While on a visit to my sister's house recently we walked down the block to a garage sale.

I purchased this cutie and my sister gave me the stick he sits on.  I used a Zot to hold him in place.

He resides on the table for now.

In the Shadow of Croft Towers by Abigail Wilson was a great historical novel.  Sybil Delafield is hired to be a companion to an elderly lady.  The coach she is travelling in is robbed before she arrives. She is asked to deliver communications in the form of letters to folks in the town but to be sure no one else knows.  

When fellow passengers of the robbed coach are later murdered, Sybil’s hunt for the truth takes on a new urgency. The only person she can rely on is Mr. Sinclair, Mrs. Chalcroft’s godson, but under all his charms he too leads a double life. Sybil must decide if he is the one honest voice she can trust, or if he is simply using her for his own advances.

Croft Towers holds more than its share of secrets . . . and Sybil is determined to uncover them all.

Enjoyed this one immensely.

I had been on the hunt for a flower vase for the table.  

The one I had been using for years was a floral shop clear with swirls on the sides.

I have looked a lot of them and I was quite sure I wanted a clear cut glass one with a bit of personality.  Crystal would be nice.

Then, I found this art glass one.  Look at the ribbon of honey colored glass around it's middle.  It was perfect. Tall enough for bouquet of flowers, heavy enough to stay up right, the bubbles in the glass disguise the stems to some degree and the band of yellow glass was the icing on the cake.

I have decided to buy myself flowers so that I can have flowers on the table like Mom did.  I don't have a garden and not enough sun on the balcony to grow them.  Beautiful.

Susannah's Garden by Debbie Macomber.   Debbie has become an author I can rely on for a good read.

This one started pretty slow with Susannah having marriage problems and what was she going to do.  She is at a cross roads and where will life lead her.

The year Susannah Nelson turned eighteen changed everything: her boyfriend, Jake, left her unexpectedly, and her brother died in a car accident months later.

At fifty, Susannah finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Long married, a mother and a teacher, she should be happy. But she feels there’s something missing in her life, although she doesn’t know exactly what. Not only that, she’s balancing the demands of a temperamental twenty-year-old daughter and an aging mother who now needs her help.

When Susannah goes home to Colville, Washington, to look after her mother, she decides to try to find out what happened to Jake all those years ago. In returning to her parents’ house, her girlhood friends and the garden she’s always loved, Susannah also returns to the past—and the choices she made back then.

I recently purchased this Rooibos Lemon Cream tea.  This is my first time tasting it.

It is delicious and the fact that it is rooibos makes it caffeine free is a bonus.

Check out the color of this tea!  

It just picks up my mood to see this gorgeous deep yellow color in a pitcher.