Sylvia's Simple Shots

I've been following the eruption in Iceland for a while.  

Homes were lost. Some were new and the one the the family had not moved in.  Two years of hard work up in smoke.

I am so glad the barriers did a great job of keeping the northern eruption from invading into the town of Grindavik.  The quakes are creating cracks everywhere so it is very unsafe for people to return.  

It's been cold for only a few days with a few still to come but it feels like a long time.

Some mornings have been -39C.

The crane has been erected for the construction of a high rise building.  It took place between Christmas and New Years. 

The excavation of the basement was done in the fall with the ground pounding.

The sun is shining so I am grateful for that.

I am working on a slow stitching project and I dyed some flowers this week.

Pink, red, blue, turquoise, yellow and orange.  I was not sure how much color they would absorb but it worked out really great.

I really like these small bouncy balls.  I have acquired several because I am so attracted to them.

I have started using them with my walking exercise in the morning and when I am waiting for my tea warm up in the microwave.

I can do 100 bounces alternating hands in a minute.  I have added raising my knees and hands to more cardio through out the day.

I found a few softer apples in the crisper of the fridge this week when I bought a new bag of apples.

I decided to bake them.  Looking for a recipe I found this Cinnamon Baked Apples.  

The 2 ingredients that elevate this dessert is grated ginger and lemon juice.

Very easy to prepare, makes use of maple syrup instead of sugar, and tastes delicious.

Recent Snapshots

The bison at Elk Island National Park are sporting their gorgeous summer coats.  The straggly look of earlier in the year is gone and they are trim and great looking as long as you don't get too close.  The light was very good and the shot turned out well.

Several of my sisters and I picked Mom's harvest on Friday.  Apples from two different trees and you can see that there was a difference in color and size. 

The left pail is a small portion of the grapes we harvested from Mom's vines.  They have moved to a seniors residence so this was the last time we will pick fruit from the trees and vines she nurtured for nearly 50 years.  She shed a couple of tears knowing we were at the house and she could not be there.

I was looking for art for my kitchen and after a while of browsing sunflower kitchen art was reminded that my niece gave me this wonderful metal one a couple of Christmases ago so it made the short trip from dining room to kitchen.

It may need something more. A frame, a word, or another thing. I don't know so I will wait further inspiration.

Changes are progressing nicely in the kitchen.

The fields of grain are warming up in color and texture.  Soon the cutting and combining will start a frenzy activity to get the crop off before frost and the cold put a halt to the activity.

I managed to get one head in nice focus so I cropped the image to isolated it somewhat.

I started enticing chickadees wit sunflower seeds and I managed to get this shot after sitting quiet of 90 minutes.  My hands were stiff, my butt was sore and I was really cold.  The life of a wildlife photographer!!!

I am happy with the photo but would like better.  We shall see how many more days I can sit quiet for a long time.  The weather has turned here so the mornings will be much more cold and I likely will not be able to sit for that long and the camera may not be happy with cold either.

We generally do get Indian Summer here so we could still have some warm days ahead.


I am sharing with

Maggie at Normandy Life if her computer issues get resolved
Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #112

Mosaic Monday #12

This was snack for today.  The last of the apples from Mom's trees and a couple of chocolate cookies.  Served on a white IKEA ARV salad plate.

The tea cup is by English Bone Chia by Ridgeway Potteries - pattern is Royal Vale.

The tea is Earl Grey Bold with a bit of honey and cream.

Driving on Saturday was unsure because of a heavy snowfall on Friday, the second in a week.  This brings winter early in our corner of the world. I decided to brave the roads because we need to just do it.  My sister and I attended this craft sale on Saturday.

There was fused glass artist, quite a few sewing projects featuring very similar items, baking is always a hit, a few up-cyclers, several vendors selling home wood decor with sayings, quite a few jewelery vendors and metal home decor.  I did stop at the hand dyed wool vendor and the chocolate booth.

This was a great read.  Alma & Nathaniel, Irina & Seth and Ichimei the mysterious gardener.  My aunt lent me the book which I would highly recommend. 

Sharing with Maggie at Normandy Life who hosts Mosaic Monday.

Share Your Cup #216 - Tupperware

I found these tall Tupperware Modular Mate Spice containers with yellow lids.  I've been using the containers from the store for the Greek Seasoning, Garlic Powder and Onion Flakes but they did not fit on my lazy susan carousel.  Now they fit on the carousel and are not sitting in front of the other Tupperware containers so they needed to be moved every time I needed something behind.

A bowl of gorgeous organic apples which I received this week. They are very much like Galas and are very decent size. 







This Tupperware Forget Me Not container in yellow was in my garage sale finds a couple of weeks ago.  The price was great and it is the large one so it holds an onion very nicely.  The other one I had was just too small.  I did not know they offered 2 different sizes.

Lunch was grilled cheese open face sandwich with fresh garden tomatoes with carrot salad.  Still have a few tomatoes left.

I found this Tupperware Modular Mate Keeper at the Thrift store the other day when just a couple of weeks ago I had made a mental note I could use another. These rarely show up because they are so practical.  The price was great and it's holding fresh garden corn for now.  The fridge is now pretty organized with containers for root vegetables, then celery & peppers, then bread, and fruit.

Submitting to Share Your Cup #216 hosted by Carol at Art & Sand.