Sylvia's Simple Shots

I was down south to see my neice recently.  One morning the backyard was suddenly filled with birds.  All kinds.

These are Northern Flickers but check out the orange tail feathers. When they fly one sees the splash of color right away.  So glad to see these birds must be migration time. 

This is one of the casualities of the move.  This is a set of heart shaped dishes I received from my Mom and Dad for high school graduation I think. That is over 50 years.

At least I still have one instact dish.  I am so grateful.  I packed the boxes so it is one me.  They are beautiful dishes and they did not have lots of money so to get something was very special.

I had my regular eye exam this week and have ordered a pair of glasses despite my prescription not changing much.  This will give me spare pair of spectacles in case there is a mishap with the pair I am wearing.

Those who have been wearing glasses for a long time have been recommending this move forward but as you know I have been pretty busy.

I am loving that beautiful morning sun in my east facing windows.

Love the sunshine yellow color.

The curtains are sheer enough to let the light in and give me my privacy.  The back of the building does not have a lot of movement but some neighbours wander the back area.

A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky.  Mallory gets a call which calls her back to where she grew up.  A small shore town on Rhode Island. Her father is not doing well.  

She and her 13 year old daughter arrive to the house on the bluff with some many good and bad memories.  Annie her sister who lives in the house with the father feels threatened with the older sister arrives unannouced.

Mallory's old boyfriend Jack is now a veterinarian in the town so she runs into him pretty quickly. They ended their relationship 20 years ago when his mom passed away under mysterious circumstances involvin a boat and her father the judge.

The book started a little slow and the end was a bit predictable.  To think in 7 days a relationship can become physical, emotional, and supportive seems a little over the top.  In my experience forgiveness with several people does not happen that easily.  Enjoyed the book.

I stopped at my sisters in central part of the province for 2 days.  During my visit the skies darkened and rain drops came down.  Only about 1/8 of inch which was not enough to soak the garden.

It was so nice to be out and about visiting family again after being tied to the old place with the the threat of floods.  And then having to unpack here which took much longer than I anticipated.

Feels really good to be free to travel a bit these days.

Starting to rebuild my plant collection. 

Some did not survive the trip to the hotel and then back home weeks later in the middle of winter.

The African Violet needs to be replaced yet but this spider plant in a 2" pot came home with me this week.

There were 2 plants so I have given them each a pot and hopefully one will be hanging in the bedroom soon.

My niece gave me a macrame plant hanger that will work in the bedroom.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 This week has been heavy with medical issues but perked up at the end of the week.

It's been on the books for several months to get the old shut off valves which hold back the water with pressure and a rubber washer replaced with Quarter Turn Shut offs which are better because of no rubber parts.

It meant clearing the laundry area and under the kitchen sink so the plumber would have room to work.

I also got the cartridges and the seats replaced on all the taps - kitchen sink, bathroom sink and bathtub.

I am super happy to have gotten this done.  It means easily turning off the water when I am away.  It is simple and much less of a worry about dripping.

The tooth cracked on Friday but had been sore a few days before that.  Was grinding the cause?  Not sure but I guess I should wear a guard regularly.

I had a early evening appointment on Monday to assess the problem. It had not been painful which was a blessing.  The crack was very deep below the gum line so it was not a candidate for a filling.

The tooth has to come out! A perfectly good tooth. 

Appointment scheduled for Wednesday.  I have not had an extraction since my wisdom teeth in the early 1980s

It was also determined that I have an abscess on one of my front lower teeth.

A prescription for an antibiotic for that.

It will be a candidate for a root canal but I am getting a referral to a root canal specialist since the x-ray showed some anomalies.

We really want to preserve the tooth so there's a much better chance with a specialist.

Taking pills four times a day.

On Wednesday morning I headed into the dentist office.  Some pain numbing needles and the hope is that the remainder of the tooth comes out cleanly.

It did.

I opted to have a bone graft put in the cavity left behind when the tooth was pulled.   This will allow me to have a dental implant in the future.

Painful, soft food, bleeding, sleeping and healing were on the agenda for the rest of the week.

The sheet I brought home from the dentist suggested a wet tea bag to stop bleeding after the extraction.

I did have to do this several times.

I was lucky to be able to use my Earl Grey Decaf tea bags which at least tasted good.

Soak it, put it in the space, press down hard to place pressure on the wound.

I bleed easily so this worked well.

Smoothies have been on the menu for breakfast for the last several days.  Bananas, blueberries, coconut milk, and I am still adding my ground flax seed and rolled oats.

I had to make a special grocery trip for cottage cheese, flavored yogurt, special yogurt, and fruit.  I do like cottage cheese and this allowed me to have a savory option for food.  In the yellow bowl is cottage cheese, steak spice, a bit of garlic powder with some finely shredded red onion.  Is really good.

The real treat was Krema yogurt by Olympic which I was introduced to at New Year's when my offered it with fruit and maple syrup for dessert.

Here's in the bowl is yogourt, a bit of cream and a dribble of pure maple syrup.

I have to eat something when I take the antibotics so this little bowl was perfect.

I will have to keep this in my arsenal for a quick dessert.

We have an upcoming show at the gallery called Tactile. The art piece needs to be dimensional and tactile.

I was going to ditch the project with all that is going on but I headed to the ReUse Ctr Saturday and found a 12 inch embroidery hoop for free.  That was the sign that I should feed my soul and create some art.

I had done quite a bit of research on the weaving and had gathered supplies. Yarn, beads, special sparkly bits so I have decided to continue.

Here's is the circle loom set up with the warp thread.

I think the yellow crochet cotton matches the bamboo hoop really well.   An update to come next week. 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I made Raspberry Bavarian to remind me of my wonderful Mom.  This was my favorite of the desserts she made with the raspberries in her garden patch. Used frozen berries.

I did grate a bit of dark chocolate on top and added a Simple Pleasures Cranberry and Citrus cookie.

You can find the recipe in this post - Raspberry Bavarian.  

I miss her a lot!

On Monday, I walked to Fabric Land while my car was at the dealership for services.  It was great to have decent weather I could walk 20 minutes.

I needed sewing machine needles because I broke a couple working on my ReUsable bags.  While I was there I came across these Bobbin Mates which help to keep the spool of thread with the matching bobbin. The price was good for 12.  I would use these for my regular thread that I use often - white, black, grey, navy and brown maybe. 

They work great.

Fabric Land was having a huge sale on mask elastic.  This is perfect for the elastic on my ReUsable Bags so considering it was 70% off I bought 10 yards of each color - black and white.  

I had worked out that I could use the elastics off disposable masks which easily break and I had a few in my stash that I had not thrown away.

That elastic was for sale at the fabric store as well but I thought is narrow stuff would be more versatile and stronger in the long run.

It was a week of doctor visits, blood work, xrays, ECGs, IV lines and a ride in an ambulance with a visit to Emergency. Answering a lot of questions and trying to remember what happened when.  It's been a bit of a time since Jan 6th and I hope the worse is over.  I still have specialist appointments to come.

The results were negative and I was lucky to have my aunt give me a ride home.

Thanks so much!

I bought a few music CDs for the hospital where Mom spent her last hours.  They gave us a big room and a CD player with a couple of CDs.  They were Mom's favorites. Fortunately, my neice was able to find stuff on line.

This is more of the type of music which we chose for Mom.

I will drop them off next time I am there.

This is a small flower vase which was Mom's.  All summer she had a small vase of garden flowers on the table.  Cosmos was one of her favorites and they are a great cut flower.

She grew Pansies, Nasturtiums, African Daisies, Impatiens, Lavetera and more I am sure.  She used carrot tops for a bit of green foliage in her bouquets. 

This is a Vintage 1960's Avon urn jar for bath product - my web research tells me.  I see that it once had a stopper.  I am not sure when Mom got it but she liked it and used it every year.

Will I ever have a cut flower garden?  Sure would like that very much.

We shall see.

I finished this book this week.  Jinnie by Josephine Cox.   I think this is my third book by this author.

It is set in England in 1963 with some events having taken place 10 years earlier.  A great story of tragic events and the love of a woman for an abandoned baby.  Sister who are polar opposites and grandmothers who step into the gap for their families.

I mostly enjoyed this book.  The grandmothers one was Sarah and the other Sally so I often confused them.  The story was all concluded in the final few pages of the book which seemed incongruous with the timeline and pace of the first 90% of the story.

Always enjoy England as a setting.  The story took some pretty steep curves at the end but all things turned out well after all.

I started back with areobics this week now that the knee is improving.

This is the easiest work out I have.  When I worked a groups of us girls would close up the board room and do this 1 mile 30 minute routine then have our lunch.

I started again with the 1 mile this week. Taking it easy but at least getting back to my life before my inactivity took a toll on my body.

Sylvia Simple Shots

I booked my 4th COVID Booster shot with health services and was given a pharmacy I had not been to before. I needed it done so I agreed.  I carefully walked the block and entered into a space with no one else in there.  Different for sure. I was quickly given my shot and waited my fifteen minutes. 

I limped home and all I had was a sore arm for a day.

I had been limping since the 6th of January but managing but not getting any better. 

After a urgent care doctor visit on January 12th, I headed for an ultrasound on my right knee/leg to check for blood clots the next day.

At home, on my way up the stairs I felt a pop in the back of my knee and the pain got 10X worse.

I spent the day waiting for ultrasound results, having a nurse assessment, a Zoom Medical Doctor visit and at last a call from my own doctor.  She confirmed no blood clots! Wonderful but what is wrong. After answering another ton of questions she had an idea what it might be. She did not a feel a visit to emergency was necessary and suggested icing and elevating and she would see me Monday, Jan 16th. 

In the meantime, I borrowed a walker and a cane from my sister who delivered it that afternoon. After icing the knee felt a lot better.

I have kept the cane, as physiotherapy has been prescribed but more about that later.

With some down time I finished this book - Sutton by J.R. Moehringer.

This story is centered around a real figure of Willie "The Actor" Sutton who was an American bank robber. So named for the disguises he used while committing his crimes.  During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. He did not kill a single person during these many robberies. 

He is pardoned Christmas Eve 1969 and he spends Christmas Day with a reporter and a photographer while they revisit the scenes of his crimes and other key events/crossroads of his life. I believe there were 17 marks on the map and they would have to be visited in chronological order.  

This book is very well written and a joy to read. 

Flickr Macro Mondays challenge was "shadows" this week. 

I took quite a few shots of several different things.  I was not able to decide and ran out of energy to actually post an image.

Here's one of the shots.

A glass bowl vase with a ripple edge. 

I am having trouble keeping track of all the stuff that has happened, no wonder I am exhausted.