My so-called vacation

As usual, a vacation to Vancouver is only partly a vacation. This time, it was marred by sadness. My uncle (my mother's sister's husband) died while we were there visiting my father and sister. My uncle had been in declining health anyway, but he was diagnosed with pneumonia and pulmonary fibrosis, and likely died from complications of those two things.

We were able to visit him the evening we arrived, so we got to say good-bye to him one last time. The funeral service/burial was a lovely service: a family-only affair where we sat with our own thoughts and offered comfort to my aunt, my cousins, and my cousin J's in-laws. It was the complete opposite of the stressful and crazy circus that was my mother's funeral. We didn't have beer and barbecue like my cousin S promised, but we had a nice dim sum afterward - still just family - and it was, all in all, the best funeral I've attended.

The weather cooperated, as you can see from the photo of the burial. Apparently, they had a wet and cold spring in that region of the world, but 2 days after we arrived, the weather turned, becoming sunny and warm. Nice warm, about mid 70s F, instead of horrid warm, about 100+ F like it was back home. We did do some hikes and took a few pictures of butterflies (Lorquin's Admiral)

birds (a nice profile shot of one Cedar Waxwing and a nice butt shot of the other)

four-legged mammals (mule deer)

and two-legged mammals (wow, there was still snow on Mount Seymour).

Then, of course, there's the food. I tell people we visit Vancouver because of my family, but, truthfully, we go there for the food. Yes, that would include durian (entirely hubby's fault this time)

 and chicken feet, which I can't get enough of and order every single time we go to dim sum.

As usual, we went to Steveston for the guys to rent bikes and ride along the water. Steveston is the cutest town that's pretty much an extension of Richmond, but has a much slower pace. The guys found the recreated village of the fishing community that used to thrive there, complete with a chicken house that still has two hens and one rooster, as an example of how the villagers used to live. What was most interesting to me was the bunkhouse that was temporary home to the Chinese labor that they used to bus in from the neighboring areas such as Vancouver:

But most importantly, we spent a lot of time with my dad. When mom was still alive, we didn't spend half as much time with him. He is really a dear man, but boy does he drive us nuts. Mom was sharp as a professional chef's knife, but dad...well, he's smart at certain things, but he doesn't have that all-round intelligence that mom had. We used to rely on mom's help to talk to him (she translated things we didn't know how to say and got him to tell a story straight), but now we have to talk directly with him. Somehow, we're still smiling...hah! Here we are, not throttling dad. ;) My sister, Monica, proprietress of the cool soap shop, Soap Sudsations, is on the left in the photo.

Guess I've bored you enough with tales of my vacation. Have you taken vacation (or "holiday" if you're part of the Commonwealth) this summer yet? Where did you go and did you have fun or need a vacation after your vacation just to recuperate?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

M is for...

Mondays. No need to say more for most of you, I'm sure.

And morels.

Hubby and the kids found these on our property this past week, and then we picked about an equal amount on Saturday. We have had one morel on our property in the 13 years we've lived here and then boom! we get a bumper crop all of a sudden. Weird.

It's not bad, but I'd say that chanterelle and shitake are still my favorite mushrooms.

M is also for Mo, our rooster.

The kids named him after Mo Rocco, my favorite "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" panelist, because they thought he sounded rather nasal, just like Mr. Rocca's signature voice. So far, he's a good rooster; I'm crossing my fingers that he won't go psycho like our last rooster did. Or he'll be going into a soup pot.

M is also for my sister, and my best friend, Monica, my dear friend Michelle! And my mom, whom I miss a lot still. **Edited to add my wonderful friend Meg, without whom I'd never have the confidence to homeschool through high school.

So many great things start with M. Who knew?!

What's M to you today?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Guess who'll be getting squeaky-clean?

The lucky winner of the soapy giveaway, of course!  Or not, because the winner might want to frame these or put them in the dresser to make clothes smell nice. ;)

I was going to post this first thing in the day, but we had a little excitement of the hypochondriac kind at the pediatrician's office.

Sooo, here's the break down. First, I print out all the names of the people who entered - however many times per the entry rules.

Then I cut them all up and fold them in half (the funny print on the back is because I reuse paper).

To do the drawing, I use the bag that our bedsheets came in, because, really, who can toss out a turquoise, organic cotton bag? It doesn't look turquoise in bright sunlight though...

I shake up the contents and enlist my younger son's help in drawing a name. See? The bag is turquoise. ;) And, yes, that is my finger getting in the camera's way at the lower right. I also cut people's heads off when I take photos. Annie Lebowitz I ain't.

And the winner is.....

Guess I should have changed my heading to "Guess who'll be getting squid-y clean?" Heh heh.

Squid, this is your lucky day! By the way, Squid's blog My Kids Eat Squid is a really fun one to visit. :)

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest! Wish we had soaps to give to all of you. Be sure to check out Soap Sudsations' site - she has a soap for every occasion and you might just find one that you absolutely need to have!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Valentine Giveaway!

I wanted to spread the word about my dear sister's fabulous new soap-making biz - Soap Sudsations - plus show my readers how much I love them, so I'm combining the two into a Valentine Giveaway! :) 

Here are the hand-made, emollient glycerin soaps that the winner will get - a gorgeous frond soap:

One of these adorable Peace soaps - who couldn't use some peace, love, and clean underarms?

 And a sweet little leaf soap:

These soaps are not only works of art, but they lather beautifully and have great scents. To see more of Monica's super cute soaps, check out her website at SoapSudsations! (Pssst, her husband makes amazing boxes for the gift sets that are a lovely keepsake after you've used up the soaps...so I recommend buying the gift sets.)

To quality for this giveaway, just leave a comment.

For extra entries, do any or all of the following:

~follow @SoapSudsations on Twitter, and let me know your Twitter handle in your comment here if I don't know you already

~re-tweet this giveaway to your followers on Twitter; again, let me know your Twitter handle in your comment here if I don't know you already

~blog about this giveaway – this will net 2 extra entries - give me the link to the post in your comment here

~LIKE the Soap Sudsations on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Soap-Sudsations/255967871101924 - and comment on her Wall that you’re entering this giveaway

I’ll put all the entries into a random drawing on Monday, February 6^th. If I have a way to contact the winner – through Twitter handle, or on SoapSudsation's Facebook page, or if you left a contact in your comments - I will get in touch with you. If I have no means of contacting the winner, you will have one week (Feb. 13th) to get in touch with me to let me know your mailing info.

*Giveaway is open to those living in the U.S. and Canada

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Announcements

Announcement #1

My sister did it! She has started her own biz making super adorable soaps! Check out her creations at Soap Sudsations. Here are a couple of her soaps that I'm in love with:

(Just in time for Halloween too!)

Announcement #2

At another blog that I frequent, the author said that she was turning off comment capability due to too much spam. I've actually been pretty lucky and have not had spam (though occasionally I'll crave Spam), but her decision got me to thinking that I should turn off my comments too.  One, I'm a compulsive answerer and turning off comments will save me from having to answer every comment; and, two, people are busy enough and can barely find time to read this blog, let alone comment, so I'll save them from feeling guilty for not commenting because I am that kind of a generous, thoughtful person...heh.

Of course, you can still contact me via Facebook or Twitter (if you know me at those places) or at birders4-blogger (at) yahoo (dot) com - taking out spaces and putting in the appropriate at and dot symbols. Or not. Totally understand if you don't wanna talk to me!

On to other topics...I realized that I hadn't written an update on my progress for my New Year's resolutions. Honestly, it's not that I've been slacking off. In the past couple of months, I've knitted a face cloth (easy, I know, but it still took time), and a pair of socks with the beautiful yarn that dear Tanya O. bought for me (little Sage chose the color):



Currently, I'm starting to work on knitting a rug with the wool that Robin gave away at Rurification.  I'm sort of winging it, but hope that it'll mostly turn out all right.  :}  As well, I'm taking some online classes from Craftsy - sock knitting (to learn a different technique), jewelry making (to hone my skills), and basic crochet (to have a refresher course that's available 24/7...I'm hoping to take another class with Robin, but I can't have her 24/7.  ;>  )

I have fallen behind on my sewing projects, I'll admit. But my plan is to sew some bags for my sister's soaps. I love easy projects with satisfying results.

Also pretty easy, but takes forever, is canning tomatoes. We did our first batch of 13.5 quarts:

Then, too, I've starting making fresh pasta! Next up, I'll post a little tutorial on how I did it.

How about you? Have you kept up with your New Year's resolutions?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams