Five

Whether they are Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne or Five on Friday with Amy here are my favorites I’m sharing this week. Some are illustrated with some photos from our time in San Francisco last week.

A quiet week after time away with time to read and pray. (photo from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco)

2. Some fun adventures finding things to decorate a Chinese New Year table in February. I bought some items in San Francisco but when returning home I realized I needed more things to pull the table together. (above photos from Chinatown San Francisco) While shopping at Goodwill I spotted…

…this! Back in 1973 when I was in England I started my china Hope Chest purchases with a tea set from England. Were you in the Hope Chest era? The pattern is Moss Rose by Royal Albert. After I was married Dear and I completed my set with a dinner service for 12 that we drove into Canada to buy. When I saw this smaller teapot and trivet at my local Goodwill I grabbed it fast. With my senior discount these pretties cost me $10!

3. Happy find while I was out and about was a Persian Bakery and a Persian restaurant in a strip mall close to our home! Just look at that fresh Barbari bread above! I grew up enjoying Persian cuisine. My parents’ families escaped out of Russia into Iran in the early 30’s. My parents spent their teen and early adult years in Persia and learned to enjoy Persian food and to cook it. My father even learned Farsi while he lived there. I’m looking forward to eating at the restaurant soon.

4. One pot meals! Tomorrow on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I’m sharing the one pot meal I made from these ingredients. Earlier in the week I made Susan’s (My Mother’s Apron Strings) Skillet Lasagna and it was delicious.

5. Since Dear has been working from home we are walking together most days of the week. It rained all night and all day yesterday so we skipped but we are determined to get out on most days and do our loop. Our walk starts on a gradual uphill before we hit the steepest part of the walk and we get our hearts pumping. Then we have another flat spell before we head downhill home. This photo is not from our neighborhood but from a lovely walk we had in England on a trip in 2014. I’m always ready to go back to scenery like this!

Here we are heading into the last weekend of January. Nothing major going on which is nice. Maybe I’ll get around to dusting! What’s up in your neck of the woods?

Signs and Fences…

Last Friday on a hop on hop off bus tour of San Francisco while it was raining I managed to get some photos of some fences and some signs.

Jammin on Haight, Head Rush and a more down to earth Haight Street Market! Does Haight Ashbury ring a bell with you?

This fence/gate was spotted in the historic civic center area of San Francisco and this was across the street from the San Francisco City Hall that looks a lot like the U.S. Capitol building.

Here is probably the most photographed bridge in the U.S.A., the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see how rainy it was this day. These fences play a very important roll on this bridge. I’m devoting a whole post with all my photos of the Golden Gate Bridge soon.

It’s time to link up with Lesley for signs, signs and with Tex*Wis*Girl for Good Fences #97!

Dear and I continue to walk about our neighborhood after all our uphill/downhill walks in San Francisco last week. We are trying to set some good habits for our health. I have some fences to share another time from our neighborhood walk.

San Francisco Chinatown

We just returned from a few days in San Francisco. Dear was attending an oncology conference and I tagged along to enjoy some sight seeing. It worked out for me to also spend some time with a couple friends from my college days. My Chinese/Russian friend Alice gave me a tour of Chinatown on Thursday as part of a larger tour of the city she knows well. Then on Saturday morning we had a couple hours before we left the city and Dear and I walked to Chinatown.

The most photographed structure in Chinatown is undoubtedly the large Chinatown Gateway, also known as the Dragon Gate.

The gate was designed in 1970 by Clayton Lee and is based on the ceremonial gates that can be found in Chinese villages. The gate is adorned with sculptures of fish and dragons and is flanked by two large lion statues. The gate has three passageways. The large, central one is meant for dignitaries while the two smaller passageways are meant for the common people.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is not only the oldest but also the most famous and largest Chinatown in the U.S. Thanks to the many ornamented houses, shops and eateries the area is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. The lampposts are all very ornamental and have dragon motifs.

While in Chinatown with my friend Alice we enjoyed Dim Sum at one of the restaurants.

Alice celebrates Chinese New Year so we shopped around the town so she could pick up some things for her celebration. I bought a few souvenirs to create a Chinese table setting and I think we’ll pick up some takeout for Chinese New Year and celebrate, too. It’s the year of the Monkey.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday created by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC Team.

C is for Chinatown!

I’m also linking up to Tuesdays Treasures hosted by Tom The Backroads Traveller

Friends Touring San Francisco

About forty six years ago I met Alice through my Russian Baptist church friends in the Los Angeles area. She lived in San Francisco and would come down and stay with her good family friend, another Alice she was named after. When she visited we had some fun adventures. The photo above is of Kathy (a New York Russian friend) myself and Alice at the Rose Parade in Pasadena. This was New Year’s Day in 1971. My friend Alice’s family came out of China to the United States years ago.

Fast forward to January 2016 and since I was in San Francisco I messaged Alice to see if she had the time to get together. Happily she was more than willing to pick me up at our hotel and take me on a incredible driving/walking tour of the city she knows well. We started by driving the scenic route to Golden Gate Park to see what we could see. We started at the Conservatory of Flowers but were very disappointed to find it was closed for maintenance. We found a great alternative at the botanical gardens in the same park.

Magnolias were the feature of the day. I also captured this great Blue Heron.

We left the park and drove through the Presidio where there were some good views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

China Beach past the late Robin Williams’ home gave us another great view of the bridge. The stone reads Since Gold Rush times this cove was used as a campsite by many of the Chinese fishermen who worked in and around San Francisco Bay. Their efforts to supply the needs of a young city helped establish one of the areas most important industries and traditions.

At this point we headed to China Town to have lunch and walk about and shop. It’s good to know what garage to park in because parking is difficult in China Town. Alice chose a restaurant nearby and suggested the Dim Sum sampler. “Dim Sum” refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food, traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. It reminded me of High Tea. We had fun shopping about the streets of China Town with all the special wares offered for Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey) that is coming up in early February. Many of the celebrations start the last weekend of January. I bought some fun items in hopes of setting a Chinese New Year table. This year Chinese New Year will be competing with the Super Bowl and all the preparations for that. I will share more from China Town tomorrow.

Our last stop of the day was at Twin Peaks high above the city of San Francisco. You can see that the city is going all out for Super Bowl 50!

The views from Twin Peaks were incredible. From here we drove through lots of traffic and made it back to the hotel in time for Dear and me to walk a couple blocks to dinner.

My visit with my old friend Alice was so good. We had so much time to catch up as we drove around the city. So much life happens in 46 years! Thank you my friend for spending the day with me and showing me your beloved city!

I’m linking to Sunlit Sunday at My Little Home and Garden and Amaze Me Monday with Cindy at Dwellings (The Heart of Your Home).

Rescue the Perishing ~ Hymn

I can remember driving to church on Sunday mornings with the radio tuned to a station that played a service at the Rescue Mission. This was the theme song that I remember so well being sung each week.

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

Sometime after [this] hymn became known I was at a service one evening and a young man told the story of his conversion. Poor and hungry, he had walked the streets for want of something better to do. He heard the singing at a mission; he went in; and before the service was concluded his heart broke in contrition.

“I was just ready to perish,” he said to me, “but that hymn, by the grace of God saved me.”

Rescue The Perishing

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Refrain

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.

Refrain

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

Refrain

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.

Refrain

San Francisco Day One…

We arrived to San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon and hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel in the theater district. Anytime there is a conference going on hotel prices seem to get jacked up. Since we had to find our own digs for this conference we found a better cost option with a boutique hotel. The rooms are smaller and no room service but at half the price we are good with that.

We got checked in and headed out on foot to the Moscone Convention Center to pick up Dear’s badge for the conference. After Dear was all checked in we came back to the hotel to drop off his materials and started our uphill walk to the Mark Hopkins Hotel. We wanted to experience the view from the “Top of the Mark”.

You know the streets are steep when they put in stairs! We were huffing and puffing by the time we hit California Street.

The Top of the Mark affords beautiful panoramic views of San Francisco. The prices are a bit steep but we planned for it enjoying small bites, a drink and beautiful views!

The sun set and we got some evening views, too.

I will share the photos we took of Grace Cathedral later that happens to be on California street, too. We walked through it on our way back to the hotel. Downhill all the way, woohoo!

It was a wonderful beginning for our time in San Francisco. We had some dessert when we made it back down the hill in the restaurant connected to our hotel.

I’m posting this now because today has been a rainy day in San Francisco and I’m spending the evening in my hotel room while Dear has a business dinner. I was quite the Seattlelite today venturing out on a hop on hop off tour of the city in the rain…on the top deck of the bus!! I’ll share the raindrop photos later!

I’ll share the rest of our San Francisco experience next week. Tomorrow we are being picked up by my first year college roommate and her husband for a few hours to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives the last 35 years or so before they drop us off at the airport for our trip back home.

Postcard from San Francisco Day 2…

Today was a full day of sight seeing with an old friend from my college days who grew up in San Francisco. She happens to be Russian/Chinese and knows the city well. We had several stops and enjoyed lunch and shopping in China Town where everyone is getting ready for the Chinese New Year. I don’t think I need to tell anyone what bridge they are looking at in my photo…

Postcard from San Francisco…

Hello from San Francisco. This photo was taken from Top of the Mark at the Mark Hopkins San Francisco. I’ll share more detail from our time here when we get back home. Uploading photos takes soooo long at the hotel!

We put in lots of steps today to walk up to Nob Hill from our hotel. The weather was good today for us. Dear will be busy at a conference the next couple of days and I’ll be checking out the city with a friend and on my own. Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Tuesday’s Treasures

These treasures are from the late seventies and early eighties. Christmas Craft shows became real popular in these years and after our Josh was born I saw this sweet pillow covering that a crafter made. I ordered one for Joshua. When Daniel was born 2 years later I wanted one for him, too. Thankfully the same crafter was at a sale I went to. Sadly when Katie was born I didn’t find anything like these to have made for her. She got plenty of her own treasures and she knows Jesus Loves her, too, so I’m good with the fact that she doesn’t have one of these pillows! If you don’t have a pillow like this rest assured that Jesus loves you, too!!

I pulled these two pillows out at Christmas to add them to the beds set for each of our boys and their wives for their overnight stays. I’m sharing these this week since both our boys celebrated birthdays the last 3 days! They are both in the second half of thirty this year!

I’m linking up with Tom The Backroads Traveler for his Tuesday’s Treasures.

B is for Birthday Blessings!

Two of our sons and our new daughter-in-law have birthdays in January (15, 16, 19) along with a nephew, brother and niece (16, 22, 25). On Friday night last we had an early birthday dinner celebration for our oldest, Josh.

Since we were having a couple Russian dishes for the main meal the table was set in a Russian theme.

We had Loppsha (Russian Noodle Soup) for our starter.

Our main dish was Golubstzi (phonetic spelling of the Russian pronunciation) for cabbage rolls. This photo is from another time we had this dish. I forgot to take a new photo on Friday night.

Our son and daughter in law were celebrated in Northeastern Washington, too. We couldn’t be there but they sent us this photo from their celebration with their Birthday Cookie!

For our boys, our dil and the rest of our family who have birthdays in January we pray this special blessing from the Lord…

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and administrated by Roger and a team of volunteers. Thank you!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Author Archives: Ellen

Five

Signs and Fences…

San Francisco Chinatown

Friends Touring San Francisco

Rescue the Perishing ~ Hymn

San Francisco Day One…

Postcard from San Francisco Day 2…

Postcard from San Francisco…

Tuesday’s Treasures

B is for Birthday Blessings!