Good Fences…

These are some of the fences on our walking loop. Dear and I are still heading out most days for a forty minute heart pumping walk in our neighborhood. Dear is working from home these days so I’m happy to have a walking partner. It’s a good computer/reading/housework break for him and for me. We try to get out before or after the rain and sometimes walk in light rain, too.

I’m linking up with Tex*Wis*Girl for Good Fences #98.

On Wednesday I traveled to a large Asian store in Bellevue, Washington, to see if I could find some more items for our Chinese New Year Super Bowl party. I hit the jackpot and found several great additions for our party like almond cookies, fortune cookies, Tsingtao, and lucky coins. There is a Goodwill next store to the Asian Market. I was so disappointed about how overpriced several items were at Goodwill. Sheesh…a used dinner plate for $7.99…really??? I had to search long and hard to find items that were reasonably priced. Goodwill needs a wake up call. Thanks for letting me whine!

More Signs from San Francisco…

This time around we didn’t get a chance to have a pint at Johnny Foley’s Irish Pub and Restaurant.

I have a full post on Old St. Mary’s Church in Chinatown here.

I’m linking up with Lesley for signs, signs with these signs from my time in San Francisco.

I am now all signed up for my Medicare and have sighed in relief to have that behind me. Now I’m getting ready to talk to my hairstylist about going grey and how she can help me transition. I figure I can always go back to color if grey is too drastic for my mirror to face. TMI? On a brighter note I’ve got some great things put together for our Chinese New Year Super Bowl Party! Here’s a blurry but bright tease…

Dewey Monument ~ San Francisco

Most everyone that visits San Francisco sees this piece of public art. Two years before the Gold Rush, in 1847, Jasper O’Farrell, the first surveyor of San Francisco, created a design for the city, with Union Square as a public plaza. By the 1880s, it was a fashionable residential district, and in 1903, this towering monument was added. A monument to Admiral George Dewey’s victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War. It also commemorates U.S. President William McKinley, who had been recently assassinated. The figurine at the top of the monument, “Winged Victory”, was modeled, reportedly, from the likeness of a local heiress, Alma de Bretteville Spreckels.

Designed by sculptor Robert I. Aitken and architect Newton J. Tharp, the Dewey Monument consisted of a 79-foot-tall granite shaft, surmounted by an 18-foot-high pedestal adorned with the bronzed figure “Winged Victory.” In one hand she bears a trident, the symbol of Poseidon and of naval victory, and in the other hand, a laurel wreath, also a symbol of victory.

I’ll be linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom The Backroads Traveller and…

…to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and ABC team for D is for Dewey!

So today I’m headed for a meeting to talk and decide about all my Medicare choices. Ugh. It’s kind of shocking that I’ve gotten to this stage of life. You’d think after all these years and all my experience I’d be able to wade through it all on my own. Then again why not let someone who works in the field benefit from my indecision and steer me in the right direction? It’s not a life and death decision but I do pray I make a good choice! Hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Catching Up…

Way back in the summer of 1968 I packed up many of my belongings in my new red suitcases and boxes to travel 60 miles east of my home to the University of Redlands in Southern California. My oldest sister Kathy drove me to my new home away from home for the school year. My dorm was Bekins Hall and it was an all girls dorm. Times have changed. The collage above shows my dorm, my sister lugging in my stuff and my roommate Violet and our suite mate Louise (Jana). We had a second floor suite with a bathroom/shower in between the rooms. Louise and Tracy were juniors in one room and Violet and me freshmen in the other room. My memories with this suite arrangement are all good.

My roommate Violet who we called Violeta and me on the quad. I forget who’s great old classic car this is. I just found out that this car belonged to Louise/Jana who is in the pink dress in the collage. She called it her purple and white tank! Spanish was Violeta’s major for her teaching degree and she also experienced college abroad in Spain fully immersed in the language. In her early years of teaching she taught in a Spanish Immersion school. I think I’m remembering these facts correctly. Tom and Violet were married right out of college a couple years before Dear and me.

Spring forward 47 years and our little reunion in San Francisco/San Mateo/Redwood City. When I knew we would be in San Francisco I messaged my college roommate to see if there was a chance we could get together. Violet and her husband picked us up from our hotel and drove us south to the neighborhoods where they work and live. We enjoyed a meal at Milagros Cantina in Redwood City. Have you ever had fried ice cream? We split it four ways after our main dish. After enjoying catching up at their home they graciously drove us to the airport in time for our flight home. Thanks again Tom and Violet for a lovely day!

Here it is the first day of February! We enjoyed a quiet weekend here at this old house. We ate all our meals in house (shocking), a Saturday marathon of Downton Abbey viewing (I bought season 6 at Costco on Friday). Yikes tell me how you reacted to espisode5!!?? On Sunday we had a great church service with Communion in the morning, a dry walk on our heart pumping loop, and did a little more pruning on the apple tree. I think I’m halfway done now. My neck can only take so much at a time. Maybe I’ll have Dear take a photo of me in process. Have a wonderful first week of February!

Sunlit Sunday…

San Francisco afforded me so many photos to share I’m joining Sunlit Sunday at My Little Home and Garden today.

Looking up at Saints Peter and Paul church in San Francisco.

This was my second time to see this beautiful church. This time around I hopped off the bus for lunch in North Beach/Little Italy. My bus tour this day was rainy from beginning to end. So I didn’t take as many photos as my visit in 2008.

This Romanesque splendor is often called the Italian Cathedral. Completed in 1924, the church has stone-white towers that are local landmarks. Mass reflects the neighborhood; it’s given in English, Italian, and Chinese. (This is one of the few churches in town where you can hear Mass in Italian.) Following their 1954 City Hall wedding, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio had their wedding photos snapped here. On the first Sunday of October, a Mass followed by a parade to Fisherman’s Wharf celebrates the Blessing of the (Fishing) Fleet. Also in October is the Italian Heritage Parade in North Beach. The country’s oldest Italian celebration, it began in 1869.

The first time I saw Saints Peter and Paul was in December of 2008. Click here to see my full post from my first thorough visit.

Day by Day ~ Hymn

Day by Day ~

Day by day and with each passing moment
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best –
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure.
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Ev’ry day the Lord Himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,
He whose name is Counsellor and Pow’r.
The protection of His child and treasure,
Is a charge that on Himself He laid,
“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then, in ev’ry tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation,
Offered me within Thy holy word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E’er to take, as from a Father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.

Words: Karolina W. Sandell-berg (1832 – 1903)

I’ve posted this hymn before but the words came to my mind this week and I wanted to post it again. Over the years this song has been a special one for me. It’s also a song that’s easy to sing and harmonize with. When I had to sing a solo to try out for a singing group I chose this one and I also sang it for a solo test for a college voice class that I took.

Old St. Mary’s Cathedral

Old St. Mary’s in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The first building erected as a cathedral in California, Old St. Mary’s served the archdiocese of San Francisco in that capacity from 1854 to 1891. Once the city’s most prominent building, much of its stone work was quarried and cut in China and its brick brought “around the Horn” in sailing ships

Old St. Mary’s Church was established by Father Henry Ignatius Stark as a mission. The purpose was to teach the Chinese community about the Catholic faith. It was built by Chinese laborers in 1854 with brick brought around Cape Horn and granite cut in China. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in 1909.

When I was in Chinatown with my friend Alice we got to the church after it was closed for the day. On Saturday before we left San Francisco Dear and I walked to Chinatown and we went into the church. Because of a funeral that was about to begin I didn’t feel comfortable taking too many photos of the inside.

They’ve built a new St. Mary’s that is not in Chinatown and my friend says that the people of Chinatown aren’t thrilled about traveling to go to the new church.

Linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

Hope you all are enjoying the last weekend of January. We are here at this old house. The sun is shining through the clouds for a change and we can see some blue sky. We’ve had a very rainy week so it’s nice to see some blue mixed in with the grey clouds.

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

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage