Tag Archives: San Francisco

Sunlit ~ InSPIREd Sunday!

Later today I’ll link up with Sunlit Sunday hosted by Karen at My Little Home and Garden and InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Beth and Sally. Here are more churches from San Francisco and some other sunlit inspirations.

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St. Agnes Catholic Church in the Haight Asbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

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Another church I saw on the upper deck bus tour I took. Wish I knew what church is is.

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The First Congregational Church in Downtown San Francisco that is now the Academy of Art.

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A recent sunrise out my stairwell window beyond my neighbors huge maple tree.

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A timely sunlit photo for this particular Sunday. This sculpture in Kirkland Washington always is decorated according to what’s happening in our world or for holidays.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

What’s New in 2016…

We finally were able to admit to ourselves that we weren’t thrilled with Keurig coffee. We have returned to using a Bunn Coffee Maker now and are enjoying a full bodied cup in the morning. Keurig is convenient but no matter what pods we bought we didn’t get the depth of flavor that we enjoy from our freshly ground coffee.

Dear was unemployed from May 29th of last year and has just signed a contract with a Biotech company that has a product in trials. He is working from home for 6 months for this company as an independent contractor. Being an independent contractor means that Dear does not have any benefits at this time. Here he is in his new at home office.

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I was fine with giving up my desk since I didn’t make money from this desk but just spent money paying our monthly bills! Dear is doing a lot of reading and studying about the cancers that his new company is working on fighting. It takes a long time and a lot of research for a new drug/procedure to be developed and brought into the market, not to mention a lot of money. Dear will be attending an Oncology Conference in San Francisco next week and I’m tagging along. I’m hoping the weather will be decent enough for me to walk about the city staying mostly dry.

Any recommendations for restaurants or sights you wouldn’t want me to miss?

Having Dear working at home I have to re-think how my days go and how I’m going to work around him.

One thing we are trying to establish as a good habit is walking each day. Having someone to walk with and nagging encouraging him to do it is a win win situation.

Since I turn 65 soon I have been inundated with all the choices of Medicare supplement plans. Instead of Christmas catalogs I’m getting Medicare mail! I have to choose a Medicare plan soon and we have to come up with a health insurance plan for Dear since he’s younger than me and we lost our insurance when his company was bought out last year and his department was eliminated.

Something that’s not new and seems to be a recurring situation is the fact that I am back in the fluffy state and am getting motivated to de-fluff again.

What’s new in 2016 for you?

I’m headed for the kitchen now to put a cake in the oven for our birthday celebration tonight. Got the table set in a Russian theme and I’ll share that with you next week…

 

InSPIREd Sunday

I’m re-posting these photos from my visit to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in December of 2008. I’m anticipating another visit to San Francisco at the end of January for a cancer symposium. Dear is the one who will be at the cancer symposium and I will be a tourist in San Francisco again.

 

Grace Cathedral is descended from the historic Grace Church, built in the Gold Rush year of 1849, and the imposing structure on the corner of California and Stockton streets that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. San Francisco’s Crocker family gave their Nob Hill porperty, destroyed by the fire, for the building of a new cathedral.

 

Work began on this structure in 1928. Designed in the French Gothic style by Lewis Hobart, it was completed in 1964.

 

 

Famed for its Ghiberti doors, labyrinths, stained glass, the cathedral has become an internationally-known place of pilgrimage.

 

The Doors of Paradise are considered by many to be the first and greatest masterpiece of Italian Renaissance. The magnum opus of Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), the doors were made for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral (the Duomo) and told the story of the Old and New Testaments. Grace Cathedral’s doors were made from the same molds – which were later destroyed – used for the originals.

 

 

 

I was also impressed with several of the other doors into the cathedral and wanted to show you them, too.

 

 

 

One of my special treats the day I visited the Cathedral was a small orchestra practicing for a Christmas concert. It was just so beautiful to walk around the inside of the cathedral being serenaded with beautiful music that inspired me to praise God for all the wonder available to us…

 

So much wonder this time of year. I’m taking time to adore my savior.

Friday night we are going to have a small Raclette party at our house. Maybe I’ll take photos to share later. A dear friend of ours was the Realtor we used to buy this old house. She has not been back since 1998 to see the improvements we’ve made. I don’t know how that happened but finally she and her hubby are coming for dinner and we’ll give her a tour of the improved version of this old house. Since we will be busy with preparations for our time together I’m posting this early because I won’t be on the computer until who knows when. Hope you all are enjoying the wonders of the Christmas season!

I’ll be linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday! I’ll probably be missing in action next week.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

California Signs

Dear and I lived in California from 2006 until 2010. These are some signs from our day and weekend trips while living there.

This was our go to Mexican restaurant in Camarillo, California.

Between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez we stopped at the Cold Spring Tavern for breakfast. I got a kick out this sign.

I saw this sign in San Francisco.

This sign was from Willow and my weekly walks in her neighborhood.

Most Saturday mornings we’d arrive at this beach and have our beach walk. We miss our walks here.

I’m linking up to Signs Signs hosted by Lesley.

All of our children were born in California and this week we will be celebrating our oldest with a dinner together on Saturday. Our second born son will be celebrating this week with his fiance who has a birthday this week, too, in Eastern Washington. Our January is full. I’ll be traveling next week to California to celebrate our niece Hope’s 7th birthday and one of my brother’s birthdays. I’ll share photos from all the fun times we manage to enjoy! Is January full or quiet for you?

Saints Peter and Paul Church ~San Francisco

For InSPIREd Sunday I decided to go to my archives to share some beautiful churches I’ve visited. When traveling I always keep an eye out for these grand old places of worship filled with history. Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church originally served the immigrant Italian population that settled in San Francisco.

You can read some of the history of this church by clicking here. A ribbon of verse spans the facade from Dante’s “Paridiso” and translates,

“The Glory of Him who moves all things penetrates and glows throughout the universe.”

I copied the following information from Fodor’s,

“Camera-toting visitors focus their lenses on the Romanesque splendor of what’s often called the Italian Cathedral. Completed in 1924, the church has Disneyesque 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.”

I certainly was one of those camera-toting visitors.

This stained glass window is a depiction of the wedding where Jesus performed his first miracle, changing water into wine.

Be sure to visit more churches from around the world by clicking here to the InSPIREd Sunday link up hosted by Beth and Sally.

We’ve had a busy weekend filled with gatherings and projects. Hope your Sunday finishes well.

WFW ~ 1 Timothy 1:15-17

 

Blessings in the  New Year to all!

Visit Amy to see more Word Filled Wednesday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

We Gather Together ~ Hymn

We Gather Together

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to His name: He forgets not his own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side, All glory be thine!

We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant,
And pray that thou still our defender wilt be.
Let thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Round Robin Challenge ~ By the Numbers…

This challenge is brought to us by the suggestion of Jill at South Bay Soliloquey, she wrote…

“How about something called “By the Numbers” as a topic? Anything showing numbers: signs, a child holding up fingers to show how old he is, a number on a shirt, house numbers, whatever…”
-Jill

So here are a couple photos from my archives from a trip to San Francisco and a photo I took this week right here in Camarillo.

 

 

This middle shot is from Camarillo, California.

 

So what say you Robins…Shall we all meet for a Pint after all this hard work running around town looking for numbers?!!

The Photo Challenge Blog can be found here!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Belonging to God ~ Spurgeon

 

 

“Go forth today, by the help of God’s Spirit, vowing and declaring that in life—-come poverty, come wealth, in death—come pain or come what may, you are and ever must be the Lord’s.  For this is written on your heart, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.”

~ Charles Spurgeon

O Father, We Would Thank Thee

O Father, we would thank Thee
For all Thy love has given,
Our present joy of sonship,
Our future joy in Heaven;
The life which sin had blighted
So wondrously restored
By our mysterious union
With Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Rich gifts of life and gladness—
A new and heav’nly birth,
Baptismal waters flowing
To cleanse the sons of earth;
The strength in which to follow
The steps that Jesus trod;
And love beyond all knowledge
Which calls us sons of God.

O mercy all abundant
Bestowed on us today!
O hope of future glory
Which fadeth not away!
By God’s great love begotten
To living hope and sure,
May we at Christ’s appearing
Be pure as He is pure.

For all Thy gifts, O Father,
Our hymns of praise arise—
The love which calls us children,
The hope which purifies;
The grace by which we offer
A service glad and free;
The earnest of perfection,
Of fuller life with Thee.

Words: Ada R. Green­a­way, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1904.

ht: cyberhymnal

Ruby Tuesday ~ The Sign Edition!

Mary at Work of the Poet challenged us to come up with a Ruby post using signs this week. Here is what I came up with.

 

There’s a little ruby mixed with the Orange in this fun sign I saw outside an Irish Pub in the North Beach Area of San Francisco in early December.

We spotted this sign in downtown Seattle on New Year’s Day. What you have to realize about Seattle and Snow is that there are many, many very steep hills/roads in the Seattle area. These become quite treacherous with snow and ice on them. Snow is not fun to drive around in here.

Visit Mary at Work of the Poet to see more Ruby Signs.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.