Beauty After the Chaos

 I am so glad the long holiday weekend for National/Liberation Days is over.

Unfortunately, the celebratory debris remains.

It is flowers that should be dotting the landscape -- not shredded balloons and trash.

Plalking (picking up litter while walking)

With everyone back in school and at work, I took an extra long walk to make up for 2 days of sitting at home.

It has been awhile since I wandered the neighborhood -- mostly I've been sticking closer to home.

There are certain homes where I know I can count on seeing beautiful flowers at this time of year.

The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it.

(Michael Josephson)

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Another Kind of Trip

 A trip around the sun.

Yep, today's my birthday.

Before turning 50, I felt like I was reaching a very big milestone, but now at 57, I know I'm still relatively young :) even if my body doesn't always agree.

Today is also Kuwait's Liberation Day and after what happened yesterday, I am hiding out at home.

Construction of The Kuwait Telecommunications Tower was started before the Iraqi invasion occurred  on August 2, 1990. It was only halfway done at the time but received no damage during the 6 month  invasion and so was completed after liberation in 1991; thus, the name was changed to the Liberation Tower.  Apparently it's the 2nd tallest building in Kuwait and one of the 50 tallest in the world.  But, honestly, I don't much care about tall buildings.

I'd rather see tall trees.

So let's throw it back to this day last year, in Colombo -- where our friends always spoil me on my birthday.

Seven birthdays have been spent in Sri Lanka and I hope there will be more to come.

This year, I'm hiding from the hooligans.

Sunday blessings.

There's a Reason Why

 Today is Kuwait's National Day.

We usually try to travel during this time but weren't able to this year because my husband is moving to a new office and needs to vacate his current premises before the end of the month.

I walked this morning.  Fed kitties at the park and picked up garbage at the walking path closest to where we live.

Had a very nice conversation with a young guy who is around the same age as my boys (mid-20's) -- we met a couple of years ago when he thanked me for picking up garbage and now we chat whenever we are out there at the same time. 

Unfortunately, this past week, there's been a lot of littering of the land with balloons and syringes because the kids seem to think that water balloon fights are a way to celebrate their country.  They also use water guns to spray passing cars and people.

I really hate it.

And when my husband suggested we take an afternoon walk, I knew it was a bad idea but went anyways.

Some jerk (much stronger words were used when it happened) lobbed a full bottle of water at me from a big black truck hitting me from behind in the left shoulder.  My husband had already crossed the street and had no clue what was going on.  Obviously, it was quite a shock -- good thing it didn't hit my head. 

 We did a circle around walking path number two in our neighborhood and then I went back to find the bottle of water that had been thrown at me.  Watered a couple of small bushes with it and then as we hightailed it home, I threw the empty bottle in the trash.

Last year on this day, we were in Colombo, Sri Lanka and I had such a lovely day out with my friend and her daughter.

So, yeh -- that's the reason why we usually try to get away.  It's chaotic and crazy and the hooligans are in rare form during these so-called celebrations (tomorrow is also their Liberation Day, so you can bet I'll be hiding out at home).

Take care.

Granny Square Love

 Even though I have been told I should expand my crochet horizons, I will never tire of making granny squares and am happy when I find new ways of using them.

In October, we were visiting the family of my husband's friend to congratulate their daughters on their recent college graduations.  He bought pens, I bought journals.  And then crocheted gift bags for them out of thick cotton yarn.

I always save paper or tissue that comes in boxes so always have some on hand for gift wrapping.

The girls were very happy and surprised to receive something handmade.

Have also been making small granny bags for future gift giving -- some of which have already been given away.

It's been exactly a month since my last post.  So easy to miss a day, and then several days and then procrastination sets in and weeks go by.  Since iCloud keeps telling me I need to upgrade storage on my phone, it's time to start transferring photos and deleting all the ones I no longer need.

More random posts to come. :)

Happy Friday!