Scenes from today

My husband had a day off today as he has been working on some weekends lately. The weather was nice so we decided to drive to the beach again to enjoy the sun. We have been very lucky for the last few weeks that this great stretch of weather is still staying with us.

The water was so calm and the place was empty. We had the whole beach to ourselves to explore. A blue heron was in the water trying to catch his afternoon snack. We were all sitting on a log, watching the endless view of the mountains and the water. It was pretty nice.

On our way home, we stopped at the market to pick up some vegetables for dinner. At the entrance, there was something that made me smile. The Laughing Buddha and the bright orange Chinese/Japanese Lantern. They were just so perfect together!

Smart Meter

When I came home yesterday afternoon, I noticed something was hanging at the front door knob. It was a notice from BC Hydro saying "Save Money using a Smart Meter!" Yes, they installed the Smart Meter while I was out, without our permission!

As you may know, there are many groups of people protesting the instillation of the Smart Meters. Their main concern is the wireless radiation from the meter will increase our risks of illness. Secondly it will submit our use of the electricity and personal info to BC Hydro using wireless signals = raises privacy and security concerns....

zzz....zzz...

So, what to do?

There are high levels of radiation exist already wherever we go, even in the house, Wi-Fi, cordless phones, cell phones, etc.. So now we have additional radiation now.

I guess at this point, we just need to protect ourselves. I.E., don't sleep in the room where the Smart Meter was installed, use a ear-phone when we talk on the cell phone, hold the cell phone away from your head/ear, etc... I heard some cactus plants can help absorbing radiation from the computer... ?

I bet some Japanese inventors will have some great ideas. I will research and share it next time.

The other day I met a bear

It was a beautiful day ☀　Snoop and I decided to go for a long walk in the woods. We usually walk 1.5 to 2 hours, so we were both ready for this long one.

As soon as we got to the trail head, I noticed a white piece of paper on the information board. "Bear Sighting. Keep your dog on a leash". People left the date & time when they saw the bear. The last one was... about one hour ago.

...hhhhmmmm....

Snoop looked up and asked, "Hey Mom, what are you doing?". The trail seems so nice with the beautiful green leaves, nice breeze and sun shining through the trees... How can I say no to this?

OK, I will go for a bit. Without carrying a bear bell, I started singing a song loud. The first one that came out was..."The other day I met a bear" in Japanese! .... That's probably not an appropriate one...

BTW, do you know this song "The other day I met a bear"? Any Japanese person knows this as we learn it when we are kids. I remember it was originally in English, so I was curious to check it out. I was so shocked to find the facts... If you don't know the song, here is the song by Barenaked Ladies. (You can skip the advertisement)

It's shockingly different in Japanese... there is no Gun! It's a song for kids, so we don't say Gun. Guns are not popular in Japan. Anyway, in the Japanese version, a girl meets a bear in the woods, he tells the girl to run away (doesn't say why in the lyrics), but the bear keeps running after her because he picked up a pair of white sea-shell earrings that the girl dropped, and they sing and dance together in a happy ending... I was laughing hard when I found out the English lyrics!

Anyway, to go back to my story today, I didn't meet the bear, but when I found a very fresh bear poop with lots of berries, I decided to turn around and go back ... I don't carry a gun!

He might be dreaming about the bear.... zzz....zzz...

SPCA Paws for a Cause

Sunday was a big day for the SPCA throughout BC. It was their biggest fund-raising event of the year were people and dogs walk around their city/town. I was volunteering from the morning to help the set up and registration for the walk. Unfortunately the summer-like weather really ended the day before, and Sunday was a cool & breezy day, but we said it's good weather for our furry friends. There were some generous donations to help the animals, from families, co-workers, friends and singles who just love their dogs. Addition to the walk, there was a "Dog food eating contest", "Owner and Dog look a like contest" and a lot more activities. We all enjoyed the day and raised some money. Happy Animal Day :)

Pic from the Vancouver event SPCA 2011

Last Summer Day (?)

We learned today is our last day of summer... :-(This last stretch of Summer lasted about a week but it is supposed to end today and temperatures will drop to about 20. We decided to go back to the beach to enjoy the last sunny warm day.

Snoop of course came along and enjoyed a variety of different walks...on the beach, in the forest and to the field! You are one lucky dog!

Farewell and Good luck Buster!

My buddy has departed for his new home. Buster, the 8 yr old pit bull who has been at the SPCA for almost half a year finally found his forever home. I had been walking him since this Spring and I was in love with this senior dog ♥

He was surrendered by his former owner as he was aggressive towards other animals and the training was not going well... We, the volunteers and staff at the SPCA, didn't find Buster an aggressive dog at all, in fact, he was such a nice mannered & gentle guy.

Although he was a star in the kennel, he was not popular in the public as he is a pit bull and the fact he was 8 yrs old. No one showed an interest in him for the last 6 months, and yesterday a guy who lives just outside of town gave the SPCA a call. This guy lost his beloved Rottweiler and was looking for a new companion. I heard he is also a senior, so senior to senior will be a good match.

I went to the SPCA this morning and walked Buster for the last time. We had a great time together out in the field and I wished him good luck. I will miss you, but I am very happy for you.

Homemade Dog Food

Snoop usually eats regular dog food, but recently he has been difficult. Some say it's because of the weather, some say it's because he is spoiled! He has not being eating breakfast and he doesn't show an interest in dinner either. Sometimes just before bed, he eats some of the dog food in his bowl but he doesn't seem very excited about it..

Today I decided to make homemade dog food. I know many people feed their dogs raw and homemade food and I wanted to try making some.

The ingredients are minced chicken, brown rice, oats, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I cooked all of them in a pot for a while and made a Homemade Doggie Chicken Stew! I tried it and it actually tastes pretty good!

Did Snoop like it? Yes! He licked the bowl clean and asked for more! I put the rest of it in containers so that I can freeze them in individual portions. Here are 7 days worth of Snoop's meals. Are you happy, Snoop?

Snoopy in the sky!

Our Snoop dog is a super dog, but I don't think he can fly :-(

I just found this news from Japan online about "Snoopy Blimps in the sky of Japan". Apparently Snoopy is a company logo for the Alico Insurance Company and they decided to fly this blimp. I want to see it! (Pictures are from Met Life/Alico Japan)

Snoopy flies over Tokyo

End of summer?

It's still August, but when we woke up this morning our fireplace was on...! The thermostat is set to turn it on when the house goes below 18C... End of summer? It was a bit of a sad morning...

Eggplants in the mail box

We received an unexpected box from Kamloops a few days ago. It was a full of eggplants and peaches!

I have Japanese 'Parents' in Canada living in Kamloops. I met them in 1995, so we have known each other for...17 yrs! They were such a great help when I first came to Canada to study English, and we have been keeping in touch since then.

Their house in Kamloops has a huge back yard with several rows of vegetable gardens. They also have fruit trees, including peaches, apples, plums and apricots. The Mrs. is a great cook and she cans all her fruits and veggies to preserve them. If something happens to the world and you need food, this is the house to go to! I know what their basement storage room looks like. Lots of  home made goodies...

 Anyway, I was very happy to receive a box of Japanese eggplants as my own experiment with them was a failure. The ICHIBAN eggplant I planted late May didn't grow at all and I can't buy any decent eggplants around here!

Japanese eggplants are much smaller, seedless, and their skin is so soft, not like American eggplants.

I made pickles with them and added our own  home grown cucumbers. I also cooked some with chicken in chili sauce over rice. Yum :) I have several more eggplants left... what to eat tomorrow?

Blue Sky

It was a great day out in the field and stretch!

Green and Red

Beautiful contrast!

                                                                 

Dog Friends

My friends and I took our dogs to the trail this afternoon. It was a long walk (about 2 hrs), but I'm sure our Snoop dog loved it! He will sleep very well tonight.

I took this shot of the dogs before the walk.
Coco (Black Cocker Spaniel, Age 9)
Hunter (Grey Yorkie Mix, Age 3)
Goro (Brown Terrier Mix, 6 months)
And our Snoop boy, Age 7

They are good friends!

Bran Muffins

Hi Mom A,

Here is the recipe for the Bran Muffins! Today, we used raisins and dried cranberries.

We went through the fridge this morning after everyone left and realized we are out of basic items including bread. So I made the muffins again. Quick, easy, and they are good for you :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2C wheat bran
• 1C plain yogurt
• 1/3 C butter (softened)
• 1 egg
• 2/3 C brown sugar
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 1C all purpose flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp baking power
• 1/2 tsp salt (if you use salted butter, you don't need to add salt)
• 1C fruits (raisins, blueberries, strawberries, dried cranberries, etc...)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease muffin cups.
2. Mix together wheat bran and plain yogurt; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Beat together softened butter, egg, brown sugar and vanilla and add to yogurt/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into yogurt mixture, until just blended. Fold in fruits and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.  

Just the three of us again...

Well the big family reunion is over! And it was a huge success!

We had Tom's parents, big sister & husband and their two girls, and Tom's little sister and her husband, all came to our town on the Vancouver Island.

We had such great weather all the time they were here, not a single rain drop was reported. In fact, it was so hot some of the nights, we had trouble eating in the back yard.

With two active girls around, we were all busy trying to keep up with them. They sure enjoyed swimming in the lake, ocean and the pool. We ate well, played a lot and had a wonderful time together.

Snoop was, of course, a big hit for the girls. He was very patient and was a good boy even when the kids were a bit loud and screaming!

When I came back from dropping off my in-laws at the airport, he welcomed me home as usual, but kept looking behind me waiting for someone else to come in. And he gave me a look... "so, where is everyone?"

Snoop, we are back to our normal life style, just the three of us again. Too quiet?

Green Cone

I have been digging a hole, a big hole about 1 meter deep, for a few days... that's not fun... :-(  It's all for our new ECO product we are installing in the backyard.

Here is the Green Cone, the solar powered food digester! We have been thinking about getting a regular composter for a while, but we learned we don't have very much yard waste to put in. We only have evergreen trees, 25+cedars and a tamarac. We don't even have green yard waste, only a bit during the summer from the veggie garden. We have more food waste than anything else, so we decided to go with this Green Cone.

So, it's not a composter. It doesn't create even a handful of the composter in the end. Instead, it will be absorbed as water and carbon dioxide by the soil. Using solar heat in combination with macro-bacterial activity. It breaks the waste down aerobically into nutrient rich water that is absorbed into the soil. (from https://www.greencone.ca)

We will start trying it today and see how it works.We will let you know its progress later (minus photos of inside!). Oh, did I tell you our city had a composter promotion in June and July, and we get $50 rebate in the mail! Yay :)

Project #...?

So, I started another new project today. What is this green plastic cone shaped thing?
I will let you know in a few days...

I'm back

After a month of absence, I'm back.

I came back from Japan with my parents at the end of June, and we travelled to Victoria, Seattle, Vancouver and to the Rockies in a month. My parents really enjoyed everywhere we travelled, specially Victoria, but their favourite place was our backyard, just sitting on the chairs, relaxing, looking at the trees around and playing with Snoop. They enjoyed the trip very much and said they want to come back next summer again. I'm sure they will come back.

So, in one month, our vegetable garden has over grown, everything is getting so much bigger, including the zucchini plants. We had our first early tomatoes harvest a few days ago and they were actually really good. We have been eating salad everyday from the garden and we can't keep up with the amount of lettuce leaves coming out.

Snoop has been a bit stressed out for a while as I was away many days. But I think he is also back to normal and happy to have me around again.

Green Tea Parfait

Another typhoon brought us heavy rain and wind Friday morning. It was much smaller than we expected and it cleared up by noon. 

I was busy going from place to place shopping to buy things we cant get in Canada including a few boxes of Sake for my husband, food, books, clothes...

While I was shopping, I stopped to have something sweet. I ordered a "Green Tea Parfait". It was layered with Green Tea flavoured ice cream, Vanilla ice cream, corn flakes, red bean paste, rice cakes (mochi) and whipped cream and green tea sauce!

Yum :)

I don't think this scares off my in-laws in Canada?

Stamina lunch

A big typhoon hit Japan yesterday afternoon and overnight. It caused some big damage including one death, 400 flight cancellations, evacuation orders for 15,000 people and more. Next typhoon is supposed to reach Japan this Friday...

After the typhoon, the temperature rose high everywhere in Japan and it marked the hottest day of the year.  31C in Tokyo with high humidity is really hard for everyone and I... I am so used to cool Canadian weather now.

So my lunch today was a special one that is supposed to help me gain stamina from the hot summer heat. Unagi, freshwater Japanese eel. Unagi is rich in protein, calcium, vitamin A and E. They are usually steamed and grilled, then served over a bed of white rice.
The traditional accompaniment to this dish is a small bowl of kimosui, eel liver soup! (Yikes to most of you guys!)

Kaiten-sushi

Happy Father's Day from Japanese Kaiten-sushi restaurant! My parents, sister, niece, nephew and I enjoyed 60 plates of Sushi tonight! Yum :)

Kaiten-sushi(zushi) is a...

sushi restaurant where the plates with the sushi are placed on a rotating conveyor belt that winds through the restaurant and moves past every table and counter seat. Customers may place special orders, but most simply pick their selections from a steady stream of fresh sushi moving along the conveyor belt. The final bill is based on the number and type of plates of the consumed sushi. (from Wikipedia)

Japan

I left Canada yesterday on 15th and I am now in Japan where it's the 16th of June. It will be a short trip to spend time in Japan but my parents are coming to Canada with me when I fly back. Snoop was curious to see me packing last night... He knew something was going on... I will be back soon boy, don't worry!

Today's Snoop

My new favourite spot in the house, overlooking the garden :)

Update

I have been just little busy doing other stuff for the last few days... I thought I should get back to writing before my mother-in-law sends me another message! Hehehe :D

Anyway, we are all doing fine including the vegetable garden! The sun is out today and we are having some fresh salad from the garden and nice pasta on the patio.... and of course a few glasses of red vino too!

10yrs Paper Anniversary

10 years ago, June 3rd 2002, we registered our marriage in Japan. I remember the time when the lady at the city hall said "Congratulations'. We went to our favourite temple near our house on our way home to pray for a happy marriage. We call today our "Paper Anniversary" as our wedding ceremony was another day on July 6. Which is more important?

On this special morning, I baked some fresh strawberry bran muffins and we enjoyed a healthy smoothy in our backyard and relaxed... Special...? It sounds like any other days? Oh well, we are not difficult to please.

Hummingbird

We have had our hummingbird feeder up for a week. I was supposed to have a shot of a bird by now but I haven't had a chance to catch the right moment!

For a week, I was wondering why no birds came to drink the nectar..., and I learned that they don't like that packaged nectar that came with the feeder! Picky birds!

This morning I made my own nectar and I spotted the first bird hanging around the feeder for a while and he drank it! Yay! As they are such fast flying birds, it's so hard to take a shot of them. I will keep trying...

ICHIBAN Eggplant

I stopped at the grocery store and found something I wanted to grow in my garden. At their gardening section, there were several different plant starters on sale. One plant I wanted to try was Eggplant. Friends told me they will not grow in the cool climate of Vancouver Island. But I had to try because they were Japanese Eggplant "ICHIBAN" = meaning "No.1". Of course, we don't have eggplant called ICHIBAN in Japan. This must have been named here.

There are so many funny Japanese words used in North America for Sushi restaurants names (owned by non-Japanese). I guess they just use any Japanese word they have heard or know without not knowing the meaning?

Here are some strange restaurant names I know from Vancouver and some I have heard of.
Oishi Sushi = Tasty Sushi (That's OK)
Sumo Sushi = Sumo is the Japanese wresting
Kimono Sushi = Kimono is Japanese traditional clothing
Oyaji Sushi = Old Man Sushi (really?)
Sayonara Sushi = Goodbye Sushi (Don't think they lasted too long)
Yakuza Sushi = Japanese Mafia Sushi (...?)

Singing is great!

Japanese wives in my town started a choir group this January. This is the first report from Jan. 28. We have been getting together to practice once a month since then.

Last Sunday, we had our first performance at the Anglican Church in town. There were about 10 other performers and we were the last one to be on the stage. We were hoping to sing Japanese songs translated to English, but with this short time period, we were unable to practice that much. So we explained the meaning of the songs and then sang four Japanese songs total.

We got a standing ovation! Everyone commented on how beautiful the harmony was. We are booked to perform this summer in the one of the festivals and at the Christmas concert. We will be busy!

A shot from the rehearsal

Perfect Wedding Day

Gorgeous Saturday!

On this perfect day, our friends Shannon and Geoff got married on the beach. Beautiful calm ocean, snow capped mountains in the background, tasty food, great music by Shannon's daughter and friend and everyone was happy and enjoyed the event. All the best!

Onion Rings

After a rainy & cold long weekend, today turned out nice and sunny.

I had a craving for onion rings... but didn't want to drive to A&W, so we did a home made version of onion rings for dinner along with a veggie burger! I don't usually deep fry anything as it is a pain in the butt to clean and the smell of the oil also stinks up the house. But the BBQ which our in-laws bought us has a side burner so I can do the deep frying outside.

We enjoyed another dinner on our patio :)

Patio

It's a long weekend and we all hoped to have the warm temperatures continue, but the great weather we had been enjoying the last several days ended today. Cold and rainy day and our fireplace is on. Oh well, we had some unexpected wonderful summer-like weather, so we won't complain. Snoop is confused though as he is not spending time laying on the grass in the back yard today.

 A few days ago, we bought a new outdoor dining table set for our patio. We had been using some faded and duct taped old plastic chairs and tables. We thought it was time to upgrade when we saw one in the flyer for sale.

I made the cushions with some familiar fabric (also used on kids aprons and the dogs car hammock), for an added a bit of comfort. I want to add more plants or something later to the patio area, but this is a start.

Thanks for being a model in this cold weather, Papa and Snoop!

Japanese Maple

Apparently the blessing I gave the Japanese Maple at my in-law's place 10 years ago worked really well. It has grown a lot and now it is big and healthy.

Today I planted our Japanese Maple in the back yard. Did I give it a blessing...? Oh no, I forgot!

One of the Rhododendrons bloomed this morning. It is bright Pink! We didn't plant any of these flowers, so we had no idea what colour they would be. I'm happy to see some colourful flowers as our back yard is quite green looking.

I think this bright blue flower is called Lithodora Grace Ward. We were not sure if they were alive during the winter as the colour was a rotten looking black. But they bloomed very nicely and adding some nice colour in the front yard.

Man on the roof

In this nice summer-like weather, we can't stop working outside. We have a list of things we want to do to this house, and one of the things was to clean the north side of the house.

Our house is 7 years old and we don't think the cream colour vinyl siding has ever been cleaned before. The North side, where it never gets sun was really bad. So, my husband got up on the roof again to clean it up! Great job!

The grape vines are now in the ground1 We hope they grow up on the lattice and cover it up to provide some privacy. And of course to provide us with some vino :)

Summer like day

Happy Mother's Day!

What great weather! It was 23C during the day, just like summer!

We were playing in the back yard, cleaning up, weeding and stuff... but we had to stop it as it was scorching hot! Looked around and tried to find Snoop. Where is he?

Look closer...

Is it really comfortable? You know, you have your own nice cushy bed under the roof...

Ready for summer!

Who is ready for summer? ... Snoop is!
He is geared up with his new life jacket for kayaking, boating and many more fun summer activities! Just needs a pair of doggy sunglasses, it's too bright, can't keep his eyes open! Beautiful Friday today and it is supposed to be a nice weekend too!

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuit

I volunteer at the SPCA and walk dogs regularly. There will be an open house this Saturday and we are having bake, plant and book sale to raise money. I decided to bake dog biscuit this time for our four legged friends. Need to bake a lot more tomorrow. Snoop tested, guaranteed!

Front Yard

Another request from Mrs. A, a picture of the front yard. Almost everything is blooming now, except a few rhododendrons below the window. Not sure what colour they will be?

If you look closely, you will see someone who really wanted to be in the picture through the window....

Garage Drywall

Mrs. A, here is the answer to your other question... the garage insulation and drywall.

We started to put up the drywall last weekend, and we are almost done. All the drywall is in, we just need to tape/seal it together to finish it. It has been a lot of work and the materials were heavy. But it looks much nicer inside the garage, so we are happy we have almost completed the project.  Here is a pic of the progress from the start till now.

 

Mrs. A also sent us a message yesterday about the Super Moon tonight. At 8:35pm pacific it is the best time to view the moon according to the news. It will be the brightest and biggest moon of the year.

...I hoped to put up a picture of the Super Moon, but it was too cloudy here... Did you see the moon in your area?

Lattice

Long time no post! ... I can't believe it is already May! I didn't think I was off this long until my mother-in-law told me to get back to work and start posting the blog again! OK, Mrs. A, I am back for you :)

Where to start... Lattice in the back yard is up. Each square was bigger than we thought, so we can see the dog park parking lot, but it is still nice to have for some privacy.

We are hoping to have a nice wooden bench and comfortable cushions in front of the lattice. I'm sure you know who will love this spot, right Snoop?

Glucosamine for Dogs!

Snoop will be 7 yrs old this year. So he is now considered a senior dog. Although he is active and loves to run, we were noticing some stiff back legs while he walks and the vet actually told us early this year he would benefit from taking some Gloucosamine.

We found a new product from Jamieson, a very popular supplement & vitamin brand for humans. They now have several products for animals including the one we bought for Snoop, 'Joint Health'. One small bone shaped tablet/day, just like your Mom and Papa take our Vitamins.

We want you to be healthy all the way!

My new treat :)

 

Garden Update - Lettuce -

Yay! Lettuce Baby!

Dog Car Seat Hammock

The new CR-V has been great! We both like it but not our little guy, Snoop. The leather seats are too slippery, the back seats are too high and there is a big deep gap for leg room in the back seat. We were trying to have the dog sit on the floor but he was never comfortable.

I had been thinking about what to do and found one good idea. the Dog Car Seat Hammock. There is such a thing and you can buy it at some pet shops. But I decided to make one using some material I had left over from before.

This Hammock will cover the gap between the back seat and front seat, and Snoop doesn't have to worry about the slippery leather or the height.

We tried it this afternoon and he seems like he is much more comfortable in the car now. Hope this works!

Lawn Mower

Being first time house owners, we are learning it costs a lot of $$. As we were living in a condo in downtown Vancouver for so many years, there are many things we didn't own that are necessary for the home owner. One of the many things is a lawn mower. So, we purchased our first lawn mower! It's an electric, we didn't want a gas powered one as they are noisy and not environmentally friendly. But we decided not to buy a push mower as everyone recommended avoiding them including sister Amy and my father in Japan.

Anyway, it's light, powerful and it comes with a bag to put behind the mower. I need to learn how to operate this machine too! Just need to be careful not to run over the cord!

Spring Makeover!

I can see much better now!