Retire in Style with Lolita

Hair dye has changed the landscape. There are fewer women my age with gray hair. Therefore I usually stand out or should I say command attention because I am usually the only one around with gray hair :) A friend said, his gray hair is his medal of honor. Bill Cosby said gray hair is God`s graffiti. Mine is simply, my crown of glory.

Now and again we get together for lunch or dinner. This time we decided to go for Dim Sum. Paul recommended Top Cantonese Cuisine in Vancouver. Dim Sum was superb! Lots of laughter sharing stories and pictures of recent travels, grandchildren, etc. The restaurant clientele is mostly Chinese. I was probably the only non-Chinese speaking person present yesterday at lunch. My friends spoke Chinese and English to accommodate me. I am so used to Chinese being spoken around me. I am also used to being mistaken for Chinese. Here are some of the Dim Sum selections yesterday. I enjoyed them all. My friends identified each dish in English and Chinese. They ordered the traditional items plus some new ones that I have never tasted before. Baked turnip pastry. Prawn dumpling. Pan fried bean curd wrap with pea tip. Rice roll with fish paste and Chinese donut. Steamed pork dumpling or siu mai. Stir fried green beans. Sticky Fried Rice with Chinese sausage. ...

My Crimson Star Columbines are blooming. The flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds and I read that they are great cut flowers too. So I gathered a few and placed them in water. We shall see how long the blooms will last. Please click picture to enlarge. What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of the heaven? —A. J. Balfour Please click picture to enlarge.

After church and lunch we went for a walk at Finnerty Gardens. Please click pictures to enlarge. The Rhododendrons were spectacular. Beautiful, graceful bamboos. A walk in the garden is always uplifting and refreshing.