Pretty in plaid

April 21, 2017April 21, 2017 / edebock / 4 Comments

There are a few classic prints that never seem to go out of style. Though their popularity may wax and wane, they are a safe bet in a modern woman’s wardrobe season after season. Stripes, florals, animal prints, polka dots and plaids are timeless.

Last time I volunteered at our local thrift store I came home with this basic black and white flannel shirt, a steal at just $3 and oh so comfortable!

I’m especially impressed with this hidden feature that eliminates the possibility of gaping at the bust line.

Though the look may be a bit too matchy matchy, for the purpose of this post I also donned another recent purchase, my new rubber boots!

I’ve been eying cute patterned boots every spring for the past few years, but my plain old navy blue ones, purchased more than four decades ago when I first visited my in-laws’ farm, refused to wear out and since I usually only use them for camping, investing in another pair seemed wasteful. This year, however, the old rubber finally deteriorated and a split up the back of one of the boots sent me shopping for a new pair! Considering how long I might have them, what could be better than a timeless pattern like plaid?

Given that the weather forecast is calling for lots of rain while we’re here in Vancouver, I’m glad I brought them with me. Whether it’s checking out the creek that runs through our son’s backyard or going on adventures in the forest with our grandsons, I’m probably going to need them.

All weather packing

April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 / edebock / 4 Comments

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The geese are back, the gophers have come out of hibernation and tulip sprouts are peeking through the soil in my flower beds. It must be spring, right? Then why is there snow in the forecast? Because I live in Canada, of course!

I’m envious of those who live in warmer climes, the lucky ones who have already done their seasonal wardrobe switch, putting away winter wear and bringing out shorts and sandals. I had to laugh when I saw this on Facebook the other day because it’s all too true!

Spring in Canada

My dilemma right now is how to pack for our upcoming trip to Vancouver. The coast can be beautiful at this time of year with sunshine, daffodils and a profusion of cherry blossoms OR it can be chilly and damp. The forecast seems to indicate a bit of both.

The answer, of course, is layers. There will be at least 3 camisoles in my suitcase; black, white and khaki. They take up almost no room and make a good base layer providing extra warmth when days are cool. They can be worn under almost anything. I’ll pack tops that can be worn alone or layered with one of the camis and/or a light sweater.

Pants are trickier. I don’t go anywhere without jeans, but I’ll definitely throw in a couple of pairs of capris in case the weather is warm enough. Since we’ll be spending most of our time visiting family, I won’t need anything too dressy, but I’ll take a basic pair of black dress pants that could be worn to church or out to dinner.

When it comes to outerwear, layers are once again the key. I’ll take a light waterproof, windproof jacket and a fleece hoodie that can be worn individually or doubled up on colder days. A tiny pair of knit gloves tucked into a pocket, a scarf and a compact foldable umbrella will take me on outdoor adventures with my grandsons on even the rainiest days.

As far as footwear is concerned, I’m glad that we’re driving not flying. Since I can’t decide if I’ll need sandals, sneakers, casual flats, dress shoes or rubber boots, I may just take them all!

He made the thorns

April 11, 2017 / edebock / Leave a comment

Now that we’re into the holiest week of the Christian calendar, we’re surrounded by the popular images of the season, coloured eggs, bunnies and chicks, but the events of that first Easter week were anything but pretty and pastel.

On Sunday, our pastor used Maker of the Universe by master guitarist, Phil Keaggy, as part of his morning message. Do take a moment to click on the link and watch the video. I can’t get its haunting message out of my mind.

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His holy fingers made the bough,
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.

Not only did God create the thorn bush with its razor-sharp barbs, but He made and even yearned for a relationship with the soldier who thought to shape it into a cruel crown and ram it onto the head of our Lord.

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The nails that pierced His hands were mined
In secret places He designed.

On the third day of creation, God created the land and the metals hidden within knowing all the good and evil ways that man would put them to use; knowing that someday His body would be pierced with spikes formed from those very metals.

Cross-FS

He made the forest whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.

He didn’t have to do it! He didn’t have to let them nail Him to the cross. He could have walked away, just like He did three years earlier when an angry crowd in his hometown of Nazareth threatened to throw him off a cliff. (Luke 4:16-30)

This time He didn’t walk away. He let them crown Him with a crown of thorns and hammer nails through His wrists and His feet and He did it for me! He did it to take the punishment that should have been mine. He knew that I would let Him down, but He did it anyway. He let them lay His body in a cold, dark tomb, and there He lay for three long days. Thankfully, though, that wasn’t the end of the story. As the old hymn says

Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

And that is the wonder of Easter! Hallelujah!

Retirement dressing

April 7, 2017April 6, 2017 / edebock / 3 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost ten years since Richard and I walked out of our respective classrooms and entered a new phase of life called retirement! That meant I no longer needed a working wardrobe. I spent most of my career teaching elementary school, so my workwear wasn’t as formal as some women’s, but I was a professional and it was important to dress like one. Now I no longer needed to, so what should I wear?

To me, retirement meant a new and exciting life was opening up in front of me. I didn’t feel old and I certainly didn’t want to look frumpy! I didn’t need a working wardrobe, but I wasn’t happy to spend the rest of my life wearing the shapeless t-shirts and sweatshirts that I’d once worn during my out of school hours. I began to take a greater interest in fashion and now I would call my retirement style dressy casual.

Yesterday, we were reminded that age is creeping up on us. We’ve been fortunate to be able to stay on the excellent Alberta teacher’s benefit plan for the first ten years of our retirement, but next fall I turn 65, the magic age at which we must transfer to the retired teacher’s plan. That’s why we were in Edmonton yesterday to meet with a representative of the retired teacher’s association. Here’s what I chose to wear:

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It was the first day this spring that it was warm enough to be out and about without a jacket. A light sweater in pink, one of this season’s most popular colours, was a perfect topper for the Cleo Top from cabi’s last season. Worn with dark wash jeans from Old Navy, this is what retirement wear looks like to me.

Facebook blessing

April 5, 2017 / edebock / Leave a comment

I’ve been known to rant about Facebook, but sometimes it’s a wonderful blessing! Yesterday was such a day.

I was sitting in the vehicle at a gas station while Richard filled the tank when I decided to check Facebook on my cell phone. I immediately noticed that I had a friend request. I’ve recently received (and deleted) a few of those from creepy men I’ve never met, so I assumed that this was just another one of those. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’m sure my heart skipped a beat when I saw the name of one of our sponsored children in Haiti!

We have been sponsoring Marie through an organization called New Missions since she was nine years old. Today, she is a lovely young woman of 22 with one year of high school left to complete and a dream of pursuing nurse’s training. Over the years, we’ve enjoyed exchanging letters with her, but never in my wildest dreams did it cross my mind that we might become Facebook friends!

I immediately accepted her request and we began a conversation that continued on and off throughout the rest of the day and again this morning. Her English, learned at school, is weak and my Haitian Creole is non-existent, so communication is slow and sometimes confusing, but we’re talking without the aid of a translator! What joy!

Marie, who lost her own mother shortly before we started sponsoring her and her father a few years later, has been calling me ‘mother’ in our conversation. That and her Facebook profile picture of the latest letter and photo that she received from us melt my heart.

For the past few years, we’ve been hoping that when Marie finishes high school and begins her nurses training through the New Missions program, we’ll be able to continue sponsoring her, but even if we can’t, now that we’re Facebook friends we won’t lose touch with her. What a blessing!

For just $33 a month, child sponsorship through New Missions provides a child in Haiti or the Dominican Republic with quality education, a daily hot lunch which for some is their primary meal of the day, and medical care. New Missions also provides a number of community development initiatives including clean water, vocational training and local employment, all vital in this poorest part of the western hemisphere.

New looks

March 31, 2017March 30, 2017 / edebock / 7 Comments

Have you ever noticed that adding a new basic to your wardrobe can breathe fresh life into older pieces?

I’ve only purchased one item from this season’s cabi collection, the Indulgence Tank. With it’s wide ponte waistband and two floaty layers of lightweight polyester creating a beautiful blouson effect, this pure white sleeveless top will go with practically everything.

Here I’m wearing it with a short navy cardigan that hadn’t been out of my closet all winter. Purchased at Uniqlo shortly after my arrival in China in early 2013, it was once a wardrobe staple, but I’d grown somewhat tired of it. When I paired it with the Indulgence Tank, however, it felt almost new again.

In these photos, you’re seeing me with more hair than usual. I normally have my hair cut every six weeks, but it’s now been almost nine weeks since I last visited my hairdresser. That’s because I’m trying to decide whether or not it’s time for a longer style. Some days, like the one pictured here, I’ve been playing around with its natural curl instead of straightening it. Regardless of what I decide, I know that it needs a good trim to give it shape, but what do you think? Cut it short again or let it grow? I really want your opinion!

Ghost moose

March 29, 2017 / edebock / 2 Comments

We had an unusual visitor yesterday; a young moose that has been hanging around our neighbourhood for the past few days munching on the plant life.

Yes, I was actually that close to him! When I first realized that he was there, he was standing just outside our front door snacking on my rose bush.

A rather scraggly looking character, he is what is known as a ghost moose. Infested and irritated by ticks, he has rubbed off most of his dark brown hair, exposing his pale undercoat.

Though I’ve never seen one before, apparently ghost moose are becoming more and more common and are most often spotted in March and April. Biologists blame climate change for ushering in shorter, warmer winters that are conducive to increased tick populations. The tick’s life cycle begins in late fall. Larva cling to plants and climb aboard unsuspecting moose that brush against them, feasting on their warm bodies over the winter months until early spring when they generally drop off and lay their eggs to begin the cycle over again.

A single moose can be host to a staggering number of ticks. I’ve read numbers upwards of 50 000! Thousands of feeding ticks can actually kill a moose! Calves, like this one, are particularly vulnerable. Loss of blood leaves them weak and easy prey for predators. Scratching off large patches of their thick outer coat in an attempt to remove the ticks leads to the loss of body heat and even hypothermia. Some spend more time scratching than foraging for food. Skinny and malnourished, they eventually die of starvation.

Considering that our young visitor has made it through our cold winter and seems to be eating well, I’m hopeful that he will survive, but I also have other concerns for his well-being. He is obviously one of last year’s calves. As such, he’s still a bit young to be wandering about on his own. Moose calves usually stay with their mothers for about a year and a half.

The fact that he’s spending so much time in town is also a major concern. It’s not unusual for us to see a mother moose and her calves in the yard during the winter, especially at night, but they are usually easily spooked, retreating to the trees on the edge of town when startled. This little guy is much too bold. He continued to nonchalantly trim the lower branches of our weeping birch while vehicles passed by just a few feet away. Even a neighbour in a noisy truck stopping to take pictures didn’t deter him.

Not only is becoming semi domesticated not good for him, but as cute as he is (in his own scraggly way), he poses a danger to people. He’s already big enough to cause serious damage and if he survives, he’s going to get a LOT bigger. A full grown bull moose can reach a height of up to 2.15 m (7.1 feet) at the shoulder and weigh between 500 and 725 kg (1,102 and 1,598 pounds)!

Real date

March 28, 2017March 28, 2017 / edebock / Leave a comment

Since yesterday’s dream date post captured the interest of so many readers, I thought today I’d share a real date that Richard and I went on on a beautiful fall day. We live in a tiny town of just over 800 people. It’s a two hour drive from the closest major city and an hour from a town large enough to have a movie theatre and a choice of restaurants. If we lived in the city there would be a myriad of things to do on a date, but out here coming up with creative date ideas is much more challenging.

Known as a flip-a-coin date or a penny date, this concept is a simple one that works just as well in the countryside as in a city, perhaps even better. Here’s how it works:

Pack a picnic lunch.
Grab a coin. HEADS is right; TAILS is left.
Choose a number. This will be the number of times you turn before you reach your destination.
Every time you approach an intersection, flip the coin to determine which way you’ll turn.
Once you reach the number that you chose in step 3, look around and find a spot to enjoy your picnic.

Since we didn’t want to spend our time driving around and around our tiny community, we drove to the nearest exit from town before flipping the coin the first time. The countryside in our area is criss-crossed with roads, most of them just a mile apart, so we chose a number large enough to take us some distance from town. Though I don’t remember for sure, I think it might have been 20.

We were hardly out of town when we stopped to watch a huge flock of snow geese landing on a pond. It was like a magical dance!

As we wandered the backroads we passed a few old abandoned buildings including this one, the old curling rink which was moved out of town when a new recreational centre was built in the early 1960s.

At one point, a right turn followed by three lefts in a row took us in a complete square back to where we’d been not long before. Fortunately, the next flip was a right and off we went in a new direction!

Soon after we made our final turn, we spotted a secluded clearing overlooking a field of ripening grain.

It was a perfect spot for our tailgate picnic!

Now, with spring finally on the way, geese are flying overhead again. When the last bit of snow has melted away, the muddy roads have dried and leaves are back on the trees, I think we’ll try another flip-a-coin date. I wonder where the next one will take us?

One year!

March 24, 2017March 23, 2017 / edebock / 2 Comments

Tomorrow it will be exactly one year since I introduced Fashion Friday to my blog! One year of writing a weekly fashion post, something I would not have imagined myself doing just a few years earlier. I thought today would be a good day to reflect on that first year and do a bit of self-evaluation.

I stated a number of goals in that first post:

“I want this to be much more than just a “look what I’m wearing today” feature. I hope that together we can explore the topic of personal appearance and how what we wear affects our daily lives.”

One of my early posts, F is for Fashion, is one of my favourite examples of this. Though it does include one photo of me, it focuses on six F words to consider when shopping for clothes.

“You can expect posts on everything from fabulous footwear to dressing on a budget, and packing a suitcase to purging your closet.”

Before I wrote my first Fashion Friday post I brainstormed a fairly long list of ideas, enough to keep me going for quite awhile. The topics mentioned in that first post were on that list and I’ve written about all four of them. Dressing on a budget has definitely been a popular theme. I’m a frugal fashionista who loves thrift store shopping and over the past year I’ve written several posts featuring some of my favourite finds. You can find the first of a three week series here.

“I also intend to do a bit of investigating and share what I learn about some of my favourite clothing retailers.”

I haven’t been as successful with this part of my original plan. Early on, I emailed several retailers expressing my interest in featuring them on my blog and asking a few pertinent questions. Disappointingly, none of them responded! I have, however, written unsolicited posts about Cabi and Uniqlo and both of them responded favourably. I was also approached by American eyeglass brand, Warby Parker, and asked to write my very first collaborative post featuring their newest collection. Perhaps with these successes under my belt I should consider contacting a few of those retailers again.

“I want this to be an interactive feature, so I will be encouraging you, my readers, to participate by sharing your insights, ideas and questions in the comment section.”

This is where you come in! While several of you have liked or commented on posts, I would love to encourage more of this. Some readers leave comments on my Facebook page, which is fine, but I would rather you left them here on the blog where they remain permanently and can be seen by other readers. I’m not looking only for accolades. If you don’t like something I’m wearing or disagree with my point of view, please feel free to say so and tell me why. All I ask is that you do it politely. Over the past year, I’ve received some great fashion tips from readers and I especially love it when you ask questions and I’m able to help you with your own fashion concerns. I’ve made it my habit to respond to every comment left on the blog and I will continue to do so.

As part of today’s evaluation and to help me choose future topics, I also took a look at my stats to see which Fashion Friday posts were most popular. My most read fashion post so far was Ideas and inspiration with Favourite fashion blogs for women of a certain age taking second place.

So, what has writing a regular fashion feature done for me? In addition to exploring a topic of growing interest, it has ensured that I keep writing and posting on a regular basis even during those times when we aren’t traveling or doing anything else that’s interesting enough to write about. It’s also caused me to take an even greater interest in fashion, reading the work of and sharing ideas with other fashion bloggers. It has inspired me to take more care with my own appearance and has led me to experiment with new and different looks that I might not have tried in the past. Here’s just one example of that. Most of all, it’s been fun, so unless the well of ideas runs dry Fashion Friday will continue to be a regular weekly feature here on Following Augustine.

It would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to thank my husband, Richard, for the time he’s spent being my fashion photographer. For a man who had rarely used a camera in the past, I think he’s done a pretty good job! Here are a few of my favourites from the past year.