In our yard...

Some things that I saw in our yard today....

The mulberries are so nice and I enjoy some everyday now...

The sunflower seeds that I recently planted are growing nicely...

And I have some pretty yellow flowers blooming...

A baby squirrel climbing on the edge of our door...

An interesting insect resting in the crack of our patio table...

A very large type of fly on the side of the house...

My little cactus plant growing...

More flowers...

A pink and white hibiscus and the yellow type of smaller sunflowers...

Smoke!!!!

This picture tells the story...

A rooftop view of Chiang Mai, this picture was taken at about 6pm. The mountain is not even visible through the smoke.

The red ball in the sky is the sun. The smoke settles in this valley as areas nearby do a lot of burning.

Not much fun!

I am praying for rain and a nice breeze to clear the air. 

A first for me.....

I did my first audio recording in a studio this week. I was helping Tom (pictured with me) to record some Thai/English school lessons to be used at a school in Tak, which is north of Chiang Mai.

She needed an English speaking person :-) to do the voicing with her. I decided it would be a good experience for me and even more so, I hope it will be useful for the students as they learn to speak english.

We had a lot of fun and spent several hours recording the lessons.

Our finished production turned out really nice.

Thankfully we had a good technician in the control room. 

He patiently worked with us if we had to record a word or sentence over again.

Akha Christians in Thailand

We had the privelege of attending one day of the 50th Anniversary of "The Akha Christians in Thailand". They had several thousand Akha christians attend for the 4 day celebration. Some traveled from China, Laos and Myanmar. Our dear sister in the Lord, Buakab, was asked to share this morning with the group. We drove with her to the mountains near Chiang Rai, Thailand where the celebration was being held. The following pictures give a glimpse of some of what we saw.

Many camping out for the week.

Sitting in the shelter to listen to speakers.

 Everyone sat on clean straw on the ground.

Beautiful head pieces.

Group of Akha from Myanmar

Praying...notice the different styles of head pieces.

The ladies have elaborate head pieces and clothes that are very colorful.

Royal Flora 2012 Gardens

Last night we went to the Royal Flora 2012 Gardens here in Chiang Mai. Wow!!!

It was much more than I expected.

The lights were amazing....

Here are a few pictures from the evening but sorry they really don't capture the beautiful arrangements...you have to see it in person to believe it.

a little visitor

Our friendly little visitor, "Mr. Squirrel", was in our yard again today and actually sat still long enough for me to get a picture for our grandkids. He was on the power lines by our front gate and looked like he was just having a little rest there.

He is really holding on tight.



making my laundry soap

Thanks to Jennifer, my daughter, I have the supplies needed to make my own laundry soap. We made up some while she was visiting and it sure cleans nice when all you have to use is cold water for your laundry. I needed to get some more ready so I did up a batch today and it will be ready to use in a day. I sure like it and the price is really nice too.

seedlings growing

Our miniature sunflower plants are starting to grow again. (Ellie and Owen helped me plant the first ones when they were here in Oct 2011) I let the blossoms dry up and scattered the seed in the ground and soon we will have flowers again.

A bridge...people....and more

Recently we took a trip to Mae Sot which is near the Myanmar border. The "Friendship Bridge" that crosses the river from Thailand to Myanmar is seen below but unfortunately the bridge is still closed.

Larry looking across toward Myanmar.

I stopped to say hi to these ladies and children as we walked around.

Larry stopped to say hi to this little baby with her mom. The Friendship Bridge is above them.

Looking across into Myanmar where we could see this boat being loaded.

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We continued on our travels and came to the highway that runs next to the Mae La Refugee Camp in Thailand where thousands of the  Karen people from Myanmar are living. The total is anywhere from 60 to 70 thousand refugees is what we have been told. On the other side of this mountain ridge is Myanmar.

We are standing next to the fence bordering the highway.

This picture was taken while driving and is very blurred but you can see the many many "houses" within the camp.

Another picture taken from outside the camp next to the highway...the camp extends for many kilometers along this highway. Mae La refugee camp has been here for around 20 years now. Such a sad site to see but the exciting part is that many of the Karen people living here are Christians and they love the Lord and have eternal hope in Him.

"Lost for a year"

Today I was so happy to find something that has been "lost" for this whole past year. Well, actually it was right where I had put it but I had not marked my packing box clearly ............

and safely stored away in a little basket in the bottom of the box under a lot of books...........

 was the collection of figurines I had "lost".

I was happy to put them all together again.