Photography, books, and good food.

First of all, some Happy Mothers' Day wishes to all the maternal parents in the audience.

This morning, Hubby made me savory stuffed french toast at my request (mmMMMmm) and I'll be going out to the Keg for dinner this evening for dinner. Until then, I plan to have a hang day, doing very little.

This weekend has been all about hanging, actually. I had Friday off and it was the first flex day in a while where I had nothing really planned. I took Kiddo to school (on the bus, which makes her very happy) then went into town.

I wandered around the waterfront taking photos before starting my shopping wanders. I was happy to get a pretty good photo of the Johnson Street bridge in action, from the parking lot beside the Janion hotel.

My shopping day included visits to Sally Ann (found a copy of Dark is Rising (which I've never read) for a buck plus a bag of rick-rack), Solstice Cafe (for Kicking Horse coffee!), BeadWorld (beads, of course), Capitol Iron (hardware supplies), and Value Village (big bag of buttons and some kids' books).

Had lunch with a co-worker, took a few more photos in town, went to the Market on Yates for dinner ingredients, then hopped on a bus home. I was happy to be using the bus on Friday because I am pretty sure every road crew in the CRD was out working -- road work, sewers, utilities, you name it -- tearing up the road and blocking traffic all over the city.

Saturday, we went to the GVPL Friends of the Library book sale -- billed as the "biggest ever" I think they may have exaggerated, but it was big. For the past few years they have been having more frequent, small sales in the meeting room of one of the branch libraries. I went to one in that location and swore I would not go to others because it felt like being led like cattle through a series of gates. There was no room to really browse (elbows everywhere) and little choice.

For this sale, though, the Friends of the Library rented space at the Archie Browning Centre in Esquimalt. There were no lines to get in and dozens of tables overflowing with discarded and donated books. I picked up a half dozen books ranging from cookbooks to graphic novels; adding in Kiddo's and Hubby's choices the total came to an amazingly affordable $14.50. My favourite find of the day is probably Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids. I got another one in the series a while back -- paying full price -- so a buck for this book was a fantastic bargain.

After the sale, we stopped in to John's Noodle Village on Bay Street. I had low expectations for what looks like a hole in the wall but I think we found the best ginger fried beef in the city! The other foodie treat I got yesterday was a yummy fresh-baked batch of raisin scones, complete with Devonshire Clotted Cream and strawberry jam. MmmmMMM!

Weekends like this make it very difficult to go back to work... sigh.