Sunday, February 23,2025

 

Here are some pictures taken today. I finally got out for a much needed walk around the little village. There are now vertical snow walls sliced out by snowblowers and ploughs. There really isn’t enough space to push the snow anymore and intersections are dangerous because you need to nose your vehicle out pretty far before you can tell if the way is clear for you to pull out or make a turn. Soon front end loaders and dump trucks will come to take away some of this snow and make it easier to navigate. Our temperatures are supposed to be going up to closer to zero or even above in the next week. There’s my little part of the world. Have a good week everyone. 

Feb. 15, 2025

I’m not going to Doug’s winter party, haha, for those of you who get the reference. 

I am, however, calling “ uncle”! As a kid, that was never a thing for our age group. But apparently it was what you shouted when someone was physically assaulting you on the playground and you gave up and had enough. 

I’m calling uncle on the snow. Dear lord stop snowing!! This is insane. Our lake effect snow out here in rural Ontario is so constant that there have been over twenty bus cancellation days ( not due to snow on the roads, but due to the fact that snowploughs simply couldn’t keep up and clear roads quickly enough) and the banks are so high on either side of the road that when the wind picks up, there are white outs where you’re not really sure what side of the road you’re on. 

Here are some terrible pictures taken through glass door panes and screens. I put more bird food out because I felt so sorry for the little guys!

 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

 To catch you up: SNOW.

There, that's all you really need to know. 

But seriously, it has been an "old fashioned winter" in January and so far this month. We get lake effect snow coming off of Lake Huron so we usually get more than other areas, but this is crazy. There have been road closures due to heavy drifting and poor visibility, school buses have been cancelled, and schools have actually closed for the day (unheard of ). 

Here are some porch pictures. 

See the little path of footprints? I had been keeping up with shoveling that for the boys who still go outside in the winter but the amount of snow just got ahead of me, and then slid off the metal roof, and then froze solid, and then got more snow on top, and now it is almost impossible.

I have managed to maintain a bit of a path on the back porch. I am out here daily on my way to this:

My trek to the chicken coop. Often, my footprints get blown in between morning and late afternoon. Perspective: when I sink into the snow, it is about knee high, that means over the tops of my boots. Fun!

We were away for two weeks at the beginning of January. The first week was at a "resort" in Puerto Plata with our grown children and significant others. Although it was "fine", we feel that "fine" isn't enough for the money it cost us. We won't be coming back to Puerto Plata again (Dominican Republic). It is old and tired and not really what we would prefer. We think we will go to Punta Cana (same country) instead. We have been to Punta Cana a few times, but it is always more expensive. We think saving for it will be worth it. Although it was lovely being with the kids.

The second week, the kids returned home to work and we stayed at a "villa" in a gated community. We did like the villa very much. We did not like what the gated community had to offer. There was only one restaurant and nothing else. No little supermarket or a place to buy tylenol or sunscreen, no gym, no other restaurant choices. Instead you had to catch an irregular shuttle that would take you to the nearest town where you could purchase groceries or whatever you needed, but then you had to kill another hour or two before the shuttle could take you back to the gated community. The town (Sosua) left a great deal to be desired, so again, we made a decision that we would not go back there. 

Fun fact, even though we have been to the D.R. many many times, I experienced this for the first time:

Yup, it's what you think it is. That darling was in between the seats of a sectional that I had sat on many times on the patio part of the villa. This particular day, husband had sat at an opposite end and the sections were pushed apart. I had gotten up, don't remember why, and turned back again and saw THAT. There was a great deal of swearing and quick moving. It was as big as you think it is (a little less than hand-sized). Who was this darling? 

Pretty sure I saw a hispaniolan giant tarantula that day. Husband found a rake and encouraged it to climb aboard and he relocated it in the shade on the opposite side of a small building on the property. Regardless, I never sat on that sectional again. 

Lastly, even though it was nice to be away with the kids and to have adventures such as the one above, I would have enjoyed myself a lot more had I not been dealing with IBS (D). Nope, it wasn't something I caught on holiday because it started at the beginning of December. Yes, two entire months of it. I'm still not 100% sure it's not due to a change in my medication that I take to suppress hormones after my breast cancer. I had switched to a different kind a bit before that. So now I am experimenting. Although I finally got in to see my dr. (6 weeks wait - delightful health care here) she said not to overthink it and it just is simply IBS (I've had similar flares in the past) and even shared that she herself suffers from it. Feel free to chime in if you also deal with this. It's nice to feel like I'm not alone. (It's none of the other scary things because I had tests about a year ago that showed nothing). So I'm stopping my medication and seeing how that changes things. (don't worry, I won't stop it forever, and I have other choices, too).

I am back to doing a bit of supply teaching again (substitute, or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods). I'm happy to do that. It's my "normal" and usually my "happy place". I noticed I'm using an awful lot of quotation marks in this post. Must curtail that a bit. 

I've already been out to do my chicken chores and will be grocery shopping soon. Son, who has moved out four months ago, is coming home for a short visit, so I'll be sure to buy enough to accommodate another person for suppers. It will be nice to have him here. Have a great day, all!

December 23, 2024

 This will be a great big post with probably not another one for a few weeks, so get comfy…

It took about three to four weeks for the plague to leave husband ( but still a lingering cough) and I had a much quicker, milder form. Seems to be the thing right now. Oh well.

In an effort to deal with Murphy the cat’s eating disorder ( he’s FAT and has bad manners when insisting that his humans feed him… again), I purchased ( on sale of course) an automatic cat feeder with two bowls ( because Scooter-the-cat-with-no-tail who is sweet and shy and puts up with all kinds of crap from Murphy also needs a bowl). 

This is a picture of Murphy cautiously checking it out for the first time. 

It’s pretty cool and now it’s not ME feeding him, it’s the machine. This has made no difference in his bad manners and now he expects his humans to get up and walk to the feeder to see that he is going to eat. Yes I realize that we are enablers and we were much better parents to our own children than we are to this cat! So no lectures please.

Due to the plague, we were a little later in the whole Christmas preparations, and we intended to go out and cut down a tree at the same tree farm we went to last year. However when we got there, there were two signs at the end of the lane. One said "closed” and the other said “ sold out” which can’t possibly be true being as it’s an extensive tree farm but they must just put a limit on how many they allow to be cut each year. 

So… we went looking for trees in other locations. One had no more left, one seemed quite expensive  (and all the trees were tightly wrapped so you couldn’t tell what you were getting), so we ended up at Home Depot where the trees were also wrapped up, but we were just too tired and submitted. 

So… we brought it home and husband cut a little off the bottom and we moved furniture and retrieved the tree stand from the basement. Here is the supervisor checking the water level.

Husband did admit that getting the tree braced properly with little blocks of wood and re-engineered threaded eye bolts ( dear god, did I marry my father?) was easier when the tree was all tied up. Then came the big reveal when the twine was cut and the tree was released. Would it be stunningly symmetrical or “ it was an ugly tree anyway, Clark” ?

Well it ended up being quite nice!! There it is decorated, tree skirt and all ( before Murphy messes up the tree skirt by sleeping under it daily). 

There has been baking…

 

There are other cookies that I made but didn’t take pictures of. The ones above are peanut butter confetti bars, spider cookies, and Christmas crack. 

Today I decorated cookies. Usually we decorate as a family, but this year I just wanted to get it done with minimal fuss ( sorry, dear daughter). 

The decorated ones are sugar cookies and gingerbread. Some I leave plain, for those people who are watching their waist lines ! (sarcasm)

We are hosting my side of the family this year on Boxing Day and I’m pleased that we will have some of the cousins, as it is not always possible to get them from far and wide. 

It is currently snowing. Our weather has been everything from blizzard, to rain and melting, to extremely cold, to just regular December weather. 

I will leave you with best wishes that the Christmas holidays are what you wish them to be and that you are contented and healthy. The finishing pictures are Murphy presently ( oh, hey, that was good wording!) under the tree, and mild mannered Scooter in one of his favourite places. Merry Christmas bloggers! 

Back

 We went away for a week to a sunnier climate. It was nice, a place we had been to in 2008, and not a whole lot has changed. Our time there was fine, and was mostly for the purpose of thwarting husband's seasonal affective disorder which has been getting worse and worse every year. 

When we got home, unfortunately husband started to feel like he was getting a cold (airport germs?) and then it hit him hard and I did everything in my power to not get sick, but now it has hit me, too. Blah!! Oh well, it was inevitable. I likely would have caught it from a school anyway. 

Speaking of airports, did you know (in Canada) if your flight is delayed so much that your arrival time is more than three hours late, you can apply online for compensation? Our flight through Sunwing was delayed by five hours (yes, five hours) and we did get money back because of it. This does not count if it is due to weather (which it wasn't). 

But here is what has really been happening at our place:

This started a little more than a day ago and it is still very much coming down! That's just snow on top of the porch railings, but it looks like a garland. It feels very Christmas-y but I don't have the energy or the inclination to start decorating for Christmas. I have to let this cold pass before I begin dragging out "the twelve boxes of Christmas". We are in a snow belt and always get the brunt of it. Our son, in a city a couple of hours away had a light dusting of snow. Daughter gets the same as us. 

Beginning of November- goodbye pumpkin

 I’m someone who likes to put holidays away as soon as they are over, or as soon as possible. I had no Hallowe’en decorations up because we weren’t home for Hallowe’en. I did purchase one big pumpkin from the Amish down the road for colour in the porch but now it’s November ( we’ve already had Thanksgiving in October here) and it’s time to get rid of the pumpkin.

I carried it back to the chicken coop, put it in their run and chopped it in pieces with the shovel. As soon as I left the run, curiosity took over. Here are some pictures later of the hens enjoying their treat.

Beautiful colours and a Fresh Cut

It’s late October and we still have some gorgeous trees in the little village. I took some pictures on my walk this morning.

That last one is the burning bush on our property. 

I have been thinking about cutting my hair for a while now. In the summer it was easy just to throw it up in a bun but it had just become too long and unflattering and I wasn’t happy trying to dry, style, straighten it. 

That’s my “ before “ today. 

Here’s the after. I’m happy with the length and will play around with it and see what I can do with it. 

I hope everyone has a nice upcoming weekend!