January 2nd 2017

In years gone by, the week that begins January has been notoriously stormy. There have been bus cancellation days for schools and even road closures. So, it was rather pleasant and surprising that today started out with such beautiful sunshine.

It was lovely to have a cup off coffee at the computer with the sun streaming into the kitchen.

Scooter the tailless cat appreciated the pathway I made for him on the porch.

Sampson the stripy cat also enjoyed having the sun on his face. (That's his contented expression).

Yesterday I finalized the packing up of Christmas. I never seem to get it repacked in the same way each year and so I ended up with some things that did not fit in the giant Rubbermaid boxes and had to be stored separately. Now all that is left is a naked tree. I will leave the moving of that outside to the husband and I will (of course) vacuum up the needles which will wedge themselves between the floor boards.

Today we delivered our daughter back to university. It was a perfect day for driving. We were determined to have a shwarma lunch on our way to her dorm. Because we live in an area with very little cultural diversity, we like when we can go to places that offer a variety of cuisine. I had the chicken with rice and lentils and husband had the beef. Daughter had hers as a wrap. Son decided he was going to stay home and sleep, so he said goodbye to his sister this morning and went back to bed. (Priorities) Husband and I asked for mild meals but there was still a nice kick to them. There was so much food, we brought our leftovers home and heated them up for a late supper. So good!! I would love to be able to replicate it at home but I have no idea which spices are used. I suppose I could look it up. I always laugh when I watch cooking shows and the recipe calls for a particular spice or ingredient and the host suggests you buy it at your local Asian/ Mediterranean / Middle Eastern food market. Well, that would be about two hours away!

As I type this post, the husband is watching a movie that he recorded called, "The Robe". There are  Romans and marble columns and many well-draped women. It stars a young Richard Burton. Isn't it funny how all other civilizations speak with an English accent! I'm not much of a movie watcher. I will sit in the same room, but I'm often on my laptop, or with a book. I'll get up to put a load of laundry through, or tidy up the kitchen, or some such mindless task. Sometimes I think I'm a little bit attention-deficit.

While we were in the city, we were on the hunt for some new prints to put on the walls of the den (the room I had recently painted). I was disappointed with all the same cheap frameless "paintings" of either abstract looking birch trees, floral skulls (???), swirly colours with a shot of glittery silver, or just text printed on cheap wooden backgrounds. I really just want some nice framed prints of old-fashioned still life (think fruit on a simple wooden table in subdued colours), or some kind of charming furry animal (hare maybe, or fox), or even a couple of botanicals. But I was not enamored by anything we saw in the chain stores. However, we aren't in a position to purchase any originals either. I think we need to go looking on the internet and find something tasteful, casual, rural... I'll keep you posted.

Well, there's my life in a nutshell. Hope everyone is well and moving forward with their new year's resolutions (eye roll due to breaking pretty much every resolution I've ever made).