Such a handsome dog !
Here's Holly, intently watching the birds on the bird table, hoping that they will drop a morsel of food for her..
Fran, good to get news from you. Can't imagine how uncomfortable those temperatures would be !. When it gets to 30 here, I tend to give up on any activity other than trying to keep cool ! So pleased that you enjoyed the new "little people" in the family. I can imagine your heart melting when an almost 2yr old called you Nana for the first time.
Rosey, thank you for the photo and the information. What a lot of wood. My DH has just filled our tiny wood shed and tells me that it should be enough to last for us through two winters... That tells you a bit about our respective winters I guess !
A muggy day here today , very hot when the sun comes through. We have had a quiet day at home pottering around the garden. We had friends over for dinner last night and ate too much...So easy to do at this time of the year isn't it ? It's left us feeling sluggish today and not very motivated. Another bad night of shakes didn't help... The experts all met in Christchurch yesterday, to try to come to grips with what is happening and what might happen.... The meeting was interrupted by two shakes a 3.5 followed by a 5... The meeting continued on... ! Not much left to fall now and most places where people meet together have been well checked out. The outcome was that this could go on for decades, not months, even though the likelihood of anything more than a 5 magnitude shake is slim...
I read an interesting article in the paper today, written by a young woman who described herself as a "Luddite". She says that the concept of new technology does not come naturally to her. (!) She was quite proud of her low-tech life until she realised that there is nothing so ageing as refusing to engage with technological developments... (I've got news for her !!) She gave herself a week to "engage" The first day she gave herself a migraine, the following days made her aware of the fact that she needed more sophisticated equipment to be able to down load all the things that she didn't need . By the end of a very trying week she had downloaded a few apps (what on earth are apps...?) and felt very proud of herself. She decided that Facebook and Twitter were not for her, as they "take up time I'd rather spend doing something else". She felt less intimidated by technology because she had forced herself to try to understand what it was offering, but she also thought she really wasn't missing out on anything and would probably resort to her old ways . My sort of girl !
Time to get dinner. Just a light salad tonight I think !
Marion.
woops!
Sorry about the sizing - working on Word
Me too, Rosey!
It was very interesting to see the photo and read about how you get your logs, having read your previous posts over the years about the days you (or he/they) spend cutting them up. I had never thought about where you'd get them from or how many you would actually need for a winter! I still haven't 'suffered' being snowed in or even snowed on, although not for the want of trying! We have travelled through some 'iced up' terrain in the Sth Island of NZ in late winter once. My Swiss friend suggested we visit them at Easter time, when they should still have lots of snow up in the Alps, but Easter this year was late and their thaw was early so all we got to do was stand in a patch of ice and snow for a while vbg.
Oh, and I love your rooster design!
SARA: Have a good time at your quilting retreat, snow or no!
Our Christmas Day was in the low 20s (C) but we've since had a heatwave with 2 days at 40 and 41, so well over the F century. Thank goodness for air-conditioning or I'd have one very grumpy DH. There are still people who do it rough with none, especially in rental accommodation, including DS#3 in Melbourne.
Speaking of......he has just been accepted to do his PhD in Atmospheric Physics. Hopefully we'll learn a bit about the field over the next 4 years, whenever he finds a moment to tell us what he's been doing at any particular time.
GRACE: I’m thinking you must be undergoing your knee replacement sometime today. All the best for your recuperation.
MARION: Hope R can find something to ease his sciatica. I have bursitis in one hip that is causing me grieve but am learning to live with it. That was a lovely photo of Christmas lilies - they look quite delicate compared to some others of the species. I can't imagine the feeling of continually going through so many aftershocks all these months and wondering what extra damage has been done to the city, its suburbs and the surrounding countryside each time. I hope there's an end to it on the horizon.
BEE: How's things?
The day after Christmas I had the heartwarming feeling of being called Nana for the first time by a sweet little boy not yet two. I could eat him all up! His big sister (5) has decided to call me NannyFran and that sounded good too DS#2 is obviously enjoying his new role as a dad.
A belated Happy New Year to all.
Life at home in the Country
I love seeing pictures of flower gardens at this time of year, Marion, the lilies are lovely. I also love all four seasons of the year that we have here in southern Ontario, Canada. Winter has not yet really come and it's January already. By that I mean whirling dervishes of snow flakes piling one on top of the other to leave a three or four or six inch blanket upon the ground. I miss a good old fashioned snow storm but then, for those who need to commute from here to the city, this winter has given them a break, so far. I have been carrying around this photo in the car for several months. Himself says: if you had a digital camera you could upload all these pictures for your website and be done with it. I said: then I'd miss going into town and teasing the owner of the Copy Shop who is always complaining about being broke. Yesterday, when I had two photos scanned and sent to my computer, I tipped him one whole penny. Made his day and mine with laughter. So, here is how we heat our home in the country (we do have an electric furnace but the cost is great and while himself has the strength and interest to saw up all these logs, we've heated with wood for twenty-two of our twenty-three years here). For me, it's an exciting day and I think so, for himself, too, when we see this big truck pull up over the hill in our laneway and head down towards the house. We can hear this truck from the corner, some distance away, as he makes his turn, then into our laneway, more engine noise as he pulls this heavy load up the hill and down. The logging is done in Algonquin Park, a natural reserve (not too far from where Grace lives) where the loggers are given certain areas in which to log trees and clean out areas that need doing according to the forestry experts who look after this area. These trees were just cut this summer and will not burn as well as trees left a year to dry out but we had no choice in the matter this year. Thus, it takes a bit of doing to get a nice hot fire going but with a woodstove in the back of the house in the family room and a fireplace insert in the livingroom at the front, both airtights, we manage quite well. We also dress warmly all winter as well. Just thought it might interest the likes of Marion, Sara and Bee who live in warmer climes what can go on in sourcing out our winter's warmth indoors.
Rosey
Sciatica
Marion in NZ - what beautiful Christmas lillies! Thank you for posting the piccie. I imagine my nerves would be terribly jangled if I was living in the aftershocks, after everything else NZ has gone through.
About the sciatica . . . the
only thing that has helped my sciatica is doing a piriformis muscle stretch. When I do it faithfully (daily) I don't have any sciatica pains. There are many different causes for sciatica. After doing extensive "Google" research, I found a site that said piriformis muscle can also be a cause. That was the right answer for my case, but everyone is different.
Musical chairs...
A busy evening here. DH didn't take to lying on the floor for his TV viewing so tried sitting on the computer chair....later he tried another chair and finally the settee... Hardly a restful evening for either of us ! He has visited his Dr over his sciatica and came home with exercises to do, cream to rub in and painkillers to take if needed. He hasn' t done the exercises but he does rub in the cream and take the pills when needed. He walks most days . He is delighted that Jane and Sara care enough to give him advice (!) Thank you ladies. He thrives on attention and obviously, doesn't get enough from his wife...
Jane, don't worry about your double posting ! You are in good company here !!
Marion.
OOOPS
I don't know how I managed to post two identical comments on Marion's post. Furthermore, I don't know how to delete one of them. Oh well, I know I'm slipping into my dotage and you folks will just have to put up with me.
Jane
Christmas lilies...
Inspired by the "personality plus chickens" which
Rosey down- loaded to brighten up the BB. I thought you might like to see my Christmas lilies. They are at their best just now and their scent is wonderful. Too strong for people who have
hayfever but fortunately not for any of our family.
We have enjoyed some warm and sunny days down here in the Sth Island. It's been wet and cold further north, so we have been fortunate. We had a lovely picnic in the bush (forest) area on New Years Day and enjoyed the smell of the trees and the lovely birdsong. A nice start to the year. The following morning we were woken by a series of shakes, around 1am and again at 5am. We had two over 5 and nine others... This morning we had a 4.8. The "experts" have no idea what is going on. Some say this is the last of the "after shocks" from last years quakes, others say it's the start of another series. People are jumpy, tired and disappointed that they are continuing.. I'm sure the latest round will see some people reconsidering their commitment to staying in the Christchurch area.
DH has sciatica...he met a man (not a medical man) this morning who "knows all about it " (!?!) He told DH that ,if he was spending his evenings sitting in front of TV., on a "lazy-boy" chair, (how did he guess ??) that was the worst thing that he could be doing. He should be lying down on his tum...??? DH came home and removed the offending chair.. We could be in for an interesting evening...!!
Best wishes to all.
Marion.
A new year...
I always like to start a new year, like turning over a new page in a book, buying new calendars, looking at a whole year of days...and thinking, I'm blessed to be alive to see 2012 and hope to see then end of 2012 in as uneventful a year as my last. This does not always happen, as some of my close friends know...lol.
The picture to the left is taken from a quilt made for a friend whose mother was dying of cancer and wanted to leave her grown daughter a quilt. She chose my Canadian Folk Art quilt design and this is one of the blocks from this quilt. Just thought it would add some cheer to the board in what is, here in southern Canada, a bitterly cold night...so cold the rafters are snapping in the attic and Annie, unused to the cracking noise, is busy barking at it.
New Years was thankfully quiet...a friend in for supper, some laughter, a glass of cognac and himself returning from the airport where he picked his son up flying in from Costa Rica and a holiday. Just the usual stuff and nothing special.
The beginning of each year is a slate wiped clean and I wonder what life will write on our slates. Hopefully, it will all be positive for us all and hopefully, the land down under in New Zealand will stop jiggling under Marion's feet. The stress there must be all pervasive with the aftershocks and earthquakes.
Rosey, who still remembers who she is on the board...some days it gets hard to remember just who I am...!!
Happy New Year 2012
... to all my BB Chat friends.
DH and I went to a late afternoon move ("Mission Impossible") with two other couples, and then on to dinner afterward. DH and I went through two bottles of Pellegrino (sparkling water). We were home by 9:15 p.m. and fast asleep by 10:30 p.m. We are
such party animals. LOL Nothing like we used to be in our youth. Ah, old age! ;-)
As for the movie.... it was suspenseful enough but not believable. At all. More like science fiction. But the guys chose it and we ladies went along, as it was the better of all the choices. DH and I could not remember the last movie we went to see. There is very little at the cinema that appeals to us, these days.
It's warm right now, 60°F but a cold front is moving through during the day and the winter will return.
DH and I are going to a NHL hockey game today and it would be nice if our team wins. They have very little clue about how to set up a shot properly or score, and if not for their superb goalie, wouldn't win any games at all.
Hugs to everyone!
Here's Holly, intently watching the birds on the bird table, hoping that they will drop a morsel of food for her..
