Frozen

We had our first real snow storm on Sunday, December 15, and it feels like it hasn't stopped since then. We've had lots of snow and freezing rain in the past two weeks. We've been on vacation, so mostly it hasn't affected us too much, and fortunately we had decent weather on both of our travel days so our planned visit to NS went as scheduled.

We headed for NS on the morning of the 23rd, leaving almost an hour earlier than usual since we'd had freezing rain all the previous day and overnight. By morning though, it was pretty much just rain, and our short drive to the ferry was no problem. It snowed every day from the 24 to the 27, though fortunately it was not coming down too hard on the 27th, when we were travelling back to NB. So thankful for the ferry, which means we only have an hour of highway driving.

We had a good visit with the family, but once we get on our way home to Saint John, I can't wait to get back to our house and the cats (crazy cat lady and proud of it). Our cat sitter had mentioned that our tree out front was really bending over from the weight of the ice, so I was hoping for the best, but as soon as we pulled into our drive way, we could see the tree was destroyed. That put a bit of a damper on our homecoming. That tree made me happy. :(

We've been puttering around, enjoying the rest of our vacation. The cats have been extra cuddly, and also a little stir crazy because they don't like going out in the snow so they have lots of energy to burn.

Tomorrow is our 12th wedding anniversary. Time flies! Usually we go out to dinner, but this year we are having some friends in instead. We're doing Chinese fondue for 8; we've never tried this with that many people, but hopefully it will work out and everyone will enjoy themselves.

It snowed last night. And it snowed again today. Happy winter holidays. I'm thinking I should buy snow shoes.

Winter scenes from my parents house

Bird watching at my in-laws

Checking out the remains of our maple tree and damage to the cat fence; they are both done for.

Fabulous Felines

Hey! It's December.

 

Happy December 1st! Appropriately, we woke up to snow this morning, though I don't think it will last - there's rain in the forecast for the next couple of days. This is our first real snow of the year, so I guess we're pretty fortunate. We saw flakes in the air a few times before this. On Wednesday we woke up to a light frosting of snow, enough to make the road slick, but it was pouring down rain by the afternoon. I'm sure there's more to come though.

So. It's  been a  while. I have written numerous blog posts in my head, but somehow I never got around to actually typing anything. That sums up a lot of things lately; I just don't get around to it, can't be bothered, don't feel like it, don't have time...

Everything is fine. I'm fine. Husband is fine. Fabulous Felines are fine. We're all good. I'm just lacking in...something lately. Focus? Motivation? I don't know. I have some vacation coming up, maybe that is all I need.

In the mean time, let's have some fun with photos...

Ahh....October...Out comes the Autumn footwear...Hello you beautiful shoes!

A peck of pickled peppers? Okay not quite, but I did pickle them.

Oktoberfest anyone? FYI, Husband and I split that can of beer. I do not need to drink a full can when the can is the size of my head.

November. We started to get some chilly weather. Finally got around to digging up my carrots. I was a little afraid I would not get to them before the ground froze.

 

Had to stop filling the bird feeders because of raccoons. They are the cutest little critters, but they can climb the  fence and I was afraid  of them getting in and tangling with the cats. We can keep seed in the globe feeder though, so we still see chickadees.



 

 

Shoe sale! Could not pass these up. You understand.

We got a new bed. The old one was 15+ years old. It was time. And a new duvet. Fabulous Felines approve.

When I pruned my forsythia bush,  there were a few blossoms...In November...So I brought a few branches in, and put them in a vase; now we have forsythia in bloom in our kitchen.

 

 

Christmas cactus in bloom. So cheery!

So how are you guys? Everything good?

September Week 3: Okay

I think it was a pretty good week. We had lots of nice, sunny weather. And,  uh...nothing bad happened? Don't you hate those weeks when you can't actually remember what you did? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

I guess it was just an average week. The usual get up, go to work, come home, repeat; nothing stands out. I am still feeling a lot better. Work is still busy, but good busy, not so much of the panic type busy.

So yeah. I should find some other things to talk about...

I have been re-reading Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. I read a bunch years ago, and there have been some new books since then, including the finale of the series. But it had been so long that I just started all over again, and I finished on Friday. Fifteen books (I had to look that up just now, I didn't count while I was reading). It was good to finally get the ending, but it's always a bit sad when you come to the end of something like that and realize that there is no more.

Now I'm reading the latest Richard Castle novel, which is a change of pace, to say the least.

I'm still taking piano lessons and I've been doing some nice pieces in piano lessons lately. Sometimes the pieces in the lesson book are not so enjoyable, which makes it harder to practice. But recently there was an Etude by Chopin, and right now I'm doing Musetta's Waltz which is lovely.  A simple version obviously, but I'm enjoying it.

On Friday I picked a few tomatoes, the most I've picked at once so far this year. There are still so many green ones out there; they don't want to ripen this year!

 

 

Today was a busy at home day. Some laundry, some cleaning. I made a small batch of salsa and then tomato sauce for supper.

 



 



 

 

It had been a pretty nice day for the most part - back and forth between sun and cloud, then suddenly there was a downpour. The patio door was open, and we didn't realize right away, so by the time we went to close it we had quite the puddle on our kitchen floor. Our bedroom window is on the same side of the house, and we have a portable air conditioner hooked up. We didn't think about that, until I happened to go in to  gather up some laundry and water was coming in around the air conditioner vent. I got good and wet in the time it took me to open the window a crack, remove the insert, and close the window all the way.

 

 

I was sitting by the living room window, and after it rained itself out I noticed a squirrel and a cardinal out in the cherry tree. I was actually surprised that the cardinal was hanging around so long, and I wondered  if it was wanting the squirrel to leave so it could get at the sunflower seeds in the feeder.

 

 

The squirrel gave in and left, and, sure enough, the cardinal went straight for the sunflower seeds - and I headed straight for the spare room window where there was a better view for my camera.

Meanwhile, the squirrel was hanging out in the maple tree, so everyone was happy!

 

 

 

 

 



September Week 2: Let's Try This Again

So much for getting back into my exercise routine. Last week was one of those weeks where it just seemed like there was something else going on every day. I could beat myself up over it...but I decided not to. Things just go this way sometimes.

Last week was also a pretty rainy, gloomy week, though we got off pretty easy considering there was a tropical storm moving through the region.

Today was the start of a new week. I came home. I exercised. I won't say I was chomping at the bit, or in any way eager. It was something that needed to be done, so I did it. It was actually even a good workout - one advantage of being well rested!

That's about all I have to say this week I guess. Let's just move on to some pictures!

My poor garden! I haven't been getting much out of it this year. Sunday, I picked a bucket of cucumbers and a few tomatoes.

 

The cucumbers became pickles - first time I've ever tried making dill pickles! They join my one batch of salsa as the only preserving I have done this year. And it's the middle of September already!

 

I do have lots of jalapeno peppers waiting to be picked. I'm thinking they might get pickled as well, since it doesn't look like I'll be needed them for salsa.

 

I bought a new feeder for the squirrels, since I got tired of them knocking the other ones out of the maple tree. This one they can just crawl into. Or, you know, hang upside down while munching on sunflower seeds.

 

 

Still lots of birds around too. Can't keep the feeders full lately. Guess they are all getting ready for winter.

 

 

September Week 1: Dare I say I am feeling better?

In my previous post-full-of-whining, I forgot to mention that in addition to the fatigue, I was having issues with my right foot. The good news is that I likely forgot because I was no longer being bothered.

At some point in the past, I did something to my right foot (actually, I do have a general idea of when & what, but that doesn't really matter) and it flares up every now and again, usually not for that long. This time it did last long - I guess is was maybe off and on for a couple of months, and then it was just on and on and on, or so it seemed. I tried to be careful in choosing workouts, and to stick to wearing comfortable supportive shoes - thank goodness for my cute little Naots.

Things are seemingly back to normal now, though I will continue to take it easy for the next while.

I only had 3 work days this week, and I made it too the weekend without being completely worn out, which was nice. Managed to make a batch of salsa  today - first batch of the summer and here it is September already. Things seem to be really late this year though.

I picked my first tomato this week (though I have had a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes). I'm starting to wonder if the rest will ever get ripe. Not a good year for my garden.

Other than that, and the usual grocery shopping, laundry, etc, I still took it pretty easy this weekend. I do think that giving myself permission to  rest was a good thing; I needed it. However, I now need to get up off my butt and start doing some workouts. So I guess that  is my goal for this week. Along with trying to avoid wearing myself out again. I'd like to feel normal for a while.

Some favorite shots from this week...

Oh hey! It's September...

Remember when I was posting  once a week? Yeah, me too, just barely.

I was tired. I was frustrated with myself, scolding myself for all the things I felt I was doing wrong or not doing. Because I was tired.

We were finally having decent summer weather, and I was tired.

So I decided to just stop.

We were finally having decent summer weather, and I didn't want to waste it being tired and frustrated and mean to myself. So there.

I spent quiet evenings, weekend afternoons, sitting in the garden with my book, camera and Fabulous Felines.

We've had a lot of challenges over the past year. Nothing truly disastrous, just a lot of little things. You get over one, and you take a step forward, looking forward to life getting back to normal, and oops! There's another one. There have been disturbing things going on with Husband's work, we keep waiting for a resolution; and waiting and waiting. Things have been busy, busy, busy and my work, which should be good, but it does tire a person out when it never seems to slow down. Then there was some reorganization of teams, so you have to adjust. And you're busy.

I think I was stressed without being fully aware of how stressed.

I took some extra vacation days around the long weekend, and it's been good. Well, the first couple of days not as good as they might have been because there was some bad news (work related), but it's been restful.

Back to work tomorrow, and while I wouldn't say I'm raring to go, I'm feeling okay.

August Workouts
05: Jackie Warner Power Circuit
06: Dug up my garlic
12: Jackie Warner One On One Training - UB+LB

14: Crunch Fat Burning Pilates

15: Jackie Warner Power Circuit

19: Jackie Warner Power Pyramid Training

21: Jackie Warner Power Circuit

27: Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates

August

I'm kind of sad that it's August already...and almost half way through August at that. I feel like I want to make the most of this last month of summer. I'm not entirely sure what that means for me, but I want to do it. The days just go by so fast!

When last we spoke (or I blogged), I was mid-vacation and still feeling tiiiiirrrred. We went home to NS a couple of days later. I was tired, but still enjoyed our visit with family. We came home on Sunday so we'd have Monday at home (Provincial Holiday) and I actually felt pretty good on Monday, finally.

So last week was getting back into the work routine. It was not a bad week; I was tired by Friday, but normal tired I think. We had a good weekend, and I am starting this week determined to get back on track. Starting with cutting wheat out again for a while. Sigh. I was hoping moderation would do it, but that seems to be hard to do, especially now that Husband is home full time again. So, out it goes and we shall see if it has the same effect this time around.

I don't feel like I have that much more to say this week. Possibly because it is 9:40 pm and I am quickly approaching pumpkin time (that's what Husband calls it - as in I will turn into a pumpkin/need to go to sleep very soon).

So how about some pictures?

I grew garlic!

 

Then I refilled a bird feeder on this table, and a visitor dropped by for dinner.

 

The hummingbirds remain camera shy, but I am determined.

 

 

This dozer showed up, filled in a hole and flattened out the hill. A little worried. I don't want them to build anything past us. Maybe that's selfish, but I'm okay with that.

 

 

Frank. Just because.