Irish Music - and Dance!

A few evenings ago, Terry and I went to a performance of Irish music and dance here in Ottawa. The dancers were a touring troupe of the National Dance Company of Ireland.

(Glad my older son gave us the tickets!)

It took me back to the years that my daughter studied ballet and tap dance...

She would have really appreciated it!

It was amazing to see the dancers' skill and athleticism!

The dancers were accompanied by a fiddler and a band. The fiddling reminded me of my father's love of music. As a young man in Hay Lakes, he was a (self-taught) fiddler in a band that played at local weddings.

Music has a way of taking me back...

Spring Floods?!

In all the years we've lived in our neighbourhood, our basement has flooded twice. (But I can't remember if it ever happened in spring...)

It's not something we ever want to experience again. So - with mixed emotions - we watch our snow melt... and puddle!

Melt! Yes! But not too fast! We don't want to deal with a flood!

Later, my son sent me a picture of this downtown street... flooding... 

I don't know if it got any worse than that. Hopefully it's all cleared up today.

Convertible Weather?!

Last Saturday Terry and I went shopping with our sons. The day was warm and pleasant - but there was still some snow around....

When we returned to our car, we noticed this top-down convertible parked near us!

Is it THAT warm?!

Only in Canada would 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) be considered convertible weather! 

Sixteen Granny Squares!

I'm always looking for something easy to make...

Like this jacket... made of 16 granny squares. 

I wonder if it's really as easy as it looks! Maybe I should give it a try.

Recipes ... and Memories!

There was a time when I was always on the lookout for interesting recipes. Over the years, I accumulated quite few! 

I recently went through two of my overflowing recipe binders, to organize them, culling those recipes I know I'll never make.

Looking through the pages brought back so many memories! The recipe for triple chocolate BRAN cookies that my older son wrote out by hand and brought home in grade 4. They were good -  I'll have to try them again!

The pumpkin cookie recipe I picked up at the pumpkin patch when I accompanied a class on a kindergarten field trip. ("Goblin Cookies")

Can't forget this recipe for cranberry apple crisp that my daughter emailed me before coming home from university for Thanksgiving, her first year away... I  always smile at her admonition to follow the recipe, without modifying it!

Ahhh! She knows me so well!

Memories!

Agile Neighborhood Cat!

There's a white cat that we sometimes see wandering around the neighborhood. She does have a home: She wears a pink collar around her neck.

She occasionally wanders through our yard. When I recently saw her, she was crawling under our backyard fence... 

A great way to escape the coyotes that prowl around our neighborhood, I remember thinking...

The other day, I saw another of her moves... Walking over to the chain link fence at the side of our yard, she put a paw in, then jumped up, climbing to the top!

From there she proceeded to walk along the wooden fence... just like the squirrels do!

Squirrels beware!!

Watching the Squirrel's Nest

I spent a lazy afternoon watching squirrels run up and down the leafless branches of a maple tree to their nest. (Or was it one squirrel?! It’s hard to know...)

I was searching for the entrance to the nest... 

I was also hoping to see several squirrels - perhaps a litter of young - appear at the same time. No such luck!

To my surprise, the entry seemed to be on the top left - from my perspective. (Wouldn't rain enter that way?!)

The last part of the squirrel to disappear into the nest was its black tail.

All this viewing was possible because there are still no leaves on the tree. But I had to move quickly to get shots of the squirrel. They do move fast.

Early the following morning, I continued checking on the nest. This time I counted five squirrels either crawling out of the nest or running down the branches.

So much going on!

It's been a fun discovery. I won't view this tree (or its nest) in the same way after this - even after leaves grow back, hiding the action!