Equinox? Not Here!

One of the milestones of spring is "equinox" - the day we have equal hours of daylight and darkness. After our short days of winter, it's a date I look forward to! 

YAY! SUMMER is coming!!

In school, we were taught that equinox occurred (universally?) on March 21... That would have been the right answer on the science test...

So it has been interesting for me to discover (thanks to my weather app) that this DOESN'T occur on the same date everywhere... In fact, here where I live in eastern Ontario, equinox occurrs earlier - somewhere around March 18 / March 19. On March 18 we had 11 hours and 59 minutes of daylight. Then on March 19 we jumped to 12 hours and 3 minutes.

And so the days get brighter and warmer until late-June, when we start losing minutes of daylight. 

River Walk

Yesterday was warm and sunny, so Terry and I headed to Point Gatineau to enjoy a walk along the Ottawa River.

The air always feels fresher here!

There was a lot of ice on the river when we arrived, but it was moving  along quickly.

Half an hour later, when we retraced our path, the river was mostly clear.

We walked quickly to get a better look at a "bump" on the ice in the distance, to see what it was... An abandoned ice fishing hut,  perhaps?

We should have brought binoculars!

It's too early to know if the river will flood this spring. It depends on how much water and ice come down the river from rivers up north. An ice jam could also cause a flood.

Hopefully, all will be well!

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!