One Man Show!

My impression of on-the-spot TV news coverage did an about-face after I saw this photograph that my daughter sent me from her second-floor home office. 

In my mind, a television camera crew (made up of at least one photographer and sound person) accompanied any roving TV reporter. At least, that’s always what I've seen on TV.

But here is a television reporter, near my daughter’s home, working all alone. A smartphone, on a tripod, is recording his video and the audio. He's a one-person crew!

Not sure what's in the box in the back of the vehicle. A hard drive to store the video footage? A modem to send the report to the studio - to be edited before it is broadcast...?

Terry and I tuned in to watch the new... It was a new invention being used by this hospital.

From our angle, things looked the same - but it's definitely different now!

Monday Mornings!

This online message really spoke to my heart!

Sometimes I need that much coffee mid-week as well!

Memory Joggers

I enjoy making things - and, like most crafters, make far more than I can ever use....

So it was gratifying to see these quilts - that I made years ago - being put to good use!  

(They date back to my "2-color quilt" phase!)

More Sunlight!

Yesterday, for the first time in months, the afternoon sun shone into the hedged yard of the neighbours behind us - and onto the backyard deck of the neighbours next door. 

All this reminds me that, not only are days getting longer...The sun is slowly inching higher in the sky!

It may still be cold out, with lots of fresh snow - but spring can't be all that far away!

An Old Knitting "Friend"

The knitting anthology I'm currently enjoying - A Stash of One's Own - is reacquainting me with some of my old knitting "friends": famous knitters whose books have mentored me over the years.

One such mentor is Elizabeth Zimmermann, who had a PBS knitting series in the 1950's... which I watched in re-runs years later, when I found some VHS copies in my public library.

Now I'm discovering how she - and other well-known knitters - dealt or deal with their "stashes" of yarn...

One astounding Elizabeth Zimmermann knitting trick was to snip into a completed sweater to create an "afterthought pocket." (Even her daughter gasped when she did that on TV!) 

She was a fearless knitter who must have taken her knitting along everywhere. She was once stopped by a police officer for knitting as she rode as a passenger behind her husband on his motorcycle.

Sir, do you realize your passenger is knitting?(!!)

 

Her books have the same conversational style as her televised knitting program.

Fortunately I've also been able to collect a lot of her books.

New Blooms

For the past month, I've been enjoying my four amaryllis bulbs in bloom...

The first flowers have finished blooming - but more growth is on the way. 

This bud is ready to bloom...

And a few days later, it did!

These two bulbs are growing new shoots. I really need to cut back the previous, now-shriveled flowers.

In another part of the house, my one and only orchid - whose little buds first appeared weeks ago - is finally beginning to bloom. It was sitting there so long, with nothing visibly changing that I was wondering if our house was too cold or too dark for the flowers to develop. Or maybe I had forgotten to water it and damaged the developing buds??!

So this is an encouraging sign!

River Running High

Terry and I headed to Almonte last weekend.

And the river was running high - no doubt because of our days of melting snow.

It was a little chilly, too... but still very refreshing. 

Whenever I walk by a river, I think of one of my former colleagues, who developed environmental allergies. Her antidote was to walk - or sit - near a river, for hours on end.

I find river air to be refreshing, too.

The Perfect Little Size

Children grow up so quickly!

You're getting so big, I can barely lift you, I recently told my three-year-old grandson as I picked him up.

He looked at me solemnly.

Daddy says I'm the perfect little size, he replied...

So true!

I thought of all the sizes he had been in the last three years...

He's always been the perfect little size!

It’s “Family Day” in Ontario

Today is “Family Day” in Ontario. 

Family day is a relatively recent holiday - instated the the year I retired… 

Here’s a picture of our family taken in my parents’ condo in Kelowna quite a few years before that. The photo is dated July 1994, the year my father died. We had driven to Edmonton for his memorial service. He had died in Europe, while on vacation, and was buried there. Our kids were 10, 12 and 14 at the time.

We used to drive to Edmonton and Kelowna in August every few years when they were young - but that summer was definitely different. One of the "fun" things about that somber vacation was returning home not in one vehicle, but two. My mother had given us her car - so Terry and the boys travelled in our station wagon while my daughter and I followed them in our new-to-us white Topaz. (The kids loved having a "girls' car" and a "boys car.")

We tried to stay together as we drove across the continent - before cell phones existed. But inevitably at times the vehicles became separated in traffic. Looking back at that trip, it's a miracle we always managed to find each other in the end...

Memories!

Sugar Bush!

Last weekend, my grandkids enjoyed an outing to a "sugar bush" with their dad - to see how maple syrup is produced.

Also to taste some maple taffy on a stick...

Visit some alpacas...

Play in a playground...

And eat! A fun way to spend an almost-spring day!

It looks like so much fun that now I want to go there! I've never been ... I always enjoy discovering new places to visit - especially if there's delicious food involved!

Slow and Steady

A few weeks ago, I started my first mosaic crochet. This is the picture of what it's supposed to look like. 

I love the colours!

This is the design. I have to count stitches carefully... (which is why my goal is only two rows daily...)

I'm hoping that "slow and steady" will win the race!

What a Week!

It seems a little early for spring...

But last Saturday, out street was totally ice and snow covered. 

The next day - Sunday - wasn't all that warm, but temperatures rose above freezing. More ice and snow disappeared...

Monday (above) a bit more ice disappeared. By Tuesday (below), I thought I could probably find a bare path up the street.

Day by day, things began looking hopeful!

Yesterday afternoon, the street looked bare!

(As long as it doesn't snow again soon!)

Surprised by...Snowmen!

Terry and I were driving down a busy street, when we happened upon...

Snowmen - five of them - in the median!

Someone had fun making them ...!! (Hopefully the road was quiet at the time!)

I wonder if they'll survive this early spring thaw.

Knitting Stash

My winter indoor organizing has included dealing with my yarn stash - bringing all my various bits and skeins together - so that I can see what I actually have and find what I'm looking for more easily.

This Mari Kondo tip (keeping items that are the same together in one place) has been a great organizing tool in other areas of my life as well.

It has also made me realize that I have a yarn "stash"!

Interestingly, I am also reading an anthology of knitters writing about their personal yarn "stashes." The book is entitled: A Stash of One's Own: Knitters on Loving, Living With, and Letting Go of Yarn.

I never really gave much thought to the meaning of having a "stash" of anything - whether it be yarn, fabric, books... or whatever. In fact, I've sometimes viewed my collection as a weakness. (One minimalist in my family views it as akin to hoarding,  hinting that I may need an intervention!!)

So it was liberating to read: "the relationship between stitcher and yarn goes far beyond simply being prepared. A yarn stash is a declaration of self-esteem."' It is a stake in the ground that says "My passion is worthwhile."

(Wow! I may have found my community - others who understand my "need" to collect!)

Valentine’s Day!

Today is Valentine’s Day!

The mall is full of heart-shaped  gifts…

But this year I gave Terry a gift he really wanted: A pile of mended clothes that had been sitting in my sewing room for a very long time... He had been asking about them...

(It’s always our favourite, most comfortable clothing that wears out and needs to be mended! I was hoping he'd just go out and get some new stuff!)

In return, he gave me more clothes to mend!

(Love is an everyday thing!)

Oops!

My daughter lives in a lovely, large apartment building where - in spite of its many modern features - the building's mailroom is woefully inadequate. Whoever designed the building didn't foresee today's working reality. Nowadays so many people work from home that home deliveries have multiplied exponentially. Boxes of food, office supplies - and who knows what else - overflow from the mailroom in her building into the lobby, where they lie strewn haphazardly for anyone to pick up. 

With all this delivery chaos, our daughter has opted to have her parcels sent to our house.

One day recently, we came home to find a small Amazon box on the doorstep. 

What did you order now? Terry asked.

Books, I replied. 

It's a small box for books, he commented. 

These books are small...

The next day, when I opened the box - to my surprise, I discovered not books ... but candy!

I checked the label... Oops! It was addressed to my daughter!

Her company had sent all employees candy as a Valentine's Day gift!

I guess having your mother accidentally open your mail is the downside of our delivery arrangement! 

(Hmmm, I wonder if she'd notice if any candy is gone?!)

Could This Be Spring?!

It's a bit early to think it might be spring in our part of Canada...

But yesterday's weekly forecast showed above-freezing daytime temperatures most days next week.

The hedge at the back of our yard lost a lot of snow yesterday... So that's progress! But the roads are still snow-filled.

For me, the next milestone would be bare streets and sidewalks. It would be lovely to go out walking again! 

There's still a lot of snow out there... It will take a while for all that to melt. But once the ice on the road is gone, I'll feel "free" to walk outdoors again!