Sunrise - Sunset

These days - here in Ottawa - dawn arrives around 7:30 am.

The sun goes down around 5 pm. Not yet 10 hours of daylight.

The heat of the sun is warmer as it shines through the windows.

These are all welcome signs of approaching spring!

Mid-Winter Update

The air is cooler again after last week's warmer weather - that melted some of the snow.

Exciting to walk on bare pavement again!

As I walked down the street, I stopped to admire a large snow slide a neighbour was building. It's so big it goes all across the front yard.

There are even steps on the back.

Hope kids get to enjoy it before it all melts!

Mourning Doves

Our neighbourhood is full of birds and animals - though it amazes me how they survive and thrive - in winter!

Our neighbour, Earl leaves seed out to feed the birds (and squirrels!) 

He told Terry that that these mourning doves drop by in the evening...

... just before sunset...

They even let him take a few pictures!

I've never noticed doves in our yard! I used to leave bird seed out in winter. Maybe I should hunt for my old bird feeder again!

JOYFUL Tasks

These coldest days of winter has set me on a search of JOYFUL things to do.

Maybe that's why I'm working on a puzzle with lots of yellow and lots of flowers.

I also came across this quilt pattern for an optimism quilt - called that possibly because it's made of bright, cheerful colours. Maybe I should search through my fabric stash and make s simple cheerful one like it.

I need to search for JOYFUL things to do!

The sun is out - though the temperature is cold - as I write this... Sunny days cheer me up as well!

Cute Projects

A friend loaned me this knitting book...

Lots of cute ideas for knit and crocheted accessories, like this necklace and this bracelet.

I love the muted hues of the projects made by the author... (I tend to use bright, "flashy" colours.)

No sweater patterns here - but I do love this granny square afghan. 

The author lives in Hawaii, so I'd guess she doesn't need many sweaters there!

Mary's Latest Quilt

Now that winter is here, there's lots of time for doing things indoors. My neighbour, Mary, has been quilting, as well as working on jigsaw puzzles.

She recently showed me a picture of her latest quilt and told me how she made it. I usually stick to square and rectangular shapes...

This is my latest quilt that I completed in early December.  It is more of a lap quilt in size.  It measures 42" x 68" (107cm x 172cm). 

There seem to be a lot of patterns recently that have circles in them and I really like the effect .  So  this was really a test run and used mostly fabric from my stash. 

I didn't follow the pattern exactly mainly because some of my stash pieces were not that big, and I wanted to see if I could make the quarter circle easily using the acrylic template. 

In conclusion, making the quarter circle was not difficult at all.

The only disadvantage with the template was that it was slippery and wanted to slip when I was using the rotary cutter.  So if you look at the template you will see lines of circles.  They are actually the leftover sheet pieces from silicone pads.  Once we have used all the grippy feet from the sheet, I save the sheet for this purpose.  Works really well.

Not sure when my next quilting adventure will be because the table I use for cutting the fabric is also the table that I do puzzles on.

Beautiful!

I Quit!

On January 1, 2024, I started to crochet a "temperature blanket." Every day I planned to add a row, based on the temperatures of the day...

I pondered whether to base it on daily highs? Lows? Averages? And what about sunny days versus cloudy days? Rain or snow?

Why not all?!

So my daily additions to the blanket encompassed daily high and low temperatures - as well as the dominant weather of the day. Three rows...

I did it for 18 days... 

But I hated the blues and whites! I need LIFE in winter! Even the yellow I was using for sunny days wasn't strong enough to boost my mood! 

RED, ORANGE - those are the colours I crave in winter...! 

I just can't do it: I QUIT!

More Jigsaw Puzzles

I haven't worked on a large jigsaw puzzle for years - and my current one is going more slowly than anticipated. Here it is, after a week!

When my daughter finished her 1000-piece puzzle in only a few days during her Christmas vacation, I expected to take the same amount of time. But it's taking me much longer!

My neighbour, Mary, has been working on jigsaw puzzles too, this winter:

I am currently working on a 1000 piece puzzle that I have had for maybe six months.  This photo was taken about four days in.  

I methodically do the border first and then work on specific areas of interest.  I just put some music on and I could get lost for hours.  

For Christmas I received four 1000 piece puzzles and I have already completed three. 

I still have the one puzzle to complete from Christmas (Ravensburger Abandon series) and also a 2000 piece puzzle that I have had for a bit.

Unfinished puzzles do not hang around for long, considering that I am the only one who works on them.

(I'm pretty sure mine will be the only one I do this winter! Maybe I should listen to music, like Mary, or - like my daughter - tune into some podcasts while I work on it... but I have a one-track mind!)

Winter Fun in the Country

It's interesting to see how my grandkids in the country still love to play outdoors in the winter.

Ivy enjoys the swings - even in the snow!

Her brother likes to scoot around the driveway with his dump truck, part of the snow-clearing team...

He uses his shovel to create "mountains"...

As I watch all the action, my eyes are drawn to the beautiful sunset - that comes so early these days: 5 PM!!

It's getting cold... Time to go in.

Looking for the "Perfect" Hand Cream

Every winter - as soon as temperatures drop below freezing - my hands start to crack. Tiny painful cuts... For me, it's a sure sign that winter has arrived!

Over the years, I've found a few creams that work quite well... But every year, I start a new search for a "perfect" one. 

This year, after googling "best hand creams for winter" and reading several newspaper reviews online, I made a list of  non-sticky ones that sounded promising. Non-sticky is key for daytime use.

This is the first one from the list that I was able to find in a store. (It also has a healthy foot version.) I've never noticed them before.

I'll try them both for a while and see how they work. I don't want to spend the winter months walking around with my hands covered in bandages!

Terry, Then and Now

Terry and I met in January 1977, at a church in downtown Montreal, where he worked. A lot of university students attended this church. His job there was a youth worker. 

Later that same year, we got married. Not long afterwards, he decided to go back to school to study counselling, to be better equipped for the job of talking to people about problems they wanted to discuss with him. It was a big decision -  to quit work and go back to school for two years.

Someone took this picture of him during his first year of graduate studies... He doesn't look very happy. I think he's wondering if he had made a mistake. (He only told me that later!)

Fast forward 40-plus years. The same person - but not.... He looks a lot happier! 

AFTER THE STUDIES WERE DONE, he worked in counselling for 30 years. After that rocky beginning, he never regretted going back to school.

Counting Down!

We all enjoy counting down to something. 

Ever since the first pandemic winter - when I felt so isolated, I have been keeping track of when the sun rises and sets - every day of the year - and taking joy in lengthening days.

Terry keeps tabs on the temperature. And yesterday - he informed me - was the halfway point in his "100 days of winter." 

Where we live, the average daytime temperature is 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) on December 1. Our average temperature drops - then rises again to 0 / 32 degrees on March 10.

Terry likes to count down these 100 days - it's his way of dealing with this season's colder days. 

On January 19, where we live, winter is halfway done! (And a meteorologist sees it the same way...!)

Let's all celebrate!

My New Fitness Goal for 2024

For the past few years, my fitness goal has been to walk more - to take at least 10,000 steps a day. I keep my iPhone in my pocket at all times to count my steps.

But I've discovered that the phone counts more than my number of steps. It also counts my speed, the average length of my steps and my "double support time" - the percentage of time I have both feet on the floor at the same time, so that I'm NOT standing on only one foot.

My steadiness and asymmetry as well.

What is "asymmetry"? I wondered... Here's the explanation on the phone app:

So, all in all, my walking is not that bad. But there's one aspect of mobility that I'm very, very poor at: Getting up when I'm sitting on the floor. In fact, it's shocking to me how un-agile I've become.

Relearning how to stand up when I'm sitting on the floor - playing with my grandchildren - is my fitness goal for the coming months. 

I'm not quite sure how to do it... I'll start by getting down on the floor several times a day to PRACTICE...

In cultures where people sleep on mats on the floor, do people lose their ability to get down on the floor or stand up? I suspect they don't.

(Is this another example of "use it of lose it?!)

What Have I Been Learning??

After re-reading last week's post on the "Five Hour Rule" or goal... (I prefer goal), I started to wonder if I have really made learning new things a priority in my life. I THINK I have - but have I really?! 

It reminds me of a health survey I took a few years ago. One question was: "How much do you sit during the day?"

Well, I sit to read and eat... and knit or quilt, I calculated in my head. Each one of those is about an hour a day, give or take.

So I entered "4 hours" in my survey - and sent it off.

Later I asked Terry: How much would you say I sit on average a day? Two hours? Or four?

I'm pretty sure you sit a lot more than that, he replied. I'd say maybe eight - at least.

Eight?! (That's a number associated statistically with increased risk for strokes!) I hope I don't sit that much!

Suddenly I started paying more attention - and he was right!

Maybe I should make a list of things I've intentionally tried to learn in the past year. I really wonder now if I'm working on it anywhere near five hours a week...

Jigsaw Puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles were part of my growing up years. 

During Christmas vacations, I'd often leave a box of puzzle pieces on the dining room table. Anyone passing the table could stop and add to it. That way, it would eventually get done!

Then we'd leave it out for a few weeks  - long enough to enjoy the satisfaction of our accomplishment. Then back into the box the pieces would go until next winter vacation.

It was this memory that nudged me to buy this puzzle a year ago - but the box was never opened. Finally, this winter I brought it out. It's not going as quickly as I'd like!

We don't have a spare dining room table - so it's tucked under the sofa when I'm not working on it.

I hope to finish it - without losing any pieces!

More Snow Clearing

Last weekend's snowstorm has created a lot of work for many... It's not all done by machine.

"Let's push those piles of snow away and get back to life as normal!"

That's been the Canadian attitude for decades. (Only in the 1920's did the city of Montreal begin to clear their streets. Previous to that, motor vehicles were parked in garages for the winter - and out came horses and sleighs!)

That same "can-do attitude" for snow removal appears after snowstorms at the college, as many hands - with shovels - suddenly appear to clear away the snow around the winter dome. I wonder where they find so many willing hands!