Nothing stays the same - especially the weather!
I recently came across this photo (above) that I took a year ago on Boxing Day 2023. No snow yet - and the weather looks amazing!
Compare that to the weather THIS year. Our first snow arrived on December 1, 2024 - and we've been adding to it regularly ever since.
Here's our front yard the day AFTER Boxing Day this year!
Now, the best we can hope for is an early spring!
A friend recently shared a beautiful way she uses to be attentive to the world around her.
She sketches something she sees in nature every day. The graph she uses is a monthly circle.
Her daily observation can be as simple to sketch as a seed, leaf or pinecone - or as challenging as a bird! But the goal, I think, it to pay attention, note, and remember.
When she sent me this, we were midway through November.
She was noting the temperature and the weather, too. Sunny, cloudy, rainy or snowing...
Everything is inter-connected!
I love it!
I'm hoping to start my own monthly circles in the new year. (As with many things, the hardest part is to prepare - so that doing it will be easy!)
There is nothing sentimental about retail!
In the mall - walking again - for the first time since Christmas, I noticed Santa's cabin quickly being demolished... By next week the giant tree will probably be gone as well.
Replacing Christmas... Chocolate Valentines!
I was intrigued by the design - that uses six colours.
The yarn I'm using is left over from other projects. It's nice to watch my stash go down.
After knitting a bit, I noticed some "irregularities" ... Was I making mistakes?!
So I started over!
More irregularities! This time I decided to just ignore them!
With the constantly changing colors, I never know what the next part will look like.
Surprises are fun! Hope it will be done soon, so that I can wear it this winter!
A lot of the snow - from our first storm of the season - disappeared in recent milder weather.
I was thrilled!
Then more snow ... and ice.
I'll have to get used to this walkable /non-walkable "dance"! According to Terry's "100 days of winter" - which stretches from December 1 to March 10 - there's still a lot of winter to come!
Merry Christmas! The best gift is a peaceful and joyful day!
Today I give myself permission to simply PRAY FOR PEACE... to think PEACEFUL THOUGHTS... and enjoy the GOODWILL of all I encounter.
"PEACE on EARTH goodwill towards all" was the blessing of the angels 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born in Bethlehem... and Christianity was born.
All these years later, I also long for peace - and generous goodwill.
Came across this old photo - of a Christmas when I had only 2 children...
There are no Santa pictures of all 3! I couldn't do it! It would have been like "herding cats"!
It was exciting to head up to the front to participate.
Glad they all had the opportunity to light a candle. The 4th week of advent, there were 4 candles to light.
I take a lot of photos with my cell phone - in part because I try to post at least one photo daily on my blog.
The photos are saved on my phone AND on the Apple "cloud" - whatever that is. They are also saved on Google's "cloud." I'm not sure how that came to be... Perhaps because Google owns the Blogger app I use for blogging.
Recently Google caught my attention by sending me an interesting message:
(Wow! That's a lot of smiling faces! I recognize this one.)
???
Hmmm..!!!
(How do they know her name?!)
A few days ago, Terry and I had turkey dinner with our neighbors, Earl and Mary, at the Miller's Oven in Manotick.
It's become an annual Christmas tradition. Great food and company... and dessert!
This year, Terry was the only one to have our traditional "mile-high" lemon pie!
I walk in a nearby mall most days a week.
It's a bright and airy place to spend an hour - and it adds a significant number of kilometres to my virtual treks. Totalling those steps up, my walking app tells me I've done over 2000 kilometres so far this year!
But these mall walks may have a down side!
A few weeks ago, I noticed more and more sequined dresses and tops for sale.
Eventually I began to wonder if could use a top with sequins?!
A few weeks ago, that thought would never have crossed my mind...!
Here's a selfie I sent my daughter - from the change room - to get her opinion!
I didn't realize it - but I must be "the highly suggestible type" - to quote my son ... (who in turn is quoting Homer Simpson)!
(How often do you need to see sequins before you want some?! Now that would be an interesting question to ask a behavioural psychologist.)
I recently brought my daughter a "goodie bag" of Christmas treats I had found at a nearby European grocery store. Among them was a package of "oblate cookies" - soft ginger cookies with a white base, that I started buying some Christmases ago. They are apparently a European Christmas treat that dates back to medieval days.
The white base looks like a communian wafer, my daughter commented.
It is, I replied. I looked it up once and even wrote a blog about it... But now I don't remember why monks started using wafers as the base. I'll google it again...
So I did - and (to my surprise) up popped my original blog about the cookies: dated November 27, 2015!
As for the answer: one year monks were having a problem with their gingerbread cookies sticking to the pan. So communion wafers to the rescue! And a new tradition began!
A tip from Terry:
Now that winter is here, and weather is colder, don't forget to regularly check the air pressure in your tires.
(He has been known to leave notes in car windshields in parking lots, suggesting that tire pressure looks low - to have it checked.)
I'm glad the world has HELPFUL people like him around, to counterbalance those, like me, who simply don't notice!
Our daughter's Toronto neighborhood is a mix of "old" and "new"... (The "old" has not been forgotten!)
Next to a new building, there's an old train bridge serving as a pedestrian walkway...
An old water tank sits atop a new building.
Not sure if this "new" statue (of a crushed can) alludes to an old neighborhood industry or a new problem...
Or if the neighborhood pool hall USED TO be around here, or still IS.
I need a historical tour to appreciate all these landmarks.
I recently came across this illustration - so true!
But the problem with me is that I still like to get stuff... and it ACCUMULATES!
It's hard to get ahead of the game! I sometimes think that my goal should be to give away TWO things for every ONE I acquire!
