Christmas 2019 - Episode 2

After a day spent driving, Mum, Dad and I arrived in Pakenham (near Ottawa), followed by Si, Dan, Fi and Ruby and the following day, Chris and Jason.

While awaiting Chris and Jason's arrival (when we could start opening presents) we walked up the road with the dogs.

Visited the two ponds which involved some hills, yelling for dogs whenever a car came by and enjoying the sun and snow.

We gave in to Mum's whinging and each opened one gift before Chris and Jason arrived. Monty was very interested in the cheese.

Ruby was too tired out by the walk to care.

Pretty soon it was chaos of gifts and wrapping paper

almost buried Monty.

Fiona loved her quilt from Nicola.

Heather had put Kraft Dinner on her Christmas list and most of us took pity on the poor girl. Imagine her parents only providing healthy food!

Next; the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, gravy, brussel sprouts, carrots, beets and parsnip, followed by Christmas pudding and rum butter, followed by the traditional turkey coma.

Christmas 2019 - episode 1

My old netbook was starting to get "glitchy", it was about 5 years old, so I bought a new one and thought I had better make sure I could use it for blog posts before setting off on the next trip. Looks OK so far!

I had wanted to complete this pictorial before Xmas as I have to teach it at McGown Teacher Training next September and have to submit the pictures of the completed project, a report and lesson plan by the summer. At this point I am planning on teaching about black walnut dying (cabin and tree are hooked with walnut dyed wool), tips for pictorials and ways to add texture and dimension to a pictorial. That should fill a day. (Summer Bell Pull, designed by Jane McGown Flynn)

Christmas Eve day I spent with Nicola and her family for my "first Christmas".

Kevin and Broghan were there for the afternoon and evening. Carla was home for the week (sorry no pictures)

Nicola often compares Bronx to a two year old child and he certainly lived up to that comparison. Once he discovered that his wrapped gifts had dog bones and treats inside he was constantly trying to open everyone's gifts and hunting under the tree.

His other trick - stealing your seat if you got up.

Christmas Bark and Storks

When Christine closed up the cafe there was a lot of left over food stuff. When helping her to do inventory of it I bought some home, including 2 large ziplock bags of white chocolate flakes (one for me and one for Nicola). Brainstorming what to do with them we came up with the idea of making chocolate bark for Christmas gifts.

Last weekend, with recipes off the internet

and lots of goodies from Bulk Barn (mini rolos, crushed candy canes, candied fruit peel, cranberries, diced apricots) and some from my cupboard (peanuts, almonds, a square of dark chocolate, cocoa, sea salt),

we melted the white chocolate

and made lots of delicious chocolate bark.

Nicola and I then went in search of Christmas Storks. Last year, driving away from the Christmas festivities on Long Port, Nicola's family saw these huge birds in the fields and dubbed them "Christmas Storks".

Well the Sandhill Cranes are back in the fields just north of Long Point.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of them, eating the corn dropped from the harvester

sometimes leaping and fluttering their wings and making their strange trilling calls.

California, Palm Springs - on my own.

The last 3 days I have no company so I set my own routine; awake at about 7:30, couple of cups of coffee and check e-mails, put on a load of laundry (I need to set the house up for Rick and Eve's next guests), yoga by the pool, swim, dry in the sun, drink smoothie, hang out laundry (it dries very quickly here), read, have lunch, paint, walk around the neighbourhood in the late afternoon when the road is mostly shaded, supper, read or watch TV.

Completed painting from Friday's class. The instructor said to never show anyone the original photo so they never know the mistakes you made.

This house is having new landscaping put in and Chris, Teri and I watched a huge crane placing the new palm trees.

Next day, another painting.

This time I didn't have a photo so I kept popping outside and looking at this cluster of lemons, not yet ripe on the tree

and this one that fell off the tree yesterday.

Today I painted from a photo in a book on hummingbirds that Eve has on the coffee table.

On my last evening walk (I fly home tomorrow) I saw the progress being made on creating a desert landscape, at the house just down the road. This kind of landscaping saves water and is encouraged here.

At the first little park I could see that the sky was starting to glow.

Halloween decorations looked a little out of place here but Christmas ones look even stranger.

The sky really

put on a show

for my last night here.

California, Palm Springs - Teri and Jessie

After a couple of days on our, own Chris and I were joined by her friend Teri and her son, Jessie (aged 5 months).

Teri was just here for a few days but had to bring a ton of stuff! - snugglie, car seat, stroller, diapers, baby food and of course a pool floaty.

Jessie is a very easy going little guy and tolerated the pool

though not overly enthusiastic.

We went to Old La Quinta but found that it was a relatively new shopping area made to look Spanish. We walked around but there wasn't much to see. On the way home we found a Trader Joe's.

Teri had lots of friends mention that she should go there so she texted them, asking what was good. These were their recommendations. The cookie butter was delicious and tasted like ginger cookies with the consistency of peanut butter. Don't read the ingredient list though - basically oil, sugar and spices (no ginger though?).

Thursday we went for a hike. This one we didn't pay for but did leave a donation.

We started at an oasis with huge palms.

along a boardwalk over brackish water.

This was all we saw in the way of wildlife

though there was the mandatory rattlesnake sign just to worry Christine.

We hiked through desert

towards the next oasis

which was blocked off as they are trying to reintroduce a native fish that was decimated by the introduction of crayfish to the pool, years ago. It was a flat and leisurely 2 mile hike.

Thursday night we went to downtown Palm Springs for Villagefest and walked the whole pedestrian street, in and out of some shops and booths and had a bit to eat.

 

Friday afternoon they flew back home and we stopped at Del Taco on the way to the airport just to give it a try.

Friday afternoon I took another watercolour class and this is what I got done in a 3 1/2hour class. It flew by.

That evening I had a watercolour sky. I have not been getting any colour at sunset as the sky is always clear.