Sunday 7th May - nah, I don't think I will

 watch the Coronation Concert tonight.

Well, I can tell you I woz wrong.

Our Canadian friends wanted to watch, so by hook and by crook through the wonders of the Internet we managed to fix it, and started watching it on zoom together, and we were hooked! I'm so grateful to them for causing us to watch it.

They discovered it was being broadcast on Canada, so we bade them farewell and watched it in our respective countries on our respective televisions. 

If you missed it, hunt on iplayer and watch. I particularly want to listen to the Prince of Wales' short and excellent speech again (around 9.45 pm).

And as for the lighting effects... Wow.

Monday 11th November - Bonus Post - Maybe

It seems odd to post before anything much has happened in the day - apart from getting dressed (which didn't happen yesterday!) and brushing my teeth and having breakfast (muesli with hot milk, excellent) and the First Coffee Of The Day.

But there has been news - our Canadian friends have a snow warning for up to 25cm of snow today - that's ten inches - I have to translate to get an idea of what 25 cm looks like. I'm trying to image ten inches of snow here where we live...I can remember when the children were small we had about three inches once. We have the photos somewhere, but not on the computer. If I find them I'll post them later.

We've only had a bit of frost. The sort that leaves a disc of ice floating on the top of a water-filled bucket, or a layer of slush on the windscreen of the car first thing in the morning, or that makes all the plans in the garden go from flowers to drunge overnight

 where have all those lovely purple and pinky-red flowers gone! At the moment the best thing in the garden is the triffid which increases in power and glory every day.

The Christmas cacti have been on the windowsill at the top of the stairs for a couple of months, and today I noticed that they are covered with buds. This has really cheered me up. Seeing the buds grow and expand into the most vibrant and exotic flowers is one of the big delights of this season.

Oh well. Time to get ready for work; the first piano pupil will arrive in 45 minutes, and the dining  room table is in an all-surpassing state of appallingosity, even by my standards.

I might just get down to the bare wood in time. Target - chuck/recycle ten things a day for the rest of November. On your marks, get set, GO!

Friday 4th November - Proper Post for the day

If I had managed to remember to do a post on time yesterday, it might have gone like this...

What a contrast from one week to the next...

Last Friday we were still in Canada. The weather had turned; there had been a frost, with Real Ice on the puddles and Real Frost on the cars. However, the sun came out, and we went for a glorious walk in Beamer Conservation Area; easy walking through woods along paths carpeted with fallen leaves. Every so often I would get a scent of some kind of foliage, or maybe flower; I have no idea what it was, but it was exactly like the smell you get from some kinds of real, old-fashioned pot-pourri.

What we should have looked at properly on the way in. 

View across  Grimsby and Lake Ontario to Toronto. If this picture had been better, you would be able to see Toronto looking like some kind of science fiction city; the road going directly into the distance it pointing straight at the CNN Tower .

I don't think that is land you can see across the lake in the far distance, but clouds. 

The sun was bright, the birds were singing, the sky was blue, the views were amazing. Sadly, none of us had looked at the "welcome board" on the way in, and though were were fairly sure that we would get back to the start if we continued along the path, we weren't certain enough to risk it.

So we turned round and went back the way we came. Next stop, a food court to pick up some bread for lunch. Hey! Tescos and Sainsburys! You've a long way to go to understand the Canadian idea of cake decoration! Especially for Halloween!

Home, for lunch, at 4pm! Where had the day gone?


Contrast this Friday... a tedious drive through rain and drizzle to get to the dentist. BB is unwell at the moment - sore throat and temperature - so decided to stay at home. It wasn't all bad though... last time I went to the dentist it turned out into a protracted root canal filling repair and replacement crown. This time all was well and I only had to endure a ruthless descaling and polishing.

Wednesday 2nd November - Autumn

Unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and take any pictures today...

But it has been a joy to drive along the lanes in the sunshine through drifts of fallen beech leaves.

We were lucky enough to catch the end of the "Fall Colour" in Canada:

This photograph was taken just outside the town of Niagara, where the river is becoming calmer after the whirlpool just upstream. We had spent the day doing... err, I'd have to go back to my diary. I think it was the day when we went to the Ravine Winery for lunch (excellent) and wine-tasting and views,

    

and then dropped in to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a look around the town and to buy cheese and fudge, and finally home via Niagara, following the course of the river until we turned off to go back home. That was a memorable day.

Tuesday 1st Nov - Here we go again

National Blog Promotion Month starts again today...

I'll do my best - which won't be good this week - I am jet-lagged from a trip to Canada over half term visiting good friends over half-term. The live on the Niagara Escarpment - an amazing feature. Here are a few pictures I've found on wikipedia... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Escarpment

no snow when we were there

This is from the Bruce Trail which follows the escarpment; we went to a look-out point which gave us this kind of view

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Ontario
(Most of the time the weather was amazing for October, although the Lake did look like this one day)

We got back yesterday morning. I didn't try and sleep on the flight, so was awake from 7am Toronto time on Sunday until 9pm English time on Monday. I can tell you a slept like a log on Monday night! I had tried to make Monday into a day off, but one piano pupil turned up in the afternoon (had I forgotten to tell her?) so I managed to teach, and I also had last-year's (delayed) appraisal conversation with my line manager over the phone. She needed to get it finished, and that was the only time we could find. I warned her I might not be very with-it; and indeed I wasn't. But it was a straightforward process, so it wasn't too demanding.

However, today was "Tuesday-as-usual" - five piano lessons, three class music lessons, and then another four lessons in the evening.

BB also had a "working" day - shopping for food, researching a battery for his car, organising some kind of solution for the problem of our freezer (which is slowly giving up being a freezer and becoming a fridge), collecting the cats from the cattery and cooking the evening meal.

So, how was Canada? Awesome, as they say. But I'll post on properly important topics when I have more than three functional brain cells...

Sunday 22nd February - Traditional Family Weekend

Well, that was a fun weekend

apart from the dentist bit on Friday morning - and that wasn't too bad for most of us

The dentist bit was the reason why we were all together this weekend. I think our dental appointment arrangements require a separate post, so I'll leave that for now.

We (me, BestB, Number1Son, FavouriteDaughter) all had lunch at the Costa once those of us whose teeth had been remodelled were ready to eat, and then made our separate ways home according to whether we were old and cold or young and active.

On Friday night we celebrated Chinese New Year - well, we had a Chinese meal - and played the board game that we bought at Christmas. It is called "The Witches" and is based on the Terry Pratchett "Discworld" stories. I was Petunia Gristle, and nearly won.

On Saturday we visited my parents at their new flat - tea, coffee, shortbread biscuits. They moved in just under a fortnight ago and it's looking as though things are settling in well. That's worth a whole load of posts too....

In the evening we celebrated Shrove Tuesday with pancakes and Real Maple Syrup brought by friends from Canada (you know who you are!). I set fire to the stub of the 2014 Advent Candle, which had only got as far as 23rd December. We played "The Witches" again, and FavD won again. I was Dimity Hubbub and was less of a winner than last night.

By the end of the evening, the candle just about burned through 24th December, so I decreed that Sunday would be Christmas Day with presents.

On Sunday morning, number1son had a lie-in, (FavD might have had one too? Dunno, as she was at her own abode) I played the organ for the early service (traditional; Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty; In Heavenly Love Abiding; and Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise). I was on the rota for prayers for the second service, but decided that there were enough people around that if I sloped off no-one would miss me. BestB researched CD players (that's another story) and had a quiet morning.

We all four of us had lunch together at a favourite place, known to us as "The Bonkers Teashop" because of the idiosyncratic décor. I produced presents!

Later that afternoon, the youngsters left to resume their normal lives. And we resumed ours. Normal life, that is. If only I knew for sure what "normal life" is these days???? 

The Advent candle still has a way to go before it is completely finished. How many days until Christmas?

Sunday 8th September - Canada Part 1

We've been on holiday!

Staying with friends in Canada! Again! 

If I were to blog about EVERYTHING that we saw and did, then there would be a zillion blog posts. So here are just some highlights. This post is all about Niagara.

 

The top of the Canadian Horseshoe falls at Niagara. You can stand really, really close to the edge.

and then the water just plunges over

 

 

 

The Canadian Falls from further downstream. You can just see the rainbow.

The American Falls are a little downstream from the Canadian Falls 

Then all that water goes thrashing through a narrow gorge

In a wild bedlam smashing thunder of chaos

Until it meets a sudden check, and turns right, causing a giant whirlpool.

If you are brave, or mad, or crazy, you can take a ride over the whirlpool in an antique open cable car. We didn't.

O wow! It is a totally all-encompassing experience. The noise, the sights, the - the - the -

no words really.