many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…
I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…
a lovely way to begin the year…
I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…
I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…
New Year’s Eve hasn’t been a big deal for the last few years… in fact, I’ve slept through it a few times, lol…
usually I’ve had a dark haired person to first-foot the house on New Year’s Day, but this year no one with dark hair was available… currently my hair is gray but in my earlier days it was a dark brown;-)…
I did some research and discovered I could first-foot myself as long as I was out of the house before midnight…
I also learned about the tradition of opening the backdoor to let out any bad vibes and then opening the front door to let in the good…
so I packed up my little bag of goodies, opened the back door to leave the house just before midnight and left it open for a few minutes…
then I went into the garage and out the big door, walked up the driveway and watched some fireworks across the creek for a few minutes before entering the house through the front door… the doorbell camera caught me as I entered;-)…
the tradition is supposed to be a tall, dark haired man, but really, I have had a few women do this cause why not…
my bag held a candy cane, heel of bread, an orange, 3 pieces of charcoal, a little bottle of Baileys, and a cookie…
it was fun to have the actual charcoal, because that is what my dad procured just before New Year’s each year to add to the little bags that he distributed to family and friends just after midnight;-)…
I did laugh when I discovered that I did the same thing last year, although on New Year’s Day morning, lol…
on Thursday the blue screen of death showed up on the laptop…
apparently on Monday, when the camera kept failing during our video call, it was a harbinger of the computer’s end of life…
I spent quite a bit of time on Friday morning searching for the sales slip from January 2nd, 2020, when I purchased it in Ottawa, without success… I did find the record in my credit card statements, but after contacting Best Buy, discovered there was no extended warranty…
did some research and went to Best Buy… had a plan to purchase the same computer, but an updated version…
in the end I found a slightly higher quality machine and was happy they actually had it in the store… after consulting with my two computer geeks, brought it home and we spent time in the afternoon getting it filled with all “the stuff” I need…
the old machine fit beautifully into the box the new one came in, and will take a trip to my son-in-law to see if he is able to save anything on it…
I had some fun in the evening doing some personalization and making it my own, lol…
it will be interesting to see what I forgot I needed, lol…
I love to read, so was very happy that one of my presents was a gift card to Chapters…
we went shopping and I found five books, and a series which will be a gift…
not exactly sure why we went on Tuesday (Boxing Day), but it was worthwhile… the books were all 30% off with another 10% because of my membership, and then the gift card…
was pleased with the great savings, and looking forward to some good reads…
I found out in the morning on Christmas Eve that we were going to have lunch on Christmas Day between trips my grandson was making between his various family clans;-)…
it was a quick trip to the freezer to pull out a beautiful chicken and get it thawing… I had been planning on a Cornish hen, with all the fixings, so it wasn’t a lot more to do to cook the chicken;-)…
a turnip was peeled, cut, boiled (so that the water would be available for the chicken gravy), and mashed…
mashed potatoes were also prepared and put into the fridge which helps with making a resistant starch…
stuffing was made and packaged, ready to go into the chicken…
took most of the day to thaw the chicken, lol, but it was ready for the oven in time…
everything turned out beautifully and we had a delicious Christmas lunch…
the Mediterranean biome smelled of rosemary and there were many of the plants growing all over the area… the Celebration installation was bright and shiny, with tons of lights on the trees and I was struck by some of the snowflake and icicle ornaments, so cute…
the many holiday trees, poinsettias, and amaryllis were beautiful;-)… the succulent tree is eye catching and I took quite a few photos of it…
I always like to visit the wollemi pine, a very rare tree known as the dinosaur tree…
sadly, we didn’t spot any butterflies in the Shirley Richardson biome…
a lovely visit…
what a treat to have this amazing place here in the city… a great replacement for the old Conservatory;-)…
the restaurant was very busy, but we were seated by the window at a two-person table, so were quite a distance from the other diners…
we shared chorizo spiced seitan tacos, I had pork and veal meatballs, and my grandson had a fancy hamburger and everything was tasty… we decided to skip dessert and go for blizzards after our visit to the biomes…
as we wandered through the Tropical biome it was quite amazing to see how the plants have grown… the place is absolutely lush;-)… leaves fell over the walkways in a number of spots, lol…
looking down from the bridge on the third floor it was striking to see how much everything has grown…
it was the first time since that inaugural visit that I’ve been at night… unfortunately it was too dark for my Nikon so all my photos were with my iPhone… got to see some bananas, a pineapple, coffee beans and cacao pods…
it looks like the inside of the biomes have been wrapped with plastic, and the fans in the Tropical biome were blowing rather vigorously…
it was exciting to see that there were a great number of various-sized smaller koi in the pond… babies, maybe;-)…
the next post will be about the Mediterranean biome;-)…
herbiggirlpants 