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;-)…
last winter I was having trouble zipping up my boots… they still fit fine, but it was getting more and more difficult to zip them up… I tried running a candle up and down them and then being sure to zip them closed as soon as I took them off, but it was still a worry when I went to put them on…
I purchased these boots Dec 2, 2015, so they didn’t owe me anything, but I didn’t want to replace them…
not long ago, when we were at Rona, we found a spray (similar to WD40), and used it on the zippers…
they work perfectly now and I am very happy about that;-)…
back at it in the garage… our last foray out there, a few weeks ago, involved dumping everything onto the floor to be sorted…
this time we went through and put items back up in the rafters that seemed like good things to keep… I let a lot go, although I know many people who might have wanted some of the bits, lol…
then we put the excess lumber (from the fence build) up there… it had been under a tarp along the edge of the driveway since June when the fence was finished…
everything else on the floor was loaded into the back of the truck and driven away…
there were still a number of items on the floor that needed to find homes…
we “finished” in the garage late Sunday afternoon…
the floor was finally cleared and vacuumed and there was a lot of dust from the wet-vac, lol…
the bench got slightly rearranged as we still need more work done there, lol… and then Indi made it into the space…
happy first day of Advent… it has always been a special time for me…
this year there are three different calendars for me…
the first is a digital version which comes via email every day with things to do or think about;-)… all focussed on chocolate, without any calories… this was the first one, which provides an opportunity to check items off over 25 days…
the second is on the wall in the living room and this year is filled with nuts and seeds and the odd bit of chocolate…
the third climbs the stairway… it is made up of twenty-four different sized boxes with items in them from the kids in Ottawa… last week a parcel arrived addressed to my grandson, who then filled each one… they look very cute on the stairs…
as I empty a box, I am breaking it down and stashing it at the top behind the last few… I don’t want to lose any of them…
last spring the doorknob on the garage door seized up… the door hadn’t been closing properly for a long time as it had shifted… I’d been using a bungee cord to close it from the outside for ages, lol…
I had done research on how to remove the doorknob, but no matter what I did, couldn’t get it off the door…
eventually my neighbour came over and removed it although he had to hammer it off in the end, lol…
since then the bungee cord has been the way to keep the door closed…
I need a new door, but that didn’t make the project list this year, so I hadn’t done anything about fixing this…
last week we were at the hardware store, picked up a new doorknob, and on Monday while I was visiting with my friends, my grandson installed it…
herbiggirlpants 