Monday I had another wonderful visit to see Voyages by Fleurs de Ville at The Leaf…
it was a treat to share this special place with friends, some of whom hadn’t been before…
every time I am there I see something different or learn something from the gardeners or volunteers… we had searched all over for the name of this flower/plant…
this trip I learned that this gorgeous flower is a heliconia, thanks to one of the gardeners;-)…
we wandered through the Tropical Biome and then enjoyed the Voyages exhibit in the Mediterranean Biome…
seeing the displays in person is so very different than looking at photos…
this time I chose a different favourite display, lol… I loved the sweetgrass hair and the birch bark bodice…
it was nice to see so many people enjoying the exhibition and learning about The Leaf…
from there we moved into Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar for a lovely lunch to celebrate a birthday…
what a wonderful way to enjoy a freezing cold day… it is always a treat to spend time together and make memories;-)…
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…
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;-)…
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…
herbiggirlpants 