had a quiet day yesterday… spent time taking photos of ornaments on the tree and the orchids…
a friend dropped off the fixings for turkey dinner which I warmed up at supper time… it was a lovely treat and made for a relaxed and enjoyable meal… ended the day with hot lemonade in my new mug and gifted shortbread…
this morning the living room looked lovely and I enjoyed the serenity as I sat in the quiet and enjoyed the lights…
the Ottawa kids and I Skyped and we opened our presents together… following our usual pattern, in this unusual time, we opened the gifts one at a time… it was great fun… they liked all their gifts, which made me happy…
one of my gifts from them was all the fixings for my New Year’s Eve dinner… usually on New Year’s Eve we have steak and lobster, although for the last number of years that meal has happened on New Year’s day… there was beef carpaccio, lobster, truffle chips, olives, red peppers, cookies, a lovely glass of wine (with gold in it) and a festive cracker…
there were also gifts from a number of friends, filled with goodies… I am blessed…
a bit later the Winnipeg kids FaceTimed as they opened the gifts I had sent over… I didn’t do so good with their gifts as two of them had received the same gift from their parents, lol…
yesterday I peeled potatoes and turnip, made stuffing, and produced Thai Shrimp soup so that there wouldn’t be too much to do today… I had decided that, even though I would be here alone, I wanted a proper Christmas dinner… it was delicious;-)…
there has been lots of activity in the garden recently…
these critters were photographed over the last few days…
today the forecast mentioned thunderstorms and rain but I decided to put out all of the cushions anyway… it ended up sunny and hot for most of the day…
looks very quiet, lol…
but this morning there were red and gray squirrels, the frog, chipping sparrows, a bunny that shot across the garden, dragonflies and two cats, one that I haven’t seen previously…
and during that entire period a robin, that I couldn’t see, sang…
saw the frog a number of times yesterday while I was listening to a program on my iPhone…
it has hopped past me a few times over the last while but never when I have a camera in my hand…
yesterday froggie was out sunning on the rocks around the edge of the pond… when it jumps in it swims across in just a few seconds…
according to research it appears to be a common frog… interesting, as for the last few years we had leopard frogs…
got some nice pictures;-)…
and another exciting thing is that the water lily leaves are just starting to rise above the water… this first photo was from last night and only the top corner of one lily pad was peeking out of the water…
now four lily pads are above water on one plant and two on the second plant…
anticipated a quiet day… no plans to go out or anyone coming over… I would watch the Remembrance Day service on Parliament Hill and read and watch tv…
woke up to blue sky out the window… haven’t had much of that recently, so it was a great treat…
I did a few little jobs around the house and settledin to watch the service…
received a message that someone was going to drop off some chocolate within the hour, so I responded saying as long as it wasn’t while the service was on…
then my son-in-law called and said he was on the way over for tea… he and the youngest arrived just as the moment of silence was taking place…
we watched together and a few minutes later there was a loud noise coming from the driveway… the person who is going to clear my snow had come over and was blowing the little bit of snow on the ground with a strong leaf blower… I wrote out cheques while we were watching the tv and then waited for him to knock on the door… eventually I realized he had left…
about then the kids left…
didn’t really get to watch much of the ceremony, lol…
decided not to nap in case either the snow blower person or the chocolate person turned up…
the snow clearing person arrived a bit later and I gave him the cheques…
wasn’t until I was making supper that the chocolate person arrived…
