came home with three of them and just a few other things…
including leggings that I had picked up a while ago, and loved, in a different colour… shorts with side pockets (spring must be coming, right!), two v-neck tops… salad, and maybe a fun snack;-)…
I wasn’t expecting to get up early, but apparently my body remembers previous Christmas mornings, lol… although it was 6:47 am when I woke up, for many years it was often around 4… and I would eventually start banging pots in the kitchen to encourage all of the sleepers to wake up…
around 7:30 I got up, made breakfast and then read for a while in the living room enjoying the tree lights…
there were matching pyjamas, calls, texts, visits and naps throughout the day… the naps may have had something to do with the 6:47 wake-up, lol…
spaced amongst all of that were relaxing dinner preparations… beautiful mashed potatoes, delicious stuffing and tasty gravy went perfectly with chicken, turnip, ham, and previously homemade cranberry sauce…
I was absolutely spoiled with a myriad of wonderful gifts…
we used to meet in the evening when we all worked, lol… since we are all retired now, we’ve moved to the afternoon… for some of the pandemic we met online and since the spring we’ve been meeting in the garden… then we moved into the garage for a while…
we moved into the house in the fall… for a number of weeks, I left the front and back doors slightly open and we wore our masks until everyone was sitting down…
now, the doors are closed and we no longer wear masks, but I still bring the coffee into the living room, where we gather;-)…
everyone drinks decaf, except me and my tea…
we often have pistachios and sometimes folks bring other treats… a great time of conversation and sharing…
I hadn’t seen anything on the camera until a few nights ago, when the camera caught this…
the night view makes it a bit hard to recognize, but the rings on the tail were the confirmation that it is a raccoon… it didn’t appear that any fish had been caught…
I think the fish are being careful to stay hidden under the bridge…
on Sunday night they came by again and the camera caught them right in the pond…
I spotted one of the fish sort of wedged under a rock, so I moved the rock and the fish swam away… it looks a bit scraped up, so I hope it will be okay…
I put two chairs across the spot where I think they are going into the water and then sprinkled Epsom salts around the rest of the pond…
headed outside this morning and cleaned the glass table-top… I swept the decks, moved furniture around, found cushions and blankets and brought the plants out of the garage…
then I had a sit down by the pond;-)…
got coffee, pistachios, and almonds ready for my BS group… our first in-person gathering since the fall…
everyone arrived with various delicious treats and we had a wonderful visit…
we went from sunny… to cloudy… to windy… and back to sunny… a few times… birds flitted about and jackets came on and off as required, lol…
just after everyone had gone, and the space was back to normal, it started to spit…
today, for my seventy-first birthday, I’ve been treated to phone calls, texts, and messages on social media…
I’ve also received a gift of a flower bouquet subscription, an actual bouquet of flowers, and chocolates… these people know me well, lol…
my buddies also came by and sang to me on the sidewalk…
our birthday bag has travelled many a mile from one house to the next and has been repaired a number of times… it has even gone missing for a year or two, but always turns back up…
just before they surprised me, I had been listening to music released in 1951… much of it seems very old, lol…
first thing this morning, I went out and shovelled the steps and sidewalk after more snow over the last few days… it was a treat to have blue sky, sunshine, and weather warm enough to wear a spring jacket… and the snow on the trees was pretty…
I also did some yoga, had a nap, took flower photos, got some reading done in the sunshine, attended a Zoom meeting and possibly ate a bonbon or two with some tea…
a friend was coming over so I went out and did a quick shovel of the snow… there wasn’t really much out there, although the wind was a bit chilly… it was nice to be outdoors for a few minutes…
when she arrived we had tea in the living room and a great visit… multiple topics were covered as we discussed life and the odd times we are living in…
it was so lovely to have an in-person conversation…
she brought me a lemon loaf and also picked up some tulips and hyacinth at my request…
after she left, I had a fun time filling vases with tulips and distributing them in every room in the house…
there might still be huge amounts of snow outside, but in here it is Spring;-)…