The Parties Of Christmas 2013

Picture by Wendy

Circle of Friends
The festive season began for us with the "Circle of Friends" dinner party at the Marienbad Restaurant on the 21st of November.

Tricia's Party
Then, yesterday Wendy's dear friend Tricia hosted a noon get-together at her place. There was six of us, good friends Jim and Judy from Grand Bend, Tricia and Greg, and Wendy and I. I forgot to bring my camera but I can tell you her home was beautifully decorated and we enjoyed good conversation and hors d'oeuvres before, what's become a tradition, Chinese food provided by our favorite Chinese restaurant Lotus Gardens on Wharncliffe Road. (A little, family owned business is rated best Chinese food in the city on many review web pages). Tricia is always so thoughtful. A great friend indeed.

Picture by Wendy

 Jake and Erin's Party
Saturday night we were off to see Erin and Jake. As you may know, they live in a former church in the little town of Strathroy, about 20 miles west of London. Jake's favorite time of year is Christmas and he takes his decorating very seriously.

Picture by Wendy

Jake's friend Andrew and I toast the season.

Jake and his mom Nancy.

Jake and his Uncle Tom.

Andrew, Jake's Uncle Tom, Aunt Georgia, Jake's Grandma Caroline and her friend Lorna from Lucan, and part of Erin.

Joy is the perfect name for Andrew's mom. She is always such an energetic and happy lady.  I can see where Andrew gets his sense of humour.

 Doug (Wendy's brother) and Daphne arrive at the church and are greeted by Reverend Andrew. You may not know it, but Andrew is actually a Reverend and authorized to perform marriages in Quebec and Michigan. (not Ontario) I'm not clear on how this happened.

Wendy shares a "Kodak moment" with Nancy.

I think it shows through in this picture how proud Erin is of her home, and rightly so. It's absolutely beautiful.
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A Visit By A Great Horned Owl.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear:

But a Great Horned Owl, and really quite near.

Wendy spotted this beautiful owl at around 8 pm last evening. I ran and got my camera and tripod. Luckily there was enough light to get at least a grainy picture of the awesome owl. When will I buy a nice Nikon? He waited patiently as I set up, turning his head in different poses for more than 15 minutes. I wonder if he comes here often and if he will return again? How much goes on in the night that we never usually notice?

Read about the Great Horned Owl CLICK HERE
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Just For The Fun Of It...

Click to enlarge

A Rockwellesque "artsy" pic from nearly 3 years ago. This picture was made from a composite of 12 different squirrel shots combined into one busy scene. The 12th squirrel actually wore a hat.

And here's the same Oak tree this morning, looking a little fatter. (like us all?)
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Big Snow!

Eighteen inches (46 cm) of snow and still falling, is unusual for November in these parts but you can see it on the chaise lounge chair (above right) and Wendy measured it just to confirm.

Good thing we got our Christmas lights up yesterday.

Above, the radar shows a classic band of snow (streamer) caused by the wind blowing over Lake Huron, picking up moisture and dropping it as snow. I don't know why the map shows it as rain. As you can see it's definitely not rain with the outside temperature at -11 C.

Unfortunately Dash wants no part of this. Ten or twenty feet was all he made when he turned back for the comfort of the house. This is unbelievable because Dash never wants to come in.

Our 1 1/2 year old male cat Dash loves to play outside...usually. Last night an exceptional November storm dumped 18 inches (46 cm) of snow on our city, London, Canada. Dash made it only a short distance when he changed his mind about exploring the winter wonderland. No amount of coaxing was going to convince him to follow. He finally got his way (as usual) and scurried inside to the comforts and warmth of home. The scaredy-cat is now sleeping by the fireplace, no doubt dreaming of summer.

We were thinking of visiting Erin and Jake in Strathroy 20 miles west of here. She said amazingly there was little or no snow there. When I started to clean the snow off the car I realized we probably won't be going anywhere today.

Happy Birthday Wendy

Today is Wendy's birthday so I've been trying to be good. (not always easy for me) This morning she went over to visit her best, good, lifetime friend Tricia so while she was out I seized the opportunity to string out the Christmas lights in the front yard. Right on cue a snow blizzard started and that really set the mood. I think she was very happy that I would take the initiative to do this chore, since usually I leave this creative endeavour to her.

Having a birthday a month before Christmas traditionally starts the season for us, much like the upcoming American Thanksgiving sets the festive pace in the USA. We started the yule time decorations even earlier this year due to the fact that we'd be leaving soon on our cruise and the usual lead-up days would be missed. After we returned from the farmers' market today, Wendy moved immediately to the back yard to put the finishing touches on her beautiful light display. With the snow still blowing and the temperature well below zero, she dressed the yard in Christmas lights.

And of course she's had her beautiful Christmas tree up for a couple of weeks now. What an amazing lady! I must say, my nighttime photos don't do justice to the wintery scenes.
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A Circle of Friends Christmas Party

Click the picture to enlarge it.

The Circle of Friends, a group comprised of ladies that originally worked at the London Life Insurance Company, met last night in an intimate courtyard room at the Marienbad Restaurant in downtown London Ontario. (same quaint spot as last year) This year there was eleven of us. From left to right: Joan, Tom, Tim, Wendy, Tricia, Joan, Pat, Greg, Barb and Barry. Unfortunately, this year Joyce and Murray could not attend. Also missing were Mary-Helen and Bud who are in Florida. Joan's Peter could also not attend.

Peter was unable to accompany Joan to the party this year.

Anne and Pat.

We all enjoyed meeting Tom's date Joan.

Birthday cake and Greg, Barbara and Barry.

Tricia thoughtfully brought a lovely cake to celebrate the birthdays of Barb and Wendy. I wish you a Happy Birthday girls!
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Up Late Thinking About Our Cruise.

But it's still not too late to book the cruise and join us. CLICK HERE to read about it.

Sorry Wendy. When you're the photographer you don't get in the picture. (Cruising gang in Grand Turk 2009)

While we're away I'll try to post to this blog everyday so check back often.
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Leaves Be Gone!

I blew the leaves on to the lawn and our son Tim ground them up with the riding lawn mower.

Before. (We used to place 40 to 80 large bags of leaves at the curb for pick up.)

After. (The leaves are ground up and will soon disappear into the lawn)

We ground up approximately 456,300 maple leaves from the big maple trees in front of our house. I actually lost count after about 2 dozen but Wikipedia claims approximately 200,000 leaves on an average tree. I'm not about to argue with the number but there were a lot.
CLICK HERE to go to the blog entry 4 years ago when we started the mulching of our leaves.

If you have been following my blog you will know that we no longer bag our leaves for disposal. If everyone did this we could virtually eliminate the cost of annual leaf collection and processing, not to mention the cost of the silly paper bags the city requires. (40¢ to 80¢ ea.) The leaves get ground up so fine that they settle between the blades of grass and actually help the lawn. Our lawn has fewer weeds and looks healthier since we started doing this a few years ago and we do not use any pesticides or fertilizer, a further cost saving.

UPDATE: Here's what the lawn looked like on Monday after a rain storm Sunday night.  The mulch is disappearing already.
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A Bayfield Birthday at the Black Dog Bistro

Today we took Wendy's new car on the 55 mile, 1 hour and a half run up to Bayfield, arriving at Mike and Susan's new home about noon.

Mike and Sue's modern new home.

You may recall we visited a few months ago and my camera battery died so I didn't get any pictures. Well this time I left the camera on an obscure setting after experimenting with snowflake pictures the day before, so my exposure and shutter speed was way off.

Lots of windows to take advantage of the view.

The pictures are grainy due to my bad camera settings. I guess I'm not destined to get clear pictures of their lovely new place.

Susan's spacious and well-planned kitchen.

We walked into town and stopped by Wendy's cousin Jim and his wife Linda's Main Street Gallery but unfortunately it was closed and there appeared to be no one home.

Susan had made reservations at the Black Dog Pub and Bistro so we followed Mike. Wendy's birthday is next week so the ever thoughtful Susan seized the opportunity to invite us for lunch and a walking tour of the quaint little village of Bayfield.
 




Bayfield is the epitome of "quaint" with its old buildings in a small town setting.

The pub and bistro used to be a grocery store with a layout very similar to Wendy's grandfather's store in London many years ago.
 

 Of course there is a black dog and he was waiting for us at the bakery next door.

This is a new, private school with a new concept in education. Professional educators assemble here to provide on line courses for students anywhere. The building was recently and renovated true to the feel of the surroundings with all the exterior elements provided by the local Mennonite community. The owner did this on his own at great cost and was not required by the municipality to do so.

Everywhere you look in this little town, you can see picturesque buildings from the past. We always enjoy our visits here, especially when we visit with such great old friends.
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