Having A Very Marienbad Christmas

The ladies 'Circle of Friends' group (at Christmas the men are allowed to come) have been meeting at the Marienbad Restaurant on Carling Street for several years.  The nineteenth century home and origin of our daily newspaper, the London Free Press. It makes a lovely meeting place for the festive season.

Above, friends start to arrive the hugs begin.

 

Above: The ladies of the 'Circle' talk. Wendy brought some cute little potted ferns and decorated the table with Christmas napkins, cedar boughs, ribbon and twinkling lights as a center piece.

L to R: Tom, Murray, Wendy, Pat, Anne, Barbara, Barry, Joyce, Trisha, Greg, Peter, Tim, Joan

It was really nice to get everyone together Thursday night. The solarium or center courtyard of the building forms a private, separate room for our pre-Christmas party. Missing from the group shot was Bud and Mary Helen who are wintering in Mexico.

Stories abounded and everyone seemed to have a good evening. (above: Greg, Joan and Peter)  The Marienbad is known for good food and tonight they didn't let us down. I had the prime rib and it was so tender and delicious as is usual here.

Merry Christmas to all!
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Summers Past - Long Point on Lake Erie 2012

Here's my 'artsy pic' for today:

Wendy and I have done quite a bit of boating in our lives considering we started at age 'single digit' with our parents, to the 'Sea Pig' days, our Sarnia boats the "Warrior', 'Phoenix'  and ending lately, since 2011, our rubber, 15 hp, Mercury vessel the 'Wing Dinghy'.

Click to enlarge

A photo I snapped as we explored around Long Point inspired this colourful pic of a row of old boathouses on an inlet on the east side of the point. May 27, 2012 11:58 am.

In reality, these places where not quite as artsy as I've blown the colours and intensity and added some effects. CLICK HERE to go back in time to 2012.
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NEW RECORD? One Thousand Two Hundred Bulbs on Our Tree!

Yup, six strings of 200 individual bulbs, nearly 600 watts of pure pleasure! Clark would be proud!

Wendy is still at it, decorating everything, inside and out.

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Happy Birthday Wendy!

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My "Artoon" for Today - Implants.

I think she's blonde!
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My "Artoon" for Today - Stiff Joints!

My apologies to Thomas Nast, whose Portrait of Santa Claus, appeared in Harper's Weekly, 1881 and inspired my artoon for today.

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Our Christmas Tree 2019

We've been phoning every day to several lumber stores to see if the trees are in. Lowes got theirs today but when we went over they were not unpacked for sale. We tried Home Depot - no luck. Finally Wendy suggested we drive by Loblaws on the way home and voila! The perfect tree!

Benz examines the new tree. As you know, cats love Christmas!

I hung it from the hook in the ceiling as we do every year.

Wendy carefully cuts off the mesh wrap.

The tree explodes out ready to decorate. I tie it up so that it's actually suspended an inch or so off the bottom of the water pan. This allows water to get all around the trunk and also allows us to spin to the tree in order to view the most pleasing side.
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Port Stanley Way Back In 2011

The London and Port Stanley Railway looking south in 2011

I snapped this rather artsy pic with my old Panasonic LX3 as I crossed the tracks on one of our meandering drives to Port Stanley. The scene remains almost the same today (2019) except the elevators/silos by the docks in the background are now long gone. Click to enlarge the pics.

Gone!

Gone! Now just a ripoff municipal parking lot.

I found these shots of the 'tear-down' in 2015.

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Who Wants A Peanut?

The squirrels are very friendly when you have peanuts.

 Greedy guy! Took two!
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Old Post Card Fix-Up

Click the pic to enlarge.

 First snow? Dundas Street looking west towards Richmond Street, London, Ontario.

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Fix An Old Dell

Erin got a new laptop computer because her old one became completely unreliable. The wire to the screen partially failed at the hinge point causing the screen to flicker off every time it was moved. Wendy inherited this old Dell and put up with the flaky screen for several months before I finally got to fixing it. 

Today was the day. The screen finally went right off so I found the tutorial on YouTube and plunged on. CLICK HERE if you are the least bit interested in the repair tutorial.

The whole computer had to be taken apart to reinstall a new wire harness that I had bought for a couple bucks from China a year or two ago and never got around to installing it.

Only one extra screw left over, but everything now seems to work as new. Good work Me!
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More Snow Overnight

Fortunately there was not as much snow as forecast (20 to 40 cm) yesterday but it does look lovely doesn't it? There were no power outages caused by the heavy branches.

Above: A view to the north out the living room window.
Below: View from our front door looking southeast to the street.

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First Snow For 2019-2020 Season

Wendy has the Christmas channel on the TV constantly blaring out classic movies. She always gets right into the mood of the season.

It's very beautiful BUT now we worry the weight of the snow on the leaves will cause the laden tree branches around town to break and cause power outages, especially if we receive the forecast 20 to 30 cm of additional snow tonight.

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Tim The Gutter Cleaner

Before: The leaves were tightly packed into the trough with plenty of smelly mud.

By the way, I did move my car rather than have it spattered with mud.

A handy hose clamp and the pool skimmer pole makes for a 'ladderless' job and eliminates the need to climb onto the roof. I'm getting too old to be prancing around up there.

I put my camera on a 'selfie stick' to inspect my work and spot any missed leaves. Looks pretty good don't you think?

After: Blown out clean.

Worked like a charm! Except, be sure to use duct tape on the blower fittings or you may lose the nozzle in the trough and have to retrieve it like I did. I'll know next time to make sure.

The pole reached even to the second floor eaves at the back of the house. Although I made it look simple, it is a fair job and the spray is dirty if the wind is wrong. Still, it's so much safer without the ladder and there is no wear and tear from walking on the shingles. This gadget would be excellent for use by people with a slippery steel roof.
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