And so it goes

Another week is nearly past, and I'll gladly say goodbye to it.  We've had another death - a friend of my daughter's and another separation - C and N were back together briefly before he left again.  It's been an emotional time, more so for others, but I've spent a good amount of time being there for the three of them.  Unfortunately, my involvement and words between us have caused a rift between C and I, one I'm not sure can be mended.  At this point, I'm backing away as well, as the drama is more than I can bear.  Frankly, I have enough issues to deal with in my own life.

I did get the normal housework done, laundry and grocery shopping on Monday, floors swept and washed on Tuesday.  Wednesday I didn't do much, though did attend my stitch and chat group.  It was cold that day, -24C at noon with an extreme cold warning in effect.  Thankfully it didn't last long and by Friday we were up to the freezing mark.  It appears the weather will be up and down for the next couple of weeks.  Today it's cold again but sunny.

On a happier note, last Sunday I visited the farm very few photos were taken, as I was late getting away from the house and in a hurry to get home.  There was curling finals to be watched!  

I stopped on the hill road leading down to the valley to take these two photos.  I have never seen the valley with as little snow at this time of year.  It doesn't bode well for the spring.

I spent about 3 hours with my niece working on her sewing project.  She isn't working with a purchased pattern, but had hand drawn a pattern based on a Pinterest picture with careful measurements.  Thus the top is one piece, but the edges needed to be finished.  She had some binding tape that we used to do this one piece at a time.  She and I are both pretty particular so it took awhile to measure, pin, and sew the pieces to our satisfaction.  She learned the basting stitch and how to rip out stitches too.  We needed to make straps as well, and used the same wide binding tape.  That was as far as we got, the next time we get together she will finish sewing on the straps, and we'll figure out how to do button holes (something I'm horrible at even with the special foot), and hem the top.  Once the buttons are sewn on it will be ready to wear.


While we were working on it, this snowy woodpecker showed up at the feeder outside the window.  It's a poor quality photo as I had to zoom in with my cellphone and the glass in the old house distorts the photos too. 

I don't see these birds in the city so I was excited to see the woodpecker at the feeder.  He/she moved pretty quickly too so I had to be quick.






This week I also made my final payment for the June cruise.  When I received the final information from my travel agent, I realized that I'd booked the flights home a week too late!  I have no idea how I did it, but this error not only affected me, but L as well.  I called WestJet and learned that they had changed my flights (I hadn't received any e-mail), and since I wanted to re-book within the 7 days, all I had to do was decline the change and they were able to re-book me at no cost.  Next up, I contacted L and let her know as well.  We were doubly fortunate as WestJet had also changed her flights so there was no cost to re-booking hers either.  Phew!  I dodged a bullet there as I would have insisted on paying the change fee since it was my error.

Good thing too, because last night my kitchen tap went kerflooey. (That's the technical term for it broke!)

The piece on the top of the spout allowed me to switch between full stream and spray mode. The internal workings include a spring that lifted the valve in the center.  Around the valve was a piece of plastic.

 It was this piece of plastic that broke.  It sent the spring flying and the top of the faucet too.

I spent some time researching to see if I could find a replacement part - I can't.  This particular model is no longer made so I'll need to replace the entire tap.  I priced it out at between $250-$500 and then there is the installation costs on top of that. I did watch a video...but I'm not a plumber and it needs to be done correctly.  

I'll spend the rest of this weekend watching the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (Canadian women's championship curling), work on my knitting project and researching London and the various ports we'll be visiting.  That will be my happy place.  

I know that for many of you, your week has been as eventful as mine.  Hope you all have a good week everyone!