Winter returns, curling, and travel plans

The poorly parked vehicle in Wednesday's photo was a Lincoln, parked by an (older than me) lady. To be fair, the parking lot was fairly empty, but the way she parked amused me. I did wait until she was in the store before taking the photo.

Winter was forecast to return midweek with 5-10 cm (2-4 inches of snow), so I did some grocery shopping on Monday and a Costco run on Tuesday. There is a fellow in British Columbia who runs a blog, "Costco West Fan Blog"who sends out e-mails on Tuesday of sale and other interesting items he finds at the various Costco's near his home. He provides information on the pricing history as well. Furnace filters were the big draw as a package of 3 filters was only $39.99. Since Walmart charges $24-26 for just one it's worth the drive out to the other side of the city. These aren't for my son and I, the furnace here takes a different size, but I picked them up for my daughter. Of course, that wasn't all I purchased there - my son likes ramen noodles so I picked up a case of those, a case of tomato paste, and a case of pasta along with a few other items that caught my eye. 

On the way back to the house, I stopped at the Salvation Army thrift store. The place was busy which isn't the norm. I found a nice skort (skirt/short combo), a small purse and a book - all for a whopping $11. I'll use all of these items on my March cruise. I do have a travel purse - it's quite unattractive but has locks and anti-cut straps. I'll continue to use it for my travel days and excursions, but it will be nice to have something prettier for on the ship. 

It started to snow on Wednesday morning, and I made the decision to stay home rather than head over to Stitch and Chat. With the fresh snow, I knew the roads would likely be slippery and besides the Manitoba and Alberta provincial men's curling were being streamed on You-Tube. I'm quite content to curl up on the couch and watch the curling.

The snow had ended by Thursday morning, so between draws, I went out and shovelled the driveway. In total I think we got about 6 cms. (2.3 inches). We were forecast to get a bit more during the day but that didn't come to be. Even so, I didn't venture out to Mahjong but spent the afternoon watching the curling and playing on Ancestry. I'm continuing to add information from the 1931 census and updating current information as I find it. 

Friday, I managed to get a fair amount of housework done between ends and games. Laundry, vacuuming, and using the Green Machine to do some carpet cleaning were accomplished. One of my laundry loads was my bedding - is there anything better than climbing into a freshly made bed? 

I also went outdoors to clear off my car as it had been on the driveway through the snow. We haven't been using the garage as the opener has been acting up and it hasn't been cold enough to worry about the cars sitting out in the open. The door can be opened manually, but I find it difficult as I'm too short to reach the cord while pulling up on the door.

I'm heading out to my daughter's on Sunday for an overnight visit, so I parked on the street until my son arrived home from work. Today, I'll need to load the car with flattened moving boxes, the furnace filters, and other items I've gathered for her. While the move won't happen anytime soon, I'm hoping she'll start packing away some things that aren't needed - decorative items, craft items, and the like. She's been busy watching the realtor site and worrying there won't be anything that will work for us. One of Eli's teachers is a former realtor and has assured her that spring is when most properties get listed. I'm not worried, as we're really not in any rush. It would be nice to have a space where the boxes I currently have stored in the garage (mostly photos/art work, craft items, and family memories) can be unpacked. The goal is to spend a few months with each of my adult children in between my travels. 

In fact, I may have some plans for this winter but until they are confirmed I'll keep them to myself. Let's just say, I'll be someplace warm(er). My cruise, however, is coming up quickly - less than four weeks to go. I'll probably start my preparations next week. I have a basket of items that can be packed, towel clips, a beach bag, magnets, laundry pods, dryer sheets and a few other items. Then I'll need to go through the clothing I plan to take and try things on - there's no point in taking something that no longer fits. I like to pack lightly, or at least as lightly as I can, so there is a bit of color coordination happening too. No point in taking a top that can only be worn once. Also, I have daytime clothing - mostly capris and tees and a few nicer pieces for evening, skirts or palazzo pants and some pretty tops. The ship will have a couple of formal nights, but I don't do formal though I do make an effort to look presentable. It is fun to watch those who do! I'm certain some people have an extra suitcase just for those nights.

Can you tell I'm getting a wee bit excited? I've joined the Cruisecritic group, as well as the Facebook group for this particular cruise. We've got several events planned, a sail-away meet-up on embarkation day, a solo meet-up for our first sea day, and a meet and greet with fellow passengers and crew members on the second sea day. All of these events are a great way to meet fellow cruisers, especially those we've interacted with on-line.

I'm off to watch more curling before I head out to load up the car for tomorrow's drive. Since my son is still sleeping, I'll watch the curling on my laptop in the basement so I can work on a jigsaw puzzle too.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

A very good week

It was a very good start to the week. While our Canadian women lost the semifinal, they did play for the bronze and won. They were playing Sweden, a very strong team and the game went back and forth but our women prevailed. We haven't won a medal since 2018 in women's world curling so it was a huge success for our team.  

On Monday, I went for my first outdoor walk of the season. While I walk daily indoors, I sure the feel the difference when I get outside. I suspect it's the speed at which I walk and the changes from sidewalk to grass, etc. Of course I took my camera!

I've heard the merlin, but hadn't seen it before. It flew across the street just as I was walking down the sidewalk, so I crossed to get a few photos. My brother R says it doesn't generally prey on small birds, usually bugs and mosquitos, but since neither of those are prevalent at this time of year, I suspect my poor wee bird friends are in danger. The first time I saw the merlin it was in my front evergreen feasting on a sparrow. :(

I walked through the park nearest to my house and won't do that again for a week or so. The paths aren't entirely clear and in many spots there is a build up of ice. This hare was staying out of the wind. Not much brown on this one.

Lots of water in the large park near the creek. Most of it covered in ice. But I spotted a duck flying in that appeared to be landing on the creek so I walked through the grass to check it out.

Open water! You can see the ice along the edge so I can only imagine how cold the water would be. There were several pairs of geese and a few ducks on the water and a few more on the banks of the creek. (I didn't get one of the ducks because they were further along the creek and it was a bit muddy)

From there I headed over to the pond. No open water there! FB memories tell me that on March 29 last year the pond was swarming with geese and ducks. Much quieter this year!

It was so nice to get out for a walk, even with a cool wind. It was -1C (30F) when I left the house and two degrees warmer when I arrived home 45 minutes later. I made a cup of tea and settled in to relax and watch some home improvement television. Have you seen Backyard Builds? I do enjoy the work they complete but the amount of money that gets spent doing it, not so much. I know I have work to do in my back yard and I'm not looking forward to it.

The rest of the week was generally quiet. I did get out for walks on both Wednesday and Thursday. The new header photo was taken at the pond on Wednesday. I had waited until the afternoon for my walk when the temperature was above freezing. The goose was standing in the water on top of the ice. I thought the color of the sky reflected on the ice was pretty. 

Thursday was also grocery day. I'm shopping sales for the most part and am lucky to have three grocery stores within a five minute drive of my home. I did a circuit of the three stores, with a stop at the drug store to pick up a prescription for my daughter. It seems prices at the grocery store are going up every week. I keep my grocery list electronically (use my Google mini) and check the Flipp app for the flyers before I head out to the store. That morning, I asked Google to add "my bread" to the list and when I pulled up the list in the store I laughed because it read, "Mike red". Apparently I have a speech impediment or something. :) Just to give you an idea of the crazy prices, I bought my whole grain bread at Walmart, 2 loaves for $6.  The same loaf of bread at the Co-op store was $4.99. It wasn't much less at Safeway either.  Perhaps I need to start baking my own bread.

At some point, I wandered into the craft room and did some sorting. There is a box of items that can go to the thrift store as I know I won't use them. There are few things that have been sitting around too, mostly mending, and my sunflower wreath. It isn't perfect, and I'll never consider myself an artist, but I like the way it turned out. I used a wreath ring, a couple packages of clothespins, a piece of black felt, paint, and some hot glue. It's meant not only to welcome summer but as a homage to the people of the Ukraine.

Regular cleaning was completed in between walks, shopping, and catching up on television programs. The men's world curling starts later today. You all know where I'll be. :)  I had picked up a set of sheets at the thrift store last week - those were laundered and put on my bed on Friday. I had been using a cheap set of 300 count sheets and these are 500 count. What difference that makes...and all for $15. I also got a couple of new to me books that I hope to get to sometime in the next week. In the meantime, I had bought a bag of lightweight yarn at the thrift store and have started a little dress for a 2 year old. There isn't enough to make anything for Eli but I know D has friends with small children and this will make a gift for someone in the future.

I'll end this post with a photo my brother sent me from his camping trip last week. He had a wonderful time with his friend C. They had to trek into the lake, about two miles, so loaded their supplies on two sleds. It's a bit hilly there so he told me they would ride the sleds down the hills on top of their items! On the way in they passed a couple of park outhouses so they shovelled their way into those. At the camp site, they had to dig an area out for the tent. Their first choice was thigh deep on my brother (he's 6'3" tall), so they moved to a different spot where the snow wasn't as heavy. They did some exploring and visited three different lakes in the area. Ice fishing provided their dinner one night, and C took a few fish home with him. R said that the wood stove kept them warm most of the night and he's looking forward to his next opportunity to winter camp.

Have a great week ahead everyone!