New Picture

I thought after all the snow we had yesterday I should change the picture in my header. This is a picture of one of the displays at the retirement centre where my parents live.
We ended up with 22cm/9" of snow yesterday. Made for a fun drive to work this morning!!!

First Big Snowfall

We woke up to lots of snow falling this morning and it's still at it. The prediction is for 30cm/12" today. We went out to shovel around noon. It's the wet and heavy kind. Great for snowballs but terrible to shovel. It weighs a ton. There was easily 10cm/4" when we were shovelling. By the time we finished, where we started looked like it hadn't been shovelled. Sam was sure happy to go for his walk though.

We were going to get all the Christmas stuff down from the garage rafters today but I think it will have to wait until there is a little less snow.

Books

Trying to catch up with the books I've been reading. There's a few more but this will do for now.

Grooms by Nora Roberts

This is another book in the MacGregor series. Very light reading. You can predict what is going to happen in the first 5 or 10 pages. I guess the interesting part is in how they get to the predictable endings.

After the Rice by Wendy French

This is an interesting book dealing with family dynamics. Having to put up with a distasteful uncle that lands on the newlyweds couch and a sister that is a hippie trying to figure out where she's going. Having to put up with them because they are 'family'. Then the question of finding out the wife is pregnant when they had decided not to have children and what they will ultimately do.

Bombshell by Lynda Curyn

This is about a 34 year old marketing exec who works for a cosmetics company and lives in New York. She is confronted with the cosmetic company going in a new direction with a 'younger' image. Her private life is going nowhere, boyfriends with no ties or commitment and dealing with the fact that she is adopted and learning about her birth mother and the family that goes along with it.

Husbands and other Lovers by Jane Elizabeth Varley

This is about a very successful couple (on the surface). He is a brilliant city lawyer , she is in real estate and they have one child from her previous marriage. The have the big swanky house and all the trappings. What becomes evident is that he is an alcoholic and she is not happy in this marriage. The husbands brother is a millionaire who has his own PR agency. He represents some beautiful women and this deals with his relationships with them. I found this book to be a really good read. I will have to look for her other book Wives and Lovers.

Fixing Shadows by Susan Barrett

This was a very strange book to read. It takes place in 1873 London, England. The Duchess of Fainhope gives birth to a child that ddoesn't survive, and her governess, Miss Mantilla gives birth to an illegitimate child. Of course the inevitable happens. The dutchess needs an heir and so the children are switched at birth. It chronicles the lives of the two women and the child over about 25 years. I can't say much good about this book. I found it very boring and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

That Summer Place by Debbie Macomber, Susan Wiggs and Jill Barnett

Everyone seems to fall in love at Rainshadow Lodge. This is about three different women. Beth who's stuck sharing the lodge with a complete stranger. Mitch, a workaholic on a deadline who has to depend on Rosie who is a free spirit who likes ro function on 'island time'. Then there's Catherine who is falling in love with Michael, the lodge handyman. Again, the outcome for all involved is pretty predictable but this was an enjoyable read.

Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb

I really enjoy these futuristic books written by Nora Roberts as J.D. Robb. Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are the central characters. This time they are dealing with the death of a prominent businessman, found in his apartment, tied to his bed-and strangled.

I Won, I Won, I Won!!!

Over the last few weeks I have won three giveaways.

The first was from http://craftapalooza.com/ all the way from Australia. I won week five of Nicoles 52 weeks of nose. It is a lovely tissue holder using Denyse Schmidt's new deco weight "County Fair". The linen tape has been hand stamped with little matryoshka's. I just love it.

The second giveaway was the 'runner up' prize from Ann-Margaret at Piece of Mind. I feel really bad because I can't find her blog. She is a fellow Canadian though from Montreal. I got a package of 'scraps' that had 27 different fabrics in it. It is a fabulous 'runner up' prize.

The third giveaway I won was from http://www.hearthandmadeblog.com/

I won a beautiful pair of earrings from Bella-Bijou Jewellery http://www.bella-bijou.com/. Jaime Pickering is the very talented and generous artist that made these beautiful earrings. They are to die for.

September

September has come and gone and before I knew it it was October.

Lots of things were going on in September. Started back to school. Of course it now feels like we were never away.

My BFF had her mother spend a few weeks with her. They came over for supper one night and she brought me a beautiful plant. It is an Anthurium. We saw them many years ago in Hawaii. They were known by a different name then, it referred to a part of the male anatomy. I'm sure anyone who is familiar with this plant knows the name.

I had my birthday in September and got a beautiful Pandora bracelet with 4 charms from my DH. I've since added 3 more charms. If you're not familiar with the Pandora bracelet here is a link. They are really beautiful. www.pandora-jewelry.com/AU.aspx

I also received a bunch of glads and soaps from GD#1 and another gorgeous plant from my parents. This is quite an unusual plant. It's an Aloha Lily 'Leia' (child of heaven).

We also have another resident in our house. My parents have moved into a retirement community. Beautiful place, just like a 5 star hotel. They have the own their apartment but they go to the dining room for their meals. My mum loves that part. No more cooking! They have lots of activities that they can join in with or not. My dad also has given up driving which was a big thing for him. But they have a shuttle bus that will take them anywhere they want to go within about a 15km radius. Anyhow, they also had a dog that was becoming too much for my dad to walk. My mum uses a walker most of the time so she is in no shape to walk the dog. They live on the second floor so that meant a lot of trips up and down in one day for my dad. The deciding factor was one day he took Sam for a walk and my dad fell. He didn't hurt himself, he fell on grass, but he couldn't get up. Of course, nobody stopped to help him. Here's an elderly man with a little dog down on the ground outside a retirement centre. You'd think that people would realize there was a problem and stop and help, but no, they just all drove on by. My dad finally was able to get up but it really shook him up. He started thinking that he wouldn't be able to do this in the winter when there is snow and ice. So, that is when I got the call asking if I (we) would like to have Sam.

He's a really good dog, 7 years old and very well behaved. He's a lhasa apso shitzu. He's great company and he's getting us out walking him every day. That is a good thing.

Bye for now.

4 days

I've heard this question so many times, but I'm going to say it anyway. Where has the summer gone? Only 4 more days and it's back to work. Hard to believe I've just had 9 weeks off. Wow.
Didn't really do anything exciting this summer. We decided we didn't want to go away anywhere, just stay home and do our own thing.
For my dh that means spending lots of time at the driving range and on the golf course.

For me it means spending lots of time in my garden.
I decided to dig out an entire flower bed (about 24x2) that had become overgrown with tiger lilies (they grow like weeds and are very invasive) daisies (same as for tiger lilies) and other perennials, not to mention grass and weeds. The only thing I left intact were my roses. It was a lot of work but looks a thousand times better. Have to say I needed lots of dh's muscle to get the tiger lilies out. The roots must go to China!

I bought a second blueberry bush as everyone I talked to said that you need 2 of them for pollination. Hopefully they will be as prolific as my raspberry bushes.This was the first dish of many dishes that have been picked in the last several weeks. I even made jam, first time in a few years. I made raspberry/blueberry. Very good. I had to buy the blueberries though.

This is something that I don't particularly like to see. Christmas stuff in Costco on July 24th. Can you believe that. 5 months before Christmas. We haven't even had half of the summer break.
We had a surprise visit from my sister and her family. I was cleaning out closets one day and the door bell rings and my sister, her husband and 2 kids are standing there. That was quite a surprise as I had been talking to her about a week or so before that and she didn't mention they were coming. They live in B.C. They were staying at her girlfriends and were in town for 5 days. We managed to get a couple of visits in while they were here.
Did everybody get their fill of the Olympics? We watched quite a bit. The opening ceremonies were quite impressive (even with all the controversy-lip syncing and computer animation etc.). We were looking pretty sad in the first week though with so many near misses for the medals.
I took several of my sweaters to a store called Galleria http://www.calgarycraftedgifts.com/ here in town. It is the largest independently owned retail arts and crafts store in Canada. I have been making some bracelets which I took to show them as well. The owner liked them and took all 6 that I took in. Everything is left on consignment so I will have to wait and see how things go. Fingers crossed!
We finally went and applied for our passports. We have been meaning to do this for quite a while and finally got around to it. It will make things a lot easier when going into the states.
I read quite a few books over the summer but I will leave those for another post.
Bye for now.

Award!!

I have received an award from http://milesawayinfrance.blogspot.com/. This is the first award I've received! I have to thank her, first for the award which was a big surprise, but secondly for making me figure out how to make a link in a post (so easy when you know how) and how to get the picture of the award from her blog onto mine. I don't know if I did it the right way but it worked!!

Once you receive an award the instructions are as follows:

1. Put the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.

4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.

5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

This is my list:

Anina http://twiddletails.blogspot.com/

Karyn http://trailmixdesigns.blogspot.com/

Alison http://sotreadsoftly.typepad.com/

Niki http://nikisventures.blogspot.com/

Suzy http://georgiapeachez.typepad.com/

Tracy http://cupcakesathome.blogspot.com/

Kim http://raggedroses.blogspot.com/

Hope it all works!

Bye for now.

More Books

Here are a few more books I've finished.

The Hollow by Nora Roberts

This is the second book in the Sign of Seven Trilogy. The first, Blood Brothers, came out last year. The third , Pagan Stone,is coming out in December. I am loving these books. I think they are the best Nora Roberts books I have read. It starts out in the first book where 3 boys stand around the Pagan Stone and become blood brothers. This seems to unleash something very weird and scary. Then things start happening every 7 years. You just have to get these book to read. I can't wait for the third one.

An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi

I think I've read all her books. I've enjoyed them all. I love a really thick book to read (881 pages) but I do find them hard to hold when laying down reading in bed! It took me a while to get into this book as I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. Who went with who etc. Once I got into it I really enjoyed it. All about what can happen when people put all there money in a sure thing and then it turns out its not a sure thing after all and the dire consequences

With You Beside Me by Catherine Anderson

The first two Coulter Family Novels: Phantom Waltz and Sweet Nothings. I'm going to have to see if I can find any more books about the Coulter Family. The first one is about a barrel racer that has an accident and becomes a paraplegic. The second one is about her brother who helps a women who has stolen a horse. Both stories are quite predictable but I did enjoy them.

All three are a pretty good read. Definitely nothing heavy-good summer reading.

Bye for now

Hail

Every morning I go out to my back yard and spent about half an hour dead heading my flowers and pulling the odd weed. I was just thinking how nice the flowers were. The pots were so full and overflowing with blooms. I should have taken some pictures but I got busy with other stuff.

We went out shopping this afternoon. While we were out the sky became very black and the rain came down. As we were driving home we were listening to the radio and they were saying there had been a lot of hail not far from where we live. Well, I guess it was a lot closer to where we live because this is what I found when we arrived home.

You couldn't see any green in the pots this morning because there were so many blooms. I guess I shouldn't feel so bad because we just heard on the TV that some houses have flooded basements in areas only a few blocks from our house.
I do love my flowers though and I sure hope they come back.
Bye for now.

Summer Time

My goodness, 2 weeks of the summer holidays have gone already! Time flies...and all that jazz.

It was Stampede time in our city last week. We went down to the grounds for the day and saw everything that was on offer. Well, almost everything. We spent far more time in the barns than I usually like. The smells didn't seem to be too bad this year. I'm most definitely a city girl and don't particularly like all the animal smells.

This is one of the horses that helps to pull the Budweiser wagon. He doesn't look that big, but these horses are huge.

This big boy was hanging out in one of the stalls.There were lots of miniature horses there.

Watched some sheep sheering. We went to see the finals of the marching band competition. This is a highlight . The competition goes on all day. They are some of the bands that took part in the Parade at the beginning of the stampede. This, the stampede, is a 10 day event. It was a band from California that won.This is a beautiful quilt that was on display.I love this quilt, it's all boxer shorts!!
I've been spending time in my yard just about every day. It's looking pretty good. We've been having quite a bit of rain though. Not a whole lot of hot weather.
Bye for now.

Books,Books, Books

I Heard That Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark

This is by the 'Queen of Suspense' so the cover claims. I think it was very predictable actually. It wasn't a bad story but you new what was going to happen right from the getgo. It's a very easy read though, so great for the summer. Certainly makes you think about sleep walkers though.

In the Dark of the Night by John Saul

I've read every John Saul book there is and I still enjoy them. This one was definitely different. It's all about weird things happening in an old lakeside house. Seems a doctor that lived there, years ago was up to more than dispensing perscriptions.

Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reichs

Another Temperance Brennan mystery. If you haven't read her books before Reich creates stories about a forensic anthropologist (which is what she is in real life). This one is about trying to find out what happened to a childhood friend, and whether some bones that were found are her. I enjoyed this one.

I'm shocked. The power just went off, right in the middle of me writing this post. I thought for sure I would have lost it but it got saved as a draft. Blogger came through, you don't hear that very often.

I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

By for now.

Schools Out for Summer!!!

Yeah! No school for 2 months. I'm really ready for this break.
In the last weeks of school we went to the zoo and had a great time. The kids really love seeing all the animals. It's amazing how protective the adult elephants were towards the baby.Many peacocks wander freely throughout the zoo.There was a baby giraffe as well, but I couldn't get a good picture.It's hard to see but there is a baby gorilla that is only 2 weeks old.

It was a very special end of year for us this year. We had a student graduate and go on to Junior High and one boy move up to a higher level class. A great accomplishment for autistic kids.
The flowers in my yard are finally starting to look pretty good. We had so much rain and very little sunshine in the last month or so that everything was late. Finally we have some really nice weather (high 20's, low 30's C so far). With all that rain our hedge was so overgrown, it took a couple of hours to trim it this morning. It looks really nice when trimmed but it doesn't take long before it needs trimming again. I'm now at the point of thinking about having it taken out. It serves no real purpose, it's just along the side of our driveway.
My BFF gave me some lilies last fall from her yard and this is the first that came up this year.This is a blueberry bush I bought. I would love to have blueberries every year. Hopefully it will survive the winter.

Bye for now.