Toronto — Page 38 — You are in My World Now

I’m glad the holidays are over!

January 2, 2009 by Tricia

So … How did the Holidays treat you? Did you have a nice time with friends and relatives? A big turkey dinner at Christmas? Get at least one present you really wanted? Party too much at New Years?

Chris and I had a nice Christmas and New Years. We went to his parents on Christmas day for a meal. No, it wasn’t a turkey dinner. Darn! My Mother in Law isn’t the best cook. She made mashed turnip, carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing and uhm cooked up those pressed chicken breasts that you get from M & M’s.

The meal was OK, but for me it didn’t seem like a true Christmas dinner. So this weekend Chris and I are going to either get a small turkey or some turkey breasts and I’ll make us up a tasty New Years dinner either tomorrow or Sunday. Hey, it’s not the holidays to me if you don’t have some leftover turkey kicking around.

Chris’ older brother was visiting from Chicago and he brought his youngest son, 14 years old, with him. So on Christmas evening we drove from Chris’ parents home in Brantford back to our house in Toronto and all the guys ended up going to the park down the street from us to play hockey on the hockey rink. They actually did that twice a day for four days. So the guys got their exercise!

Unfortunately when they were in the house they watched hockey game after hockey game – old classics and the World Junior Hockey tournament pre-games so needless to say I’m hockeyed out. Chris’ cousin brought his two sons over for one of the days as well, so I think I’m “guyed” out as well. There was way too much testosterone around here last weekend!

Chris’ brother left on Monday and I’ve been recovering from the holidays and enjoying the peace and quite ever since.

Unfortunately for my nephew, I happened to go into the basement one day during the week and I discovered that he’d left a piece of his Samsonite luggage and a pair of jeans behind! I guess things like that happen to 14 year olds! Now I need to find out if we should ship the luggage and jeans to Chicago or just keep them until they come back for another visit.

It was really cold here at New Years so instead of going downtown to see the live show that they put on here in Toronto we stayed in and cuddled on the couch watching TV. We ended up watching the Niagara Falls New Years show and saw Roger Hodgson of Supertramp and Kim Mitchell perform. It was a great show!

Overall I’d say the holidays were great, but I’m tired out. I’ve been so sleepy this week. Maybe I’m fighting something or maybe it’s the Vitamin D supplements that I started taking (just found out I’m vitamin D deficient) that are making me tired. Either way I could sleep all day and night. Not good when you work from home!

I hope that the holidays were good to you and that you’re ready to get a good start in 2009! Happy New year and thank you for being loyal readers! I appreciate your visits and comments.

Getting extra exercise this week

December 21, 2008 by Tricia

I can’t believe all the snow we’re getting. Apparently, we’re getting enough snow this week to equal half the amount we normally get all winter. Last year we had a lot more snow than we normally get in Toronto too. It kind of makes it hard to believe we’re experiencing Global Warming when our city, that normally has a light snow fall that melts within a day or two of falling, is now getting snow that lasts the whole winter. In large quantities.

Well at least this week there’s no need to take diet pills or even go to work out in a gym as we’re getting enough exercise shoveling and pushing snow around. Even walking in the stuff must burn extra calories as it’s much harder to walk over an un-shoveled sidewalk than it is to walk over a snow free one!

It’s also been terribly cold here this week. -20 Celsius (-4 F) with the windchill! I’m sure that’s bound to increase the metabolism as we struggle to stay warm when we’re taking our dog for a walk or shoveling, shoveling, shoveling.

How’s your first day of winter going?

Our Hibiscus is blooming indoors

December 14, 2008 by Tricia

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In early November I finally got around to bringing our small Hibiscus shrub indoors for the winter. I usually bring it, and my other tropical plants and vines indoors sometime in October but I was a little late this year.

Being late didn’t seem to do my plants any harm. In fact, my hibiscus is very happy if it’s abundant blooms mean anything at all!

I have the small hibiscus in my kitchen and I almost think it’s blooming more indoors than it did when it was outside during the summer.

One bonus to growing hibiscus is that we can use the flowers as food for our box turtles. Yes, the turtles occasionally get to snack on a coral colored hibiscus blooms that’s almost as large as they are. They love them!

Even my Labrador Retriever puppy seems to like the flowers. One dead flower fell to the floor a few days ago and as I was picking it up to put it in the trash I noticed Midnight looking at it with interest and I thought, well the turtles eat the flowers and they are perfectly safe to eat so why not see if she’ll eat it? She promptly took off with the flower to her doggy bed – her special place to eat treats and stolen treasures (dads socks, tissue boxes and so on) and munched on the flower.

If the hibiscus keeps blooming through the winter I guess I have three pets that can enjoy the occasional flower treat. Well … after we’ve enjoyed the visual treat of seeing such lovely flowers indoors, I mean.

A hardy rose – William Baffin

December 7, 2008 by Tricia

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You may or may not believe this, but this is a rose. It’s a rose called William Baffin and it’s shape and the style of it’s petals is more that of a wild rose.

It’s a very hardy Canadian Explorer rose. Hardy to zone 2 I believe. I live in a USDA 5b gardening zone, so needless to say this rose does very well here and in fact it is one of my largest roses! Talk about thriving!

Naturally being in Toronto, on the coldest day of the year so far, this rose is dormant and no longer producing blooms or even leaves … but when it was blooming it was lovely! I believe I took this picture last June when William Baffin was in full bloom. I don’t even mind when it’s flowers begin to shed their petals as the grass is covered in pink to dusty rose petals and it looks lovely.

Do you have a rose or a plant in your garden that you admire?

Coldest day of the year so far!

December 7, 2008 by Tricia

OMG it’s so cold out today! Right now, just after 11 pm it’s now -11 Celsius (12.2 F), but with the wind chill it feels like -22 Celsius (-7.6 F)! Brrrr!

Our dog, Midnight, doesn’t seem to feel the cold. Well, ok she’s not dawdling around outside quite as long as she normally does, but she still dawdles far too long for us when we are freezing! She’s still young, only 15 months old, so I guess everything is still too much fun to let the cold bother her.

On top of this cold spell we’re going through I just discovered that the faucets in our basement washroom are broken. They still work, but I have a feeling that they won’t last that much longer. As I said on my other blog we have no money to spare at the moment so I hope the taps keep working for a while.

So how’s the weather in your area? Is it absolutely freezing there too?