more mexico

*edited to put the pictures back!

I can't seem to upload pictures from home any other way than 4 at a time from Picasa and I have not made it to the coffeeshop in town or in the city so this is all you get for today. I am off to make maple custard with blackberry sauce as we have 4 friends coming for dinner - 2 from far and wide who I don't get to see very often.

look closely and you and you'll see him

What's not to love about this picture - he didn't buy it though

It's very hard to take whale pictures from a sail boat when you are seasick, they were huge! but that is hard to show you in a photo.

Happy New Year from our house to yours

mexico

Okay, here's as many as the dial up connection will allow at the moment - more to follow with words too!

I'm back

Well I am back from Mexico, rested and relaxed. It was a good week except for when P fell out of the kayak and broke his foot and when I spent the whale watching trip seasick - aside from that it was a really good time. I have lots of great photos and such but that requires soemthing other than dial up - so you'll have to wait.
Merry Christmas from the snowy end of the world.

snow day v.3.0

This would be my 3rd snow day this winter and winter hasn't even actually started yet!But that's okay, I am sad that we had to cancel our dinner plans but aside from that we did not have anything major to do as we knew the storm was coming and I ran most of the trip errands earlier this week. P and I spent the day in the safety of the house, the driveway of doom is not to be messed with on a day like today, especially when you try to open the front door to this - at that is after I had already shovelled, twice! That being said we have enjoyed our snow day, we played cribbage and Keesdrow - a very fun game that I got as a gift yesterday(if you like scrabble you'll enjoy this)

So just to amuse you and show you how much snow we really have gotten I have a photo from a few weeks ago, nice snow, nice tire swing, our falling down fence...

This the same tree today, the angle is a little different because I didn't feel like walking across the yard but the tire swing is almost covered and it's usually about 12 inches off the ground!
I also thought that by venturing outside I could take a picture of my Jeanie progress but it was a bit of a challenge, the snow is falling to fast to take a reasonable picture

I came back in to take a better photo of the cables, I am not very far, row 25 or so but I am really liking it. Alright I am off to find food and shovel some more, I think I will be shovelling for a long time!

PS I am very happy that it is snowing today and not on Tuesday, I would be very sad if that was the case.

we pause

for a moment so I can frog row number one, when casting on Jeanie, it is always helpful to start with row number 1 rather than 2. First 1 then 2, I need to keep saying it so I don't do it again!

Christmas in the air

So I had this great post planned with all these random photos and blogger will only upload this one, so one it is. We put up our tree on Friday night, it's wider than it is tall, it brings Charlie Brown tree to a whole new level, but once we got the ornaments on it looked a little better, yes only a little.

We had out annual Christmas perogie/tree cutting party on Saturday, it was loud and messy, exactly what a big party should be, successful to say the very least. The kids really enjoyed the undisturbed snow, once they discovered the side of the yard that the dogs don't visit. They built a great fort and once the snow melts I will have some sticks to clean up.

This week brought shopping for the Christmas hampers, shopping for other people is always fun and some shopping for our trip. We are off to Mexico on Tuesday and I needed a new bathing suit, bathing suit shopping is not a task that I enjoy, I enjoy it even less in December when the stores are packed with shoppers who act as though they are the only people in the world that matter. After much humming and hawing I found a suit that I could actually wear in public that did not coast an arm and a leg and so I bought it. The only problem is the plastic beads that adorn the straps. Why on earth do they feel the need to add cheap plastic beads to an otherwise functional bathing suit - I think the beads and my hammer need to meet in close proximity to one another before the suit gets packed. I also got the lucky job of trying to find a pair of sport sandals for P, he has size 13 feet, we live in the land of ice and snow, it took 5 stores and then I hit the jackpot, there are stores that leave there sandals out past August it just takes some effort to locate them.

Oh look, I am allowed to upload another picture now but only one more, it's a conspiracy I tell you! Here is P's finished hat, in black and white to hide the fact that it is a very blurry photos. I can't link to the pattern because It's from Spin Off, Fall 2007, it was a super quick knit and it is nice and cozy - at least that is what he tells me.

Alright I am off to do the very last of my holiday shopping, I just need one more thing!

safe

The driveway has been plowed - twice and is now safe for cars to use, we have a lot of snow here, I hope that this doens't keep up all winter!

The driveway is so safe that yesterday when I dropped my wallet in front of our mailbox (at the end of our drive) it was till there 4 hours later when we came home... some panic was involved when I discovered it missing but all is well now.

The new Knitty is up and I am itching to cast on for Jeanie, I saw it at Rhinbeck and I really, really need it. Perhaps it will be my Mexico knitting - we are leaving in 12 sleeps! I also finished a hat for P (watchman's cap using the ringwood stitch pattern, inspired by a hat in Spin Off), it is the same wool as my Coronet but in black, he likes and when we are both home in daylight I will take a picture.

My perogies are made, there are a few hundred in the freezer - with and without gluten and I am off to make meringues - yummy

Driveway of Doom

I live in the country, at the end of a long and stunningly beautiful driveway, about 400 meters of tree lined goodness(no driveway picture but this one is good). The trees happily ( well I think it is happily) put on a most excellent show for us throughout the year, all sorts of colours and life exist in those trees. Sadly the trees are useless on a day like today!

It started to snow last night and it snowed and snowed and snowed - so much in fact that I could not open the door this morning to let the dogs out, I had to push the snow out of the way with the door. School buses are cancelled, the radio says to stay off the roads and so I am, it was not a hard decision for me as I really have no where to be today (temporary gainful employment ended on Friday) but P did have to go to work, P works in the, P had to go down the driveway - unplowed.

See, when you have a driveway as big as ours you either need to have a plow on a truck or have someone come and plow it. We have someone come and plow it, he is a character (to say the very least) and he comes when can but it is not usually until the end of the day. Thus ,until he shows we are at the mercy of the driveway, it or may not let us in or out.

Last week P came home late one night, I was asleep and he woke me to let me know that we were truly snowed in (it wasn't snowing) but his car got stuck in the driveway and until we got it unstuck neither of us was going anywhere. We did get in unstuck but it took awhile and a lot of brute force - P's brute force, I steered.

So, that all being said, this morning when P announced that he had to go to the office in the city I was rather concerned that he wouldn't make it. We cleaned off my car because it has new tires (see this post) and after a few attempts he managed to get moving and slowly winded his way down the driveway, he made it in my car but would not of in his. If the plowman doesn't come he may never be able to get home, well not in the car at least and I'm not going anywhere

So given that I am not going anywhere today I am going to spend the day catching up on some housework (better when you are wearing this), knitting, reading this or this - both of which are excellent reads and getting the filling ready to make perogies - these won't be gluten free ones as they are for our Christmas party but I will make gluten free ones for me to enjoy later this week.

So, that all being said let me leave you with pictures of the babes from this weekend, we went to cut out tree on Saturday, it was very cold (-26 with the wind) but a beautiful day, these 2 didn't want to come

This one couldn't wait to get out the door

Max will go wherever Chudder one goes and Tai stayed home as the snow is deeper than she is high.

A tree was cut by P, last year he was unexpectedly very sick at this time of year and I had to go cut one myself, well I had friends with me but not him, it was godd to let him do the cutting and the hauling this year while I just had to wrangle dogs and the camera.

I am off to peel potatoes and watch movies on the laptop.