We live in beautiful Ontario, Canada. February and March are always pissy months especially when it come to traveling. Heck, you can have sunny skies and dry roads easily turn into freezing rain and black ice. Right now we are getting freezing rain. This is the time we love to avoid driving if at all possible. Now, we live in a community without public transit but hubby can walk to the office in about 5 minutes. I can walk to the grocery store in about the same time.
If we have to travel out of town, if the weather is bad we just post pone it unless we have vacation plans. Then it is onto plan B. Most of our traveling to the sunny south is via air BUT we also enjoy traveling by train. Granted we have to drive to the airport or train station but once there, travel is usually problem free. We can grab a bit to eat and relax until we meet our destination. It's a win:win situation that leave us not exhausted from fighting weather conditions when we arrive at our destination
It was another beautiful, unseasonably warm and mainly sunny week. It's been two weeks now that we have had the furnace off but the weather is predicted to return to the normal temperatures this coming week so we will likely have to put it back on. Daffodils, Narcissus and crocuses were in full bloom to greet the first day of spring. Buds are on the trees, the grass already needs to be cut and and our peach trees are just starting to bloom. I spent the week volunteering, enjoying the weather, identifying plants in our new gardens, doing a bit of pantry restocking and doing a bit of gardening planning. In general it was a very laid back, quiet spring week. What a delightful way to start spring off!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
Last Sunday I blogged about the temperature reaching 61ºF so I turned the furnace off. I expected the unseasonably warm weather to last a day or two. Little did I know it would last all week! We had temperatures into the low 70º F during the day and low 50º F at night. My gosh, these temperatures are unheard of for this time of year in southwestern Ontario. Unbelievable! Folks are walking around in shorts, sandals, and short sleeve tops. Kids have been walking by in bare feet. I think this is pushing it a bit given the amount of illness going around. The warm spell is predicted to last all this week as well. I am elated to be able to turn the furnace off this early in the year. What absolutely gorgeous weather!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
We have had a very unseasonably mild winter with very little in the way of snowfall or even cold snaps. Unfortunately that has resulted in more sickness from germs not killed off by the cold snaps but as a family we have managed to stay fairly healthy this past winter. Wiraton Willie predicted an early spring and sure enough we are right at the six week mark for his prediction. Yesterday it started warming up and I even spotted the first robin of the season. Today we reached a high of 61ºF so I had the furnace off and windows open. We grilled steaks on the charcoal side of our outdoor grill. The air smelled heavenly all day, fresh and clean during the day with the amazing aroma of steaks on the grill for dinner. It is supposed to nice the rest of the week. What a great weather for the kids to have for March Break!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
It's a typical cold, dreary, dull and grey November day here in beautiful Ontario, Canada. This is the type of day I don't like because of it's effect on my mood. The problem with November is there are more of these types of days than there are sunny ones. Our last house enhanced the effect of the grey days because it was a dark house with very little natural light, small windows and the main living area mostly below grade. In many ways, despite being a gorgeous house on beautiful waterfront property, it was very much like a dungeon.
Our new house is also a bi-level but it differs from our old house in that there is an abundance of natural light reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day, most days. The only rooms without natural lighting are both bathrooms and the utility room. We are installing a solar tube in the upper bathroom to bring in natural lighting but the other two rooms don't get enough use to worry about finding a solution for natural lighting.
While the constant greyness of November slowly drags by, I'm in countdown mode for our winter vacation in the sunny south. In the meantime, I'm busying myself with anything I can to keep my mind off the grey. There's still a lot of household organizing to do, paint colours to pick out and painting to do so that should keep me rather busy enough to not notice the grey so much.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Last week we woke to frost three mornings but at least is was nice enough for the kids to enjoy trick-or-treating. It's been getting progressively cooler here so we have had the furnace on but the sun has been warming the house nice during the day when it's out. My husband replaced the cover on the pool and the farmer harvested the field behind us. So far so good as there are no signs of rodents. They like coming in when the fields are harvested. I brought in all the geraniums and the hibiscus. Both seem to like their sunny locations indoors, rewarding me with a lot of blooms. And all is well in our new home...
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
It is almost human nature to complain about the weather. Everyone can relate, it is a safe conversational topic, and no one can do anything about it. This past week it would have been difficult to find any complaints with the weather. It was gorgeous, perhaps a bit too hot for some and too humid for others, but gorgeous no the less. We had the boat out a couple of times and went to a belated Canada Day celebration complete with a pig roast and a fireworks display that would out rival many community fireworks hosted by my husband's aunt and uncle. They have a beautiful 25 acre farm with a large manmade pond. A picture of the pond is the background for my gardening blog. It was a beautiful warm summer day with an amazingly blue sky dotted with big fluffy white clouds and yet the night brought cooler air perfect for watching the fireworks display. It was the perfect ending to the perfect summer week!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
My gosh, here it is the last day of April already! Where does the time go? The worst of the weather is over or should be and yet we had snow in April. Last night the temperatures dropped to close to freezing. The boat came down so is ready to use but we'd need snowsuits. We've been rather busy with a fair amount of excitement that has helped the time pass. I have a couple of secrets that I will share later but for now things are interesting to say the least. In my spare time I've been decluttering ever hopeful the house will finally sell. As a diversion I've been playing CityVille and FrontierVille on Facebook. It's a toss up which one I like the most but what is really nice is our kids are playing both games too so we have a bit of extra daily interaction. I really enjoy that! Honestly though, April went by in the blink of an eye.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
[from my email files and oh so true this year]
-----
INSTALLING SPRING...
███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Time has a way of marching on bringing new signs of aging each day. The cold bothers both of us more than it used to. We tend to hibernate indoors out of the cold as much as possible during the winter months. Our winter vacation is spent in the sunny south out of Old Man Winter's grasp for the most part. My biggest problem is getting a chill to my feet or wrists that goes right to the bone resulting in a dull, burning, achy sensation for several hours. Unfortunately our below grade kitchen floor is ceramic tile, just the perfect antagonist to keeping feet warm and toasty. Even in the midst of summer the lower level floors are cold. Ah well, spring is here so at least things are warming up outside so we will be able to get a bit more without dealing with the effects of the cold.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Apparently in the excitement of the day or lack there of I forgot to write a post for today. Nothing really exciting happened today. In fact it was blistfully quiet and uneventful. We spent a good portion of the weekend visiting our kids and grandkids which meant a lot of traveling. On the way home last night we ran into some rather nasty road conditions with thick slush and freezing rain. It was sure nice to arrive safe and sound at the house. By 3 AM when my husband got up to go into the office the weather had turned milder with just wet roads and by the time I got up at 6 AM the snow patches were gone. It was a dull grey, rainy day but at least mild temperatures. Winter sure does not want to move along this year. Like many I'm tired of it, looking forward instead to nicer weather. Soon, very soon...
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
My gosh, where does time go? The first quarter of 2011 has ended, not so much as a lamb but not really a roaring lion either. The cold is hanging on and snow is still threatening. Like many, I will be glad to see the last of winter's chilly grip. The first three months of 2011 has been an eventful one for us. We were at our vacation home in the sunny south for the first week of 2011 then is was back to trying to sell our house while maintaining our daily routine. Despite several showings there still hasn't been an offer on the house so we won't be renewing the contract when it expires in a week. We experienced above average snowfalls with many a day of treacherous road conditions but thankfully none of our loved ones came to any harm. In mid-February I suffered a leg injury that kept me off my feet for two full weeks followed by painful hobbling for most of March. Here it is April 2 and my leg still looks horrid but I'm able to get around better.
I'm not sure how much of an influence my injury had on my mood but emotionally this has likely been the worst three months of my life in quite some time. I suppose the endless grey days combined with being housebound hasn't helped but I'm a homebody anyway so being at home doesn't really bother me. Not being able to cook for an extended period of time definitely adversely affected my mood. What really has affected it though is the long, drawn out winter. It's time for nice weather now. Let's go Mother Nature, get rid of the snow and bring us a nice spring so I can get out in the garden!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
