I am in Australia for a few weeks visiting my family. To help me get over my jet lag I went for a short walk in the sunshine on my first day here. As it is spring many of the gardens are looking colourful. What I am enjoying most, though is seeing plants I haven’t seen in eight years, like the bottlebrush above. I was also amused by the sign below.
We are enjoying some sunny warm autumn days this week, perfect weather for a picnic in Gatineau Park. My parents are visiting from Australia so we enjoyed an afternoon in the park snapping photos and enjoying each other’s company. While eating our lunch we were treated to an impromptu concert at an adjacent picnic table. First the musician played a couple of pieces on the erhu then packed it away and pulled out a trombone!
Spring has definitely arrived so the skis and skates have been put away and other sporting paraphernalia is emerging from the closets and basement. Over the winter Andrew did a cross-country ski course and headed out skiing as often as he could. Occasionally I went with him and once B12 even gave it a go. B12 however was introduced to downhill skiing over the Christmas break and it became the highlight of his winter. He joined a group who skied every Tuesday and he watched the weather from one week to the next in the hope that nothing would Jeopardize the ski day. The season ended for him with a full day of skiing with Andrew who took the day off work and donned downhill gear for a change.
B12 also did a soccer winter skills program in preparation for joining a soccer league this spring. After several years of community soccer he is enjoying the challenge, coaching and more serious nature of his new team.
A16 has been training for track since October but has been plagued by illness and injury. Indoor training ended this week and next week she will compete in her first outdoor meet of the season. As she is now at school she is hoping to represent her school at the Ontario high school championships and her club at various meets over the summer.
After doing very little exercise over the winter I have taken on the challenge of doing a “couch to 5K” running program. It is a free podcast series lasting nine weeks and at the end I will be able to run 5K in 30 minutes. I came across it on Jean’s blog where she is blogging about each week of the program as she completes it. I have not run regularly since high school so it was quite a stretch at first. L18 has joined me and we are now in week 5, half way through. We run three times a week following the program which is a mix of running and walking. Each week the program changes slightly increasing the amount of running and decreasing the walking we have to do. On a couple of the days I don’t run, I swim. L18 has kept up swimming at the university pool through out the school year but I much prefer the convenience and warmer temperature of a more local pool.
I noticed the tennis nets have returned to some of the local courts so maybe Andrew and I will recommence our tennis matches soon. I hope to win one this summer. He has also played a few games of squash lately and had his bike out this week to ride to work as the temperatures have been very nice.
All in all we are getting outdoors and enjoying the warm weather and the snow free ground.
Yesterday Andrew and I went skiing not far from home. Andrew is keen to ski; I am willing to ski but find the whole stopping or turning thing a little tricky. It was beautiful in amongst the trees after two big snow storms. I wanted photos but the temperature was minus 10 °C so my fingers complained every time I pulled them out of my mitts.
We usually make a gingerbread house for Christmas and over the years there have been some very elaborate designs made by the children and their friends. This year B12 and I made a replica of a Hornet tank.
I also made a little more unconventional gingerbread including the animals above and the “Gingerdead Man” cutter courtesy of Andrew’s mum who is a very creative gift giver and knows our gingerbread making habits. He is fairly tricky to ice but I am going to persevere and try to make a whole gingerdead family!
Houses made in previous years:
2011 House
2008 House
2008 Church
2008 Village
2007 Lighthouse and Little House on the Prairie
Remember the Christmas Story as told by the kids in New Zealand. I watched it again on the first Sunday of Advent. They have created a new video telling the story from a different perspective.
An enlightening and challenging post from my brother’s blog.
We’ve all heard of Movember. During the month of November moustaches sprout on men’s faces everywhere. The aim of this campaign is to raise funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and male mental health. The mo has played an important role in lifting the lid on some huge issues that have been kept private for too long.
I wasn’t aware until very recently that November is also Lung Cancer Awareness Month. It comes hot on the heels of the global pink month, promoting awareness of breast cancer. Whereas pink ribbons are ubiquitous, I’ve never noticed the pearl or white ribbons for lung cancer. Nor did I realise that there are purple, blue, jade, periwinkle, orange, violet, gold, green, and a whole bunch of other coloured ribbons promoting awareness of many different cancers. Without taking away from the importance of increasing awareness for all cancers, there are some…
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I walked upstairs to my room the other day and saw gold light shining out of my room. When I investigated I saw that the setting sun was shining directly onto the leaves of the maple tree in the backyard and the reflection was filling my room with golden light.
B12 and I are continuing our study of ecosystems with another family so we made the most of the good weather last week to take another field trip. I shared pictures of our first field trip here. Our trip last week was to a local woodland area with many trails which pass through various types of ecosystems. B12 & P12 were on the lookout for the flora and fauna in each different area but ended up being most interested in the birds we saw.
After waiting and changing location a couple of times B & P’s patience with the chickadees was rewarded.
We saw this little nuthatch next.
The highlight of the day came just as we were about to finish our walk. A barred owl swooped through the woods ahead of us. It passed a few feet from B12’s face and then landed in a tree about 15 metres away. We went as close as we could and I snapped a few photos. I’ll include the full photo first to see if you can pick it out; the camouflage is superb. (click on photos to enlarge)
Did you spot it? We wondered what it was doing flying around in the middle of the day. There is a bird sanctuary in the area so perhaps it had a day pass.
For more photos visit my Photo of the Day board on Pinterest
Sentient 