Sunday 31 December 2023

Out and about and a puzzle

Here we are, New Year's Eve! The year seemed to fly by.


I am having fun with a new camera. It is a bird camera. It is similar to one I bought in the early days. I think it worked well. 

In the video, you can see how the cat triggered it. I've one camera on the chair, another in front of the bird feeder, which I have to clean. 

Cinnamon was thirsty.

The cats go out for an hour in the morning. Then in they come for BREAKFAST! 

This was an experiment. The new bird cam is in front of the bird feeder that needs cleaning. 

Bird cam from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I went into the hardware store in town for supplies to work on my new bird feeder tray and the door jam, which is leaking air. 

This is an interesting building. I went to Google, as I wanted to see a before image, but they began work in the summer, and Google shows it in progress. 

December, 2023:


From Google, summer 2023:


Vacant land on Gore St. < = I've been watching them tear down the old house, put it up for sale, and dig a hole! 


They have a QR code which leads to a website! The 2-bedroom units are $2300/month. There are four units, but the plans seem a bit strange. We've been debating the plans as they seem a bit peculiar. If you have time for a puzzle, you look at the renderings and see! These are thumbnails, you really need to go to the originals. 



Saturday 30 December 2023

Merry Twixmas!

It's been a rainy few days. Jan, of the Low Carb Diabetic, says this is Twixmas! When our 3 kids were small, they would spend the first week of Christmas break with me. The next week, with their father. It was a weird windup, and then let down the second week when I was alone. It was a shock to my system. All my teacher friends were busy with family. It was a strange time. Then we'd ramp up again for the new school year.

Here we are, though, in 2023. Boxes are flattened in the garage, out of the rain. Indoors, I managed to vacuum most of the glitter up! Laundry done, we aren't quite getting back to normal, as we keep lights up for some winter joy. The batteries are losing power, though! I had a bit of fun painting the gift boxes. I'm wondering now if they will recycle them.

Joseph Brian did groceries. And errands. We were happy to put our feet up, it rained all day (5mm). Just a Scotch mist.We rented Oppenheimer. It is quite something. I had to keep open both Wiki and IMDB to check on details. It is not in my frame of reference. 

🎄RomComs are nearly done, but they are showing some other things on our provider: Batman, Aquaman, Ocean's Eleven. I have a couple more Christmas RomComs to have fun with. I do have a go seeing if I can locate the filming. Some of these houses are really interesting as well. 

I noticed this interesting indoor stone wall in one of the movies. It was a place of business, but I thought it was really interesting. A rock wall! 


 It has all gone well. Christmas boxes flattened, new feeders up, screws replaced in the camera↙. You'll recall I dropped both screws, and Caitlin went to a specialty fastener shop and bought me replacement screws @ 23¢! 

Caitlin gifted me, as requested↘, a new bird feeder and a dish that catches the falling seed. We'll see if that works. 


The Amaryllis has three blooms. The Paperwhites, in the ceramic rabbit, are growing. In the second photo, I don't know if you can see it, but the orchid is beginning to throw out TWO new stems! Can you see them?

To answer your question, Mary, we drove home from Ottawa to Muskoka in 2010 when our second granddaughter was born. We deliberately spent a night in the motel near Algonquin Park to get up early and see moose. We had to make a special trip to Algonquin Park for that

Friday 29 December 2023

Saturday's Critters

 It has been a dreary few days for both news and weather. Our rain continues, but we are about to get colder, with a front coming from the north. 

Sadly, there is little ice and snow for winter activities. In Manotick, 4 teens went skating in Manotick, and they fell through the ice. Two have died. It just isn't safe out there, with deaths in Quebec, and Alberta, as well as here in Ontario. 

'Ice can be very deceiving,' warns expert after recent deaths 


I did do a morning workout Wednesday. It was wiser to do indoor chores! Here I am, ready for Saturday's Critters!

The twins are adorable. They are smaller than some of the other fawns, and have lovely fuzzy coats. This one is quite taken with King Charles IV.

 

Buck & friends from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've not much longer for King Charles and his antlers. They drop off in the new year after rutting season is over (January/February).
 

buck & friends 2 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The cottontail has been busy!
 

Cottontail Dec 21 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Then there is the fisher.

fisher Dec 19 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


Thursday 28 December 2023

Holiday fun!

What a few days it has been! I feel special, despite having a birthday Dec. 26th. I was never in school that day, and all my friends were busy. Joe and Caitlin have worked really hard to make it special. We had a two-night sleepover, with Christmas and my birthday clearly defined. 

December isn't a good time of year for travel. I remember taking the kids to Muskoka one year and driving home in a blizzard. It was horrid. Then there was the time I had a quick visit with black ice on our way to Bala. It was my 40th birthday (1996), and a family took me in. My dad drove 6 hours in a horrid storm to pick us up. I should have booked us into a motel. The weird thing was that the mother of the house, it was her birthday, too. She was in her 30's, as I recall. I felt so guilty.

King Charles was in the yard in the morning!

This year, it was great. Before the kids got up, I have to show you what Cinnamon did. He could hear something crunching in the snow. I think it was the doe and her twins.  I went out on the deck with him, but I think it was the doe and twins crunching in the snow. 

We did a craft on my birthday! You glue 9 or 10 bags together, give it a bit of a snip, and there you go!



Both girls had showers, and got into jammies. We had carrot cake. Somehow, some ended up on Isabelle's face!


We had walkies down to The Point. 



What a great time for Josee's first driving lesson. Our driveway is 100m long, and she went up and down several times. It is a little different in an EV, but Caitlin is a good teacher.


Jos driving from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


I walked down to the pond. It's looking quite wet. We've had rain for three days.

Wednesday 27 December 2023

It was fun!

Many bloggers I follow are fabulous cooks. I dabble, as the more I cook the more I eat! 

I watched a talk show and was inspired! I sorta just skip to the cooking parts. This was yummy. There are lots online, and I combined them for this masterpiece. I am not the greatest cook, but I asked the girls to help me make it. It was so much fun. 

Bought pizza dough, although you can make your own. JB shouldn't have yeast, so if we buy any it goes stale. Jos cut it up into 28 rolls, and we put a cube of cheese into each one. From there you put on an egg wash, and bake it. The topping is butter (which JB should have!), with rosemary, basil, garlic, parmesan. What's not to love? 

Pull apart buns

There is something wonderful about doing Facetime with cousins in Vancouver. 

We put on the fire log. I vacuumed a day ago, and nearly sucked up the fake fireplace as I worked at the corner. Whew!

We liked to go to craft shows around the region. That we have limited a bit these days. However, Caitlin's wreath was from the one at the Rideau Ferry restaurant, CC's. 


One is never too old for stockings! 


I had fun felting this year. Old 🐶dog...🆕 tricks


Our family...

Our SIL, an engineer, fixed the train for JB!


The cats, deer and fishies gave me some treats for the trailcam.

Tuesday 26 December 2023

Visitors

It is Boxing Day in Canada. I do have boxes to flatten for recycling. It's plastics this week, though. I have time. I did something different this year. I put everything into boxes and painted the boxes. 

I asked for volunteers to put out the garbage this morning, the kids are sleeping over another day, but I didn't get any takers! Isabel asked what time. Eight o'clock, I explained. Her eyes widened. I really was joking even if I did play the, "I have to put out garbage and it is my birthday" card.

We planned Christmas dinner well in advance, more on that later. My birthday dinner, today, we winged it.  They were hosting her brother and brother-in-law on Saturday. They are quite busy. 

 
🐈 Speaking of visitors, we had our most recent cat visitor back Dec. 20th, at 22:50! Somebody's cat must be either crossing the highway, or travelling about a km or both to visit us. I hesitate to name him. The last visiting cat was hit by a car. 

 

visitor cat from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Another visitor, the cottontail bunny.

Cottontail Dec 21 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Hubby likes to feed the deer. We know our neighbour feeds them to lure them, so of all years, we keep embracing them.

Monday 25 December 2023

Merry Christmas!

There are lots of decorations. We've not ventured out in the dark. Happily they were blown up in the daytime for us to see.








Jesse and Stacie's cat, Bernie, was channeling Daisy! We spent $500 or so at the time after she chewed on the tree! Dec., 2016.

It is a lovely sight in the dark. It was a gift!


My little creche, made out of cereal boxes and finished maybe around 1990, a couple of days before Christmas.

The star was shining!
 

star in the sky from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've seven deer, plus King Charles, and his sidekick, Prince William.