Flying

These photos are from my trip back to Regina for my sister's funeral services, about a month ago. I can see where I can dump a most of the out of the plane window photos. It was a sunny day coming over the rockies. Was grand from the window. We were sitting right over the wing though.

Yesterday, John was in to see about doing our paint and repairs to the walls. His son is working with him now. They will move my desk, thank heavens. Trevor is going to come to take my computer at 9:30 on Monday. John is coming at 9:00 Monday. We were lucky to get John this quickly, as he just happened to have a few slow days, before he is doing another big apartment job! Yeay! I am pretty excited about getting things finalized. Just the carpet in my room and then David to finish up the cabinets trim.

Pat is getting the cupboards up in the garage. The last one is going to be a real ... to get the rest of the way up the wall. He wants them soooo high on the wall.... the lowest shelf is over 5 feet from the floor.

Yesterday I tried using philo pastry around shrimp and scallops. Not bad for a first try. Too much butter, though. Today I made lintel chowder and have 4 jars frozen. After lunch, I made borscht and have 2 large jars and 2 smaller ones of this frozen. Pat's high cholestrol and blood pressure has made us both more conscious of eating with less/no salt, ditto animal fats, butter, etc. Its kinda fun to have time in the kitchen to be a bit creative, too.

The temperature is suppose to go to - 4 celcius tonite. Hope the flowers survive. I have my water fall turned back on. Its too cold to stock fish, yet. That wretched frog will probably get them anyway. The marsh marigolds are starting to come up. All the edging is still in place. I want to get more rock plants growing on these rocks and hanging over the edges, if possible. I could lower the rocks a bit but this would again destroy any plants that are starting to get a foothold to grow among and over the rocks.

I got most of my Flickr moderating stuff up to date. Made the award and invitation codes for another group and so am Admin there, now. Its a nice group. I like the photos in there. Rolf has a pending pool and I won't be interfering with his decisions on any of the choices for the photo pool. The new site is going to just grand. They are getting a few more things done.

The Gorge Park

Photos from almost 2 weeks ago when we took our Red Barn deli sandwiches to the Gorge waterway Park. I had my ND grad filter attached and so the colors are rather rich. No processing in photoshop except to downsize and USM. They are adding more things to the park. It is a lovely spot. Too bad for them that they did not keep the old Takata Japanese gardens that a group of people had wanted to renew. The Glendale Gardens botanical garden is the richer for this Park's loss. Last summer the Japanese Gardens were officially opened at Glendale and they are gorgeous. Thanks to all the people who supported this grand effort and made it possible.

We now have our new lino in the kitchen and main bathroom. It looks terrific. I am getting so impatient to have it all finished. Wally did a fine job! He, too, was very complimentary about our cabinets and counter tops. Well... carpet in my room, and paint and we are finished. Wally will be back to do the ensuite bathroom when the carpet arrives. He said he would help move my desk. I can see where it would be a lot easier than using our little dolly to move stuff. The dishwasher did not need to be moved, so that problem was solved.

We were out to Romero's for dinner last nite. Always a reliable place to eat. The thin crust pizza is better and less dough. Tonight was dinner at home, even though I only got my kitchen back at 3:00.

I spent a few minutes outside today. Turned the water pump back on and the waterfall is running again. All the edging is still in place. Maybe I can get fish again when it warms up. I have not seen that big frog, since I threw it out of the pond when I cleaned the pond. I have seen great blue herons in the area. I wonder if they might be nesting nearby. That would be great. But they are in eagle territory as we have a nesting pair of eagles somewhere in the park, too. There is lots of park area. I hope they can co-exist.

Spring is late this year

These are few of the flowers blooming in my garden. The photos are not great. The hellebores, winter jasmine, a few arabis and some white crocus are also blooming. I have not been out in the garden in the last while as it has been a bit coolish. Pat did some clean up of the fallen branches and started some pruning on the plum tree. It could stand quite a lot more pruning.

Pat got another one of the shelf units up in the garage, with a bit of help from me. We hoisted it up with a pulley, that he used to use to put the hardtop on his BMW. I don't think the next unit will work on the pulley, though. He might have to think of another ingenious way to hoist it up.. or get some of his big friends to help. Today we moved the desk, fridge and stove. We could not get the dishwasher out. It is jammed in its hole with a broken leg, I think. Wally will be here tomorrow to put in the lino. I hope he has some suggestions about the dishwasher. Like, why can't we just leave it in there? If ever it needs to come out... there will just be another one go into the hole and cover up the old lino that will be left there.

We were out to Brannigan's for dinner.. just ok, not great.

I am waiting for my book Arminius to be delivered... probably mid March. It is about Rome.. from Cesaer to Charlemange. I read some of it on line and really was getting into it. I need a good book about Alexander the Great, too. At the moment I am re-reading the Assayrian about ancient Persia and surrounding area.. Tigres and Euphrates rivers. There are no maps, so I should be looking this up with Google. The era is of when Sennacherib was king... not sure where he was king but Nineveh as their city, and Babylon belonged to the neighboring people. So, I should like to get a book, perhaps on their great King Cyrus the great. Must research it some more. I don't have a good historical book about Marco Polo, either, although he was considerably later. And then there is all the Chinese dynasties... I could stand to know a bit more about them.