The Old and the Restless

We had a pre-Christmas party on December 18 this year. Megan Paul and Tom came and brought hot apple cider which we had in the back yard. Because of the velocity of the omicron variant of COVID they did not stay for dinner. Ella in the kitchen. For dinner we had pulled pork with roasted plantain and various other dishes. Joshua with the Paris-Brest cake that Margot made for my birthday. This round, choux-pastry cake in the shape of a bicycle wheel was created in 1910 to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race. Margot felt that the tire had gone flat. We thought it was delicious. Ella, after dinner. Time to leave. If Margot holds Molly, she stops barking. I guess she is reassured that she will not be left behind. DECEMBER 25- Christmas Day The Christmas Day celebration was at Mark and Margot's in Barrie. Before dinner we had a Christmas concert. Joshua wished us a Merry Christmas on the guitar. Grandma McCrossan's china looked beautiful on the table. Margot made a beautif...

It has been a cool, rainy spring. Usually the magnolias last a day or  two. Now they are out with the forsythia, daffodils and tulips. During COVID when it's too rainy to pull weeds or ride, a challenge can be to cook one of Margot's recipes. I tried her Lemon Lime Pie,  a two day effort. I think I lost count on the amount of whipping cream and used too much. The first slice flipped off the server. This week my sourdough was done as a loaf. On this I lost count of the amount of flour I was using. At the Loblaws cooking school we were told to measure everything first and put it in separate bowls. That way, if we get distracted, we might not lose track of what we were doing. The bread dough was wetter than I like but it baked up fine. Sourdough is a three day effort. At the same time as making bread and the pie, I was making soup with the sorrel from the garden. Perhaps it was too many things at once.

  Prepared to bike ride... However, wearing a mask while riding is difficult especially when going up a hill. The protocol became: wear the mask when going indoors to a washroom (if available) or  restaurant (if open) or when talking to other people.At this time washrooms were not open and restaurants were only drive-through. Alicia made a COVID cake Alicia, Apache and Tryskel Pets are popular during isolation. When you live in the country in Switzerland it's handy to have a dog and a horse (and another dog, and rabbits and love birds) Showing social distancing at Rosetta McClain Gardens Bike riding had to be put on hold for a while. I am now more careful and WALK through the styles that are on a walkway. The swallowtail butterfly on the mock orange in my garden was missing a tail. Front garden The lavender was beautiful this year. Echinacea prefers this spot to where it was before. Joshua chose to have a Bl...

Driving back from Florida, with two nights on the road (one with Maureen and Ramsay in Marietta, Georgia and one at a hotel in Windsor), we arrived 6 days ago on March 16. Paul stayed isolated but I went out for food. Twice. I went this morning too as soon as the store opened and wore disposable latex  gloves (I had an old stash already). Linda, next door, had left a mask for me... Megan decided that she would bring a supplies, rented a car, bought a shopping car full of groceries, drove here and left them on the porch after we had a Zoom conference which Margot had arranged with Bryn, Megan and us. Too bad I did not take a photo of all the bags that covered the porch but this is a picture of a small portion of the groceries after I had divided the chicken and pork into smaller packages. This should last for a few months! BUT... They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. They lied. Everyone else had clothes on! 😉

Leaving in a few days, but first a ride on the beach. to see what we can find. Another willet A black skimmer. We were wondering where they were this year  Pelicans and a gull at the inlet Enlarge the picture to see the fish in the claws of the osprey

While Dinsmore went for a longer loop, I rode with Arlene and her husband, Rick, around Lake Monroe with a stop at Green Springs. Can you find the baby alligator? We actually saw two of them. I wonder where the adult was... Another day, another ride. Above, Arlene and Dinsmore at our lunch stop on the Tropical Trail Lite ride. It was colder this day.  So much colder that since he had not brought warm bike clothes,Rick did not ride with us.  Marie, Dinsmore's wife, is recovering from knee replacement surgery. They enjoyed a Thai lunch while waiting for us in Cocoa. A rose between two thorns or the reverse? Doing the 5 cities ride near Orlando, we stopped at beautiful Lake Sybelia. Two Muscovy ducks waddled by. Dinner? Practising with my new camera, I found the birds at the beach to be good subjects. Here are two ruddy Turnstones. A willet...a type of sandpiper A sanderling A snowy egret (has yellow feet)

Maureen and Ramsay came from Atlanta to stay with us for a few days. At first the weather was nice enough for a visit to Green Springs Park and then a picnic lunch at Gemini springs. The sulphuric green spring pictured, is 72 feet (22 metres) deep and was once part of a 19th century health resort. Now it is a park that we visit yearly on a cycling trail. Apparently it varies in colour according to the time of year, appearing more turquoise in the summer. The next day was cloudy and cold. Paul thought it would rain. Even so we went to Blue Springs to see the manatee. Because the day was so overcast, there was no line-up to get in but because of the cool weather it was the perfect day to see the manatee. I have never seen so many in the spring, so close to where we were viewing. Even the sun began to shine through. Back at the beach, though, it was still windy and cloudy. The next day was cloudy with a rough ocean and high tide at the beach again b...