Or maybe not !!

This is what the view from my window showed yesterday morning and it only got worse.
Today it looks like this:


I hope that is the end of snow for the winter and I hope that the plants I showed last time will survive the cold.
I also hope the snow will disappear soon because I need to do a bit of grocery shopping and I hate driving in the snow.
We now have a big motorhome in our backyard. Cliff’s nephew is staying here for a little while. It is nice to have company. Too bad he brought the snow with him ☺
Our granddaughter got married last Tuesday in Georgia. It is amazing how time flies, it seems it was just yesterday when she was a baby in my arms. I hate to think what the time does to us
As usual I have been knitting and listening to audiobooks. The last one was “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. I tried to find more books by the same author but could not find any. I know she wrote numerous books and most of them are about life in early China. I read “The good Earth” at least 3 times. The first time when I was a teenager.
I just baked bran muffins. Cliff and I have one each every afternoon with our coffee and by now I can bake those with my eyes closed.
Back to my work.
Good bye everybody ☺

Maybe Spring is coming

This afternoon Cliff came inside,  happy to tell me that he saw the first signs of Spring; some plants are coming up already.
Off I went to take a few pictures.
I am not sure what these flowers are called but they are very pretty.


The first snowdrops


Rhubarb peeking through


and tulips coming up as well


I am really happy to see the first signs of Spring. It is supposed to get cold again though, hopefully the snow will not reach the South Island. If it does it probably will not stay long this time of the year.
A week ago I got the duvet cover I ordered from Sears but had another disappointment. A sham was supposed to come with it but was not there. Grrrrrr 
I took it back. That is the second disappointment. To top it off the refund will not cover the handling charges both times. I don’t find that acceptable. I don’t mind the charge if I can keep the merchandise but if it is flawed I should not have to pay for it. I am waiting for my Mastercard statement to see if that is true before I complain. It is not the money but the principal of the matter.
Other than that life goes smoothly so there is not much to write about. Housework, cooking, shopping, reading spending time reading Blogs, all is well.
Good night everybody ☺

Not much happening

around our place.
Yesterday Cliff took our 2 swallow houses down to clean them. One had 5 unhatched eggs. I wonder what happened.
We were given these 2 nests a few years ago. When Cliff cleaned them out that time he found a rats nest inside one of them. Right from the first year one of the houses was never used by the swallows and we think that it must be the one that had the rats nest. Cliff cleaned it out really well and last year he even painted it but still the swallows did not like it. He switched the positions of the nests but that did not work either. There must be a lingering smell inside. We are going to see if a glass of vinegar placed inside for awhile might do the trick. Nicki mentioned that that is what they did to an old dresser that was pretty smelly. The unhatched eggs are from the nest that was used last year and where we saw the young swallows fly from. The parents must have tried to raise another batch.
Last year the first sign of the swallows was on March 17th so we have to hurry up. They seem to fly around for awhile and then go away again. I suppose they check out the available Real Estate.
We both enjoy watching the swallows flitting around.
Today was a beautiful, sunny day but it was a bit on the cold side. It will be nice when we can stop messing up the house with the fireplaces.
Good night everybody ☺

Disappointment? Maybe not!!

The last of the sheet sets I ordered came yesterday. Cliff picked it up in Mill Bay. It looked really nice and I washed it right away since I wanted to use it soon. When I started to fold it up I saw that it was flawed. A large hole!! That was unacceptable so this morning I took it back. The girl at the counter was not sure if she could take it back since I washed it already but she called Sears and got a green light. Good for Sears because I would have avoided them like the plague had they not complied and made sure that everybody had known about it too.
Now comes the “maybe not” part… In the meantime I looked at the new catalogue and saw microfiber duvet covers. That is something I had been thinking of since I like the microfiber sheets so much and since Cliff does not use the flat sheets of any set I was happy to order a duvet cover instead of the sheet set. Now he can be just as cozy as I have been.
As long as there are no flaws with the duvet cover I will be a happy camper.
So this is the saga of the new bedding
We are having a beautiful day. The sun has been out all day and the temperature has not been bad.

Good bye everybody ☺

Sheets and more sheets

I finally bought sheets from Sears. When I ordered them the lady who was very hard to understand asked if I also wanted to order some sheets that were on special… 50% off. Since they were only $ 9.99 for a twin set I figured why not and ordered 2 sets. They were made of microfiber material. I expected them to be made of the same material that some of the throws are made of, thick and thirsty. When they arrived I was very disappointed. They were thin and felt more like satin sheets. I almost took them back but since I opened one of the sets decided to wash it and at least try it out. Well… they are now my best loved sheets. Even though they are thin they are warm and feel very luxurious on the skin. I can hardly wait to go to bed at night . The sale is finished now but even at full price they are cheap. Originally I thought one set was for Cliff and the other for me but I am re-considering that. Maybe they are both for ME . The other 3 sets are flannel and are also very nice and warm. Good for the master of the house.
That’s my story for today.
Good night everybody ☺

This and that…

Not much happening at our house. I went to the doctor last Monday and got a clean bill of health. That is always something to celebrate ☺ While I was waiting for the doc to attend to me I was happily listening to my book. That sure beats taking a bulky book along. In the meantime Cliff waited in the car busily preparing for a meeting later that day.
Last Wednesday we had another meeting at our house and I made more cookies for that. I can’t remember baking as many cookies as I have for the last little while. I found a really good recipe for soft peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips recipe on the Internet. Not good for my girlish figure let me tell you!!!
At around 11 AM yesterday Cliff called to see if it was possible for him and two of his colleagues to get a bowl of soup at our house. I had no soup but had just put a meatloaf into the oven. We had that with mashed potatoes, creamed cabbage, squash and a salad. I supposed that was even better than soup!! Everybody left the table satisfied.
Today we did another bit of shopping. First we stopped at my favourite yarn shop and I bought enough yarn for a few pairs of socks. They have a sale on until the end of this month. 20% off the normal price.
Then we went on to do a bit of banking. While there we used a great ballpoint pen. We liked it so much that we stopped at Staples to buy a few of them. Now we should be set for a long long time ☺
After that it was off to Superstore and finally home sweet home, just in time to watch the weather report on TV. Raining off and on in the future with a few periods of sunshine, just like the past few days.  
Here is  a picture of yesterday morning from our living room.


Good night everybody ☺

Much better

That was then


and this is now and has been for nearly a week


I was very thankful for the reversal of fortune weather-wise.
I had to go to town several times and it made for good driving. In the meantime I ordered and received a set of sheets from Sears. I absolutely love them. They are nice and cozy and I ordered a few more right away. I should get them early next week.
Today I went to Duncan to the hairdresser and at the same time dropped in at Staples. I was amazed at how much more printer paper costs these days. It has been a long time since I bought the last batch but I needed it.
Tonight I watched Marketplace on TV. They brought out something I had been noticing before and that is how much lots of packaged products have shrunk in size and weight but the price stayed the same.  I guess we just have to grin and bear it since we can’t do anything about it.
I sure like my iPod Touch now. I downloaded a lot of free applications but for audiobooks I am using my Sansa clip MP3 player.
Time to go to bed. It’s hard to write when the time passes without much happening. Life is good.
Good night everybody ☺