…thank to Alive and Trekking for hosting the Which Way Photo Challenge
Signs, roads, sidewalks, bicycle paths and driveways in my neighbourhood……
Which Way Photo Challenge – Last Week in December
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Category Archives: About Me
30 Day Creativity Challenge – Day 1
…Happy New Year everyone!
Lorraine over at All About Words is encouraging all of us to get creative with her 30 day creativity challenge. Today I did something that I haven’t done in awhile and that is bake a cake from scratch. I was going to a New Year’s Levee today and it was the perfect excuse to pull out my new Kitchen Aid mixer and try a new recipe that I saw on-line.
Everything went very well until I tried to remove the two cake pans from the oven. As soon as I opened the door the rack fell and the pans slid sideways. I managed to remove the pans but the cake batter from the larger pan oozed out onto the counter. That could only mean one of two things; the oven wasn’t working or I accidentally turned the oven off when I put the cakes inside. Luckily it was the latter problem. I re-re-heated the oven and started again.
Thankfully the second time the cakes came out perfectly. I iced them with freshly whipped cream and put raspberries and blueberries on top. As a final touch I dusted them with icing sugar.
Monday Windows – Exploring the Older Neighbourhood
…do you have any windows to share for Monday Windows
Today I wandered into some parts of my neighbourhood that I’ve never explored before. I’ve lived here for over 41 years but there are streets further east towards Mimico that have eluded me. Today the conditions were perfect for walking.
Many of the homes that I saw today are close to a hundred years old and are need of some TLC but the charm and original beauty came through the blistered paint and rusty eaves. Others were in great shape and some were replaced with new and more modern structures.
Some of the newer places were meant to look old but many were very modern with large windows and simple lines.
Christmas is for Children
….of all ages
I was actually organized for the first time in my life and ready for Christmas Eve. Normally I’m still wrapping gifts as the family starts to arrive but this year I finished all my wrapping the night before and I got all my deliveries of baked goods to the neighbours done earlier in the day.
Our granddaughter came early with her Mom and she was clearly excited. We kept her busy with stories and watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Papa gave her an apron and chef’s hat so that she could help us set up the table with Christmas goodies.
Later in the day she helped her Mom wrap some last minute gifts that her Papa needed help with and brought them downstairs and set them under the tree.
When all the family arrived we opened our stockings and Winnie helped hand out the presents. It was a wonderful evening and as always we had way too much food. We’ll be bringing some over to our daughter’s place tomorrow when we celebrate her birthday. Her twin brother is in London, England so hopefully we’ll hear from him like we did on Christmas Eve, unless the second grandchild decides to come early.
Taking silly selfies with Auntie JoJo.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or holiday celebration with family and friends this season. Wishing everyone all the best in 2020.
Carol
Christmas Lights After Dark
….I’m guilty of not putting up my Christmas lights this year….yet
Thank goodness that my neighbours had the energy to put out their decorations and string lights in front of their homes. So far I’ve only managed a wreath on my door and I purchased an outdoor arrangement that I placed on my new post by the front stairs. Unfortunately the winds have been so strong that it’s been blown over three times and the last fall completely shattered the container.
Here are a few homes that I managed to photograph a few days ago. I would have posted sooner but I was having issues with adding photographs taken with my new iPhone. Fortunately that’s been settled.
New Flower (December 23, 2019) – White Mum
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Problems Again
….not sure if I’ve been hacked
Almost a year ago I experienced some issues with my WordPress account because I couldn’t like any posts or leave comments on anybody else’s blog. It turned out to be a Safari problem and thanks to some of my readers I was able to correct the problem.
The same thing is happening again but this time going into Safari looking for the same setting is not the issue. I’ve contacted WordPress and they’ve informed me that the problem rests with my ‘over’ usage of my blog. Here is exactly what they said.
…..please note that your account has been flagged for an excessive amount of social activity which made your account appear more like a spam-bot than a human being.
Please keep in mind that our like features are designed to help you keep up with your favorite blogs, give easy feedback to their authors, and nurture direct conversations. They are not to be used as a means of promoting your site through mass notifications.
Does this sound like me? Many of you have probably wondered where I’ve been because I haven’t been able to keep up with all my emails in the last two months. To keep from getting too far behind again I’ve tried to read emails as they come in and many of those I do ‘like’. I’m probably reading 50 emails a day on average. Is that considered over use?
When I questioned them on what is considered excessive this is the answer I received:
To clarify, I’m specifically referring to the amount of times you’ve been using the Like feature. When you like content on WordPress.com, the owners of that content receive notifications each time. This is intended to inform content owners about who is interacting with their content and is not intended as a system to attract mass attention to your content.
After blogging for seven years I think I know how to use the Like feature. I only have 2000 followers, many of whom I assume are dormant. I don’t have time to look for new blogs. Anyway after 24 hours the Like feature will supposedly be enabled again.
I apologize to those who haven’t heard from me in awhile. I have tried to remedy that but WordPress has made that impossible. Hopefully all will be sorted soon. Has anyone else had a similar problem? I’d like to know and any advice that you can give me would be most appreciated.
Fan of…#46….Palms
…thanks to Jez for hosting Fan of….
I haven’t been anywhere tropical in over 35 years so I wasn’t sure how many palm pictures I’d find in my archive of photos. Turns out that the zoo, botanical gardens and countries like England and Italy are all keepers of this wonderful tree.
I particularly like what you find under the palms at the zoo.
Christmas Tables
It’s been a busy week with lunches with friends, a volunteer Christmas lunch at the Inn, an open house, discovering a new brewery and Christmas dinners with old friends.
….and I still managed to lose six pounds.
In Search of the Perfect Tree
….an outing with the family
Last weekend my husband and I drove to Hamilton to our daughter’s house where I picked up her family and we drove about 15 minutes north of the city to a Christmas tree farm. It was most definitely a farm with ducks, goats, cows, rabbits and a donkey.
We came fully prepared to cut down our own tree but as we explored the grounds we couldn’t find anything small enough to fit into our homes. My son-on-law always gets the biggest tree because their home has high ceilings but I was instructed to come back with a very small tree that would fit on a table. All the trees were over 10 feet tall and we could see that people had been cutting trees from the top. The only tree that we all liked had signs around it telling people NOT to cut it down.
We enjoyed the walk through the property so not all was lost but we were disappointed in the selection. We got back in our cars and headed up north for a few more kilometres, back to the tree farm we went to last year. We weren’t sure that it would still be open because the owners are into their eighties and told us last year that that would be their last year selling trees. Luckily for us they decided to open for at least one more year. The pickings were great and we all found our perfect tree.
We drove back to Hamilton with our treasures inside and on top of the cars. Back at Gaelan’s house we were treated to a wonderful lunch and afterwards Winnie and I decorated Christmas cookies.
Mama Cormier 