….what makes you relax
This week’s WordPress photographic challenge is relax.
WPC – Relax
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Category Archives: Lucy
Share Your World 2016 – Week 11
….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World
How many siblings do you have? What’s your birth order?
I have two younger sisters. I am the oldest child in the family.
The three Winkler sisters.
In a car would you rather drive or be a passenger?
I like to drive but I also like being a passenger. I guess it depends largely on who the other driver is. If I’m with my father I prefer to drive and if I’m in an unfamiliar city than my host can drive.
When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
We are well prepared for a blackout. We don’t have electricity at the cottage so we are well versed when it comes to using candles, oil lanterns, kerosene lamps and battery operated lights. We have flashlights that we use initially to light the candles. I couldn’t tell you how many candles we have, probably dozens because I buy the big packages of tea lights. At home we have two oil lamps and at the cottage we have at least twelve.
List at least five of your favorite types of animals? (any animal to domestic to wild to marine life)
My favourite animals are:
dogs
chipmunks
elephants
rabbits
panda bears
Our Prime Minister with the Panda cubs at the Toronto Zoo
photo courtesy of: http://www.flynewsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/667.jpg
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that my cold didn’t last very long. Lots of vitamin C, liquids and cold medicine and one day off work seemed to help. I’m also grateful for the week off, March Break, and being able to spend more time with my family. I’ve seen my granddaughter twice since Friday and all my daughters were over on Sunday.
My father had another fall last week and he didn’t tell me about it until Saturday. Luckily nothing is broken and he’s just bruised and sore. At least this time he seems to be in a much better mood and isn’t depressed like he was two years ago when he fell down a ravine. He turns 90 this year and is in remarkable good health. For that I am grateful as well.
This week I’m looking forward to lots of rest and relaxation. I’m hoping to visit my father and try to meet my oldest daughter for lunch one day this week. Last week was not a good walking week, partially due to my cold, so I’m aiming to get back to my daily goal of 10 000 steps. If the weather cooperates I’m hoping to get some good photographs on my walks.
Hugh’s Weekly Photo Challenge -Week 16 Behind
….each week Hugh has a new photo challenge
This week Hugh’s challenge asks us to find pictures of things we stand behind. I’m always taking photos of people walking in front of me.
Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Pets
….this week’s black and white challenge is pets brought to you by Cee
Back to Normal
….what a productive day!
Yesterday I started the day with a very long walk with my husband and Frances, our Super Dog. It was extremely cold but we extended our walk and when we finally got back home, I had already exceeded my goal of 10 000 steps for the day. We were suppose to go to Hamilton to visit with our daughter and her family but the plans changed and they were coming to us instead.
Time to clean-up. I started in the kitchen, moved to the bathroom and washed the floors. I was hoping to get to the living room but they arrived early. We enjoyed a simple lunch together and then they had to leave to visit family on his side. B’s dad had not met Winnie yet so we volunteered to look after Lucy (their Bassett hound). This meant a another walk, albeit a short one. When that dog doesn’t want to go any further she puts on the brakes and there’s no budging her.
When the two dogs settled into their own quiet spaces I decided it might be a good time to clear away the remaining Christmas ornaments that were piled on top of the coffee table in the living room and on top of the piano. I pulled out all the boxes from under the stairs and started to reorganize the stockings, ornaments, lights, candles and Christmas cloths and skirts back into their preselected bins. When I returned the boxes to their place under the stairs I must have hit my head at least three times when I was backing out of the closet.
Frances is enjoying the new ‘normalcy’
The only evidence that we celebrated Christmas and will probably be around for awhile
Once the decorations were all put away I vacuumed up any remaining pine needles from the carpet and washed the hardwood. I also decided to polish the piano. Seeing that I’ve haven’t done this in years the wood practically drank up the polishing cream. When I was done it felt good to get so much accomplished.
After I took Lucy for her ‘short’ walk I noticed the most amazing moon hanging over the city so when I returned home I took my new camera, set it on ‘hand held night shots’ and returned to the park, without the dog, and tried to capture that image. I posted a few of these shots on WPC.
Later in the evening, G and her husband and the baby returned. We spent some more time together. While B helped me with my camera and cleaned up my computer, my husband played with the baby. She gets stronger every time we see her and she desperately wants to crawl and loves to stand when you hold on to her.
I now know a little bit more about my new camera and I was given some very useful tips about keeping my computer virus free. I updated some of my software after our company left and I was able to write a post for this blog before I went to bed. By the time I did finally go to bed I had logged 17 000 steps for the day. Not bad. All being said and done, I had a very productive day despite a nagging headache. Wonder where that came from? Haha!
WPC – The ‘Eyes’ Have It!
Lucy and a Trip to Hamilton
…..my daughter and son-in-law have moved to a larger home
On Thursday and Friday, our daughter, G and her husband packed up their tiny apartment and left Toronto to start a new life in Hamilton. We offered to dog sit so that their Bassett Hound, Lucy, wouldn’t get underfoot. Lucy is a lovely dog but not the easiest to look after.
One of the things that Lucy likes to do is take over the chaise lounge and she won’t stop barking until the offending person gets off. If you’ve ever heard a Bassett Hound bark you know how irritating it can be and Lucy is relentless. By the way she also loves to be covered with a blanket.
Our dog Frances gets along with Lucy in short spurts. After awhile she becomes very territorial and she refuses to let Lucy pass to go up the stairs or down the stairs. We always have to separate them at meal time and Lucy finishes first so if Frances doesn’t finish we have to put her food up high and out of the way. 
Lucy’s nose is always close to the ground; a very common trait of Bassett Hounds. When we work in the kitchen she is always underfoot, hoping that we drop something. She also loves kale and if we’re not careful she’ll pull it out of the fridge when we open the door. On several occasions when Lucy has been taken for walks down Yonge St. she’s jumped up onto to a city planters and pulled out the ornamental kale to chomp on. Our daughter is mortified when this happens.
Today our son-in-law returned the moving truck. We put Lucy in the car and picked up BT and drove them back to their new home in Hamilton. This was Lucy’s first exposure to the new house. We were a little worried about the stairs but a new carpet has been laid and Lucy was very comfortable going up and down the the steep staircase. Normally she doesn’t like stairs. 
Lucy checked out the backyard. Clearly she’s going to need to be trained as to where she can and cannot walk and pee. The flower beds are definitely out of bounds. The front porch quickly became a popular spot to hang out with her loved ones. She’s content to be near her family and she didn’t bark at the folks that walked by the house. Hopefully that part won’t change. 
The new house will be a bit of an adjustment for Lucy. There are still a lot of boxes that need to be unpacked and before we left BT started to paint the living room. I’m sure Lucy will learn to love her new surroundings and why wouldn’t she. She has a big backyard to play in and lots of new places to explore in the house and outside in the neighbourhood. I didn’t see any planters with ornamental kale but if they exists she’ll be sure to find them.
When we got home our daughter sent us a photo of Lucy. Apparently she has already decided where her new favourite place in the house is. So typical!
Birthday, Brunch, Books and Best Buys
…..Dec.30 is the birthday of my twins, G and B
Today we celebrated a birthday. Thirty-three years ago I gave birth to two healthy children, a girl and a boy. We celebrated at G’s place where she treated us to a wonderful brunch of homemade bread, homemade ricotta cheese, jams, honey, coffee, fresh fruit salad, kale and goat cheese frittata and a delicious green salad. Everyone contributed to the meal but the bulk of the work was prepared by G.
Gifts were exchanged earlier in the day and then again at the brunch. Our son loves books and our daughter collects cookbooks. Yesterday G ordered B a very special cookbook that he had expressed an interest in and surprisingly it was delivered while we were there. Now that’s service!
After brunch we (our oldest daughter, our son and his fiancé) drove north on Yonge St. and stopped at Super Khorak to purchase some special food items for dinner. Our future daughter-in-law is Iranian and we wanted to purchase some authentic Iranian food. My son and my husband literally cleaned their bowls and the food containers with the flat Iranian bread that we bought. There wasn’t a morsel of food left over. It was definitely a ‘best buy’ today.
A Word a Week Challenge: Companion
….thanks to Sue Llewellyn for dipping into her dictionary for the word companion
Update on my Ongoing Saga
…..thanks to all my concerned followers; here’s where things stand today
My son-in-law has just come out of surgery and the surgeon is 99.5% confident that all is well. My husband’s visit to the surgeon this morning confirmed that the thyroid has to come out and they set a date for October 9th. He just called me from the hospital and he’s waiting to see my aunt. Apparently they took her downstairs to put a tube into her chest to drain the liquid that’s been building up and she should be feeling somewhat better. He said that the Hagen Das ice-cream that he bought her was melting in his bag. I suggested that he take it to the kitchen across the hall and put it in the freezer until she is well enough to eat it.
I’ve just picked up our daughter’s dog, Lucy, so that they have one less thing to worry about. Now I’m worried because didn’t she grab a toadstool and swallow it before I could get it away from her. She seems okay but I’ll have to keep a close eye on her.
On my way home from picking up the dog I ran into a lot of construction and I ended up making a wrong turn. In hindsight it was probably a blessing because I ended up on the highway north of the city and it was moving quickly. Unfortunately I exited too soon and I came down the street that runs by the school. I decided to quickly stop by and check out the library situation. The good news is that someone has put all the shelves back on the wall. The bad news is that they didn’t return the books, the heavy wooden book cases haven’t been put back in place and my office is still jammed with boxes and furniture. I guess I should be thankful for small blessings and hopefully sometime this week the book cases will be returned to their rightful places. With lots of help I can deal with putting the books back on the shelves.
Lucy looks okay (basset) and Frances doesn’t seem concerned.
I’ve just checked the internet and vet sites recommend inducing vomiting. Great! I’ll call our vet and see what she says.
The fun never stops!
Mama Cormier 