… after months of work my show finally opened
Thanks to all who encouraged me to keep painting and then supported me with a visit to the gallery and/or messages of love. I couldn’t be happier.
Those little red stickers were the icing on the cake.
….thanks to Kate for hosting the Whatsoever is Lovely Challenge https://www.thesquirrelchase.com/2022/02/14/whatsoever-is-lovely-2022-week-6/
One week after Kevin’s hip replacement surgery he decided he couldn’t let Valentine’s Day go by without doing something special for me. So he got on his phone and ordered a special Valentine’s Day dinner that was delivered to the house. It was beautifully boxed and only required some reheating or final minutes in the oven.
I set up the little table in the basement kitchen, where Kevin was recovering, with a cloth and candles. A day earlier I went out and picked up a special wine that Kevin wanted to have with the dinner. Since the beginning of COVID we have had date nights where we would get dressed up and share a gourmet meal at home. Kevin wanted this to be one of those date nights so he insisted on putting on a white shirt and one of his bowties.
It was an amazing meal. There was so much food that we saved our dessert for the next day.
…just discovered this challenge ….thanks to XingFu Mama for hosting https://xingfumama.blog/2022/01/16/whatsoever-is-lovely-challenge-2022-week-2/
Seeing I missed the first week of this challenge I’m going to post photos from the last two weeks. I met my youngest granddaughter for the first time over the Christmas holidays. On January 8th our son, daughter-in-law and Sevin returned to London, England after spending two weeks with us. The first two photos show Sevin just before she left for the airport and sleeping on the plane.
…hard to believe that this was taken yesterday….13 degrees celsius and more of the same for the next two days
….yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary
Whenever I tell people how long Kevin and I have been married they always gasp in wonderment. Don’t get me wrong it hasn’t always been wine and roses but we’ve always worked together as partners and when things were tough we didn’t give up on each other. Not only do we love each other but we truly like each other. That became very apparent during the lockdowns with COVID. It’s amazing how many couples found it difficult to be together 24/7.
The last twelve years have been difficult for Kevin with all his health issues but he keeps on ticking and keeps trying new diets and medications. Right now he looks fantastic and if you saw him yesterday you’d have no idea that he is suffering from several chronic ailments. The key word here is chronic, so he has good days and some bad days. Luckily I’ve stayed relatively healthy and my biggest issue is how much my weight fluctuates up and down (mostly up). Kevin always says he loves me at any weight but when I do try to lose weight he is also very supportive.
….thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge https://ceenphotography.com/2021/08/03/cffc-blue/
….during a snowstorm
Well I guess I’m exaggerating a bit but it was snowing and it was cold. When my husband said he wanted to walk in the snow and take some photos of the street I quickly put on my coat so that I could join him. I needed some more steps to get to my 10 000 step goal anyway.
It’s nice seeing some of the Christmas lights still on. This year people have decided that we need more colour and light in our lives because of COVID so many homes are still brightly lit in the evenings. It’s quite pretty against the snow.
….thanks to Frank from Dutch Goes the Photo for hosting the Tuesday Photo Challenge https://dutchgoesthephoto.net/2021/01/26/tuesday-photo-challenge-all-you-need-is-love/
I love the theme this week. Love does make the world go round. What do you love? Here are some of the things that come to mind for me.
Being surrounded by water year round.
My husband and how he makes me laugh and for all the wonderful meals he cooks for me.
My family and the joy they bring from near and far.
For some reason the photos I have of my sister who lives in Calgary would not allow me to post them. I miss her terribly.
I also love to walk in nature, take photographs and make art.
…thanks to Jez for hosting Water, Water Everywhere #61, https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2021/01/25/koi-pond-water-water-everywhere-61/
On the weekend my husband and I took a drive to Ball’s Falls in the Jordon Valley. It was a perfect day, brisk and sunny. I met Kevin 48 years ago and I’m pretty sure he’s been telling about Ball’s Falls for the same length of time. Well he finally took me there and I wasn’t disappointed. I love most waterfalls and in the winter I particularly like them because of the ice that forms from the spray.
Ball’s Falls is situated on the Ball’s Falls Conservation Area and is named after the family that lived there in the 1800s. In an earlier post I wrote about the heritage site that is connected to this area. The falls helped generate enough energy for the the grist mill to make flour until the water flow diminished to the point where it wasn’t feasible to stay in production. Today the mill operates on day a year, using electricity to mill flour for a festival.
….Christmas was certainly different this year for most people who chose to stay safe
Some things didn’t change. We cut down a tree with the family, albeit socially distant and masked, and I decorated it. The difference this year is that I totally decorated it on my own and it was up a full two weeks before Christmas. Normally I wait until my daughter can come over and help me and it often doesn’t get done until a few days before Christmas.
As much as we love being with family on Christmas we found new ways to celebrate the holiday. We exchanged gifts but this year the gifts were exchanged in front of the house. I still filled everyone’s stockings but this year everyone took them home. Gaelan brought special donuts from Hamilton and we exercised the dogs for a few minutes in the park down the street.
Our son and his family live in London, England so this year we opened our gifts early. We always open presents on Christmas Eve but 3:00 in the afternoon was early even for us. When everyone got back home we had a Zoom Christmas so that everyone could watch their gifts being opened. It was a bit hectic but in the end watching Sevin celebrate her first Christmas was very special. Technology this year has kept us in touch and brought us closer to all our family members.
My husband and I decided to still make a special Christmas dinner for just the two of us. The only thing that was different is that we didn’t cook a turkey. Instead, we bought a nice big capon to roast and at the last minute I decide to make cranberry sauce. My husband is an amazing cook and I’m no novice when it comes to cooking but even after all these years of experience we can still mess up. The difference this year is that we could laugh about it. There were no guests to worry about or timelines that needed to be met. So when the capon was undercooked and we had to put it back in the oven, after slicing off the cooked parts, we just relaxed with more wine and started off with the wonderful salad that Kevin made.
My cranberry sauce…..well lets just say that you should never walk away from a pot of boiling cranberry sauce. In the end I was able to salvage it with a little more sweetener. Kevin likes to tell people that we had twice baked capon and smoked cranberry relish.
We’ve learned that it’s the little things that bring us joy. Even though we knew we wouldn’t be together as a family for Christmas I still decorated the house. I pared back on the decorations but I’ve learned that you don’t need to put everything out. Simple things like lighting candles and playing Christmas music brought us joy and peace. In a way this Christmas prepared us for the day when we might have to spend more Christmases alone. There will come a day, perhaps, as the grandchildren get older they won’t want to come to Oma and Papa’s house on Christmas Eve or maybe some of our children will move further away. As for now, though, we hope we can have a few more Christmas Eve celebrations together as a family.
It was certainly a less stressful Christmas this year. Hopefully 2021 will bring back some normality. We will probably all have to adjust to a new normal and hopefully 2020 taught us some valuable lessons about life and what is important. My husband and I learned that even though we love each other, more importantly, we actually like each and enjoyed our self imposed isolation in 2020.
Cheers and a happy New Year!
Carol
Mama Cormier 