Red Cardinal: lilacs

Showing posts with label lilacs. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

WELCOME TO 2023

Hello Dear Readers..

2023 has arrived, a baby New Year as full of promise as the tiny pink buds on my favourite rose bush.

At the Red Cardinal nest, we no longer stay up until midnight to welcome the new year, but had a very pleasant roast chicken dinner with champagne accompaniment. It was followed by an assortment of unusual chocolates kindly bestowed on us by our children for Christmas.

As other bloggers have commented, I too cherish the week after Christmas as a special quiet time, a time to regroup and recover.

Our Christmas was very special, a beautiful lunch at the home of one of our sons, enjoying the company of our three youngest grandchildren and our other son and his family. The twins, who are two, really enjoyed the whole Christmas period, with a visit to Santa Claus, decorating a Christmas tree, and the placing of a Nativity scene. They loved all their gifts and had a generally fabulous time.

Due to a lot of heavy lifting during Christmas prep, we both acquired sore joints and knees after Christmas Day, and have had a very quiet time recovering.

After a few days, we starting on the Garden of Neglect, and a lot of weeding and pruning, and planting of herbs has been going on.

Every year I report on my efforts to keep my pansies flowering from our mid-year Winter (best time to plant Spring flowers), until my birthday in November, or better still, Christmas.

Well this year, I have triumphed! For the first time I reached the New Year, and still have a pot of blooms:

Will they survive another heatwave?

Tomorrow is predicted to be a 37 c. 'scorcher'.

Come on little flowers, you can do it...

I have been walking as much as possible.

Sometimes I take the road past these beautiful horses:

They are so friendly to a passer-by...

This week we have been not once, but twice, to the movies.

This is noteworthy as since the global pandemic began we have only been once to a movie theatre. We went in the morning to a small local theatre with a very small audience. And wore masks.

We love history, and loved 'The Lost King'.

Perhaps you might remember this true story: the movie is about the discovery in 2012 of the remains of English King Richard III by Philippa Langley, a British writer and researcher. I was fascinated at how she became interested in the fact that Britain's last warrior king, defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, had no known final resting place. Using her astonishing research skills she came to a reasonable conclusion that a certain area in the City of Leicester was worth investigating, and she was right.

I came home, downloaded Philippa's book on my Kindle and am engrossed in finding out more details than the film could cover.

Our film festival continued a few days later with this one:

'The Banshees of Inisherin' is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in the early 20th century. Both comical and tragic, the story of the breakdown of a friendship is told against the background of the Civil War. The photography is magnificent and I think this one could be Oscar material for 2023.

Trillium, the floral emblem of Ontario, Canada

Our big plan for 2023 is a trip to Canada to visit our daughter and her family in Ontario. We have made our reservations and in a few months will be flying across the Pacific, the first time since 2019. I can't wait to see a beautiful Canadian Spring once again.

Happy New Year everybody!

XXXX

Canadian Lilacs

Sunday, May 24, 2015

ONTARIO ADVENTURES

Hello

Our Canadian adventure continues...

We are enjoying the little grandsons, their cute sayings and sweet ways.

Sometimes we even think it would be nice to live here, and be part of the local scene.

This week we drove to another picturesque regional township, Westport on the Rideau Lakes.

A place of stylish Victorian houses, it has become a small tourist village, with fun shops - Like Rosie Yumski's, where I bought a few quality kitchen items as gifts.

Near the Marina, where yachts floated prettily..

a little spring bubbled up out of the grass, running into a pond.
Perhaps the fresh spring attracted the first settlers to this place.

We had fish and chips at this lovely old hotel, overlooking the lake...

and watching the geese..

Do you think I would eat Moose Tracks icecream?

Of course I did....
(only on holidays)

There was more shopping -
unexpectedly, on looking into a fashion shop, I found a perfect outfit for a summer wedding we will attend later in the year.
Taupe silk, made in Italy, and very reasonable price.
And it fitted perfectly.
Then there was the decoy duck - a reminder of The Lake, destined to swim in our pool at home..

I love these old-fashioned fences in the farming countryside..
an historic design, but still popular, and attractive.

The lilac season is gorgeous. Out in the country, we saw long hedges, heavy under a bounty of sweet-scented blossoms..

The little grandsons continue to amuse us.
We are enjoying school and day care pick-ups, putting Big Boy onto the yellow school bus, going to the barber, playing in the park, blowing bubbles, story times, and going to Tim Hortons for coffee and donuts.
The Little Boy is learning new words every day, and is also picking up a bit of French. This is very cute, as he has begun to put the adjective after the noun in English too!

We have spent time with the other grandparents, Grandpapa and Grandmama, who took us to a historic village, Upper Canada, which depicts a 19th century village in Ontario.

The village consists of many historic buildings, brought here during construction of the St Lawrence Seaway in 1958, when numerous communities were permanently flooded. The park was opened to the public in 1961.

We have been to many heritage parks, in Australia and overseas, and this was one of the best. The principal reason for this is the way they have made it a living museum, with costumed 'residents' in every building, telling us about their lives and trades.
There are three mills, still operational during the summer season:
a woollen mill, a flour mill and a sawmill.

The bakery bakes bread for the community, the cheese shop really does make and sell cheese, from the milk produced at the on-site farm.

The houses were beautifully furnished..

from the simple farmhouse, to the elegant doctor's residence.

Some of the wallpapers were absolutely gorgeous..

Of course, there was a dressmaker's house..

lots of quilts..

beautiful old stoves in every building..

and a big old oak tree.

Our drive home was along the riverside road on the Canadian side of the St Lawrence River...

looking across to the United States on the opposite bank.
We drove along there for about an hour, and my cell phone started receiving text messages, welcoming me to the US and offering mobile roaming rates!
Sorry guys, not this time..

Our daughter bought this sign at Westport...
memories of the sweet hummingbirds at the lake.

Soon we will be packing up, leaving our cosy bedroom under the steep roof of our daughter's century-old house, and saying sad goodbyes.
Then it is time for the long trek home, back to Australia.

Have a great week

xxxx