The school festivities

The other day I mentioned the Christmas recitals and school functions in which our granddaughters are participating. Here are a few pictures of the school performances:

The kids and their teachers all did a wonderful job.

Merry Christmas!!

A busy time

It's been a number of days since my last post.

I'm sure that I'm not alone at being busy during this time of year. My "busyness" comes mostly from running a home-based, one-person business. My wife does all the shopping and baking (2nd Pulla installment today - see previous post). I don't like shopping - she loves it. Whatever few presents I buy usually come via the internet. Throughout the year, my wife is always looking out for gifts to give on various occasions, so we usually have our Christmas gifts assembled well before the shopping season starts.

As it is, our social calendar is also full until the end of the year, what with family and friends hosting little get-togethers, the grandchildrens' school and recital performances, etc. It is a joyful time. tempered to some degree by Derek's illness.

My wife and I wish all who read this blog a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, and, especially, Good Health.

Kitchen in Action

Some time ago, I wrote about our "old-fashioned" kitchen, which produces much of the food we eat when the family gets together. With the festive season coming up, we'll have another occasion to enjoy each other's company - and food, of course, will be a major part of that.

Over the many years we have developed some "family traditions". One of them is that my wife's expertise in cooking and baking has made her the "authority" to bake "Pulla" - a Finnish bread. It's meant to be served with afternoon coffee or tea, but it goes very well with our dinners, too. My wife learned the recipe from her mother. She makes some of it for most of our get-togethers, and so she did again.

Here are some pictures of the process of making it:


























This is just the first "installment" - these loaves are gifts to other family members. There will be more (yummy, yummy!). It's a lot of work, and a labour of love. The Pulla is especially appreciated by our family members who have an issue with diabetes - they are slightly sweetened with "Splenda" (an artificial sweetener). The recipe calls for some sugar instead, but this tastes just as wonderful.

My wife knows what goes into the Pulla - and it's not preservatives or other "shelf-life-enhancing" ingredients. To preserve them, we freeze them until they are served. I don't think that you could buy these at any of the commercial bakeries or food stores.

This whole process is perhaps a bit "old-fashioned", but that's what you get out of an old-fashioned kitchen.

Pineapple Express.

As mentioned previously, the Pineapple Express arrived, and melted all the snow in about a day. The snowman is but a couple of snowblobs left on the grass Here are the effects:















The ghost of the snowman.






















The pineapple express works fast - all the snow is gone.
Right now, it looks like we're nearing the end of the current pineapple express, with a break after all the rain.


Here's a break between systems rolling in from the Pacific:




fire in the sky











sunset on the clouds

The snow

"Collecting" the parts



















It's a "biggy"













Taking shape















And... here's the snowman




Well, all the snow in the last couple of days has put our family into the "holiday" mood. The granddaughters decided to build a snowman - and help with the other activity which my wife decided was to take place: setting up the Christmas tree. So the kids did their thing (see above), and (below) you see the results of the "indoor" effort. Of course, as I anticipated, I had to shovel enough snow to allow for safe pedestrian passage near our house.

We'll enjoy the scenery outside today, because tomorrow the "pineapple express" is slated to arrive all the way from Hawaii, with temperatures going up to 13 degrees Centigrade. We expect up to 50mm of rain here. It'll be a mess, and with all the melting snow blocking the drains and adding to the rain, some flooding is expected in the low areas. But, that's normal around here - we don't often get a "white Christmas".






Here's the tree - it'll be here to enjoy for the next several weeks.

It's arrived

In good old European tradition, my wife put up the "Advent Calendars", each with 24 little presents attached - for our granddaughters. Each granddaughter will open one present per day, until the 24th of December, at which time we have our family Christmas celebration, with dinner and the giving of Christmas presents. So today, being the first day of December, both opened their first-day present.

The advent calendars themselves are needle-point, made especially for our granddaughters by a very good friend who lives in California. The calendars will always remind us of her - what a wonderful effort to make for "the kids".


Well, the snow which was predicted, and which announced its coming a couple of days ago, has arrived. Some time ago I speculated that the birds would be very happy with the "yellow apples" hanging on our neighbours' tree. Today, that came true.










Here's the snow















...and the birds are having a feast.

A sign of winter

On clear autumn days, we get an excellent indication of how close winter is by looking out our window and taking notice of the snow line on our local mountains. Right now, the line is "descending" and is not too far above the elevation at which our house is located. This likely means that I'll be shovelling snow in a few days.

Of course, the snow line will have its "ups and downs" . In our area, being located more-or-less on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, weather patterns often bring a surge of warm and moist air from as far away as Hawaii, or even the South Pacific - which usually means rain. So this line is likely to move up and down in the coming weeks. Of course, as spring approaches, the line will "ascend" in a similar manner.

Well, regardless of what is heralded, it's just "plain beautiful" (is this an oxymoron?)