Heart Day

Sue decorates for every season, mostly changing little displays here and there. There are dollar store tinsel sort of hearts strewn about the dining room table. This is a macro of one of the tiny things.

A little fun with a tulip macro. I took a slice and made it into a heart shape. Then I took another slice for the background and added a texture. Finally, I duplicated the right side of the original image and flipped/copied it over the the left side so that both sides are the same. I didn't have to do the flip but decided to ... because I could, I guess.

I used the heart for Sue's card: Still Hearting You.

The inside: an image from our courting days. I think we were off to a church choir event, but this was one of her bridesmaids dresses, so who knows. The to be continued follows up on the still hearting you theme on the front.

Hope you all have a hearty sort of day.

Digging Out

Well, we had our big snowstorm, and while it was big enough, it seemed a little less than expected. Everyone prepared for the worst; schools were actually closed for two days. Usually, they just cancel buses but leave the schools open. They pretty well could have stayed open yesterday because the snow began later than expected and started mid afternoon rather than early afternoon. But you make the best decision that you can with the information that you have.

We get a lot of drifting up by the house, and I shovelled that part out twice last evening. However, I left the bulk of it for the contractor, and it came during the night. There had been some subsequent accumulation, but the lions' share had been removed.

However, there was more to do. First, it is garbage day, so we shovelled a bit of a path to the sidewalk. Second, the contractor has been leaving more and more of a bank on the side of the driveway, making it narrower, so it behooved us to trim it back a bit.

Shovelling a path to the street

A different view of the same path. The accumulation behind is taller than Sue
who is not short.

From the street

The neighbour came over to help out. She cut into the bank for us.

Other neighbours are also out. They later came down to finish our driveway.

I almost neglected to mention that yet another neighbour had cleared our walk
before we came downstairs in the morning.

Sue decided to make sure the vents out back were clear.

Once we were back inside, I noticed my neighbour, he who did our walk, on the ladder.

Goodbye Sid

The kids came to our house in tears yesterday. Their mother dropped them off on her way to take Sid to the vets. The old cat was unhealthy, and it was time to let him go. What made it a little harder was that it was a snow day, so the kids were home. They had known that it was coming, but it is still very hard.

In the morning, Sha had sent me some photos and asked if I would print some for the kids. So I made a quick 8x10 collage.

At Last Another Hockey Game

It has been awhile since I shot one of Jonathan's hockey games. We hadn't realized that the last home game was even scheduled, and then there were two week-night away games, which we don't usually attend. But this weekend, Jonathan's team had a tournament at Almonte, just a little more than 10 minutes up the road.

However, I learned, to my chagrin, how difficult it is to photograph in that arena, so much so that I refused to take my camera for the final game. No arena is terribly optimal for shooting because there's that plexiglass between the camera and the ice, but almost every photo seemed to come out hazy in this arena. Beyond that, the lighting was poor: a little dim and uneven too. But, I did our best to get a few photos as the various parents seem to like seeing their kids online.

Getting ready to shoot: #18 is one of their best scorers.

Those eyes: looking for space.

A clear path to the net for #2

The goalie lunges to stop a possible shot while 17 tries to clear the puck

Jonathan fighting to fighting to get to the puck first

One of the 2 goals against in a tie game

#12 is an intense player

#5 again. this time playing strong defence

...

Well I Never

A silly FB meme, but it gives bloggers something to play with when we dry up. I have 4 Nevers, but I did the best that I could on one impossibility (see #7), so I think it's really three by any sane measure.




No Tattoo. I came close a few years ago when I was fiddling and thought seriously of getting a fiddle tat. Then I wondered just how long I would keep it up. As it turned out, arthritic problems caused me to give it up after about 5 years. I had fun for those 5 years, but I'm glad that I didn't get a permanent tat.

No Children Birthed. I guess this goes without saying, but I was very present for the birth of my second child (wasn't allowed in for the first) — both for the conception and the delivery.

No Broken Bone. I have done damage to myself but haven't broken a bone. This is too bad in a way because broken bones heal, but some injuries don't so well. So, I limp around a bit with damage to my foot.

Not Been Divorced. Almost at the 50th and holding fast.

Feel free to grab onto this meme.

For another post, maybe I will pick some from the list that I have done.

Another Photo Restoration

Shauna, my daughter, had no idea that I had recently done some scanning of old photos, but synchronicity is what it is, and she asked me to scan an old battered photo of her maternal grandfather when he was a soldier in WW2.

As you can plainly see, there were a number of problem areas, namely the two big blemishes on both the left and right. That's in addition to many splotches and scratches.

I thought the best thing to do would be to crop away the big offending areas since they weren't crucial to the photo. Then I cleaned up much of the rest of the photo and converted it to plain b&w which I think it was before it yellowed. I judge this partly from the yellowed back of the photo which was also very discoloured.

So I am going to leave it as a b&w. It's certainly not a modern, well-taken  photo, but it has been salvaged to some degree, and we now have a digital record that won't deteriorate further.

It was also a very small photo, so I have enlarged it and printed it as a 4x6.

But look at the back.

Obviously, he was written to his sweetheart, the woman who would become Sue's mother, when he was away soldiering. But we don't know where he was at the time.

Intense Dislike

School buses have been parked for five of the past seven days, and we were expecting another off day today. Yes, my dears, another ice storm was predicted, and that is almost a sure shut down, more so than a snow storm. It happened farther west in Ontario, but, somehow or other, we were spared — at least this once. Good thing too as conditions were bad enough already.

The previous day, Tuesday, we had chipped and scraped the ice from the upper part of our driveway, but with aching backs, we didn't finish the job. The ice was too thick down nearer the street for us to contend with it. There is more freezing rain predicted overnight, but then temperatures should rise above freezing, so maybe we can scrape some more tomorrow.

Sorry to show our street on garbage day, but this shows the driving conditions. Thankfully, major roads were tended much better, and we were able to run around and do our listy chores, such as laying in provender for yet another predicted weather event.

There is a prodigious pile of snow on our front lawn by the street. It actually looked white and pretty up until Tuesday before the rain came. I took this photo from the edge of our driveway yesterday. There has been a inordinate amount of snow since the New Year. Our region actually set a forever record with more than 97cm/38in.

This freezing rain and alternate thawing and freezing happens every winter, and I hate it. It's simply the worst part of winter. Freshly fallen snow looks pretty at the very least and can then be cleared, but these icy conditions are ugly, both visually and practically.

However, yesterday I realized that March Break is just a little more than a month away. The sap will begin to run and spirits will lift. Until then, I reserve the right to whinge and whine.

In general, I don't mind winter although the last three weeks have been trying, but I intensely dislike the days when freezing rain rules us.