Sunday 29 November 2015

Huron Natural Area

Haven't blogged a walk for a while have I? Today was crisp and sunny so we went to explore a free place to walk - oh how I love things I don't have to pay for.  It was very nice, although everything is hunkering down ready for winter so there wasn't a lot of colour about the place and any sensible wildlife stays well away when the kids are around.

Jacob found himself a friendly rock.


And Rose wore a rather fabulous outfit, but that's a given really isn't it?


She bought herself the Mrs. Santa hat at the dollar store this morning, it has a tiara on the front.  It's the little things.

Friday 27 November 2015

Techno Thursday

We had a problem with Techno Thursday yesterday.  It wasn't anything drastic like an empty desk situation, in fact our usual operative was skyping with the U.K. So I expect there were at least 3 different pieces of technology going at once.  The problem was just that he's got a cold and looked too bog-eyed to be photographed.

So we had to hire a stand in...


It took ages for Jacob to coach her into having half bad enough posture and this was still only the best she could do.

Jacob is off school today and lying in a big, festering heap on the sofa watching ancient episodes of Dr Who.  Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be back next week

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Time lapse Tuesday

Guess what, no growth to report in the amaryllis department.  Here is Rose expressing her perplexity at its lack of enthusiasm.


That was just before she flicked compost all over the carpet with the end of the tape.

Not much has been going on here (other than snow) but on a protecting the furnishings from your kids note here are the take-them-of-and-shove-them-in-the-washing-machine-almost-ketchup-proof slip covers I made to try to preserve the dining chairs.


You will also note the stain resistant, cheap area rug over the light coloured, shag pile carpet.  I mean really? In the dining room? Clearly real children did not enter the property with a view to food consumption.

Sunday 22 November 2015

First Snow

We woke up to 3 inches of snow this morning.  This time there was enough to play in but only after the chores were done.  Here's Rose shovelling the deck.


Jacob cunningly managed to be eating breakfast while all the hard work was being done but made it out for a snowball fight when my hands were too cold to hold a camera.

We had more flurries on and off all day and I wouldn't be surprised if we are knee deep in candy floss/cotton candy by the time this front has passed through.


Thursday 19 November 2015

Techno Thursday

Well this is a turn up for the books...


The laptop is off.  But never fear, here he is...


Using a different mode of technology.  Note the pile of clean washing that I asked him to put away this morning - yeah right Mum!

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Time lapse Tuesday and a Moose

Well I must say that this time lapse has started with just about the same level of excitement as the trees.  Here is Rose trying to pose and measure at the same time.


We have recorded a massive 5mm of amaryllis growth this week and that could just be the result of Rose pushing too hard on the tape measure.  Fingers crossed for a bit more action soon.

Jacob has been doing a lot of art at his new school, he's brought quite a few pieces home since the beginning of term but is particularly proud of this collage of a moose.


It is part of a social studies project on First Nations and Jacob claims that it was produced using traditional techniques.  Given that all the little pieces of paper appear to be pictures of either chocolate or ladies underwear (thermal tights/leggings I think) I am not so sure.

Monday 16 November 2015

Crates!

Now that we have a place of our own we are struggling with furniture.  It hasn't been an issue before because Pinetree Drive was furnished in exquisite taste by someone else and Thorn Lane was such a disaster it made no odds what you put in it.

Our stuff currently consists of an 'eclectic' (putting it politely there) mix of the contents of a 1200 sq foot Victorian terrace house imported from England and a whole lot of gratefully received cast offs from Gary.  As a result we have a rather odd selection of things, we seem to have about 100 chairs but no adequate storage.

Which leads me to a minor rant about the price of furniture.  There's not much over here that's more expensive than in the uk (with the glaring exception of cheese) but there is definitely a gap in the furniture market, if it's not IKEA it's desperately expensive.  As far as I can see there doesn't seem to be a mid range.

So all this bla bla rubbish is an expansive introduction to my solution to a new book case.  I have rejected put it together yourself laminated plywood and $2000 for pre assembled wood (and plywood) in favour of crates from the antique market. This is the staged picture I took of my new storage...


But this is what it actually looks like with all the rest of the junk.


And that's on a tidy day!

I'm quite pleased as I like being a miser over somethings and I also like the recycling aspect of it.  I wonder if I can fashion a TV cabinet and a sideboard out of crates.  Perhaps I could make all our furniture that way then next time we move we don't have to pack.

Saturday 14 November 2015

PA Day

Friday was a PA day (inset day) so the kids were not at school.  There wasn't much on and the weather was horrid so we didn't do anything very exciting.

I did drag the kids to a garden centre that had a pre Christmas sale to see if there was anything twinkly worth buying.  Rose found a cardinal, she looked a bit sinister stroking it wearing cat ears.


And jacob found the biggest pine cone in the world, he wanted to buy it but I really have no idea what on earth we'd do with it.


It's been 2 weeks since Halloween and there are signs that the kids are getting bored of candies.


Thursday 12 November 2015

Techno Thursday

Oh no, late again, but I know that he was in position at 5 because he was skyping with England.


And just for the record, look! The craft cart in action, do you see it peeping out from behind the chair?


Now the question is, will Rose put it away again or do I still end up doing the tidying?

Tuesday 10 November 2015

A New Time Lapse and some Big Machines

First, this is leaf collection Canadian style!



It seems a bit OTT but to be fair it probably saved a small forest worth of paper yard waste sacks.  Forgive the rubbish photos taken through the mosquito screen, I was too embarrassed to go outside.

This year we are turning our Christmas amaryllis into a time lapse.  Today Rose and I planted it (Jacob was invited to join us but declined) we also measured how tall the little shoot is and recorded it on a graph and Rose predicted that it will grow 19 cm.  don't think she remembers last years!


Monday 9 November 2015

Rose's Craft Cart

On Saturday the children and I drove to Burlington.  Jacob spent the morning at his friend Ross's house while Rose and I went to Ikea.  We bought Rose a crafting cart (along with a ton of other bits and bobs that seem to accidentally fall into your shopping cart in Ikea), she chose grey which was a bit of a departure from the norm.


The idea is that all her colouring books, paper, stickers, markers, tape, gems, ribbons, rainbow looms etc etc will live in there and be wheeled to whichever table she is working on.  When she's finished it can all be put back in the cart and wheeled away again thus eliminating all the stashes of bits in every room and the tantrums when it takes more than one trip to tidy up.  That's the theory, there may be a bit of wishful thinking on my part but I've been looking for an excuse to buy a Raskog trolley for ages.

Our old place hasn't rented yet, I'm surprised as they are working hard on curb appeal.


Friday 6 November 2015

Techno Thursday

At five o'clock yesterday we were out doing something I can't talk about right now, so for the sake of confidentiality I can't post a photo of Jacob doing whatever he was doing at techno time.  Instead here is a picture of how his sad empty desk looked without him.


Beat that for an uneventful post.

Tomorrow we are going to an apple orchard (weather permitting) so I might be able to take some more interesting photos.

Thursday 5 November 2015

Time Lapse Tuesday

Yes, I know it's not really Tuesday but this week has been very busy.  The remains of hurricane Patricia came through last week and although it wasn't really bad the wind and rain were persistent enough to put paid to our autumn colours.

Here's the pond looking very bare.


And this is the woods, it's not the same trees as last week but they all look like this right now.


So that wraps up that project.  I'll have to think of some other riveting, regular item.

In the meantime, we are getting the siding replaced as it is not looking like it will remain weather tight for much longer. We're going for a permenant siding so whatever colour we choose will be there for a long time, the pressure is on to get it right.  This next photo shows the original colour at the bottom and 3 possibles on the higher boards.  What do you think we should go for,or shall we choose something lighter or completely different?




Sunday 1 November 2015

Happy Halloween

Well that was the 4th rainy Halloween running, but to be fair it didn't come close to the misery of the weather in 2012 and it wasn't enough to dampen anyone's Halloween 'joie de vivre' either.

Rose was a black cat for the school party on Friday and a black dog for the actual night.


I'm not sure if anyone could tell she was  a dog because you couldn't really see her tail in the dark and when the LEDs in the papillon ears (hair) were flashing they rather distracted the eye from the face paint.  In fact I had to concentrate pretty hard on not having an epileptic seizure following her round for an hour and a half. Still everyone said she looked great so she was happy.

Jacob only decided to go out at pretty much the last minute (Monday actually but that's last minute when you're the costume provider) so he went out as a cyborg again and everyone said he was cool too.


We just went around our street this year but I think the kids might have got the most candy ever.  This is Jacob's.


Finally, and completely unrelated, is this brocolli or an edible bridal posey? And now I've bought it how on earth am I going to get everyone to eat this much of the stuff?