Techno Thursday

Oops, I forgot and now it's nearly 7 o'clock.  I don't think this cheating matters as apart from dinner and maybe a bathroom break he's been in position since the end of school.

Different pose this week.

I was a little concerned that he might perceive this experiment as e-mocking or cyber-teasing or something and be upset, but when I explained what I was up to his reaction was 'cool'. So I guess I'm ok.  Which is good because it makes for an easy post.

Rose is currently practicing the 'cat walk' for the Halloween party at school tomorrow.  Just sewn the tail in position (on the skort not Rose) what do you think?

Time Lapse Tuesday

I'll start off with the pond.

I cheated and turned round to get the bright yellow willows in frame.  The woods behind our house have been spectacular over the past week, it's raining leaves now so it's nearly over but it's still pretty good.

Next year I think I'll find a time lapse spot in here.  You can't tell on a photo but I love the light when it's filtered through all the yellow leaves.

Anyhow, we got the pumpkins carved on Sunday.  No cut fingers thanks to the dollar store pumpkin carving kit and abscence of turnips.

Rose's Party

Rose had her birthday party on Saturday at the President's Choice Cooking School at our local grocery store.  Doesn't sound very exciting does it but she seemed to have a lot of fun.

She and her friends all made pizza from scratch (yeast, sugar, water, flour and a little magic) decorated cupcakes and made fruit salad then ate the salad (best fruit salad ever according to Jacob, but it did have marshmallows in it?) pizza, birthday cake (not decorated by the kids) and took their very own 6-pack of cupcakes home (hurray for consumable party favours!).

Here is Jacob chopping up the fabulous fruit salad.

And here is Rose eating her pizza.

She received many fabulous gifts and is now the proud owner of a menagerie of 7 moving, meowing, woofing and very annoying pets.  At least I don't have to clean up after them I guess.

Techno Thursday

Well here it is.

Honestly, when I started this I didn't think the photos would all be quite this similar. I can imagine the house crumbling around him while he sits unchanging at his computer in a sort of weird, modern Miss Havisham style.

He eventually got hungry and came downstairs to eat sausage and I tried to get a photo of both kids plus the fabulous trees behind next doors back yard.

I was going to make some comment about this shot being 'unenhanced' but given that the children are in it I feel it's not necessary.  God help us if they are already enhanced.

Snow, Politics and Tuesday

Blimey, considering the uneventful weekend there's a lot to get through today.

First, this is Sunday morning and yes, that is our first snowfall.  Not enough to play in yet but perhaps I should make sure our 7 snow shovels are all in working order.

Politics next.  Yesterday was a general election here, Rose is gutted that Tim Louis did not win in our area because she thought he was cute.  I'm having one of those 'age' moments as our new PM, Justin Trudeau, is the same age as me and although I'm sure he is ready I'm not sure I am.  I have got used to dentists and police officers being younger than me and I even came to terms with a juvenile Dr Who but this could be tricky.

Pub quiz fact... constituencies here are referred to as 'ridings' like in Yorkshire.  That seems rather quaint.  Did you know that the term 'ridings' actually comes from the Danish word 'Thriddings' which means a third and referred to the three areas of what is now Yorkshire.  Representatives from each Thridding were called to a 'thing' or parliament.  Scandinavians eh, Ikea, Lego, Minecraft, taking over the world by stealth, I suppose it's better than marauding and pillaging.

And so to Tuesday.  A bit more colour now, the snow might have helped.

Ooh a quilt show!

Today I went to the Waterloo Quilting Guild Oktoberfest show.  What a happy couple of hours I spent wandering about, the only downside was that I had to vote for my favourite 3 and choosing was very tough, and that I didn't bump into any Lakeside Quilters from Grand Bend.

These were my favourites... Number 3, Amy by Jennifer Johnston

Number 2, Cartooning by Marilyn Farquhar

And my top fave was Handcrafted Triangles also by Jennifer Johnston.  The photo doesn't do it justice but I thought it looked like sailboats and the batiq fabric was so gorgeous I bought some fat quarters.

I also discovered a brilliant dollar store today and bought these for Halloween, they light up and flash and I'm quite jealous.

Techno Thursday

Remembered to time lapse this evening, did anything change?

I think he's wearing a different shirt and actually there's less clothes on the floor and the silver coloured book on his desk has moved.

Mind you, I decided to find Rose to record what she was doing and apart from the venue there's not a lot of difference.

Time lapse Tuesday and Thanksgiving

This is a bit of a cheat actually.  The weather was fab for the whole of the long weekend so as the forecast was rubbish for today I took my photo early.  Frankly it is still not looking great but better than last week.

Next year I'll do a better job of researching my tree varieties.

This is a piece of work that Rose brought back on Friday, I do hope you can read it as I thought it was pretty funny.

Snakes??? I love 'giving toys to me' erased and replaced by 'God'.  I asked her about 'integrity' and she said she doesn't know what it means but it's written above the whiteboard and she couldn't think of any other 'I' words.  That is a tough one, I might have gone for ice cream or Inverness perhaps.  Nana gets the prize for the only named person!

Pumpkin Patch and stuff

Now that Rose's birthday is pretty much done with, thanksgiving is upon us and Halloween is just around the corner so this morning we went foraging for pumpkins at Shantz Family Farm.

There were lots of activities on offer.  Jacob made a new friend, we went in a very ghostly corn maze, Rose made the best of a playground even though she was wearing a skirt (sans shorts underneath) and we picked our own pumpkins off the ground in a vast pumpkin patch.

Our selection is sitting out on the porch still covered in mud right now so I'll take a photo later when we've cleaned them up a bit.

Since it was so glorious outside we decided to annoy the kids further by taking them to the first dwelling built in Kitchener, Joseph Shneider Haus, c. 1820.  It was very spacious and I picked up some interesting interior decor tips but forgot to take photos.  Here are J and R outside it.

Now I am indulging in a small glass of red wine to help me make dinner so forgive any really inarticulate parts of this post, and I shall leave you with this rather fine tree.

Techno Thursday - Oops

Thursday was Rose's birthday so I forgot to take my 5pm photo of Jacob, here he is today.

I think he is wearing a different shirt, but then again maybe not.

Today Grandpa took Rose to Toys R Us to choose a birthday gift, actually we all went so Tom and I could intervene if she tried to get him to buy something wildly inappropriate like another giant doll house or a life size talking horse or something.  It was close but in the end it came down to a meowing, animated cat and a purple dog with a Velcro stomach so you can aid it in birthing puppies. Nice.

We also went out for a bit of a walk, I took this shot because these trees are behaving properly and the sky was neat.  Shame about the nit-wits in the foreground.

Toque Weather

Actually that's not completely accurate, it was last week but now it's warmed up again.

For British readers who may be in the dark a 'Toque' (pronounced took with a long oooooh like you're from the midlands or a hobbit named Peregrine) is a specifically Canadian term for a 'knit cap' or beanie.  I was intrigued by the spelling so googled where the term comes from and discovered that it describes a hat style with no brim popular in thirteenth to sixteenth century Europe, there's a great picture of Philip II of Spain wearing one on the Wikipedia page.  Nowadays it is 'primarily known as the headgear for chefs, except in Canada.'  I've got to say that now I know that I kind of wish that we all wore multi-coloured chefs hats in winter out here, that would be neat and also useful for sub zero barbecuing.

Anyway, with cold weather in mind I knitted myself and the kids new ones for this year.

Rose always looks great in a pink hat, I went for the Last of the Summer Wine look to reduce the chances of being mistaken for Audrey Hepburn and Jacob said he liked the 'concept' of his hat but that it was too itchy.  Back to the drawing board on that one, any chefs out there want a new and stylish black hat? I have a spare.

Time Lapse 4

Does Tuesday only come once a week? Seems to be every other day right now.

As you can see it's another dull one, I left posting in case the sun came out and I could rush out and take a better photo but it wasn't to be.  You can see some change there but look how much nicer it is if I take a quarter turn to the right.

Isn't that pretty.

A New Time Lapse and a Quiz

One of my blogging problems these days is that Jacob doesn't do much that is photographically interesting.  I realize that blog posts and Instagram have become increasingly Rose orientated or I find that I just don't post anything for fear of appearing to have favourites.

I have decided to remedy this situation by introducing Techno Thursday.  So at 5pm each Thursday afternoon I shall take a photo of Jacob doing whatever he is doing.  I know it's Saturday but here's my prediction of what all of my photos will look like, perhaps in time we could turn it into a spot the difference or find the dirty socks or guess how much desk is not covered in rubbish competition.

And so to my quiz... Rose and Jacob each have a planner from school which is used for reminders of what is going on, notes to and from teachers etc etc.  Bearing in mind that Rose is 6 and Jacob is 11 can you guess who's planner is who's based on handwriting?

Just to round things off here's Rose all dressed up for a bird watching expedition.  Bill Oddie never looked this glamorous.