Here kitty, kitty.....

I've heard of a junk yard dog, but never a cat. Can you find the black and white kitty on the junk pile?


Photo borrowed from somewhere on the internet.
See the comments for a hint!

TessaDog and baby Pandas

Grand-dog golden doodle Tessa came to stay for the weekend while YoungerSon went ice fishing with his mates (at -25C and -40C windchill they all have to have their heads examined IMHO) and the rest of the family went to visit their other grandma overnight. TessaDog loves coming to visit me because I actually have time to play with her and take her for long walkies (but at -25C she just gets enough time for a quick wee on the front grass, 5 minutes at the most before we both freeze).

When YoungerSon and the Bride came home from their honeymoon, they got a sweet new puppy the very next day. Not even one day to enjoy married life without any responsibilities! Hard to believe Tessa will be celebrating her 9th birthday this summer, she looks and acts like a puppy, bringing her squeaky toy to me so I'll wrestle her for it, and always overjoyed to chase a ball if she can find someone silly enough to throw it. She's very lively. Tessa spelled backwards is asset.... hmmm... I wouldn't go that far.

And more cute fur.... the twin Giant Panda cubs that were born at Toronto Zoo in October are getting mobile.

Marmalade and Art

I think I post about Marmalade every year, but in February the knobbly, very ugly and very sour Seville oranges appear in the local grocery store for a short time, and as soon as I see them, I feel compelled to make marmalade. I think it's in my blood, as Mum made marmalade every year.
I have a vivid memory of Mum trusting me to stir the marmalade while she had to go out for half an hour, and of course as a 13 year old I had better things to do, and when she came home, there was a distinct aroma of burnt marmalade.... I was in BIG trouble. Perhaps my annual venture into marmalade making is to atone for my past mistake.

Squeezing out the juice, removing the membranes and the seeds, and cutting up the orange and lemon peel gets harder work every year, and then standing at the stove stirring and stirring, and getting hotter and hotter.....

 .... but the result is totally worth it. These 9 jars contain 8 Seville oranges, 2 lemons, 1 navel orange, some filtered water and approximately 3kg of white sugar. Enough for a few gifts and to last me a year of breakfasts. And there's even some left over for tomorrow's toast. Mum would be so proud of me.

This week our Art Group were invited to exhibit 40 paintings at the Community Centre in the nearby town of  Ajax. The art will hang in the main entrance hall. We delivered our paintings and the art curator arranged them along the walls to be hung. Some were arranged by size and some by subject and some by colour. These three are on the main entrance wall, the middle picture is a delightful image of an old cement plant... soon to be demolished.... painted by my art friend V. Love that picture!

And at the Art Group session last week, we experimented with intuitive paintings. This involved setting blobs of runny watercolor on wet paper and squishing the colours together with crumpled tissue paper, or wax paper, or even using saran wrap, and letting it dry.

I used some bubble wrap and some netting from an onion bag to create different textures.

Then when it's dry, taking the covering off gently and seeing images in the interesting patterns left.

That was the hard part! I couldn't see much, no matter which way up I held the paper, but other people saw fish and a turtle and flowers.... I'm still waiting for the turtle to reveal itself to me!

Oh well, I can always cut them up to make pretty bookmarks!

Goalie

Grandson Isaac started skating and learning to play ice hockey three months ago, and today when the coach asked "Who wants to be the goalie?" Isaac's hand went up immediately.... "Me!" He is certainly full of heart and enthusiasm, in spite of the lack of skating skills .
So it was on with the goalie pads, and the huge gloves, and the chest protectors and the oversized goalie stick, and onto the ice. He immediately fell over and flailed about under all that padding unable to get up on his own steam. But he eventually managed and after a couple of circuits of the rink he got used to it. Some quick lessons from the coach, and then he was ready to take his place in goal.

Number 5, dark jersey, green stripes, far left of the pack. These young hockey players are all in their first year, ages 6-8.

Isaac on the left in dark jersey with green stripes. It's really hard to skate inside all that equipment, especially when you have short legs.

Learning some vital goalie moves from the coach, how to block the puck with your pads, how to use the goalie stick with your right hand, while ready to catch the puck with your left hand.

And action on the ice. What a brave goalie. I predict a brilliant future!