On Official Nana Duty

It's been a busy busy babysitting weekend.
First, I looked after this cute baby...

.... and then I looked after this cute baby.

Somebody sneaked upstairs when I wasn't looking and chewed up the toilet paper.

Somebody stole The Space Cadet's glove and danced round the back yard with it, shaking it violently making sure it was dead.

Somebody raided the bedroom and stole my socks.

Somebody wanted to go pee at 6am and made enough noise to wake the dead.

Callum, did you do all those naughty things? NO?

Hmmmm...... T E S S A !!!!!

E for Excellent

Xtreme English has included me in her list of blogs that deserve the Big E for Excellent. Wow! I hope she doesn't regret it later.

I'm told that part of the responsibilities of a new awardee is to nominate 10 other blogs as Excellent, and each of them must then select 10 others.

This is a hard one... many more than 10 worthwhile bloggers out there, and they all deserve a read.

OK... let's get cracking...

Lettuce lives in South London. Her blog is full of unusual pictures and she writes with a quirky turn of phrase. She notices what others miss. Her idea of a good day out is to visit Art Galleries. And Museums. And she is inspired with what she finds there. I look forward to her posts.

The Ginger Darlings live on the coast of wild Wales. "Three cats of perfect gingerness, elegant, feline, sharp clawed and fine." Eloquent descriptions of their adventures, roaming the hills with their artist companion. I adore ginger cats.

Combe Martin Life is all about the goings-on in the village in England where I grew up. Martin is a bit of a nutter, but he takes fab piccies. Sorry, Martin, but you know it's true!

Pea Soup hails from Melbourne, Australia. She loves fabric and yarn and Australia and her family. But not necessarily in that order. She can teach you to dye wool with food colouring and knows how to knit fruit. Yes, that's what I said... knit fruit. No kidding.

Peter is a newly retired Swede living in Paris. I think he knows more about the history and geography of the streets and boulevards of Paris than anyone. If you are planning a trip to Paris, read his blog first! Peter already has a Big E for Excellent Award, but he definitely deserves another... you just can't have too many! Merci, Peter.

Ming the Merciless knows New York City like the back of his hand... right, Ming? He'll take you to the most interesting shops, ride with you on the subway, cross the Brooklyn Bridge, walk with you in the park, and you'll meet all the neighbourhood dogs. And Ming doesn't cook, so he knows all the best places to eat and drink.

Willow Grace aka Mad blogs in the San Francisco Bay area. She's the creative sort... photography, scrapbooking, stamping, all kinds of arts and crafts. And she sounds like she's lots of fun.

Wiggers World is the brainchild of Tom Wigley, aka Old Wom Tigley. Tom's someone who appreciates Nature and has a innate sense of belonging to the world around him. He and his sidekick friend Peter Parrott roam the countryside around Hyde, Cheshire, and come up with some stunning wildlife photos and stories about the countryside.

that's 9.... one more to go.

Pete at Midway is a young man on Midway Atoll in the Pacific on a 6 month temporary job with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, trying to rid the island of a wild sunflower plant called verbesina. He also counts birds, swims, plays volleyball and takes great seabird pics. Sounds like he's having a blast.

Digging Out the Sidewalk

.
No further description necessary.

Go South .... or Go Get the Snow Shovel

It's been a wild weekend.
The snow started falling on Friday afternoon and didn't let up until sometime during Saturday night. This picture doesn't do justice to the sight of horizontal white-out snow whipping past the window. One look outside convinced me that I wasn't going anywhere.

As I was stuck indoors all day on Saturday, I felt an irresistible bout of Martha-style Domestic Goddess coming on. This often happens if I can't go out anywhere..... it's the perfect antidote to Cabin Fever.

So I finished knitting this "green" string bag, perfect for those last minute trips to the supermarket. My tiny contribution to the battle against plastic bags and global warming.... but please notice not much is being said about the afore mentioned global warming during our snowier than usual winter. Knitting pattern here. Thank you Lettuce.

And then... I decided that Chelsea Buns were just the ticket on a snowy day, but I cheated a bit by making the dough in the bread machine. I didn't have any raisins, and I certainly wasn't going shopping in a blizzard, so I added currants, dried cranberries and grated apple. Delectable.

The Space Cadet didn't waste much time before getting a product sample.

Sunday morning I could hardly get the back door open, the drifts were so high.

We shovelled our way to the sidewalk, where Mr Nice Nextdoor Neighbour was already out with his snowblower. We have a great arrangement.... MR NNN has the snowblower, and The Space Cadet has the key to Mr NNN's garage!

After digging our way out, we were volunteers at the local Junior 'A' hockey game, taking admission and selling teeshirts and hats.

I didn't stay to watch the game, but I think the home team lost.

Puppy School Graduate

Tessa is six months old and look how big she is! And looking especially fetching with a sexy girly hairdo. (Tessa, not me!)

She's a famous cover girl too.

She has graduated Puppy School with Honours. She knows Sit, Stay, Down, Wait, Give a Paw, Come. She can sit next to a doggy treat and not eat it until given permission. She's heading into the Intermediate Class in a few weeks.

What a clever girl!

Spring Was Just Foolin'!

After Monday's melty puddles, I thought Spring was on the way.... but it seems I was mistaken.

Winter hasn't given up yet. Another six inches of the white stuff overnight. This is getting $#@*&$#@!!! very tiresome. No wonder the main topic of conversation in Canada is the weather. Toronto Star video here.

Melting

Finally.... a day above Zero.


Don't get your feet wet.