Turned out not so bad

Conditions at 4:20 am:clear and -3' with 6 km/h winds
Expected later: sunny and plus 3'

It's going to be another nice day today. Friday we were all braced for a big storm and it really didn't happen. although we did get a couple of inches of snow and ice pellets. Trouble is it came in fast and furious. I picked a fellow up at the university at 4:45 and we were chatting about the fact it hadn't yet started to snow. I thought it was great that I'd get home before it started. Ha, ha the joke was on me. The snow began at 5:00 and by 5:30 driving conditions had seriously deteriorated. The roads were quite slippery and the ice pellets that were coming down made it feel like you were driving on marbles. You could feel the car almost rolling around on the the little balls of ice. So it was a somewhat slow drive home but by later in the evening it had settled down and when I woke up in the morning, it was no big deal. I must say I was pleased to not have to deal with another 15 cm of snow.

Saturday morning I worked, then stopped and picked up groceries on my way home. A quick stop at Brenda's on the way home proved to be very timely as Caitlin had just made some date squares and Brenda was just finished some painting and was about to sit down and have a cup of tea. Bernie joined us, and we pretty much demolished Caitlin's baking efforts. She came into the kitchen to find half of the pan gone!  But they were really good - still warm out of the oven!


When I left there, it was still quite windy and cold so I got home, brought in the groceries and that's pretty much where I stayed for the rest of the night. I caught up on some TV and pretty much just vegged. I had invited the VanGaals to come and have supper with me on Sunday and I needed to do some tidying up but I ended up leaving it until Sunday. I was just too tired on Saturday night and I went to bed early. Consequently I was also up early so I made my to do list and accomplished most of it before it was time to go to Belfast.  It was a little snowy out but not too bad. Sheila called a little before 9:00 to confirm I was still coming out and I assured her I was. The drive out turned out to be fine. The roads in that area were much better than those up here. When I arrived Sheila's daughter poked her head out of her house, across from her mom's and called to ask if I'd like a cup of tea as her mom was there as well. So I joined the two ladies and 3 dogs and we had a lovely chat. Then it was off to work.  Another lady, who lives nearby, and works at the shop in the summer, arrived just as we were going to Sheila's house. She's french and her name is Claude and was coming in to watch.  Sheila has a stunning home and it's huge. You almost need a map to find your way around.  We started out with deciding what colours I would like to use. I needed to wind the yard first. That involved figuring out first how  many strands of yarn I needed and how many of each colour. It's a time consuming process but I really enjoyed it.  You wind the yarn around and around - and around again until you have enough all joined together just so and all counted out. Then she showed me how to take it off and organize it so that I could transport it home. Then I counted off again, 12 more strands and we put those on her loom so I could see how they go on. Now I'm on my own and we'll see how it goes. She loaned me a video to watch and I had already seen it online. The nice thing about something like that being available online is they often give you a little preview that you can watch and I thought it looked very good. I was going to ask her about it and turns out that was the one she planned to loan me.
I think I'll sit down and watch the video all the way through before I actually start on mine.  So it was a very productive weekend. The amount of yarn that I have wound will make 12 placemats or I can do 8 placemats and a table runner instead.  I'm looking forward to getting started.

When I got home I finished off the prep for supper. Bernie called around 4:30 to see if they could come over - I think he was hungry, and I told him I was ready whenever they were. The three of them arrived a short while later and we had a lovely time. I had bought a carton of quail eggs when I was in Guelph so I had hard boiled them and instead of cutting them in half, I sliced a tiny piece off the bottom end and then a slice off the top and taken the yolks out that way and made deviled eggs. They were about the size of a grape and they looked ever so cute. (Just wish I'd thought to take a picture.)  What I didn't know is that they had never eaten a deviled egg before. I was totally surprised at that, as deviled eggs were always a standard item at pot luck suppers or gatherings when I was growing up. So I was ever so pleased to have them try something new.
The rest of the dinner consisted of - I know - same old, same old - chinese dumplings for the starter. Then we had Pork Tenderloin with fresh plums, julienne carrots and rice pilaf. We finished with butter tarts and ice cream. I think we were all pretty full by the time we were done. Brenda and Caitlin washed and dried all the dishes and I was very grateful for that.
As promised, here's a video of the recipe for the pork. It's very easy and very delicious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGVcBSLFJdg
I talked to Patti and the kids yesterday afternoon. They were in Ottawa for Meghan's speed skating competition. She did well, only falling down once so that's a huge improvement for her. They were at the airport on their way home when we chatted. I asked Tristen if he was still coming for Easter and he replied "Yes, just me and grandma and papa and nobody else". Patti said he was  a little concerned that he would miss the Easter egg hunt at school but he was okay with that when she reminded him that there would be one here. I can't believe it's only two more weeks away.

Now I just have one question. Who gave me the cold?
My throat was a little scratchy when I went to bed last night and this morning it's quite sore and I have a stuffed up nose and my chest is quite congested.  I guess I can't complain. There's been some pretty wicked colds going around all winter long so I've done well to avoid them this long. But I'm just going to ignore it and hope it goes away. I don't have time to get sick.I've got to get going on my weaving before Kayaking season starts!