Monday, March 11th - hello longer afternoons!

Now that the time has changed, it's such a joy to have that extra time in the early evenings.
Last night I decided to take myself out for supper a little after 5:00. After enjoying some sushi at my favourite Japanese location, it was such an uplifting walk home. We enjoyed sunny, slightly milder temperatures all weekend and it was wonderful walking home in broad daylight and sunny skies after 6:00. You can almost feel spring in the air. There's some heat in that sunshine now and it feels glorious.

This morning I'm waiting for my car to get an oil change so I'm enjoying a coffee at my favorite little coffee spot. It's raining this morning and should get to 6' later. It's nice to get all the salt from my trip to Halifax washed off the car.

My week was mostly quiet after getting home from Halifax on Tuesday. Thursday was once again supper at the VanGaals. I was expecting to be receiving some lamb from our friends Charles and Laura but it wasn't going to arrive in time for Thirsty Thursday. But I had my taste buds all primed for some lamb burgers so a quick stop at the  farmer run grocery store provided me with my main ingredient. My menu this week was lamb burgers with tzatziki sauce, red onions and lettuce, accompanied by a greek salad and lemon roasted Greek potatoes. Of course, some wine to go with that was a given.

Brenda was off on Friday so we went into town early to have breakfast at the Culinary Institute. One of the options was a Vietnamese Breakfast Bowl. I thought I'd give that a try and it was absolutely delicious. Brenda opted for the lemon meringue pancakes with bacon and fresh fruit. Combined with coffee for a total of $6.05 each, it's a pretty great way to start the day.

Vietnamese breakfast bowl

Friday was also our last basket weaving class and all projects are now complete. Next Friday is our open house when all are invited to come and view the fruits of our labours. Watch this space for photos next week.

We completed our afternoon with a short snowshoe trek in the woods.

I was back out in Fort Augustus on Saturday after picking up my lamb from Charles. and dropping it off in the freezers stashed at friend Richard's.  Remember those chicken pot pies I helped with in December? They are mighty tasty in the middle of March. I was able to enjoy some of those at the VanGaals for lunch.

After lunch Brenda and I headed out to Iona. Because of the amount of snow we took our snowshoes with us to visit the mini home. Good thing as we needed them to get in. We poked around and discussed some possible redecorating ideas. I'm getting anxious to get started.  Since we were in the area, we wandered over to Belfast to the Mini Mills. I picked up some needle felting supplies to take with me to Wheatley River so I'll have something to work on.

On our way home we made a detour to Montague and stopped for a beverage at Copper Bottom Brewery. It was my first visit. Lovely views out big windows of the Montague waterfront.

Sunday was the home show here in town. I spent a bit of time touring around there and asking some questions. It was another absolutely beautiful day. I had several things hanging around in my car that I needed to find space for so I made a trip out to Fort Augustus. On my way out I stopped and had a quick visit with Jens and Linda and after dropping stuff off at Patti Lane I checked in with Anna. It was a visiting kind of day.

Then it was back to town for something to eat and some time to contemplate packing things up. I've collected a few boxes and that will be my focus this week. Can't believe it's my last week in town. I can't help feeling that things are moving along, even if it's only me that's doing the moving!

I saw two movies this week at City Cinema, both old ones. The first was an Alfred Hitchcock called Vertigo. It was really interesting, especially to see what passed for special affects in 1958. The second one was a bit of a cult classic  - An American Werewolf in London. It was from 1981 and one I'd never seen, It was a little gruesome but I suppose nothing compared to what we see today. The treat for me was one of the main characters was a very young Jenny Agutter. I knew the face and voice but it wasn't till the credits that I realized that she plays a beloved character on Call the Midwife.

And finally this blast from the past. I was surfing through the TV channels on Saturday evening and on CHCH tv out of Hamiltion Ontario, what did I find but an updated version of an old, old TV show called Tiny Talent Time. It was on the air when I was a kid. In fact, I actually tap danced my way to stardom when I was 12 years old. Unfortunately all the old tapes have been destroyed (maybe that's a good thing!). Anyway it was certainly a trip down memory lane for me.

The older version with host Bill Lawrence

The new version