the couch potato cat lives here

He usually prefers golf (I swear to God!) but tonight he was content with Blazing Saddles.

Wordless Wednesday

Visit Wordless Wednesday!

ABC Wednesdday - "X" Round 3

Xs marks the spot (creates the support) for the train trestle. This trestle is near the dam in Thamesford, Oxford County, Ontario.
For more creative entries on the letter 'X', please visit ABC Wednesday.

Skywatch Friday

This is how foggy it was for our drive from Buffalo, New York to Woodstock, Ontario today - at other times it was much worse. This shot was taken just outside of Hamiltion, Ontario. A very, very mild day for December in this part of Canada.
This "waterfall" of fog was on the escarpment as we drove up through Hamilton.
A less foggy scene alongside Highway 403 near Brantford.

...but where will we put it?!

We already had lots (LOTS, do you hear me?!) of snow for it to be a white Christmas. This morning we woke to find a further 20cm (8inches) had fallen overnight. Add to that the fact that by morning it had switched to rain and you have a ton of snow that now weighs a ton. Our next door neighbour Don and his dog Nitrous were out early with the snowblower, trying to make some sense of the mess. God bless him.
In the meantime Geoff was trying to clear enough snow off the car for us to be able to get in so he could drop me off at work. God bless him too.

This is another shot of the house across the street from my office. If you check my entry from yesterday, you'll see that the red bows on the railing at the front of the house are slowly getting buried. I have no idea who lives in this house but it is immaculate in summer or winter. Another God bless.

ABC Wednesday - W

Today we had our annual Christmas Tea at the office. Nothing stuffy, just time to visit and enjoy a cup of tea. We bring sweet treats, make a pot of tea and pop a faux fire in the DVD player.

My co-worker Al had a vacation day but dropped in with his 5 month-old grandson Calan. So, "W" is for "watch me, for my next trick I'll do a somersault off Pa's knee!" I'm just kidding of course but he does look like he's posing here. After he had charmed all of us he laid back in his grandfather's arms and had his bottle.
I love the way he was holding his grandfather's hand while he was feeding. For more variations on the letter W go to ABC Wednesdays.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

My World Tuesday - snow, snow and more snow

Since last Friday we've had two storms plus a day of snow that no one is calling a storm. Friday morning the view from here (this is a house across the street from my office) looked like this at 7:45 am. It snowed all day, it blew all day - a good old fashioned storm.

We had another storm yesterday and this morning around 9am the view was sunny and bright but you could see the build up of snow since Friday.

By mid-afternoon it was snowin' and blowin' again...... It's looking like we will have the first coast to coast white Christmas in Canada since 1971.
Other things happening in my world. Saturday was the last Farmers Market before Christmas. These ladies were selling vegetables while other vendors sold flowers, crafts, baked goods etc., etc.

After our market trip we had our annual Christmas breakfast with our friend Candy at Dean Michael's Griddle. Her sweetie, Norm, couldn't join us as he'd been called out to work at 3:30am - he repairs signals for CP rail so being "called out to work" meant being out in the cold in the middle of the night. We missed you Norm!

To travel to another location, please visit My World Tuesday.

From our house to yours best wishes for a wonderful Christmas. And for those of you celebrating it, Happy Hanukkah!

This little guy was competing for space at the feeders yesterday.

Stormy weather at the feeders

Well, we're having our second winter storm in three days. Oh joy. I does look pretty but it should come with elves to clear the walkway, sidewalk, around our car ...... This weather also means standing room only at our two bird feeders. These five little guys waited patiently in the little willow tree for their turn. I call this tree "Tori's Willow". About six or seven summers ago, our next door neighbour Tori, who was around 12 years old at the time, gave me a stem of pussy willow which she had nurtured in a jar of water outside the back door. "Plant it in the Secret Garden!" she said. "Don't be too disappointed if it doesn't take," I replied. Lo and behold, it "took" with a vengance and all these years later I keep it trimmed to a height of about six feet. Along with the stems of our Butterfly Bush it serves as way station for sparrows, juncos, chicadees, blue jays and the occasional nuthatch as they go to and from our two bird feeders.

Dark Eyed Junco

A little Dark Eyed Junco waiting for a turn at the feeder.

Skywatch Friday No. 23

This photo goes back to June or July 1977. I believe it's the beach at Lahinch, Ireland - early evening, if memory and the angle of the sun on the water serve me correct. I was travelling through England, Scotland and Ireland with my youngest step-sister, Karol Lyn. We were soooo young - I was 21 and she turned 13 while we were there. At the time I was using a Minolta SLR and shooting Kodachrome 25 or 64. Last year I took a bunch of slides from this trip to WalMart and they converted them to JPGs on a disc for me.

Happy Skywatch Friday everyone.

Wordless Wednesday

To see more great stuff visit Wordless Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday Round 3 - V

"V" is for vroom! I took this shot one evening in June as we were driving north on Highway 59 on our way to Stratford for a performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The guy on the bike was enjoying the ride but was, of course, impatient and disappeared from view (another "v"!) shortly after I took the photo. I like his double reflection in the side mirrors. I've used the blur tool to eliminate the license plate numbers on the bike and the Sunfire.

For more variety on the letter V drop by ABC Wednesday - thanks to Denise Nesbitt for her dedication to the site.

Woodstock Public Library, Woodstock, Ontario - My World Tuesday

Here in Woodstock we are lucky enough to have a great library which also happens to be a Carnegie Library. In 2009 we will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of this lovely building.

Here are some details about the history of the Woodstock Public Library from the Library website:

1835 February 12, formation of Reading Society:

$2.00 yearly membership fee for residents

$4.00 yearly membership fee for non-residents

One book at a time

Fines for overdue books sixpence daily

No novels or books of moral controversy

1836 Name changed to Woodstock Subscription Library, Membership 21

1837 First novels, those of Walter Scott, allowed into collection

1840 Membership of 60, Branches in Princeton and Embro

1852 Merger with Woodstock Mechanics Institute, Location in home of James Simpson, Riddell Street

1858 Reading Room at Mechanics Hall, northeast corner of Adelaide and Wellington Streets

1868 Mechanics Hall sold for mortgage, Reading Room moves to various upper floors on Dundas Street until the turn of the century, Library merges with Oxford Literary Society

1904 City of Woodstock passes a by-law for the establishment of a public library and donates land at northeast corner of Hunter and Graham Streets for a library building

1905 Carnegie Foundation awards City of Woodstock a grant of $24,000 for the construction of a library

1909 Carnegie funded library building opened

1929 Children’s Department established

1932 Children’s Department moved to separate quarters on ground floor

1935 Membership 3,341

1967 Centennial addition opened, including Art Gallery and Reference Room

1969 Library begins to collect Local History material

1972 Library acquires former Lutheran Church north of Carnegie building and relocates Children’s Department there, Art gallery expands into former Children’s Department area, Audio-visual Department created

1976 City of Woodstock designates Carnegie library a historic building

1982 Computer terminals installed to link Woodstock Public Library with London Public Library, conversion of card catalogue to computer database begins

1983 Art Gallery moves to former Knox Presbyterian Church manse on Hunter Street

1984 Membership 8,100

1985 Library’s sesquicentennial year

1989 Automated borrowing of library materials begins

1990 On-line access to library catalogue begins

1996 Major renovation and addition to library building completed, public Internet access computers installed, Friends of the Woodstock Public Library established

1999 $250,000 fundraising campaign successfully completed

This is a view looking up from the lower level Check-in/Check-out area.

Would you like to read about more interesting places? Visit My World Tuesday!

Sunday morning

I never (okay, once or twice a year) sleep in on the weekend. Last Sunday I woke to find beautiful dappled sunlight shining on the alarm clock highlighting the fact that it was 8:30am. After I lay there contemplating life for a few more minutes, I took this shot. I had actually set the alarm for just after 7am in case I didn't wake at my usual 6am. So, not only did I not wake at 6, I didn't wake at 7 either. Go flippin' figure. Please note, no one else in the house (translation: Geoff and Gray) was awake either.... This weekend I was right back on schedule - sort of - I was awake at 5:30 this morning..... Here's to a good week!

Sucking up to Santa

Geoff took this great photo of Gray with Santa. But I think it's waaaay to late for Gray to try to convince Santa that he's been good.......

Saw this little guy on a London lawn today.

Skywatch Friday, December 11, 2008

Believe it or not, this was the view of the sunset from our Wal-Mart parking lot around 4:50pm yesterday. This is a view of Gunn's Hill which is on the southwestern edge of Woodstock.

This photo of the eastern sky was taken approximately 30 minutes later in front of our house. Apparently it was a "waxing gibbous" moon. It will be full tonight so beware!

For more great photos please visit Skywatch Friday. Happy Skywatching everyone!

ABC Wednesday Round 3 - U

U is for unfazed. Back in October I caught this sparrow on one of the feeders outside our kitchen window. He either didn't notice or didn't care that I was less than five feet away on the other side of the window.



For more letter fun check out ABC Wednesday.

Scenes from a wintery day

The annual Christmas Party for the children of Woodstock General Hospital staff was held this weekend. Steve Van Winden who works at WGH, but also owns Singing Brook Farm with his family, brought along two of his Belgian Show horses and the wagon to take the children and parents for short rides around the neighbourhood.

My friend and co-worker Maureen and her grandaughters, Hope and Logan, shivering as they wait their turn to ride in the wagon.It was a cold, windy, snowy day - perfect weather for the rides.

This little girl was quite taken with the beautiful party guests.

A tale of two skies for Skywatch Friday

I really hope this views well on your computer - I captured a sundog! We were driving south on Highway 59 from Tavistock to Woodstock on Saturday, November 29th around 3pm when I spotted this sundog in the west, just below and to the right of the contrail. It was like a mini smudge of a rainbow. Technically, it's an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. This second sky view was taken a short while later, due south of the first photo. I've played with the contrast, tint etc. a bit.
For more great sky views from around the world, please visit Skywatch Friday.

My World Tuesday - Winter Lights, Woodstock, Ontario

Here in Woodstock we have an annual display of holiday lights called "Winter Lights". Most of the displays are located at Museum Square in downtown Woodstock.

New to the display this year is this large metal tree, on the left in this photo, which sports a rumoured 56,000 lights which cycle through numerous patterns.

On a much smaller scale, at home our own tree is up and decorated. I've had this Hallmark ornament for 20+ years and it's particularly special to me as it reminds me of my brother on his first birthday. My brother, like me, has red hair and on the photos from his first birthday he was wearing a robin's egg blue velvet romper. I'm not sure he ever wore a halo.....
For other world perspectives visit That's My World for other links.