Happy Easter!

As a child, Easter meant that I would get to wear a brand new Spring coat with a cute little hat and gloves, and off to church we would go.  I would also get a basket full of chocolate eggs.  I vividly recall the Laura Secord Easter Eggs, the ones with the yellow inside.  Russell remembers those also.  He would put his in the fridge and eat a thin slice every day until it was all gone.  Those are great memories.  I didn't buy any chocolate eggs nor did I buy myself a new spring coat....but I did buy some beautiful flowers and the Farmer's Daughter's famous lemon meringue pie for dessert tonight.  Last, but not least, we bought Cooper some rabbit ears.  We could not resist.  He is such a trooper when it comes to posing with these silly props on.

This past week was busy.  I had my first music lesson with Glen.  It lasted one hour but the next lessons will be 30 minutes.  There was a lot to absorb in one hour and my head was spinning by the time I was done.  Although the main purpose of these lessons is for me to learn how to operate the keyboard, my teacher is insisting on going back to basics in terms of learning the musical notes and all. So, for this week's lesson, I have to learn how to play "Brother Jacques Rock". .... very exciting!  I haven't practiced yet but I will later today and every day this week until my next lesson Thursday.  I want to impress my teacher....he is quite the guy, older than I thought he would be and a true bohemian.

Russell started his fitness classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  He enjoyed it more than he thought he would.  He is by far the youngest in a class of 13 people over 55 years old.  He is also the fittest person in the group.  I am not surprised since he worked out with a personal trainer for five years up until we moved to Huntsville.  So, he's off to a good start.

Given the beautiful weather that we had this past week, we went for an hour long walk every day.  The snow is melting very fast so the walking trails are such that we tend to sink when we walk.  No big deal, it's just harder on the legs.

We continued our Spring cleaning, rather Russell did.  He washed all the windows and the screens.  Good job done!  It's too early to do some spring cleanup outside but it will not be long before we can do so.  I can't wait to work outside and start planting.

As much as we had been resisting feeding the deer, we gave in and bought them some dried apple chips.  Those are actually used to feed horses but they are a nice treat for deer.  At around 7 am, we can literally hear the deer walking close to our bedroom window, on their way to the septic burm, which is where we feed them. They do not shy away when Russell is out feeding them, they simply move back a little until he's done.  Cooper watches them from our bedroom window.  He doesn't bark, just watches with fascination.

April will start off with a bit of snow in Huntsville but it will not last.  The snow has melted a lot this past week.  Cooper's yard is almost just grass and it is quite mushy to walk on.  A little bit of colder weather will help things dry off a bit.

I hope this Easter Holiday fills your home with love, joy and plenty of Easter treats!  Have a great week everyone!

Easter flowers - gerbera!

Cooper in his Easter finest.....

We named her Bambi... she visits each morning for breakfast.

Candlelight Evening

Last night, we celebrated Earth Hour with lots of candles.  It was truly dark everywhere in the house except in the great room where we spent the evening. We didn't quite last the whole hour in darkness but almost.  As we were looking outside, we could see that Huntsville was well lit as were many houses that we could see down in the valley. Oh well, we did our part and it was fun.

This past week went by very fast.  We started the week by going to the vet with Cooper for what was to be his pre-op blood work.  Indulge me in filling you in on the latest with the Coop (this is really for the benefit of my friends who have dogs).  Two weeks ago, we noticed that Cooper's front tooth (the incisor) was discoloured.  Not sure why we didn't notice it before because we brush his teeth and look in his mouth often.  We immediately went online to get more information.  It was clear to us that a discoloured tooth usually means a dead tooth.  So, we called to make an appointment with our vet, Dr. Jason.  Unfortunately, he was away on March break so we met with another vet instead (in hindsight, we could have waited for his return).  She was quick to suggest that the tooth should be extracted.  That's it.  So we made the surgery appointment for March 25. Needless to say that we were quite perturbed by this. When we got home,  we did more research and quickly realized that we hadn't explored all the options with her or ourselves.  So, we decided to wait for the return of Dr. Jason and get his opinion once we did more homework.  So, last Monday, we met Dr. Jason and spent a good 30 minutes with him.  He took the time to examine Cooper and to explain to us what this discoloured tooth really means.  It is a dead tooth, no doubt about it, however, because the tooth is intact (as in not cracked), there is very limited chance of infection.  His recommendation to us was to do nothing and keep an eye on it.  What is interesting is that his approach was completely different than the first vet we saw.  At the very least, he would not have recommended an extraction but a root canal in order to preserve the tooth.  Of course, for us, the big question was:  how did this happen to begin with?  No one has the answer to that question, not even Dr. Jason. Playing tug, chewing on a hard bone, playing with another dog, who knows? There is no point in beating ourselves up about whether this could have been prevented.  Dogs will be dogs and as our good friend Darlah would say, 'it is what it is'. 

So, lesson learned:  always know your options and do your homework before making a decision. We trust Dr. Jason to help us do just that. So tomorrow, instead of having a tooth extracted, Cooper will be playing and having fun!

This past week also brought the sound of music to our house.  Russell surprised me with a Yamaha Digital Workstation, an early birthday gift.  I've wanted to play a keyboard for quite some time but never thought that I would have the time to do so.  Now that we are settled in, I find myself with more time to do the things that I didn't have time to do in the past. I am "musical" to a certain extent and have always played music by ear when I was, shall I say, younger.  Having said this, I will start music lessons this coming Thursday so that I can take full advantage of my new keyboard.  It is not as intuitive as I thought so I need some lessons to get going.  So far, I have played two songs:  Spanish Eyes and Lara's theme.  Russell and Cooper are a little tired of hearing the same songs over and over again......those are easy songs to play and I will expand my repertoire once I know how to play the keyboard properly.  More on this in future blogs!

Enough about Cooper and me.  What about Russell?  Well, he will start fitness classes this coming Tuesday, twice a week. Kudos for Russell for taking the initiative to sign up for those classes.  I am happy as this will give him the motivation that he needs to resume his fitness regimen. Dare I say that those classes are for "Adults 55+".  Even if I wanted to join him, I couldn't ...not for the next 4 months anyway. Truly! 

We watched two movies last week:  Zero Dark Thirty and Life of Pi.  Life of Pi is truly a magical movie and it made us cry.  The cinematography is amazing.  I highly recommend it.

Red wine and candlelight.....our Earth Hour celebration.

That's about it for our news this week.  Spring has arrived but the warm and sunny weather is slow in coming.  I wish you all a great week, short work week for many people,  leading up to Easter weekend.

Happy St-Patrick's Day!

Whether you're Irish or not,  St-Patrick's Day is a good excuse to have fun and enjoy life.  I did not buy any green food colouring but I did make an Irish stew for dinner tonight and Russell got himself a couple of Guinness beers.  The most fun we had was to get our Cooper all dressed up for the day.  What can I say, he does bring out the kid in us all the time.

Today, the weather is beautiful, although a bit cold.  We hadn't planned on doing much, however, when I got back from buying groceries this morning, Russell suggested that we pack a lunch and head to Arrowhead Park for a hike.  So, off we went, with a packed lunch and treats/water for Cooper.  We walked a new trail which is about 6 km in total.  The trail is completely in the woods and we were the only ones there.  What we didn't realize, until half way through, is that the trail is mostly downhill until it is time to return.  So the hard part of our hike was the return trip, uphill a good part of the way back. It was a tad hard but it felt good. We found a couple of big rocks by the falls to sit on and had lunch there.  It was very nice and the sun was beaming down on us.  Cooper kept up with our pace although he was getting a bit tired towards the end.  He is having a much deserved nap as I'm writing this blog.

Not much happened this past week aside from getting a new Pope....  Although it was quite warm last weekend,  it seems that winter doesn't want to give way to spring just yet.  The nights are still quite cold and it will snow again this week.  There is an end in sight, I just don't know when it will happen (big sigh).

I will now sit on the deck and catch a few rays.  I just love sitting outside at this time of year, all bundled up.  I leave you with a quote from Adrienne Cook:  "St-Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic".

My best bow-tie and top hat!

Ready to party... St Paddy style!

Have a good week everyone and may the Irish luck always be with you!

Ecobuild 2013, London, UK

Ecobuild is the world's biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the build environment.  It is the UK's largest construction event of any kind.  Matt and Ali Davidson, of Davidson Log & Timber Artisans and the builders of our beautiful house, were amongst the many Canadian Exhibitors at the trade show that took place in London, England, this past week.  Just to name a few, other Canadian Exhibitors were the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Quebec Wood Export Bureau, Sansin Corporation and BC Shake & Shingle.

This was a great opportunity for Matt and Ali to showcase the work they do.  Our house was used as the "poster child" for their company as shown on the attached trade show pieces that were used in the display and given out to hundreds of potential new clients.  Since this blog has readers from all over the world, we thought it would be a good opportunity to promote the wonderful work that the Davidsons do.  Of course, we all know that it is always a good thing to mix business with pleasure, so Matt and Ali spent extra days in London to take in the sights.  We are happy that they were able to attend such an important trade show and we wish them continued success in what they do best:  build beautiful log homes.

This past week was quiet and relaxing.  Other than a few appointments that I had, we didn't do much but continued our daily long walks.  The roads are starting to be very slushy and full of pot holes so we opted to walk on park trails rather than in our neighbourhood.  Russell started some of the Spring cleaning by vacuuming the logs in the upstairs loft. We will continue spring cleanup this week and wash some windows, weather permitting.

The mild weather that we had in the past few days has really melted a lot of the snow.  Yesterday was the best day of the week, with temperatures hovering around 10 celsius.  We sat on our deck and soaked up the sun.  It was really nice to be able to sit outside with just a sweater on.

It is a cloudy day today, with rain in the forecast.  At this point, I do not mind the rain so much as it will help melt the snow.  As much as snow is better and cleaner for Cooper to play outside, it's got to go at some point so might as well go now.  We are ready for Spring and consistent warm temperatures in a big way.

This week is March break for many kids so I hope it is a good one.  I wish you all a good week and hope you recoup that lost hour of sleep!

The handout sheet for interested conference attendees and potential new clients

The display unit photo collage......awesome!

Ali, Matt and their new best friend, Big Ben....super!

Can you spot the heart?

On the last morning of February, we woke up to fresh snow.  The trees were absolutely beautiful, all covered with snow.  It felt like we were living in the Swiss Alps.  Russell took many pictures that morning and I am sharing some with you.  Can you spot the heart in one of the pictures?

This past week was a quiet one.  We didn't do much although we went for an hour long walk every day of the week except Thursday.  We discovered the Arrowhead Provincial Park, just 15 minutes from our house.  All the trails are groomed, some for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, walking and even skating.  The trails are surrounded by tall pine trees and there is a beautiful waterfall called Strubb's Falls.  We walked around it and Cooper was intrigued by the sound of the falls.  We also walked in our own neighbourhood a few times.  The challenge with those walks is the return home:  we have to walk up our private road, which is .9 km long at a 6 degree angle, and then go up our driveway.  It is getting easier but it is a workout just the same.  Of course, it is easy for Cooper as he runs on four wheels.....Last Wednesday, at the end of our walk, we let Cooper off the leash for the first time at the bottom of our driveway.  With the snow banks being so high, it is highly unlikely that he would jump over the banks and into the forest, however, we want him to get used to being off leash around some areas of our property, under supervision of course.  Bit by bit, we will work on it.  So, without his leash, the Coop walked by our side all the way to our house.

It doesn't quite feel like Spring yet as the temperatures are still a bit chilly although there is a warmup this coming week.  We do have tons of snow though.  Ron, the nice guy who plows our  driveway, is running out of space for the snow. The deck, however, is completely melted due to its southern exposure.

Looking out to Lake Vernon below...is the heart here?

Looking toward the firepit...is the heart here?

Sunrise over the berm to the East...is the heart here?

Anne and Cooper snug in the Muskoka room.

Looking up at our lot from Skyhills Road...nice ice on the cliffs.

That's about it for this week's blog.  I'm not sure when March break for the kids starts, but if it is this coming week, enjoy it.  Have a great week everyone!