A weather bomb for today

Happy Sunday to all! A wet day for us. We have a couple of weather warnings issued at the moment, rain and wind. According to what we have been reading in the news, this weather event is called a "weather bomb", apparently a normal occurrence in the Fall due to the contrast in temperatures. So far, this bomb hasn't been that bad but we are expecting lots and lots of rain with very high winds tonight. We seem to be in a lull now, the rain has stopped. It may not be a bomb after all LOL!

We are not complaining as the month of October has been so spectacular. Even yesterday, we had sunshine and temperatures of 18 celsius.  I got some good yard work done, prepping for the Winter. Russell and I sat on our deck until 6:30 last night. It was so nice!

So, today is a day to get some house work done. While Russell was at his photography class this morning, I did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and prepped a few meals for the week. I then visited my mom at the hospital. She was transferred from ICU to a regular room on Friday. She is a strong woman who doesn't give up. She is looking quite good and her spirits are excellent. She now needs to regain her strength, not having walked for two full weeks. We will know more this week what the next steps are in her recovery.

Our little girl Spicy celebrated her 7th birthday on Friday. She tells us she had a great day, filled with fun, love, a walk in the park and lots of little treats. She shared her cake with Cooper, how sweet is that.  Yesterday, I started training with the Spice girl. She did really well. I did this class with Coop last year so I have a little more knowledge under my belt. There were 8 dogs in total, all big except for Spicy and a Jack Russell puppy. The big dogs, and their barking, didn't bother her in the least. I was very pleased with how she conducted herself. Well done Spicy!

Coop and I had fun at his training class last Tuesday. There were lots of agility type exercises and he did really well. Good boy Coopster!

This coming week should be relatively quiet. Tuesday night, we will give out Halloween candies to the kiddies. I will be glad to finally give away all those mini chocolate bars that I bought way too early....I think I've had more than my fair share of those little gems!

I leave you with a few Fall pics, a couple of Spicy's birthday, two from Iceland (the last of those photos) and one that I took this morning. I caught Coop & Spicy just staring at me, as if they wanted something...hmmm.  Have a great week everyone, November is just around the corner.

A splash of brilliant Fall color on the maple in our
front-yard, as the sun was rising yesterday.

A 10 shot panorama to capture the Fall color
and the Lake of Two Mountains as
seen from Jack Layton Park in Hudson.

Spicy was the birthday girl this week and she gobbled
up the cookie that was on top of her cake...it was
lip smacking good!

Spicy graciously shared her cake with Cooper and she
even managed to show Coop how to take a big bite!

Spicy and Cooper were staring at me this morning...OK, what's next, it's pouring out there! 

Hallgrimskirkja (a Lutheran Church) dominates
the main street in Reykjavik.

The Perlan Planetarium is due to open soon,
this image was taken from our hotel room.

Positive thoughts for my mom

Happy Sunday to all! What a beautiful week we just had, weather wise. It doesn't get any better than this, especially at this time of year. Once again, I find myself writing my blog outside, with no patio heater on. How nice!

This past week was a bit of a roller coaster for us and my family. I mentioned in last Sunday's blog that my mom was admitted to the hospital. We were hoping she would be there for just a few days but on Wednesday, she was transferred to the intensive care unit. Yesterday, her condition started to improve to the point where she was going to be transferred out of ICU but her condition deteriorated early this morning so she is still in ICU. Things looked pretty grim but, once again, my mom decided that she wasn't giving up and her condition, although precarious, is now stable.  Despite having a CPAP mask on (continuous positive airway pressure), she is able to talk and she said to us this morning, we can't give up. So, we take it one day at a time and keep sending those positive thoughts mom's way. That's all we can do. My dad is doing as well as can be. He came over on Friday for Chinese food. It was a good distraction for him and Coop & Spicy gave him some good doggie therapy.  My siblings and I have been making him little meals so he doesn't have to cook.

So, our week was so so but such is life. On Tuesday, I had my weekly training with Cooper and it was fun, as always. Russell and I went to the gym a few times but I will admit,  I'm not really in the mood for working out. That's OK.

Who knows what this coming week will bring...but the one thing that we know for sure is that Miss Spicy's birthday is on Friday. She will be 7. I will post photos of her birthday in next week's blog. I also start Obedience Class with her on Saturday. Totally looking forward to it!

That's it for this week's blog. I leave you with a few pics that we took while on a walk yesterday. We practiced "recall" with both dogs and it was fun... they did extremely well.  Have a great week everyone! Mom, hang in there. We love you!

Me and the precious ones...Cooper and Spicy by the
Lake in Pointe Claire.

Cooper in full flight.

Cooper launches his recall...zero to 60 in 2 seconds.

Spicy going airborne on her recall launch.

Spicy slowing to a blur as she gets to me.

Sailing into Fall on Lake St Louis....

A friend's visit

Happy Sunday to all!

The weather is very warm and cloudy with a bit of a drizzle. Nice weather on the way this week with warmer than normal temperatures. Oh so nice!

My good friend Eve visited us this weekend. It is always so nice to see her and I always feel sad when she leaves. We had some nice conversations, laughed a lot, a nice walk with Coop and Spicy, great meals and great wines. Russell cooked us some nice plank salmon last night. It was totally scrumptious. It goes without saying that our two pooches loved her to pieces. We did an Orange Theory class on Saturday morning, with Coach Pam, and that was fun. We had planned to have lunch in the Old Montreal but the weather was not the best so we decided to stay put and instead had lunch at Le Bistro in Pointe-Claire Village. Despite the uncertainty of the weather, we were able to sit on the deck and enjoy our evening cocktails, both nights. Nice!

So, today was going to be a day of doing almost nothing after I dropped off Eve at the train station. That wasn't the case. My mom was admitted to the Lakeshore Hospital at noon today. She has a bad leg and lung infection, both unrelated.  I spent a good part of the afternoon in the emergency with her and my dad. She will likely be there for a few days at least. She is in good hands and I was glad to be able to talk with her attending physician. Fingers crossed that all gets resolved.

Short blog today, I'm a little tired. It's hard to keep up with Eve...hahaha! She is such an easy going "guest", seriously. We are looking forward to her next visit. Have a great week everyone!

Haifoss falls on the left and Granni falls on the right...
Haifoss is one of the highest falls at 122 meters.

A small mountain reflected in a still pool near Vik.

Russell being swarmed by the cheese hounds....a
nightly ritual post doggie dinner.

Ready for treat time....Cooper and
Spicy know the routine.

Cooper and Spicy line up to say good bye to
Eve....see you next time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Sunday and Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you are all enjoying this special day. We all have our different reasons for being thankful. No matter what they are, today is a day to just say thanks, period. There is so much bad stuff going in the world right now. Very sad. So, Russell and I are thankful for what we have as a couple, but also thankful for sharing our lives with two precious dogs who bring us more joy and comfort than one could ever wish for.

This past week was good and busy as usual. On Monday, Spicy's sister, Missy, visited us, with her human parents. It was a wonderful reunion. Missy is one year older than Spicy, roughly. Linda and Bob brought lunch...a smoked meat platter with all the trimmings from Moe's. Can you believe this was my first smoked meat ever!  It was so yummy!

My Tuesday training with the Coop was awesome. So much fun and I nailed the "agility moves" on the first try. WooHoo! Truly, I so enjoy this training and so does Cooper. We have been practicing and today we worked outside...different environment, different distractions.  I can't wait to do the same with Spicy once I'm done doing Obedience with "Little Miss Muffet" as we so endearingly call her.

Yesterday, we had Auntie Lorraine and cousin Valerie over for dinner.  We had a wonderful evening, filled with laughter and fun stories about the past. We also reminisced about Russell's mom, auntie Lorraine's sister, who passed away 4 years ago. We had our Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings.  It was delicious. I must say, I make a good turkey, and Coop & Spicy thought it was totally delish. A little tidbit about our bird:  it is a tradition in Russell's family to name the turkey after someone who has made an interesting impression on us...not necessarily the best impression I might add. So we thought long and hard, not really, and decided to name our turkey Donald.  In hindsight, our turkey was way too delicious to be worthy of such a name.

Today, my brother and father came over for a drink. My mom wasn't feeling well so she wasn't able to make it. It was nice to get together just the same, even for a little time.  The weather was nice and warm so we sat outside. I wonder how many more warm days we have in store.

This coming week will be busy and I will get ready for my friend Eve's visit on Friday. It will be nice to see her, it's been a while and we have a lot of catching up to do. I can't wait for her to meet Spicy. I booked us class for Saturday morning at Orange Theory. That will give us "plenty of room" to splurge later on in the day :-)

That's it for my blog today. I leave you with a couple of photos from Iceland and some doggie pics. Enjoy the Thanksgiving festivities and have a great week!

Cooper and Spicy wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving!

Beautiful Missy came to visit her sister Spicy...
Missy's human parents spoiled us with lunch!

Cousin Valerie and Auntie Lorraine joined Cooper, Spicy,
Russell and myself for Thanksgiving dinner and wonderful
conversation.

The rugged coastline of Southern Iceland.

The famous arch on the South coast of Iceland.

A new month, a beauty of a day

Happy Sunday everyone! Can you believe that today is October 1? I sure can't. Time just goes by way too quickly.  Just think, New Year's Day is three months today LOL!

This past week was simply beautiful, weather wise. Maybe a tad too warm for some but what an amazing Fall we're having so far. The temperatures have cooled down somewhat but they are still very nice. Our nights have been fresh and perfect for sleeping. It is especially nice to have the air conditioning off and all the windows open.

All is good with us. This was our first full week back at home since we returned from Iceland. It didn't take us long to get our routine back, although I will admit that this gorgeous weather makes it very hard to attempt to do any house work. We have been spending a lot of time outside and for the past few days made good use of our patio heater. At this time of year, there is no sun on our deck after 3:00 pm so it can get a bit cool. The heater does the trick.

On Tuesday, Coop & I had our first Fun Obedience Class.  And it was fun. I must say that I am pretty pumped about this training, so is Cooper.  It is truly "Fun" combined with "Obedience", the best of both worlds. It didn't take the Coop long to get back into the swing of things, same for me. My only challenge is that the training incorporates a certain amount of agility type moves....my feet don't always want to move the way they are supposed to. I had the same issue when I took agility training a few years ago. So, I've been practicing the moves at home but, for the life of me, there is one exercise that has me completely baffled.....Wanda, if you read this, don't laugh. All kidding aside, it is great training for Cooper and I know we will both learn a lot from it. And we will have a lot of Fun along the way!

We are still talking about our trip to Iceland. We are truly happy to have had the opportunity to visit this beautiful country.  Here's an interesting fact: Iceland is a country of approximately 340,000 people, so really not big at all. Yet, despite the size, it has over 800,000 sheep, roaming all over the country.  We saw tens of thousands of sheep, of all colours, as we were visiting the country side. Although they are often seen by the roadside, they are quite skittish so we were never able to get a photo of them. But they are cute little creatures and their wool makes beautiful sweaters.  Russell bought one, made by the Handknitting Association of Iceland. It is gorgeous and very warm. I didn't get one...I just can't wear warm sweaters/clothes, I get too hot...case in point: I was wearing shorts when we took the dogs out this morning and the temperature was only 4 celsius!

Another interesting fact, this one a little more annoying:  the hot water in Iceland smells of sulfur, caused by the geothermal origin of the hot water. The first time that we ran the hot water, we thought there was something wrong with our taps but then were told that it was totally normal.  Having said this, we didn't smell like rotten eggs after we showered but the smell sure lingered for a while in the bathroom.

So, here we are, on the first day of a brand new month. I leave you with a couple more photos of Iceland. One of them is of the "wedding cave", a gigantic cave on the black sand beach. It is often used for wedding ceremonies, thus the name.  Another photo is of the "Little Jurassic Park" as our tour guide calls it.  It is a canyon filled with small waterfalls,  walking trails and little rivers.  Very pretty to see and explore.

Of course, I also include a couple of photos of our two darlings.  They seem closer than ever now and truly best buddies.  We had some very nice walks with them this past week.

It is now 4:30 and we're outside, enjoying the weather. In a few minutes, I will practice my "figure eights" with Cooper! Have a great week everyone!

The Wedding Cave near Vik...you can reserve it for your
wedding but be warned, it is in high demand!

A wonderful waterfall in Jurassic Park as Jon, our
photo-guide, called it. 

Spicy has an eye on everything even while napping
with Cooper...a morning ritual.

Buddies...planning the next treat run.