Good day and welcome to the bi-annual blog post

for 2017.

I know, I know .... I'm a bad blogger.   I seem to be

going at this in fits and starts, don't I?    Blame it on

retirement and being constantly tempted and 

distracted by my many, many interests and passions.

Or you can just say that I'm fickle and leave it at that.

But GOOD NEWS!!! 

I've been stitching again!!   And .... I have a finish!

I know .... amazing, eh?

Here we have Pretty Little Toronto by Satsuma Street.

I got a huge chunk of this piece done last year and then

somehow got sidetracked (stop me if you've heard this

one before) and left it.   All I needed to do was the final 

tree and bush, the top of the CN tower and the clouds

which wasn't much at all .... in the grand scheme of things.

But I left it ... and stitching in general ... until two weeks

ago when I picked it up on a whim and finished it!

I love this one and really did enjoy stitching it.  I love

bright, vibrant colours and boy do these designs have

colour in abundance.  

And since I was back in stitching mode I just had to

pick out another project to start and so I began working

on Jardin Prive's Sampler Aux Bouquet .... well,

one section of it anyways.   I've always loved this

design and decided that it was time I got cracking on

it.

Hmmm.   Keep forgetting to put a beak on that blue

peacock motif.    Poor guy looks like he sneezed it off

or something!

And that's the extent of my cross stitching life.   The rest 

of this post will cover life in general.   If you bore easily

feel free to move on.

In February it was time once again for our annual Girls

Weekend in Toronto.   Friday morning until Sunday

afternoon spent with my friend Darlene down in the big

city seeing the sights and eating ... um .... and exploring

the cultural diversity of the downtown core.

One of our first stops was a cat cafe that had opened in

Toronto about a year ago.   Like other cafes of this

type that have sprung up around the world (beginning 

with the very first one in Taiwan and spreading to Japan 

where there are about 50 such establishments ) it featured 

a room separated from the main cafe with adoptable cats of 

all kinds there to be petted and fussed over while you drink 

your coffee or hot chocolate.

   

There were about a dozen cats lounging around the

space and we spent about half an hour indulging

ourselves with their company.   We were given 

kibble to entice them to us and show that we were

come in friendship.   All of these cats were strays

found living on the streets and many were still 

weary of strangers and unsure of their new 

surroundings.

The cafe has been able to see a good number of

their cats adopted since they opened which is 

good to know.

Another stop during our first day was Allen Gardens.

We go there every year to enjoy a break from the cold

and the snow and the bleakness of winter.

Wandering through the connected greenhouses,

drinking in the colours and the warmth and the

sounds of trickling water.

And the turtles!   Mustn't forget the turtles!

(see bottom of above photo)

The show that we went to see this year was Stomp!

Darlene had seen a production of this show a number

of years ago and had really enjoyed it so she got us

tickets to see it during our weekend.

It was an amazing show.  Very clever.   Who knew you 

could produce music from such innocuous items as 

barrels, knives, plastic bags, chop sticks and the kitchen

sink?

A physically demanding show (as you can see from the

picture above) that also featured slapstick humour .... not

surprisingly.

We were very impressed and were blown away by the 

performer's talent ... and stamina!

Weather report for the winter of 2016 to 2017:

Erratic!!

There were times when it felt like early Spring ....

in January .... and other times when ... well ..... we

almost had a white Christmas.   Two weeks before

Christmas we had two dumps of snow that seemed

to all but guarantee us the type of Christmas that

would have caused Bing Crosby to burst into song!

But alas, it rained like the dickens a week before

the holidays so all we ended up with was a soggy, grey 

Christmas!

HoHoHo!!!    Bah!!!!

And now, before I sign off ....

January did not start the year off well for us.  We had

to make the decision that all pet owners dread and say

goodbye to our dear, beloved beautiful boy Rupert.

We were and are devastated!

He was with us for around 14 years and we adored

every minute of it .... even when he broke things,

picked on Phoebe and hogged the bed.  He was a

tremendous character who made friends with everyone

and never met a food type that he didn't like.

We miss him every minute of every day.

Thanks for visiting.  Hopefully I'll be around with

stitching updates again before the end of the year.

Cheers!