Day four of the 12 days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge and the topic is: Evergreen

Snow-covered bushes line a wintry landscape under a cloudy sky.

It’s day three of the 12 days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge and the topic is: Firelight

(as we don’t have a fire here, and open fires are banned, here’s some fireworks instead.)

Bright pink and red fireworks burst dramatically against a dark night sky, creating a vibrant display with swirling smoke.

It’s day two of the 12 days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge and, the topic is: Cozy

a plush brown bear lies atop a white pillow on the bed

It’s the first day of the 12 days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge and, the topic is: Frost.

Snow-covered evergreens stand in front of a building under a clear sky.

Movies: Knives Out - Wake Up Dead Man

At nearly two and a half hours long, this third instalment of the Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man, was 45 minutes too long. At least, in my humble opinion. I started to watch this Saturday night and, got as far as Msgr. Wick' confession to Father Jud outside the church, and gave up due to the trite and childish need to appeal to an audience of 12 year old boys. I didn’t actually finish the movie till late Sunday afternoon.

Sadly, my opinion didn’t change much about the characters and, by the sordid end, hoped they would all end up dead. The only light in this whole hot mess was Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. He lifted this morass but still, in the end, couldn’t save it from itself.

Two bags of popcorn and that’s being overly generous: 🍿🍿

Weeknote #50

This last week seems to have whizzed by and yet, it also felt like it was dragging for some reason. But here we are, starting a brand new week and, for the first time here, on this new blog (same name) I thought to do a #Weeknotes post and recap.

Goings On

We all know it’s winter, or at least it will be on the 21st. Technically still autumn (which is mind boggling in and of itself) it’s been bitterly cold here. December is usually a kinder month than most. Not so for us. While we’ve had our fair share of snow, the temperature has been as low as MINUS 25 first thing, all the way through to an almost balmy 4 degrees one afternoon.

Auto-generated description: A snowy winter scene features frost-covered trees and a building in the background, with a layer of snow blanketing the ground.

Also, we put the finishing touches to our Christmas tree, adding a skirt and, when we wrap them, a few presents will find their way under the tree.

a Christmas bauble

Monday I had yet another blood test to check my magnesium levels, it’s getting so I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. All I know is the process of booking a doctor’s appointment took on heroic efforts on our part to remain calm and not pull our hair out. However, success was an appointment for next week, yay! I’ll let you know how that one goes.

We had a bit of a panic attack mid week when I went to turn on the cold water tap in the bathroom and, nothing came out but a weird noise. It turns out there had been a burst pipe somewhere and, they had to switch our cold water off in the building for a couple of hours while a temporary fix was made. As you can see, me and mine survived such trivial first world problem.

This Sunday saw the anniversary of my father in law’s passing from cancer. He died in 2023 just before Christmas and, as such, not only is Christmas a more subdued affair for all of us, at the moment, my mother in law wanted us to all attended a mass. She’s Catholic and, while I’m not religious, I went to pay my respects, as you do, in support of a woman who’s been through a lot these last couple of years.

the altar at ste-Anne de Beaupre Basilica

Despite the occasion, we had a laughter-filled afternoon at my mother in law’s.

What I Watched

And you, how was your week?

I would just like to say a BIG thank you to @Manton for facilitating my move onto Micro.One. Did anyone notice the packing boxes, what, no? Maybe that’s because Manton did all the heavy lifting and, as any good puppet master does, pulled all the right strings behind the scene.

So voila, no interruptions.

Arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. It’ll just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut about like it won anyway.

We’re up to our first couple of feet of snow what with yesterday’s snowfall, and then, today’s accumulation, so far.

So this Monday I had another blood test to check my magnesium levels and got a call yesterday afternoon, late, from the pharmacist (as I don’t currently have a family doctor) telling me my level was hovering on the very edge of normal. Which is to say the least, not good. So we both agreed, I need to see a doctor to have them authorise further tests to see what’s going on.

The problem is, it’s not so easy to get to see a doctor outside of having a family doctor. Yes, it’s true the government created a Portal to facilitate access to a nurse, for making appointments. But it works as easy as standing naked in the middle of a road, at midnight, under a full moon, chanting gibberish. The categories and sub categories are limited and don’t allow for leeway when trying to navigate getting said call-back from a nurse.

We sat there looking at the screen trying them all, till we just chose one in order to get the call. This is even before you get referred to an agent to book an actual appointment with a random, free doctor somewhere within the city limits.

The nurse did call within the hour (which in and of itself was a miracle.) I then had to answer 101 questions detailing everything that has happened to me in the last 6 months (information that should by all accounts, be in my records already) and then, when she finally said she was going to transfer me to a booking agent, her computer froze.

Of course, she had to call me back.

Thankfully, it was only a 10 minute wait. Another several minutes and finally, I was transferred to a booking agent who took all of a minute to type into their computer to see which doctor was available and get me an appointment (all which seems dumb, leaving me wondering why couldn’t the nurse do this?) Who knows.

I actually got an appointment for this year, amazing. December 23rd. And, it’s in an easy to get to business mall. This is when the next part of this mini drama starts.

It’s all very exhausting.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Hey, @manton my m.b subscription is coming up soon, and I want to know how I change the subscription to Micro.One?

Do I have to cancel my current subscription and then, subscribe to Micro.One? Because there’s no option for Micro.One in the Plans section.

Been a crazy ass morning running around like a headless chicken doing errands and, of course, I had to go see the nurse this morning for more blood tests.

And I’m only now sitting down to my fav tea in my fav mug.

Alex Rocket Dog

So the wonderful and so very talented Andy Carolan has created a new avatar for my blogs, and social media. Unofficially names Alex Rocket Dog. An homage to the year I was born, and that amazing kick ass little dog that first went into space, aboard Sputnik; Laika, the original little rocket dog.

Please give a warm welcome to little Alex as she readies herself for lift off!

Soup it is!

Today, Robert Birming writes about a Swedish tradition of eating pea soup and pancakes on a Thursday (prior to fasting on Friday) a tradition I can get behind wholeheartedly. Especially as, during the winter months with snow on the ground and bitterly cold temperatures outside, I love to make soup at least once a week.

Not only because it’s cheap, filling, soul-warming food but because it’s another way to get the veggies in. And while I don’t do pea soup nearly enough, I do have 3-4 favourites I make in rotation or, when I can grab the veggies themselves.

There’s red pepper and tomato soup, like we had last night for dinner with a country loaf and vegan cheddar. Also leak and potato, another simple easy soup to make. And another one of my favourites, roasted cauliflower soup, which is simplicity itself to make.

The fun thing about veggie soups is you can pretty much roast any root vegetable, throw in some peas, pasta, or pulses for extra body with some good stock and voila, you have an incredibly healthy dinner.

And you, are you a soup lover and do you make your own, from scratch?

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

It’s a gloriously sunny day out there today. Problem is … it’s also minus 15 degrees.

It’s snowing … again … get use to it … I’m going to be saying this a lot … it’s winter!

I turned the heating down earlier, I may have made a grave error in judgement.

Found online and, of course, stolen to share here …

So. Damn. Funny!

A person gives their heart to someone, who the next day places it on a free heart stand.

We’re enjoying one of those weird wintery days were despite the fact the sun is shining and the clouds are high and light, it’s snowing. It happens when the temperature at a certain level turns any moisture in the air into snowflakes.

Just enough to dust the grass but not heavy enough to coat the trees, yet!