Showers likely

Holiday mode is in Ernest; we cannot even remember anything of our old ( real ) life and the only concern is about the weather

Either we go to the beach or we don’t ; as a result of either it is sunny or it isn’t.

We also enjoy playing house; our place is one room.. Spacious enough for two people but it sure makes one realize what one DOESN’T need.
We have a compact galley type kitchen along one wall; it has a full sized NEW fridge which we happily filled on our our first foray to Costco, plus a full sized new stove and flat topped range. There is even a dinky little dishwasher!
We are on the 17 th floor of the condo building; have a great view of the ocean and it is really quiet, even at night.

Off to make some tea( brought it from home; don’t like American tea….)

back!

Sorry for the absence; no excuses, just feeling lazy.

I was also so caught up with the Haiti tragedy(as was/is the world) that I simply hadn’t the time/inclination to blog.

However I had tons of things I COULD have written about; isn’t it always the way.

Thanks to my loyal readers who continued to FLOCK to my blog even though I wasn’t keeping it current.

It feels like we will be having an early spring so I have changed my header to reflect this. We already have tons of snowdrops and forsythia blooming and will be boring the rest of Canada very soon with our annual, “flower count”..

What is the Victoria Flower Count?

The Flower Count is an annual light-hearted promotion sponsored and organized by regional chambers of commerce, Butchart Gardens and Tourism Victoria. The goal is to bolster community pride and increase awareness of Greater Victoria as an attractive shoulder-season tourism destination. It brings national and international attention to the fact that Victoria (City of Gardens) has the mildest climate in Canada. While the rest of Canada and much of the US is still in the cold clutches of winter weather, Victoria often enjoys spring temperatures of 10-15° Celsius (up to 60° Fahrenheit).

Community Challenge

Each municipality across Greater Victoria is encouraged to take up the challenge to be the “Bloomingest Community” of the Greater Victoria area! People reporting flower counts will have their number attributed to their community. Whether they live on the Saanich Peninsula or in Sooke, every flower counts, for their own community and for the overall total.

How Did It Start?

In the late 1960’s, members of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce started a promotion called “Victorian Days”. In late February, dressed in Victorian era costumes, they would visit cities such as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, handing out daffodils to the general public, radio stations and news rooms. In 1976, the event expanded to involve Victoria residents and create a fun promotional story through the counting of February’s flowers. The Victoria Flower Count had begun.

http://www.flowercount.com/

I AM here…

It has been busy since I returned home from holidays; so I have been AWOL!

But now I am back and looking forward to lots of chats and socializing at WordPress.

The weather here has been endlessly wet  with monsoon like rains, but we are NOT complaining, except to occasionally say(in our typical west coast fashion); “well at least we don’t have to shovel it!”

But the lack of sun is not healthy, and I don’t mean from a “SAD” disorder point of view. The sun provides vitamin D which is essential for good health and to ward off nasty diseases such as cancer.

So because of all the rain, in the local news there have been many discussions about the necessity of this vitamin.

Vitamin D information

They waffle about , not wanting to say for sure how much one needs, but those of us who read independantly and who  are proactive about their health know..

EVERYONE should be getting at least 400 IU’s(but 1000 IU’s is what most naturopaths recommend); and since it is hard to eat enough foods that contain it(especially, if like me, you don’t eat dairy products) it is very necessary to take a supplement.

I am envious of those of you who have sun year round!

No snow for us!!

Even though we live “up there” (or up here, depending on your perspective)we have been enjoying NO snow.

I have wittered on before about the lack of snow in this part of Canada;ie upon Vancouver Island) Usually we get lots of rain(which we did lately) but today it is slowly clearing and cooling a bit, but NO snow is falling.

Last year at this time, we HAD had snow which really caught our little city by surprise, as it hadn’t been predicted. Chaos ensued but it was lovely to look out upon the snowy expanses beyond our door on Christmas eve and to hear that beautiful QUIET!

(How can you hear quiet? Just go out when it is snowing, and you will learn!)

But it is alarming to see the troubles in the places that HAVE been plagued with huge snow falls and I hope that if YOU are in one of these areas(around the WORLD) that you are able to get to where you want to be safely….

take care…

Back to work

I ended up going back to work yesterday, earlier than I wanted, in fact I could still be off if I had the sick time!

I had FORGOTTEN how hard we work, and was sweating and weak by the end of today. So instead of going to the Christmas party, I came home and am now enjoying some GOOD tea and PRETTY good stollen.

I have maundered on about stollen before (am sure if you search on this site that there will be a posting about such delicacies)

Here it is..

Good stollen

it has been  chilly here but not nearly as cold as the rest of Canada; this is a GREAT map that really shows the diversity in temps. We are on the far left hand side; that little island that kind of cuddles into the side of BC…

weather map of Canada

But soon we will be back to rain; drat…