A bit of history

Well, we invited the lady next door to join us for dinner, because we figured her original plans for tonight might fall through. They did, so she came. Somehow, we got talking about some china that my mom had been given by her aunt. My great aunt passed away back in 1996, and my great uncle said that my great aunt had said that the china was for mom, since my mom had said she wanted it. Mom claims to never had said this, but my great uncle wanted to obey my great aunt's wishes. So my mom stuck the china up in a crawl space, and we've never gotten around to unpacking the box. Well, I got irritated enough at not even knowing what pattern it was, that I went up and dug out a piece.

Here's the pattern, and the information from the back:



I googled it, and Alfred Meakin is the manufacturer, so 'Osiris "Solway"' must be the pattern. (Reg. No. 742045.) However, there was very little on the web. Does anyone know anything about this china? Like how old it might be, and stuff like that? Before my great-aunt, the china belonged to my great-great-grandmother MacDonald. (I'd have to hunt down a family tree to figure out when she was alive... I'm not sure if my copy is here in Winnipeg, or down in Chapel Hill, or even if it contains that information. I remember her being on it, but also that not all people had dates listed.)

Oh... and while I'm delving into history, for those yarn interested readers, here's one of my great-grandmother Olive Fortune's ornaments that we have on our tree. It's a ball of red yarn:



The top is a bit broken, but then it is quite old. My great-grandmother gave it (and some other ornaments) to my mom when my great-grandmother stopped putting up a tree.

Dug out photos

Here's the view out front: the neighbour across the way snow blowed a bunch, but all that marks the street are two tire tracks. Didn't my mom do a nice job of the walk? ;)



Here's my mom and B shovelling out the last bit of the back parking pad:



A neighbour with a snowblower cleared one of the back lanes.

This is what a parking lot looks like in Winnipeg in winter:



That big pile of snow in the background used to be all over the lot. They'll come back and haul it away when they're done clearing the other lots and streets. (The private contractors tend to do the big store lots first, because they pay better than the city. ;) )

That reminds me... apparently Winnipeg has it's own little baby glacier. We pile our excess snow in one spot, and with the sand and muck that ends up forming a protective layer on top, it takes a long time to melt. Correction: I thought that there was one summer that it didn't melt at all, but mom says that the longest she can remember is it taking into August. So I guess it's not a real glacier. *sigh*

Digging out

Well, this morning we dug ourselves out. We spent about 45+ minutes this morning digging out our sidewalks and driveway, and also some of the sidewalks belonging to the older lady next door. (We didn't do all of hers, because she pays a neighbourhood boy to clear them, and we didn't want to take his job. He wasn't home this morning, though, so we cleared enough that she could get to the street if she needed to.) I'm not sure exactly how much snow we got, but it went up over the top of my sorels. (Sorels are honking big snow boots. Mine are rated to -30C, and go up to my knees.) When I was shovelling out the neighbours walk (that was the part I did, all three of us split up the work), I don't think the level of snow ever got below a foot.

I was a bit peeved at Bob though... I felt like shovelling before my shower (so I could have my shower when I was all hot and sweaty), but Bob said that we should wait before going out. I didn't want him to feel rushed (which he would have if I had gone out and started shovelling), so I went up to have my shower, and mom called a friend to see how she was doing. While my mom and I were occupied, Bob SNUCK OUT and started *shovelling*!!! Sneaky little mutter, mutter, mutter! Mom told me while I was still in the shower, and then went out too. I hurried out too, but that meant I was shovelling with wet hair! Aargh! And it wasn't all that warm out. (Right now the thermometer says it's -17C, and the wind is blowing too.) And since I was the last out, I didn't get a nice shovel either. Normally we have enough shovels, but only two are ergonomic shovels, one is an ergonomic snow pusher, a fourth is a regular snow pusher, and the rest are basically garden shovels and stuff. There was way too much snow to use a snow pusher style shovel, so I ended up with an aluminum garden style shovel. I really had to bend over to do that. Grrr. And I couldn't get very much snow per shovel. Hence, I only did part of the neighbours walk, while my mom did all of ours, and Bob did the whole driveway. I just couldn't move very fast. Plus I was the last one out. Oh well... at least I got some exercise.

Instead of doing our regular grocery shopping as planned, we just got essentials at a closer store that only required main roads once we were out of our neighbourhood. We wouldn't have made it at all, but one of the neighbours had a snowblower (well, actually his parents a few blocks away did, so he went out and shovelled them out, then snowblowed his way back) and he cleared the back lane. On the way back in, we still had to get out and push where our front street has a bit of a hill.

I'm all out of breath now (my asthma is acting up, pushing cars in the cold), so I'll read for a bit before potting up some of my ficus cuttings.

I hope you're having fun too. :) Oh... and Happy New Year!

Snow

Hmmm... it's looking pretty nasty out there:

BLIZZARD POUNDS SOUTHERN MANITOBA
The blizzard that blew into the province Thursday made driving so treacherous on southern highways that provincial transportation officials have pulled snowplows off the roads.
FULL STORY
http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=mb_winter-storm-20041230

Yarn

Oh... I forgot to mention... this yarn looks *really* neat!

The Changing Moods of Winter

Well, it's about time I posted some pictures, so my plan is to post some tonight. :)

I had plans to go to a yarn store this afternoon, but that didn't happen. Why? Winter said so. Here's what it looked like outside earlier today:



They're actually both taken at the same time... just one is without flash, and the other is with flash. The flash tends to "freeze" the snow, and makes it look much darker than it actually is. For comparison, here's how it looked on Christmas day, nice and sunny:



and here's some of yesterday's hoar frost:



Today's little blizzard started off this morning with ice pellets, and then reasonably heavy snow. It's still snowing, but also really blowing out now. We postponed the scheduled dinner with friends and relatives tonight too. (The dinner was going to be outside of the city, and we were worried about getting stuck with Bob's mom in the car.) I can tell shovelling tomorrow is going to be lots of fun. ;)

But to warm things up, here's a cute face from yesterday's party:



One of my friends brought her adorable little boy. He's all smiles... I'm surprised my photos got him when he wasn't smiling.

While I'm managing to get photos up, here's my latest pair of socks, the blue Kroy socks:


And here are a few of the wonderful things I got for Christmas:





In that last pair of photos, the little senior and seniorita are different sides of the same ornament. The "background" in the last three photos is my *wonderfully* snuggly new housecoat! :))

Oh... and I keep forgetting to mention... my dad's girlfriend *does* like the scarf. :) Dad says she's been wearing it, and likes it. (I haven't seen her since I gave it to her.)

Okie... I feel better now. Was that enough pictures for you too? ;)

Tired... sparkly

I'm dead tired, but I felt like blogging before bed.

The world is all sparkly outside today. I woke up to hoar frost covering everything, and it's still out there now! I think it even got thicker as the day progressed. I didn't take many pictures, because the sun never came out.

I'll post photos tomorrow... although I'm alert enough to blog, I'm too tired to post photos.

Let's see... today I went to Chapters and a few other places with mom and Bob, then spent the afternoon at the dentist. I got my teeth cleaned, and two fillings. Joy. They froze my mouth around 2, and it was after 6 before it really started to go away. Blech. I hate freezing. And I got *both* sides frozen, because I had one cavity on each side. I would have asked them if they could do it without, but at least one of the cavities was too big for that.

After the dentist I got a good crunch at the chiropractor. I read one of my new books until dinner. It's pretty good so far... it's a teen fantasy novel: The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson.

After dinner I went to a party with a bunch of friends from grade school. It was great. :) Driving there and back was a bit hazardous, though, because the roads were wet and sloppy.

Okie... headache says it's time for bed. Good night, and have nice, cavity free dreams!

Snowflake and Socks

I called up my professor (H) this morning, and we made plans for a late lunch. (I wasn't sure what time Bob would be back from the dentist... he had to get his crown put back on, because it fell off during the turkey dinner on Boxing Day.) I then remembered I had intended to make a snowflake for H for Christmas, and that I hadn't done so yet! I whipped up a quick snowflake (2 hours), and was ready by the time I had to leave to meet her. She loved it, so I'm happy. :) I didn't take a picture, but it was the same as one I've done before. (I did a repeat, since I knew it turned out nice previously, and I didn't have time to goof up.)

H gave me an origami-a-day calendar. When I pointed out that the origami in it was pretty trivial, she let me give it back to her to give to her kid, and she bought me a regular calendar instead. :) They were even 50% off, and I got to pick one I liked. :))

H and I had a nice lunch, then browsed McNalley Robinson together for a bit. We exchanged loaner books, and she let me use her discount card to buy some new ones. :) After making tentative plans for Thursday, we went our separate ways.

I went to the yarn store on Corydon, only to discover that it was closed for the holidays... due to open back up tomorrow. :P Peering through the window, they look worth stopping in if I'm in the area, but probably not worth driving half way across the city for a special visit. I may stop in on Thursday, since it won't be too far out of my way on the way back from meeting with H. We're planning on meeting at the conservatory at the zoo this time, which is also in the same direction.

Tonight I finished off the blue Kroy socks. The trim is quite cute (in my opinion), but you can't see it when I wear jeans, and they're quite thick wool (4 ply), so they'll probably be a bit warm for summer. :P I'll post photos tomorrow. It's late tonight, and I plan on wearing them tomorrow anyway.

I'm going to start V's socks tomorrow. They're the only project I have planned and have yarn (here) for. I think I'll stripe hers, rather than doing the trim at the top, since they'll also be the 4 ply wool. I should have enough of the rainbow yarn if I don't stripe until after the heel, or if I only do really skinny rainbow stripes. I hope.

I do need *something* to start tomorrow, because tomorrow's my fun, exciting dentist appointments for cleaning and two fillings. Gee... I buy myself the nicest Christmas presents.... And with one cavity on each side, I'm sure I'll be drooling from a frozen face for my party with friends from high school. Lovely.

No worries

My "kidney stone" pain is gone this morning. :) Luckily it stayed fairly low key.

Late night blogging

Yay... I remembered to set the time to 12. (It's only 11 here in Winnipeg, but I've been leaving my posts set on Chapel Hill time.) I still haven't checked to see what happens at noon... or gotten around to sending in a bug report. I think I tried once, but the page was down. I'll get around to it.

I feel sorry for all those people living around the Indian Ocean... both for those that died, and those that lost loved ones and homes, and are trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. If you can help, the Red Cross is accepting donations of cash... which allows them to help faster than donations of objects. CBC article:

TOLL FROM TSUNAMI NEARS 24,000
The death toll from a tsunami that surged onshore in 10 countries
bordering the Indian Ocean neared 24,000 on Monday, as thousands of
soldiers searched coastlines for survivors.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/12/27/newer-tsunami041226.html

I think I'm having another kidney stone... not a big one, but enough that I have that familiar pain in my right side. Yuck. At least it's not too bad yet... and maybe it'll pass easily. I hate kidney stones.

Today I finished the sock part of my blue Kroy socks, and tonight added trim to one while watching a movie with my dad. (Although the trim took lots of looking at, so I didn't get much watching done... luckily, it was one of my DVDs, so I've seen it already.) I didn't add quite as much trim as I was planning, but I think it turned out pretty cute anyway. I'll post a photo when I've finished the second sock.

I also helped my parents shovel snow this afternoon. It was easy, since there was just a couple of light, fluffy centimeters of snow. After that we walked over to Dollarama (a dollar store), and I saw a friend along the way. It was really nice, because I haven't seen her for *ages*. I got to meet her husband and cute little kid too. We didn't stop for long, because it was rather cold out. We invited them to come over later today, but I guess they were busy. I should give her a call, and see if we can plan something more definite.

At Dollarama I bought two heat resistant spatulas (regular & spoon), and several classical CDs. So it was an expensive way to get exercise, but cheaper than if our destination had been something else, I suppose.