Bohemian

Birthdays are hitting us hard and fast, but we are rising to the challenge and keeping traditions alive!

Rarely do we celebrate "on the day" and sometimes we don't even manage to make it within the month

but eventually everything aligns and the three of us are partying! 

Since Barb's birthday is on December 25th we never celebrate in real time, but we were doing pretty good by managing a January 27th Bohemian Brouhaha!  

Which pretty much looks like the little moto over the Birthday girl...

We sit long

talk much 

and laugh often. 

In this case it was a brunch that went on right through lunch and into the afternoon, but since we so rarely get together anymore there was a lot of catching up to be done. 

Precious moments with super precious friends.

Snowball

This is my friend Ollie, who is also Anita's Dad.

He's an all around awesome guy who plays and teaches cribbage with excellence.

Here we are playing a round on a sunny winter afternoon.  

Sometimes he even lets me win. 

Ollie  gets to feeling lonely as none of his three kids live in town so we figured that perhaps a little bird would provide a bit of a diversion and some entertainment.

It worked for a while until the endless chatter WHILE the TV was on became a bit much, so the little white Budgie moved out of Ollie's place and into ours.

At first "Snowball" was very skittish and would flap all over the cage when Patrice put her hand in, but with much perseverance she won the little "gal" over.

(We don't know if "she" is really a female, but in my world she is.)

Patrice would sit with her hand in the cage for uncomfortably LONG periods of time holding millet out to entice Snowball to get a little closer.  

Bit by bit the trust between these two grew until THIS HAPPENED!!  

I am truly amazed at the patience and dedication of this daughter of mine! 

Below you can see that I have a slightly different approach to bird care.

I'm more of an immediate, "hand's on" type of trainer. 

Since Blue Birdie loves playing in the sink so much I

figured it was time to introduce Snowball to the joy of running water so I stuck her

 little head under the tap promptly filling her tiny nose holes with water.

I got some scolding from Patrice and thankfully Snowball sneezed the water straight out and didn't drown so all is well in the Orchard Bird Sanctuary. 

After working out a few issues regarding who gets to sit near the food dish first and some screeching matches we have peace in the valley. 

The two birdies are very happy together and they are now engaged to be married.

There is lots of kissing and bobbing of heads and sweet birdsongs fill the air.

Can you hardly stand the cuteness?  

Deep Freeze

Here's my confession.  

I have been unable to download pictures from my cell phone camera onto my laptop for some time now and that simple little blip has had a profound impact on my ability to blog. 

So tonight I "pushed a few buttons" as Patrice always instructs me to do and I got things moving and as a result I'm back in "blogland". 

Therefore, I once again have some catching up to do, but for now I'll just start with today and a few recent thoughts.

It's January and we have been plunged into a deep freeze making me feel like something is biting my face when I go outside.

It has been seriously cold, going down to -25 at night and up to -15 as I'm driving to school in the mornings. I know this is Canada and everything, but I have been relatively spoiled living here in the Okanagan so this is all a little shocking, .   

It slows me down to some extent, but this week I had to be brave as school is back in session and I want to be there for my kids.

A mom of one of my student's asked me if I had checked my "box" since coming back to school.  I had forgotten that I even had one so it was thrilling to find a little gift and card and a few outdated bulletins in there.  

I've LOVED being back with the kids and am so pleased with their progress.

I'm just so thrilled to be able to do what I do.

On my way home I decided to brave the cold and ice to get a few groceries and lo and behold, look who was there to greet me as I entered the store!  

Matthew is one of my super heroes. 

It's like having an angel in the supermarket when he's in there.

I love hearing his laugh and cheerful hello's as I'm making my way up and down the aisles filling up my basket. 

I also picked up a bunch of books on CD for mom from the library since I hadn't done that in a long time.

Here's a shot of me with a few of my friends...

We're a little frosty but still stylin'.  I'm the one with the lei on.

Hoping for warmer winters, or at least an escape hatch that lands me somewhere tropical. 

Maybe next year... 

For now I'll be brave and watch the days get longer as I wait for Spring.

Even though there's been lots of snow and major cold there's been lots of coziness and happiness happening inside. Lots of hot drinks too. 

 Vic and Marcia have been here this past week which is ALWAYS a treat.  We all just got back from watching a movie. I love my family enough to go out on a cold winter's night to see a great movie and eat popcorn with them!! I also have Anita staying here and now Lana has joined us before heading off to Czech.

January is off to a fabulous frozen start. 

And I 'm going to try to get back on track here with the story of my life. 

If I can just keep those pictures downloading I'll be in business.