Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Transformation Tuesday

I saw this on FaceBook last week, people posting pictures of their dogs as puppies and then as adults. At the time I didn't have a chance to look for pictures so I thought I would do a blog post.



My first Sheltie Starpath's Glenmohr Duffy



My first bi-black Dierenvriend's Nicky's Shadow, I called him Gryffon




My first agility dog, Dierenvriend's Mattie's Tucker




My first female Kelbren's Ceilidh Everlasting



My agility super star, Triadic's Glenciarn Beckett


And last but not least, Triadic's Keltic Livinonthedge

Monday, February 13, 2017

Winterlude

A few friends and I went downtown on Saturday evening. It's Winterlude here in Ottawa, the mid-winter festival and at Confederation Park they always have ice sculptures.  We went to the mall first and had a bite to eat in the food court, first time I had been in it since they renovated over two years ago now.  Then after eating we walked over to Confederation Park; it's a short walk, only about 5 minutes from the mall.

We had a wonderful evening, not too cold for a Canadian winter.  It's also our nation's 150th anniversary of Confederation so some of the sculptures were along that theme.



Obviously the first sculpture is a Canada 150 sculpture reminiscent of our flag. The second sculpture has a map of Canada on it. That might be a little hard to see but it's there. The third sculpture is of the Vimy Memorial. That battle in WWI was the one that defined us as a country separate from the United Kingdom.


These sculptures were in the park but they also have an ice sculpture competition and those sculptures are located in what they call the Crystal Garden.

Surfer

Mermaid

Peacock

Inuit fisherman

Twin faces

It's pretty amazing to see what they can carve out of ice. The contestants come from all around the world. It's funny to see that many of the carvers come from countries that we would consider to be warm, no even hot countries. Just how do they get into ice carving?

Dream Weaver

Magical Dancer

Thor

Carousel

Go to the link below to see all the ice sculptures that we saw.













                  

                               Ice Sculptures - Winterlude 2017


After standing in line to see all the sculptures, our feet did start to get cold so we decided to head back home, some us by car and others, myself included by bus. It was an inexpensive short evening out but it did get us out of the house and gave us a chance to catch up with each other.  There will be other events here in Ottawa for the 150th that we plan to attend. Hopefully a few others that couldn't make it this time will be able to join us.

If you haven't been to Ottawa, summer is a wonderful time to visit but so is February with Winterlude. There's the ice sculputres, skating on the canal,  a snow maze and castle, dog sled rides in Jacques Cartier park. Not to mention taffy pulls and, of course, one has to have beaver tails.

Confederation Park

Rideau Canal Skateway

Ottawa at night

Confederation Park and the canal




Thursday, February 2, 2017

New Additions

No, I did not get another puppy but I've been thinking about one so who knows maybe next year.

 Last year 2016 brought a number of new additions to the family; three of my nieces each welcomed their first child in 2016.

First on the scene was Thexan David  born 12 July 2016.  Quite an unusual first name, apparently the name of a prince in Star Wars.




















Next to make her debut was Emma Rhian who was born 31 Aug 2016, she was in a bit of a rush to arrive being born two weeks before her due date.


























Last to arrive was Haig Arthur born 23 Dec 2016. Haig should have been a January 2017 baby but he was in such a rush to catch up to his cousins that he also arrived a few weeks early.



Not too many photos of Haig Arthur yet but his family did have a lovely photo shoot and you can see those photos at Dawn of Destiny Photography.

It's pretty wonderful to see the family growing and the next generation arriving. My nieces are all now young women; it seems like just yesterday they were the little children.

A picture of all the new moms when they were little.
More great grandchildren for my mother although she will likely never have the chance to really get to know these new members of the family.

And new cousins for the first of that generation, Adrian Robert.