5C's Que Pasa

Colin and I seem to fit so much into each day that I am running out of time to read. Colin however always makes time for his guitar, no matter what. I’m more like ” I have to finish this first” and then something else pops up, etc. Lately I have been letting the blog lapse a bit. I mean you just all must be getting tired of seeing our wildlife photos over and over. Hope you enjoyed my last post. Pretty special. I have had four appointments outside of the house in the last seven days, which is time consuming and tiring.

Last Friday on our drive to Vernon, we saw this reflection of Oyama onto Wood Lake.  We were surprised to see that Wood Lake was starting to freeze in a few areas.

We lost our computer repair guy 😯  He simply disappeared with no replies to email, text or phone call. Today was the day that my desktop was supposed to go in for a new hard drive. So yesterday Colin called a computer place we have dealt with in the past in the US. Good thing, as it turns out that they believe that I need to upgrade my RAM as well as change the hard drive. We were about to put an online order in for the parts when we got a call from the computer tech.  Turns out that all his social media was not working. So we ran our new ideas with him and he agreed. Except of course he needs to order parts. In the end, with shipping and the exchange rate we saved over $100.00 by letting him do his thing. Of course that delays my repairs until next Friday the 12th, the first day he has free. It will only cost 1/4th of a new computer which I just know would have brought me more troubles.

This past Sunday, the 30th, was snowman day here on our lake. This  guy was made by our neighbours. I contributed the carrot nose.

To the far right a good deal of folks had taken to the ice. Not sure where the smoke was coming from.  Perhaps a bonfire at the beach. Between the two people on the left and in the distance there is a snowman. Just a few hours earlier we saw a coyote prowling along this area.

So far I have had two chiropractic appointments since my stressed out day with Apple Support. I think we have come up with a good solution to the computer issue. Doesn’t hurt to keep your fingers crossed. There is always something that needs to be checked out and looked into. Way too much time online. Tonight I am trying a new recipe so that should be fun. We have been expecting snow all day and it still has not started. Yet they say that we will have up to 1 & 3/4 of an inch by morning.  Not good as I have an appointment in Kelowna tomorrow.  We don’t drive in the snow ( not worth the effort ) so I may have to cancel and pay the penalty. I am trying to cut down my chiropractor and massage appointments but still need them from time to time.

To our far left we had another snowman ( that makes three in one day and the only ones we have seen all winter )  along with ice fishing and of course they did light another fire on the ice, later in the afternoon.

Just this past Monday we got hair cuts and I got colour. Looking good. I went just a bit darker. We all realized that Colin’s hair is darker because he is no longer in the sun. On the way home we picked up Japanese take out for an early dinner which was great. Not as good as eating in but it is what we have to do these days. I know many are eating out but we are not.

The sun came out a few days ago, on Tuesday and everything was melting. We had highs of 43F. Is winter over?

Looks like winter may not be over. Yes we had an unusual winter ( while the Isla is having one of the coldest winters on record ). However it appears that we could still get snow and cold temperatures.  If we are lucky the polar vortex might miss us.

I mentioned earlier that we are expecting snow tonight.  It is raining and 36F. I can’t see how we will get over an inch of the white stuff tonight 😉

Yesterday we had well over a hundred geese land ( and tonight yet again ).

The geese just relaxed in the heat of the sun on the ice.

To their right we had a few Trumpeter swans. Quite a few had landed but only three stayed to sunbathe and rest.

Looking forward to watching the Super Bowl commercials. I have been told that there will be a dachshund commercial as well as John Travolta dancing with  his daughter. There is also going to be a commercial featuring a Canadian who helped an American family driving through Canada close to Christmas to visit their husband/father. They had never driven in snow pulling a trailer. Of course the Canadian saved the day 😀

I can’t imagine anyone I know nor you, my blog readers, doing something like this.

I alway love singing this song. Love the melody.

A very dear friend sent this to me. It is from the semi finals of France’s Got Talent just this past December 2020.  The words are in French but you don’t need to hear them to enjoy this very short  2 1/2 minute extraordinary production.  It is beyond amazing and will stir you.  I did a rough translation for you. It is a story about how humans are responsible for the destruction of the environment and the wild/rain forests. As well as the extinction of many species and the near extinction of other animals. If we don’t make changes the planet will suffer. Each model reflects an animal almost instinct at this moment either from pollution, electrical lines, hunting the mandrill for its tender meat or trophy hunting.

Be sure the watch to the last few seconds as there is an even greater vision for you to see. We must work together, the life of this planet is in our hands. It is time for us to become aware of the seriousness of the situation and to act.

You might want to watch this a second time and watch it on a full screen.

The body paint was done by Johannes Stoetter.

It is my understanding that there are only 220 mandrills left on the planet. I did my best with the translation, if I missed something ( Colin L, Rae and others let me know ).

As I was about to finish this post I discovered another work of art by Johannes Stoetter done on Britain’s Got Talent. This is done in English so you can understand his message. Johannes Stoetter is taking to the BGT stage with an incredibly powerful message – that the future of the oceans depends on us all. Watch as he makes waves and brings his message to life in a beautifully unique way.  There is glimpse of the artist at the end of the video

UPDATE

I have had someone contact me that they can’t see the videos.  Here they are with a direct You Tube link.

2018 saw us checking out some new roads and vistas.  This is the cover of our 2021 calendar.

We spent two days visiting Arches National Park.  Day one and more photos can be found by clicking here and day two can be found here. If life allows us to, we plan to return to enjoy that area yet again. Our visit to Monument Valley was cancelled because of weather, that blog post is here.

This is the actual photo for January.

The back cover is of our four girls that we had between 1998 and 2017. The RV is parked at a pullout between Ely and Las Vegas.

Looking forward to creating more adventures in 2021 for our 2022 calendar.

A few readers have recently asked about how I bake our veggies.  First just choose whatever veggies you enjoy. Some taste really different when baked such as broccoli and cauliflower.  If you are adding carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes or other root vegetables you will want to cut them small so that they bake faster but remember to leave broccoli and cauliflower in larger pieces so they all are ready about the same time. So many choices, onions ( cut in large pieces ) mushrooms, zucchini any type of squash or peppers. I start by lining my cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper – makes for an easy clean up.

The sun was shinning this morning. So many people and dog prints marking the snow on the lake. Personally I like it unmarked with just a layer of fresh snow.

I then cut the veggies to size and place them on the cookie sheet. That way I don’t cut too many.  You need to keep the vegetables one layer when baking. I then place them in a bowl where I toss them with olive oil, not so much that you have oil pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Then you can add whatever spice you like such as Italian seasoning, salt & pepper or any other favourites, even curry. You can also just bake with them coated with a bit of oil & balsamic vinegar. Another idea is to mix them in pesto sauce for a unique flavour. I prefer to bake them at about 400F for 30 – 40 minutes. But you can bake them at 450F or even as low as 350F. Every oven bakes differently.

Lovely to see blue sky. We got a dusting of snow overnight.

Just chop up the veggies, add some oil with or without spices and give it a try. There is not a right nor a wrong. Click here for a butternut squash – cauliflower – coconut curry meal. It is not exactly baked veggies but it sure looks good. I’m going to try it next week.

It began to snow about 1PM today even though there was only a 40% chance. You can see how bad the road is for walking.  Melted snow and then ice forms over night. I do not enjoy this part of winter.

Colin and I do not watch much TV.  We can mange two hours per night, sometimes three but any more than that and one of us falls asleep. There are many types of movies out there with some being a complete waste of time.  So best Google the name of the movie and read about, even watch the trailer. It is nice when a friend recommends something to watch. Just the other night we watched “Penguin Bloom” and it was so much better that I expected.  Another movie that was suggested to us was “White Tiger”, set in India. But I suggest watching the trailer first to be sure that you can understand the accent. Having been to India twice we are good with it. We have not seen this one yet but it is supposed to be very good as is this one.

It is always pretty to watch the flakes drift down. Yes that is another person and dog walking on the ice.

I get recommendations from various websites on what to watch on TV. Click here for what to watch in January on Netflix and click here for what is suggested for February. This is another place to check for movie ideas. The Cineplex Store is good place to look for ideas on what to watch. Then of course there are a number of series shows to watch.  Recently suggested to us which I personally have not checked out are Secret City, Stateless, The Queen’s Gambit, The Crown, The Ranch and Ozark.  There are so many out there but I understand your reluctance to watch just anything.

One more.

Do any of you have some suggestions for movies? It would be of benefit to myself and to other blog readers.  Perhaps we will all find something new to enjoy as we pass time during our Coronavirus lockdown. Please don’t be shy, I would love to hear about what you are watching.

We woke up to a good snowfall and it continued to fall until late afternoon.

I love seeing snow on tree boughs.

We waited until noon to shovel, yes I went out and did it as well. We were forecast to get 12cm/4.75inches. It did look close to four inches.  It was fun to come in with wet hair and mitts.

A lovely winter look to this weeping willow.

The Jeep has a deep well where the windshield wipers rest and it is a royal pain to clean out when frozen so Colin put some towels down the night prior.  It worked very well. Yesterday this was covered in snow.

A home just down the street from us had shingle damage from that horrid wind storm. It was cold and miserable on Wednesday but the two roofers worked non stop and very fast. They were the same company that did our roof repairs. This roof was about 20 years old so the owners decided to have it totally replaced.

We were surprised to see them up on the roof first thing yesterday in the middle of the snow storm. They did get the job completed.

Today we had to drive from Kelowna to Vernon. About 50 km/31 miles and the scenery was outstanding. Don’t forget we were driving at 90/kph or56/mph. I quite liked this reflection into Woods Lake.

Snow and more snow.

We just caught these huge icicles out of the corner of our eyes. A quick snapshot.  They actually went on for about a mile. So fun to see but best to simply enjoy rather than try and take photos.

It was another chiropractic appointment for both of us and of course Colin was in trouble for so much high up reaching and tilting his head back. Needless to say all the stress this week had me twisted. We really should just come home after a treatment but because we were already out, why not go grocery shopping? We did do one curbside pick up.  But we just hated waiting in the car for so long but it did avoid going into another store. We are always so happy to get home.

While we were out I received this message on my iPhone and once home it was also on my iMac. Why the heck? So I called Apple who suggested  a few things that made no sense. Then my computer guru settled me down.  I think Mr Murphy is out there just waiting to bug me.

I was going for this great wolf moon shot but the clouds came in. Rather artsy I think.

So much news today here in Canada with al the changes for non essential air travel. I think it is a great idea. There are hints that something will also be done for those driving in. If you missed the news just Google it.  I can tell you that many in Mexico are not too happy.

Tomorrow I will address baked veggies and movies.