The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Sunday morning? Alvin and I are doing great. We had a good sleep including an early start, but that is okay. The sky is that glorious hue of blue and the sun is casting its’ beams off any objects it touches. What a beautiful morning. Al and I have had a glorious weekend despite the rather late start to the day yesterday. I only had one load of laundry to do as I had done laundry on my last day of vacation. Bonus points. After coffee and breakfast and the laundry was washed and dried, Mr. Alvin and I headed out for a walk. I only needed a sweater as it was so beautiful and I took Alvin’s water bottle/dish as well. It was so nice. We saw friends Norbert and Irene out giving some TLC to their lawn and stopped to have a little visit. Alvin loves their yard. While we were visiting another person and her pup walked by, we said hello. Sunny, her pup immediately rolled about on the freshly mowed grass. He was covered in dry grass but looked so happy. His Mom just smiled. There was also a brief conversation with a couple of men, who were having a conversation out front of a house on our way to the park. Everyone was outside and everyone was happy to chat and say hello.

We took our time as we continued walking to the park and once inside, I just let Alvin take the lead and allowed him time to sniff to his heart’s content. I just breathed in the fresh air which actually spelled like spring. We continued on our walk until we spotted a friend out in her yard raking the grass. She noticed us and walked toward us remaining in her yard as we walked to her. We had a long conversation over the fence. I had not seen her for awhile. I always love speaking to Lucy. Alvin sat on the grass and watched other people and their dogs going by, he didn’t flinch, just sat like the good boy that he is. Lucy and I spoke about so many things. Work, her homeland China, the environment, pollution, weather, gardening, people, and more. We had been chatting for likely well over thirty minutes when I happened to turn my head to see another friend out for a walk. I was surprised to see her. It was time for us to keep walking so I said good-bye to Lucy and joined my friend Gillian on her walk. Alvin really had a long walk but I figured with the break in walking he should be okay. We had a good chat on our walk and Gillian walked us home and then was going to head out for another lap. When I got home I saw that we had been gone for almost two hours. WOW. I felt like a million dollars. Refreshed and energized. What a time we had! Once home, I did a few things which included sweeping the floor, moving the IKEA shelves to a different angle in the kitchen, watered plants, finished a necklace that I had been working on, almost finished it anyway. At supper instead of cooking a pasta dish I decided to just have pizza again with a bunch of raw veggies. In between it all I gave Mr. Alvin his supper. What a great day even though we had such a late start. I think being outside was just what the Doctor ordered. After supper I watched an interview on NETFLIX with Oprah and Viola Davis. I was surprised and enthralled by her story. There were several things that we have in common and not her Tony or Academy award wins. She has a beautiful smile and I was sad to hear that people had told her that she was ugly. She is not. It was a great interview. Perfect timing. Then I decided to rent a movie from TELUS ON DEMAND. I couldn’t decide which one and then saw a new movie with Liam Neeson. I love him and decided that from the preview it looked good, so I paid the $7.00 and continued. The movie was called “BLACKLIGHT” and it was really good. A good story. Aidan Quinn was also in the movie and I have also liked him. A good night.

Now for today. My friend Gillian will be here in about one hour for coffee and instructions for looking after Mr. Alvin as I have to go to the office on Tuesday. This afternoon my daughter is coming for a visit. So much company and visiting this weekend and clearly just what was needed. I will be making the pasta dish for supper tonight and setting up my workspace in the kitchen after supper cleanup.

I hope that you have a great Sunday. If you have the opportunity or perhaps make the time to GO OUTSIDE. Say hello to people. Enjoy the sunshine. I hope that the sun is shining wherever you are and that you are well.

I am grateful for the sunshine, warm temperatures and family and friends and for good health and for Mr. Alvin. Grateful for life and for spring. Renewal.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. life is good!

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Monday morning the 26th day of April, 2021? Alvin and I are well. We had pretty good sleep last night which totally sets the tone for the upcoming day. The sunrise was beautiful but now it appears that the wind has started to blow and there clouds in the sky. I don’t remember there being a forecast for any kind of moisture today as the temperature is to be a high of 13 degrees celsius. Time will tell.

Our Sunday was great. My daughter had a change of plans and will be coming tomorrow night which is perfect. Alvin and I had a slow quiet morning. I washed the last load of laundry, brought the clothes that were drying in the basement upstairs and put them away along with a load of towels that were dried waiting for me in the dryer. I watched my favourite Sunday morning show which I record and that is “Escape to the Country.” The show is filmed in the UK mainly in England but sometimes in Wales and Scotland. They always have some fun facts about the area so it is also a learning program, which I love. So I munched on some toast and drank some coffee and watched a few episodes of the show. Once done, I was moving a couple of things in the pantry and ended up cleaning it out completely. Looks great. Happy accident, unplanned. We went for a walk in the mid afternoon and it was gorgeous outside. My friend’s husband and grandpup Georgie were sitting on the patio when we were walking by so we popped by for a short visit. My friend had just left to the grocery store. After leaving we continued on our walk. The grass in the park and in the neighborhood is beginning to turn green. The renewal of spring. Upon getting home, I did a couple of chores before feeding Alvin. We watched the OSCARS, the Academy Awards from 6-9 p.m. and even a bit of the before show. I only saw one of the nominated films and disappointed that Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman did not win for their roles. But I did not see the other films so one cannot judge. It is the majority opinion. I was very happy that Chloe Zhao won for Director and that Youn Yuh-jung won for Best Supporting Actress and that the one movie I saw won awards for Best Costume and Best Makeup and Hairstyling and that was for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. All of the movies looked awesome from their clips/trailers so I will try and see them all over the next few months. One down. So that was our Sunday.

Looks like it is time to get downstairs and put on the coffee and then sign on for work. I cannot believe that today is the 26th of April already, where has the time gone. 1/4 of 2021 already behind us. 3/4 ahead and that is good.

Wishing you an awesome day. I hope that you are well and able to enjoy life. Alvin is calling me.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Carol & Alvin with LOVE.

We appreciate you reading our posts. Means the world to me, to us. Alvin is proud of his Momma.

Never hurts to enjoy some beautiful photos……

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  Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels.com

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  Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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  Photo by Mina-Marie Michell on Pexels.com

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you doing this Sunday morning? Both Al and I are fine and happy to have had a great night sleep. Bed in good time and up at 3:45 which is great and then I managed to coax him to stay on the sofa until later and that ended up being 6:20 a.m.. Of course, he had his breakfast then and we headed back to the sofa because why in the world would someone get up at 6:20 on a Sunday morning when they did not have to? Why? I suppose to enjoy the quietness of the early morning. But not this gal. I had done all the chores that I had planned and even a couple of more things yesterday so today will be chilling and we might have a visit from my daughter/Alvin’s sister. She mentioned about coming by today. That would be great. We love our visits. Yesterday was great. First thing after breakfast yesterday morning I gave Mr. Alvin a haircut. For some unknown reason it went faster and I was done his hair cut in 1.5 hours (a new record) and then gave him a bath.

I used my new Bissell Crosswave to clean the main floor and the upstairs including the area rug in my bedroom and the carpet/rug in the hallway. One thing it not easy to do steps with, just saying. Next time I will be cleaning the carpet in the basement family room. I might have to borrow a hand held cleaner from someone to do the steps. I did them but not as well as I would have liked to. After doing a couple loads of laundry and as the weather seemed to be nice, I decided to go for a walk with Mr. Alvin. We were just at the park entrance when I noticed in the distance a dog and his owner that we have have got to know over the winter/spring. I had not seem them in a while so we started to walk toward them which happens to be the more direct route to Master Teddy’s house. Well Alvin caught on to my oversight and after we humans chatted for a minute or two we were on our way to Teddy’s house. Alvin literally dragged me there. I was thinking all the way that I had work to do at home and that I don’t like to just drop in but we did. He did drag me there making the turn onto their street and right up the driveway. I rang the doorbell and he was just going to bark when our friend opened the door with a happy greeting for these friends who always show up unplanned. She is the most gracious person on the planet for unexpected visitors. I apologized as I always do and I meant the apologies. I love visiting with them and like to advise when we are coming which I do when it is planned but Alvin always has other ideas. So into the house we went. I had tea while Alvin “visited” which for him is checking to see if there is any food left out. Teddy and Kobi are always happy to see us as well. My friend’s husband came downstairs to say hello. We always practice social distancing and be careful in these covid times. I do not see many folks in person. Any visits these days are all done with social distancing and being mindful. I have friends that are my age and some that are younger. We all are cognizant of the restrictions and of being careful during these times for each other. Once back home, I grabbed the rake from the garage and a bag for the leaves and went out to rake the front lawn. Yes, I had done this a couple of weeks ago but it really needed it again. The last time it was windy and two hours later it snowed. I just read on the weather report that we are to have snow showers. ARGH. After the front was done, I cleaned out the basement window well. It was filled with leaves. Not to the top of course but there again was a heavy bed of leaves. I had pulled out the garbage that had blown in there the last time I raked but decided this was a good time to dig out the leaves. Actually some had been there obviously for awhile as they were composting. I had taken my handy dandy garbage picker upper from the front porch through the house with the rake and then out to the back where I opened the gate. I grabbed the bag of leaves that I had raked from the front and had thrown over the back gate, opening the gate; I went to work pulling out dark clumps of dead leaves until I had it pretty much down to the rocks that line the window well. Then I took the almost full bag of leaves inside the gate, closed the gate and went to work raking the backyard again. I have raked the back several times and the grass is beginning to turn green. Finally have all the leaves picked up. I hope that no more blow in back there from other neighbours yards. I don’t even have a tree in my backyard. Anyway all raked and looks great for that “snow shower.” Once done with the yard work, I gave Mr. Alvin his supper and then headed to the basement to start some more laundry. After that, I cleaned the toilets and did some dusting before deciding to order pizza from my favorite pizza place “Royal Pizza.” I decided that while it is expensive compared to picking up groceries that may last longer – it was a well deserved treat. So that is what I did. I also chopped some vegetables which is my favourite thing to have with pizza. I cleaned and chopped some carrots, red peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. Supper was divine. So good. After supper and cleanup and back and forth doing laundry. I decided to watch a movie or two. After watching some familiar ones I decided to watch a recent movie, one that was nominated for an Academy Award tonight and that was “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” I definitely see why Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman were nominated for awards. I hope that they both win. That was my Saturday night.

I am sitting at the computer with my charcoal mask on (multi-tasking) while Mr. Alvin is sitting in the hallway just staring at me. Not sure if he is checking out the charcoal mask or if he is trying to get my attention. Anyway time to get this mask off and get dressed and get this day really going.

Wishing you a great day. Also something to mention. While we were chatting at our friend’s house yesterday – I mentioned about having the furnace vents etc cleaned and he said that he was going to as well but would do so in the fall just before winter. He said if you clean them in the spring before the summer (when there is dust/dirt flying) they will just get dirty again. It has been a long time since I had this done but I will wait. The furnace will be off as soon as it warms up so I will wait. What great advice. I never thought of the dust/dirt of summer. Going point. Just wanted to share.

Continuing on this path we call life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Have an awesome Sunday.

Always, Carol & Alvin