2020 is all done and moving on to the first half of 2021

I really need to catch up. Yes, I keep saying that…

I was disappointed that I didn’t make it out west for the winter.

Winter scnene
Winter on the Mississippi in Ontario.

Snow and cold in Ontario…once I returned from the blizzard of a drive, the weather improved for a while. Some nice walks in the snow.

Cooking is a fun thing in winter.

Cast iron pot and lid as fry pan
This was on sale when I bought it and thought “What a wonderful addition to the trailer” .

At least the cast iron is only two pieces. The bottom is a good size and I can even bake bread in it. I haven’t tried this in the trailer yet, but I will.

Cast iron bread
I did try it at home and it worked great!

Before I tried it in the trailer, I had to try it at home. This was a really cool find.

Carleton Place winter chairs
Snow arriving in Carleton Place

Carleton Place can be a pretty place in winter. This is the Town Hall on Bridge St. I am still unsure about spending the winter.

Pierre first attempt at chorag
Armenina chorag

Some baking was in order so I thought making Armenian Chorag was in order. The recipe came from a Middle Eastern cookbook and comparing it with the online recipes it was mostly the same. Not as good as my mother’s of course.

Puck the vampire
Puck showing his fierce look – or a big yawn with similar effect.

It was a long enough January that we took to dressing up the cat.

Pierre first attempt at pretzzel
First attempt at pretzels

Making pretzels is fun…you watch YouTube videos and they make it look so easy…as you can see from the above, the knot is much to be desired thought the flavour was perfect.

Scotts Behives
Neighbour’s bee hives.

One of our wonderful neighbours keeps bees and invited me to go along to check on the hives in the winter..a lovely experience to see what happens.

a tiny lamb
Baby lamb

One of the sheep at that farm had lambs and this was a newborn.

Scott examining bee hives
Checking on the hives to make sure the queen is still well.

One of the jobs of bee keeping is checking on them in the winter to see if the queen is well.

Zoom meeting during covid
With COVID-19 well on the way…Zoom meetings.

With the pandemic, we had Zoom meetings and this was our setup. Easy to see on the big screen. This was a rehearsal for a GCTC Zoom Choir.

Ansel and the other guy
Finding the Adams and some other guy.

There is a wonderful application called Trash Nothing that people give away stuff and we found this Ansel Adams print. We framed it and after a while wanted a companion print. I wasn’t going to add my name in the same category so I became some other guy with a B&W print of the stairs at Gross Morne National Park.

Linda at Franktown lilacs
Linda with the lilac bushes.

Spring did arrive and just south of us are beautiful and aromatic lilac bushes.

Linda and Pierre at Almont bridge
Bicycle riding to Almont.

The great thing about riding to Almonte is the ice cream you can get when you arrive.

Les with a fish
Les catches a fish then releases it.

The weather warmed up and we went fishing. We like the idea of releasing them if we aren’t hungry.

Linda and Hector in the water at Voyageur
Linda and Hector at Voyageur Provincial Park

Summer and camping once again. Linda is enjoying the walk in the water with Hector.

Our camp at Voyageur Provincial Park
Parking in a sunny and unserviced site.

We prefer to camp unserviced as the trailer handles it well. This site showed waterfront on the park map, but we found we had to go through the woods to access the Ottawa River. The site did allow for enough solar power to power everything.

Linda at Voyageur Camp
The first campfire of the year.

The scent of the first campfire of the year is wonderful and as you can see our spoiled Mr. Hector is feeling very comfortable as well.

Turtle Hiding
Big fan of personal privacy.

We found this guy along the trail and it was quite large…