I’ve discovered two of the walls had a layer of wallpaper, which is coming off in 3 separate layers. And behind the wallpaper, art!?

The time has come (long overdue) to repair and refresh Emily’s bedroom. Thanks to 100+ year old lath and plaster, there’s lots of solid structure, but definitely also need for repair. Since the end goal is create a space that can serve as an office and also a guest bedroom, the first task was to store a whack of Emily’s stuff that she is not yet ready to take with her. So we start with new shelf space in the basement, and emptying the room, and assessing the space for scraping and digging and whatever else needs to happen.

So this is the beginning of a series of photos along that path. I won’t promise that they’ll be interesting – think more documentary style – a simple photo every day or 2 or 3. We’ll see what happens.

One way we celebrated our wedding anniversary was by inviting some friends to share a meal with us. I like to experiment with food, and Eileen wondered about somehow creating a menu or food ideas based on the poem that was on our wedding invitation. The connection between poem and menu may not be obvious to anyone but me, but here are a few tidbits from our evening – the poem, the menu, and some food photos. Since I didn’t remember to take any photos during the actual event, I sadly don’t have any pictures of the guests. Oops. Also, the re-created dessert is a bit floppy and missing the crumb. O well, we ate the rest.

Thirty years together, gifts of grace!
30 years ago today, cold winds, warm hearts, friends and family from afar.

Emily created some lovely photographs of and for us, as you can see below.
And Eileen created a stunning poem to express what sentences and prose cannot, on her blog. View it here.

In the Fall of 2001, during my gardening leave, the people of Wildwood created this delightful Christmas nativity video at Camp Shekinah. Our kinds are wee! Check it out if you like for a flash from the past.
(And yes, the first 30 seconds are intentionally audio only, the video will appear when the time is right.)

Ah, the healing danish, er, I mean waters, of the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa.

The wind left little bits of Blue Spruce all over the neighbourhood. Against this green grass, I’m beginning to understand its name.

The trees are changing from leafy to bare, but this view from the 19th floor is still a treat.

Did you know that Grasslands National Park is the only national park in all of Canada to protect the mixed-grass prairie ecosystem? That it is the only place in Canada to see Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, and you’ll see thousands. And you will continually see buffalo roam, and deer and antelope play. And that rattlesnakes live there? And that it seems sometimes barren and bleak, and sometimes complex and wild, and that the light transforms the scenery in surprising ways from morn to dusk and cloud to sun? And that there are such large areas with nary a tree, that the few that exist are marked on a map? And that there is only 1 tree on the Two Trees Trail, since the bison rubbed against and felled one of the two trees? We really enjoyed this place!

Also, there are two short videos below the photos.

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We spent a few days camping at Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park. Except for the forgotten pillows!!! it was a wonderful time. Here are some pictures I took.

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