R.I.P. Earl Grey

We lost another furry friend today, as Earl reached the end of his eight-year run as a member of our family. He was likely about ten years old or so, as we figured he was about two years old when he arrived on the property back in 2013. He was primarily a "barn cat", preferring to spend most of his time outside or in the man-garage, though we did bring him in on the colder nights.

He had been having some mouth issues of late which did not seem to deter his voracious appetite, and which we thought might be a bad tooth as we have seen with a few others....complete with a decidedly unpleasant odour. We got him into the Vet, COVID restrictions and all, and it turned out to be an aggressive oral cancer. He was in far more pain then he was letting on, as is typically our of fastidious felines.

Due to COVID measures, only one of us could join him for his final moments, so Mike was there to comfort and escort him to peaceful slumber. Luckily, the new renovation meant that Jane could also see him through the window from the outside. The fine folks at the Tilbury Veterinary Hospital were wonderful and compassionate as always, especially under pandemic circumstances. 

Oddly, or perhaps fatefully, he spent his last night inside, enjoying a "treat" meal and cuddling with Mike in the chair - not something he often did. If anything, he was a little too hyperactive most of the time and refused to settle and relax. It's almost like he knew.

He was extremely friendly, though not many of the other cats ever warmed up to him - in his younger days, he did challenge some of the other males for dominance, though generally out of his weight class. In terms of us humans, his loving head bonks could actually be quite painful against the shins or even occasionally right in the noggin. Tough little bugger.

In his later years, he didn't stray from the property....but could be found napping in various odd places in the sunshine. One could be trimming trees or pulling weeds and stumble upon a slumbering Earl, curled up in a ball in the flowers or the shrubbery. 

As usual, he was known by many names over the years - Earl Grey (his original name), Early, Hurling, The Earl of Hurlington, Fuddly Davidson, Duffy, Duffman, and The Duffmeister. 

Rest in peace, friend. Thank you for many years of love and entertainment.

A Fine Gentleman

Basking like only Earl Grey can

Cuddling with Dad on his final night 

The Earl of Hurlington

He loved his naps in the sun!

Are those downed power lines still live? Has he moved....lately?

 

Could This Be Spring?

Winter finally arrived with a vengeance in mid-February, with one good wallop of snow in the wee hours. It's hard to say how much we got, given the variable drifting - in some places we still had bare grass, and other spots had a 3-foot drift when we woke up one day. Both cars were trapped.

Luckily we have very nice neighbours, who came down with their tractor and got the main part of the driveway cleared. Also luckily, ahem....the persistent COVID pandemic meant we weren't going anywhere anyway, so I had lots of time to shovel out the rest.

Nearly a full year into COVID, a third vaccine was just approved and hopefully efforts to get shots in arms will ramp up significantly. Canada hopes to have everyone vaccinated by the fall, and here's hoping they remain effective against new variants that continue to emerge.

Jane continues to experiment with food, recently making a variety of delicious sushi treats. Besides binging on Netflix, we are also watching an obscene amount of travel videos, primarily Youtube vloggers The Endless Adventure, and the Travel Beans. We can't travel at the moment, but we can dream...and plan. And I found some old nostalgic C64 video games updated on Steam!

We did have to break the van out of the garage - quite literally - when the Juke died with alternator issues. Jane had a scheduled curbside grocery pickup, so after shoveling the door free we then had to chip away frozen ground to allow the swollen barn doors to open....we've never opened them in the winter before!

The weather has turned decidedly spring-like as February wanes, with sunshine and double digit temperatures the past few days.....which means these crazy cats can start spending more time outside!

Breaking out Bard's Tale I on Steam

A little old school diversion!

Mid-February....

One good blast of winter

The harbour is still iced over....

....but the lake is open!

Don't order pop from Amazon....in winter

Bulgogi

Spring rolls

Sushi

The new hotel in town takes shape!

....and late February!

 

Winterlude

So winter finally DID arrive on January 31st, about 48 hours before the groundhogs made their annual predictions. We tend to hunker in the winter anyway, but certainly during COVID lockdown we weren't going anywhere. 

We continued to watch a number of youtube travel shows, to satisfy our wanderlust until we can actually travel again - looking at you, Scotland! We really enjoyed the Travel Beans, as well as The Endless Adventure, while also following the 10-year road trip of Snow and Curt.

Superbowl LV came and went, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bringing in Tom Brady and others to go from mediocre to Superbowl Champions, soundly defeating Patrick Mahomes and the KC Chiefs. We watched from home and had our usual feast of snacks and finger foods.

We completed a few more puzzles, and also set up a home theatre in the game room upstairs. Once the weather improves, the projector will find its way to the back deck, along with the large screen that just arrived. Jane thought she had ordered a 4-foot pull down screen.....and as we watched the courier remove it from the truck, it became quickly apparent that it was actually an 8-foot screen!

A frosty February morn

Wintry Willow

Hintersee Lake in Germany

Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy

 Watching Bridgerton in the Game Room Theatre

Whither be thee Winter?

Apart from the timely snow on Christmas Eve, which was gone a few days later....here we are still green in late January. It's snowing lightly as we speak, but may be gone again by tomorrow. 

Still in full COVID lockdown, we rarely leave the property - monthly grocery runs, of course, and more recently a quick trip to the village to refill some prescriptions.

Otherwise we are in hunker mode, which involves working from home, puzzles, mulled wine, football playoffs and lots of streaming - most notably of late including Supernatural Season 15, Cobra Kai Season 3, and new Netflix shows Fate, and Cursed. The studio store is closed, other than curbside pickups of custom orders....though we would have likely closed shop anyway for the winter months.

We ordered beer from Bayside Brewing for porch delivery, including a six-pack of their newest beer (Tilt'n Kilt'n IPA) to try it out - not only did the owner himself deliver our order, but he brought us a full case of the new stuff!

We watched with horror as insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, and of course we also watched the subsequent inauguration of President Joe Biden, and the meek departure of his predecessor ("45"), deprived of his Twitter MAGA-phone and facing a second impeachment trial for sedition.

Let us in!

Baker's Rack for the pantry

Stocking Up for Lockdown!

Iceland Puzzle

January 14th

Homemade Chicago-Style Pizza

Venice Puzzle

Hello 2021!

Our White Christmas quickly gave way to a Green New Year's Eve, not atypical in these parts. Our usual New Year's traditions continued, with two days of appetizers, pots of hot mulled wine, and a movie marathon. 

This year, we opted to binge the two existing seasons of The Mandalorian as our Disney+ blitz continued, not accidentally on the heels of the Star Wars marathon we undertook over Christmas.

I immediately started work on several pilot scripts, including: The ManDelorean, a show about a teenaged bounty hunter hired by Dave Grohl to go back in time to 1955 and retrieve rock and roll; The Howie Mandelorian, a cautionary tale of a bald bounty hunter who only accepts payment in briefcases of unknown quantity; and The Mandolinian, the story of a bardic bounty hunter hired by the Archbishop of Dublin to save St. Patrick's Day.

We completed a few small projects, like assembling a kitchen cart we had ordered a little while back. We also finally got around to hanging the boards we had purchased to display our various travel magnets from around the world.

We made some time for puzzles, completing two 1000-piece monsters depicting Lake Como, Italy, and a lush waterfall in Iceland. Lake Como in particular was a challenge, as its initial conclusion resulted in a 999-piece puzzle.....not entirely surprising in a house with eight feline helpers.

We bid a brisk farewell to the dumpster fire that was 2020, and hope for much better things in 2021 as vaccines roll out. It's a long tunnel yet, but there is daylight at the far end. We are both lucky and thankful for all that we have.

Sitting for a Silhouette in Snow

New Year's Eve

Mandalorian Marathon!

Lake Como Puzzle Time

As Gord Downie says....we don't go anywhere, just on trips

(North America on the left; everywhere else on the right)

Christmas Turkey leftovers!

 

Covid Christmas

After many years of spending the Christmas holidays driving all over Ontario to visit family and friends....and saying "one of these years we should just stay home and relax".....a global pandemic finally made it happen! 

Although our county fared relatively well with Covid, the entire province went into "lockdown" starting Boxing Day. At any rate, we had no plans to go anywhere, and hunkered happily with lots of food and drink and streaming options. While we certainly missed our annual traditions and visits....we also want everyone to be safe.

We subscribed to Disney+ for a month just before the festive break, giving us lots of time to binge watch various franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, along with a number of Disney classics, prior to likely deciding not to renew in late January. We also made time to squeeze in many of the usual holiday classics like The Grinch, Scrooge, Klaus, a cheesy Hallmark (or Netflix) offering or two.....and The Holiday!

Being not usually home for the holidays, it doesn't usually matter that our neck of the woods generally offers a festive season of the "green" variety. This year, however, things worked out quite well - we were green until 9pm on Christmas Eve when a few flakes started to fall....and by morning we awoke to a White Christmas!

We saved The Turkey for Boxing Day, opting to fill Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with an endless stream of appetizers and other snacks, along with numerous pots of delicious mulled wine. 

Of course, Jane told me she got a "5 to 7 pound turkey".....and then I read the tag....5.77 KILOGRAMS. Good thing "we" caught it the day before cooking!

Also Jane - "I'm going to start the mulled wine, can you get me a 750 litre bottle of wine?" Ahem. You're going to need a bigger pot, says I.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all - have a safe and festive holiday season.   :)

One Ornament Says It All!

Green Christmas Eve....but awoke to a White Christmas!

All greeting cards end with the Mayan Calendar!

When You're Yellow in a sea of Red and Grey!

The only brave souls on the Renny's patio

Christmas Movie Marathon

Festive Lights in Tilbury

Chose our time wisely and had the park to ourselves