Sunshine in Winter

It's a gorgeous sunny morning here in southern Ontario!! I hate dreary, overcase winter days which seem to drag on and just make you feel low. But today is crystal clear, the thermometer read -15C (before wind chill) earlier, so I clipped Cody onto his leash and we had a lovely brisk walk out there through our neighbourhood. We have to walk through plenty of shady spots, and the wind bit through any exposed skin pretty quickly. I bundled up well and my woolen scarf was wrapped across my nose, so I was good. As long as Cody keeps moving, he doesn't mind the extreme cold. He felt quite spry this morning and galloped across the soccer field when I let him off the leash. He was ready to play and raced back with a plastic water bottle that he shook to death and raced back and forth across the field with it in his mouth. Silly pup. He's a senior citizen now, but you wouldn't know it!

The pond has been frozen over most of the winter. A little bigger and we could go skating on it. I love outdoor skating, and when my kids were younger, I'd take them and their friends to skate on a large pond in our neighbourhood. It's an old pond that was once a part of a local farm (farm is long gone), but local kids clear it of snow to make a hockey rink and it gets plenty of use. Those are some of my best memories of having all the kids skating on that pond.

I was hoping to catch the mourning doves plumped up and crowding the top of the arbour, but they weren't around when I took these photos this morning. Yesterday, there were about 20 birds nestled together across the top bars. So cute ;)

These grasses look so sparkly and bright through the winter months. Some people despise ornamental grasses, but I just love how the sun reflects off the blades. On a sunny day like today, they just shimmer and catch my eye every time I look out the patio doors. In the summer, they look so lush and provide great privacy around our patio. I plan to put some more of these tall grasses in this summer.

Once we got home Cody enjoyed lying in the sunshine pouring in the kitchen windows. That's the only symptoms he has as an older dog ... he loves to soak up the sunshine now, whereas when he was younger he just couldn't tolerate it.

A tired dog is a happy dog. This saying is so true for our Cody. He's always up for a walk no matter how tired he might appear.

My indoor plants are surviving. The geraniums are doing great in the sunshine, but other things are just hanging on. My in-laws sent a pretty evergreen bouquet at Christmas, and I kept the roses out of it and they've now dried.

I personally would never think to buy white roses, but they do look nice, even dried!

This is my Blue Mountain pottery again. I like the roses draped in this small jug.

And some other bits of colour ...

I mentioned prior to Christmas that I had to complete a bathrobe for my son's gift. I was really cutting it close with a few things, but I did get the robe completed and it turned out really nice.

How's that for some good old-fashioned northern comfort? This is a nice thick fleece. I love this pattern, and this is the second bathrobe I've made from it. I lined the hood, which is a key element in this robe according to my son. No bathrobe should be without a hood says he!

I thought the pattern on the fabric is perfect for my wilderness boy ;)

And now it's time for a small pot of tea!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful day :)

Wendy

PS Thank you so much for all your kind comments regarding my computer troubles. Although I didn't throw the computer out the window! (so tempting), I did leave it alone for about a week. The battery died down completely, and when I charged it up again, a lot of the slowness issues had corrected themselves. I've only visited a few blogs recently, but have been able to leave comments successfully. I don't know. I had put in a new battery prior to all the issues and maybe it just needed to reboot and get back to it's proper default. I'm no techy, but I wrote this entire post and uploaded all the photos with absolutely no problems. It would have taken me days prior to this to get one post written up. Looks like I'll be able to get some visiting done now too ;)  See you all soon!!