Winter Wonderland

Hello dear friends and Happy New Year!  After sharing photos of the farm in the evening light I have a few more to share of the farm during the day.

All of the statues are enjoying snowy hats.

Even our solar powered duck is ready for winter.

We have been discussing what to do with the koi pond this winter.  We usually cover it with a large tarp on wooden supports but this year we might leave it open.  The koi pond has a small heater to prevent the surface water from freezing over completely and the bubblers help to eliminate carbon dioxide from decaying leaves and fish waste.  The pond is deep enough that it will not freeze completely allowing the fish to hibernate and survive the winter.

 We are expecting up to 15 cm of additional snow over the weekend to welcome in the New Year.  We will be tucked into our old farmhouse with the dogs and cats and will end 2020 by watching a James Bond movie.  Wishing everyone health and happiness in 2021 and thank you for visiting!

A Wintery Christmas

Hello dear friends, it is hard to believe but another Christmas has come and gone.  For so many of us it was a very quiet Christmas.   This year my mother had to celebrate Christmas with the residents of her seniors' home and to keep everyone safe was not able to have visitors or leave to visit family.  We have missed having our little round of pre-Christmas dinners and this year I havent even put up all of our Christmas trees! Our area in now under a full Covid lockdown until the end of January.

Still, we have many things to be grateful for.  Our friends and family are all healthy and well.  Instead of the forecast rain we had almost 25 cm of snow arrive over Christmas creating a beautiful wonderland.  We are more prepared for this lockdown than we were for the original one so our home is stocked with all of the essentials to keep us fed and watered!  We are nestled into our old farmhouse with our pets and I will be working on a new quilt.

Later I will post some of the winter wonderland photos taken during the day but here are some night shots to share with you!

We have a small collection of these deer which are now firmly attached to wooden bases and weighted down with concrete slabs.  The winds have been so strong that the deer and trees have all been toppled several times.

I prepared a little vignette on a cast aluminum bench on our portico deck.  The little bear and plaid blanket are only barely visible!

I havent done a very good job of stringing lights in trees this year.  The tops of the trees were missed!

Even the chicken coop has lights.

 Thank you for stopping to visit and we are wishing a safe and healthy holiday season for everyone!

Decorating the Living Room for Christmas

Hello everyone, I have been doing a bit of decorating around the house and wanted to share some quick photos! It seems that I cant keep track of all of our decorations....I found a storage box in the basement with these gold themed ornaments so I have added them to the mantelpiece.

I moved an assortment of liquor bottles to the living room to make an impromptu little bar.  I am usually a wine drinker but as we are going to be a little isolated this Christmas it would be fun to find drink recipes using some of the liquors in this collection.  Although there is really nothing positive about the current COVID situation it really does encourage us to find ways to make our homes more comfortable (and comforting!)

The tree is getting full!

The deer are flanking this antique clock from my mother.  We were able to get it to work for a while and once we got used to the chimes it was quite charming.  Now however it has decided it no longer wants to work and will need to go to a clock repair shop.

Most of our ornaments were chosen with our many pets in mind.  It only happened once but we did have a cat climb into a Christmas tree and tip it over.  Not every ornament survived! This lovely angel is glass and is hopefully high enough in the tree to escape the attention of the cats.

I like to think of this as a pear.  :)  I am not sure what it is to be honest. 

I noticed that this year the stores have a very limited selection of Christmas items.  It seems to be a combination of stores not ordering very much, and people going all out to buy things to decorate their homes this year.  I suppose with everyone being asked to stay home we all want our homes to be as cozy and festive as possible.  One of the shops had 2 of these glass champagne bottle ornaments so I snapped up both!  One for me and one for my sister in law.

I am looking forward to spending some extended time at home over the Christmas holidays and will be putting up more trees and decorations for us to enjoy.  I will share more photos soon!  In the meantime I am hoping everyone stays safe and healthy.

Thank you for visiting!