It's So Nice to Put Some Things Behind Us

The last month or so has been less that superb.  A visit to the hospital as a 3-day "cherished guest" of Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital emergency department was the real low point.  Without going into details, the one thing that happened that just sort of summed it all up was the one hospital meal I was served the whole time I was there was a box of Special K & a little carton of milk - no bowl, sadly, no spoon and of course no call button either.  There's nothing like sitting in the midst of the chaos of an emergency room chugging a box of cereal followed by a chaser of milk to make you realize that you're luckier than many people on the planet.

This is the first day in a month or so when I've been able to sit at the computer screen for a bit, and am so looking forward to doing a wee bit of writing and blog visiting.

Bart too, was glad to put the holidays behind him.  It was really sweet to see him try to applaud (his legs are so short) when I put his Santa costume to bed.

 Is this not the look of a dog who might be saying, "Give me the keys to the car now.  I will drive myself back to the pound....?"

The weather continues to be benevolent - storms around us, but nothing really too serious here at all - very strange.  The December garden continued to look like a late fall garden.

There are many winters when you really can't appreciate the lovely evergreen qualities of so many of the small Carex.

I'm looking forward to a good show from this Digitalis next year. 

Kevin took me over to the Royal Botanical Gardens a week ago to cheer me up.  Wasn't able to storm around like I usually do, but it was great to see how things looked.

I'm keen to go back after the snow to check it all out.

 I like the way half the seed head has fallen away for this perfect cross-section.

Then on Saturday, it started to snow.  Here's my and Bart's favourite window.

An artsy shot of the Christmas lights.

 And then the snow really started to come down.

And the best part is just how pretty it all looked when the sun came out on Sunday.

The oak leaves have such a good brown colour against the trunk and blue skies.

 Bet the shots from these windows would be very cool.

Every now and again, there'd be a little puff of wind and poof a cloud of silver ice would float across the street.

So that's all for now.  So glad to be back and blogging again.