I have read these three books over the past couple of weeks. All were really good and I would recommend them. I have ordered a couple more by Jennifer Ryan from the library, so will show you those when they arrive. All the books involve some aspect of World War II. It was a tie between the Jennifer Ryan books as to which one I enjoyed the most. Both of the Jennifer Ryan books involved actual things that happened during the war.
I must say Jennifer Ryan is my new favourite author at the moment.
On Tuesday I had to run a couple of errands, went to the library, Dollarama and Zehrs.
I have this bush in the garden, that I have no idea where it came from. I didn't plant it and as you can see by the photo, the top of it is all over the place.
Or you could do this one:
What are your names?
This is a Bank Holiday in the UK and yesterday (Sunday) it was 35 years ago that we arrived in Canada.
Those 35 years have flown by and despite being full of up and downs, we have no regrets. As a family we have grown from strength to strength. The kids has grown into productive members of society and have given us a super son-in-law and daughter-in-law. Along with 4 wonderful grandchildren.
Hubby started work at his current and only job in Canada on June 6th 1989. His last day of physical work there will be at the end of September and he will be formerly retired at the end of the year. Hubby has only had two places of work since he started work 50 years ago in September. One in the UK and one here in Canada.
Canada has been good to us; but like everywhere in the world we have seen many changes and not all for the good.
Thank you Canada for having us, and here's to many more years of adventures in this country we call home!
If you're in Canada and have a Sobey's grocery store nearby here is a great deal. If you buy 5 Kraft products you can get $10 off in a Sobey's store.
This week Sobey's has Classico pasta sauce on for $3.27 each. However when you buy 5 you will get the $10 off making them $1.27 each. I find this pasta sauce very tasty and not as watery as some. I will say we don't eat a lot of pasta. but wanted to try a variety of sauces.
We had a couple of tornado watches yesterday. I will say I am not a fan of tornado's. The wind and the rain was really bad last night. So I ventured out into the garden to see what sort of mess I had and was surprised that there was no damage. I took some photos for you to see how it's looking. We have had a lot of rain and heat, so everything is looking healthy, other than some brown spots on the lawn, where I was overly enthusiastic with the weed killer!!
Please try and ignore the clapped out caravan that is parked over the road. It feels a bit like deja vu, as where we lived in the UK, we had a "delightful" event that happened every year around this time of the year, Appleby Horse Fair!! If I see a horse next, I may not be responsible for what comes out of my mouth........just saying!!
There seems to be a lot of purple and lilac in the garden this year? I am not doing as much with annuals this year. I normally have six hanging baskets hanging off the pergola, but I can't be bothered with that. I have one more tub to plant out front and that will be it.
Are you all set up for the summer in your garden? For those of you down under, and you putting things away for the winter season?
Those are just some of the subjects I discussed with my soon to be 6 year old grandson the other night.
Back story; I babysat the boys while their parents went out for dinner. Got the boys bathed and tucked up into bed. The nearly 3 year old went to sleep within ten minutes, but the 6 year old is allowed to read for half an hour. He reads at the same level as someone years older, and loves animals.
I go upstairs 30 minutes later to tuck him in and of course he starts talking, to delay the actual time he has to go to sleep, as he reckons he is smarter than his nana!!
He's reading a book on snakes and proceeds to tell me how snakes are vertebrates and how worms are invertebrates.
I can feel the cogs in the depth of my brain turning to try and remember what I know about this subject, but don't really have to worry as he has plenty to say about it all.
Then he switches gear, because he then talks about skulls and snakes brains. Okay, so we talk about that for a minute. Which then proceeds into Egyptian burial tombs and what the Egyptian's did or did not do with brains..........honestly I have forgotten what he said.
I did ask him how on earth he knows about all of this and he has a book on interesting facts. Okay.
I go downstairs later and my brain is tired from over use.....LOL
I have to admit the grandkids keep us on our toes!!
Then the other week my daughter calls to tell me our soon to be 8 year old grand daughter has decided to be a Pescatarian I had to rack my brain to remember what that was.
All I could say to daughter was; "Which one of her "delightful" friends has decided they should all do this!!"
Any how, a month later she's still not eating meat and seems quite serious about it all. So I am guessing it will be fish and chips for supper when they come to stay this coming weekend!!
I could go on and on with stories about my bunch of grandkids, and I am sure you all have lots of stories to tell as well.
I think I need to go to the pharmacy to see if they have any brain enhancer as I am going to need something to keep up with them!!
Here are some of the books I have read in the past month. I have not reviewed any of them though.
The Paris Showroom: Set in World War II based on true facts, and very interesting.
The True Love Bookshop: Perfect "chick-lit" great quick read.
Here is an updated photo of May in my temperature cross stitch.
Yesterday was the first day of red appearing. We had a high of 27 oC. However with the humidity it hit 30 oC. Just like in the winter where there was a windchill, in summer we have the humidity, I will not be including either.
The one thing I don't enjoy about Canada, is that the seasons tend to merge into one another. We tend to miss out on Spring. It only lasts a few days, then the heat just hits us; we don't much of a happy medium where it's not too cold, nor too hot.. We don't have our a/c on yet, but if the temperatures continue in the 30's, I can see me putting it on this week.
Shockingly though it's a bank holiday/long weekend here, and the weather is really nice. Generally when there is a holiday it normally pees down...LOL
How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
The first problem is this weed that is growing in our and the neighbour behind us, grass. He has a gardener come in bi-weekly and I asked him to ask his gardener what it is. The gardener thinks it's BUGLEWORT. I am not sure about that. Do any of you have an ideas what it could be?
It turned out the insurance had increased by $35 per month, which is over $400 a year. So I called them up (PC Financial) and said that this was unacceptable and what could they do to remedy the matter? We both have clean driving records. No claims, nothing that would make our rates jump $400 a year.
Now I will say I called CAA Insurance up first to see what they would quote us, just to make sure that all insurance rates were not that expensive, and they were quoting around $1,300 a year. PC Financial was $1,700 a year.
The PC Financial guy got back to me with three more quotes from the people they deal with. The first one was for around $1,300, but the catch with that one was, they review your policy on a monthly basis and your payment can go up or down, just like it does if you have a variable mortgage.
As I said to the guy it's more likely to go up, rather than go down, so no thank you.
The other two options were no better.
We ended up going with CAA Insurance, and also we moved our house insurance as well. The price of the house insurance was similar to what we paid already, just a little cheaper. The car insurance came in at $1200 and something per year after all said and done. We joined CAA as well, which was another $140(?) but that will come in handy when we travel, so that gave us a discount as well.
Supposedly, insurance rates have jumped up all over the country/world. I am glad I questioned our renewal, as at the end of the day, $400 is better in my pocket than in the insurance companies pockets.
Have your insurance rates increased for your house and car?
I am still doing the daily temperature cross stitch project. Here is where we are at. Completed up to and including May 14th.
The weather is getting warmer, so we are seeing more orange colours and even some pinks; although we have had some wet weather. For the rest of this week, we will be in the low 20's, so that is nice. Just wish it wouldn't rain all the time!!
Last month I picked up a Paint By Numbers Kit at Michaels Craft Store. Here in Canada they are around $20, but if you use their weekly coupon you can get them cheaper. This is the kit I picked up and is described as challenging; which I agree with.
I haven't been around for a while. Been busy and have been sick. There is a nasty viral infection going around and I caught it. Couldn't breathe and had no energy. Spent a delightful 8 hours in the emergency department 😠for them to tell me I had a viral infection and it had to run it's course. Got a puffer with a steroid in it and its opened up my airways. Today is my last day of using it.
As hubby said, "I'm back to the Gill he knows," and after a bit of prompting, "and loves!" After I had told him off for something he had done!!
I have to thank Pat for this post as she messaged me to see if I was okay, which was super sweet of her.
Gardening season is in full swing and with all the rain we have had everything looks lush and green and as I said to Pat very UK like, as we are both from the UK. I am behind in my gardening this year, due to being sick. Will post some photos when it stops raining.
I will finish off this post with a funny story. If you're from the UK you will find it probably funnier than others.
So while I was sick I was talking to my mother.
She said, "You need a tonic as you are run down (I was)."
Me: "Mother no one will know what a tonic is over here."
After going back and forth with her, I said fine I would look for one.
The nurse practitioner called me from the doctors office to see how I was doing. So I told her about my mother saying I need a tonic. As predicted she hadn't heard of such a thing. So I was trying to explain what it was for. She said she was googling it and said, "and you spell ATONIC?" So I said no again explaining it was two words. Of course me and my mother found this whole conversation funny and we refer to it as you need ATONIC now.
I did find a TONIC in Walmart after asking an older pharmacy assistant. I got this one:
