Time flies

This photo was taken six years ago (2015) on our way to a week vacation in Cuba. Time flies...

Hilary, Shayd and Poncho are back in Vancouver. Carly and Mark are resting and relaxing in their place in Stoney Creek. We gained a few pounds the past week with all the eating and sweets....

Christmas 2021

Mary put on a nice breakfast spread today after Carly & Mark + Hilary & Shayd both stayed overnight. Hilary and Shayd are staying for a week with us and brought little Poncho.

Puzzles again

The winter season with its many cold days outside is a good time for challenging puzzles once you live the retired life. Keeps the brain going. This replica of a Van Gogh painting was a tough one and took me about two weeks. Once I get started, I become a bit obsessed with getting it done. With 3-4 hours on average each day, this one was completed today.

Activities

This time of the year the 11 Niagara Rotary Clubs organize the annual TV Auction (nowadays all on-line) which is the main fundraiser netting around $200,000 (all proceeds are during the year donated to local charities and international Rotary development projects). I volunteered some of my time during the four days that winning bidders can pick up their items. The lady in the photo above purchased 62 items, wow... Smooth logistical process with Rotary volunteers guiding the bidders through the pick up process with a variety of check points. My task was to find the items for the bidders on the tables.

At home we regularly have Opa Vandenboom over for a few games of Rummikub. Yesterday I had to take my puzzle activities off the table to make room, but I have the puzzle organized on boards which I can easily pick up and move....

Wintertime again so good period to spend some indoor time with puzzles. This one is a reproduction of a Van Gogh painting. Real challenging one to put together...

Impressed

Mark and Carly had already impressed me last year when they did a lot of renovation work in the house they bought together a year ago. But now I am even more impressed seeing what they have done with their bathroom. They had fantastic guidance of Tom, one of Mary's friends, but they did most of the work themselves from plumbing to tiles. With respect to Mark, finally a Nolle with some handyman skills, interest and most of all patience to learn such skills. 

Reading away

I think I have read more books during the past two years than during the 40 years before that. Loving it especially during a cold evening with the fireplace on.....

Opa Vandenboom loves his new Christmas lights, purchased and hung up by his loving daughter Mary. Last weekend Joe, Marcy and Spencer were in Niagara to cheer on Wil who was playing a hockey tournament in Thorold. It was nice to see a few of his games. It looks already so long ago we watched Hilary and Mark in those arenas. Wil's team won the tournament....

My sister Hanneke send me this photo: March 1944, Jo Nolle en Nel Leverman get married at age 24 and during the last year of the Second World War. Later that year my sister Gerrie was born, and she sent me recently a photo with her kids....

And Gerrie's youngest, Berrie, with his family in the mountains of Switzerland. New generations growing up in a world shocked by the COVID pandemic and all the fallout and confusion. It is not always easy to stay optimistic, but then again - it is the only way to go. Soon we will be in 2022...

Change of chairs

Because both Mary and I live the life of retirement luxury, we felt we deserved two new comfort chairs. Our old ones - which served us well for some 20 years - went out, and Mary found us two very nice new ones. Today they were delivered. The old ones were picked up within two hours after we put them on the side of the street. Hopefully they will still find some good use somewhere....

Swimming in the Y

I have been swimming lanes in our local YMCA for the past ten years. That routine had to stop during the past two years because of the COVID pandemic when the Y closed. Mary started the swimming routine a few months ago when the Y again partially opened. This week I joined her and it is very nice to be back in the pool. Feels good for the body and mind...

Back in Fonthill

Back in Niagara after four weeks of driving to Vancouver and having a nice visit there. Yesterday walked over to the retirement home of Opa Vandenboom to tell him the travel stories.
 

Granville

Today - my last day in Vancouver this trip - Hilary organized a vitamin infusion for me. The clinic is located not far from Granville. It was a nice stroll for the last day in town....

 

Downtown Vancouver

 

This afternoon I took a ride on the Sea Boat Ferry to downtown where I met up with Ben for a walk to Stanley Park and with Hilary for a bite to eat after her work.

CRV in hibernation

Our good old Honda CRV is going to sleep for 6-7 months. It performed so well during the almost 4,000 kilometers out West. I decided to make the trip back next Spring, probably in May. Shayd has an old high school friend from New Zealand living just north of Whistler, and Steve offered space for parking the CRV. He lives in a big house which is rented out half to forest workers, while also offering space for a workshop of his small electrical and construction company.

A view of the back of the house with the new deck Shayd and Steve built recently.

On the way to Whistler, we had a nice late breakfast. Despite the fact that it was a rainy day, we stayed warm and comfortable at our table near the outside fireplace...

Friday morning I said goodbye to Tom and Karen where I spent a night at their house just outside of Victoria. They made a Portuguese meal on Thursday night and we talked for hours at their dining table.

From Victoria I took another ferry to Tsawwassen where I stayed the night with Val and Steve. Their house has a gorgeous view over the ocean, and you can in the distance see the ferry landing place.

One of the friends of Mary's old windsurfers group, Anne, stayed overnight as well, on her way to Sidney on Vancouver Island where she has a nice sailing boat with her husband.