Back in lockdown

The Niagara Region - like most of Ontario - is back in the "red zone" which means nursing and retirement homes are back in lockdown. Poor Opa is not allowed to leave the place where he stays; so I stopped by while he was downstairs for lunch to take this photo as I did a few times earlier in 2020. My walk today was the one with the hills. Good workout...

And I enjoyed working on the puzzle received from Hilary for my birthday. Another one completed

Winter wonderland

Christmas was white again after a big snowfall. The area around the canal is then truly magical in its views. But the walking was pretty slippery.....
 

Started a new puzzle; the one Hilary sent me for my birthday recently. Scenery from the old canal streets in the center of Amsterdam. Ian, our friend in Ottawa, is looking good with a new kidney...

Christmas 2020

 It has been a different holiday season this year of course because of the COVID pandemic. My sisters Ger (and husband Bert) en Han in Holland did get together in the apartment of Han in Soest. They are doing well and have stayed healthy. Here in Fonthill, Mary and I had a Christmas Eve dinner with Opa.

Hilary did send Opa a very nice homemade card for Christmas. She lives in a place where you can sit on one day at the beach watching a summer-like sunset and the next day snowboard down the hill (with the city of Vancouver in the background).

Mark and Carly came over for a coffee, and we wore again our facemasks to be careful. They enjoyed their first Christmas in their new home. We had a lunch at Susan & Ralph while doing Facetime conversations with the gang in Sarnia. Life continues at the end of a very challenging year for so many people around the world. Mary and I are very lucky with the easy street situation we have; blessed. On we go towards the year 2021. We'll see how that one will work out.....

Officially a pensioner

Today we made a brief visit (with masks and some social distancing) to Mark & Carly in their new house. They did a good job renovating it.

Nice FaceTime conversation with Hilary who had sent me a well selected puzzle. 

Sue & Ralph hosted us for lunch and also gifted me a few challenging puzzles (maps from Amsterdam, Rome, Paris and London). All set for the next few months with respect to puzzles. The past week I have been busy with my garbage pick up along the streets in our small town. One day a short stretch of about 200 meters along a shopping mall resulted in 8 garbage bags full.... 

Snowboarder Hilary

Hilary lives &works in Vancouver, a short drive from Whistler, one of Canada's prime ski resorts (the Winter Olympics were hosted there a decade or so ago). This weekend Hilary & Shayd went to Whistler to try out snowboarding (new for Hilary). They had a wonderful view - see above. Lucky couple...

Old friends in Holland

Today old University friends in Holland organized a Microsoft Teams meeting with 14 of us; 11 in Holland, one in South Africa, one in Mexico and me here in Canada. We all started our studies together in 1974 at the University of Technology in Delft. It was as if we had just seen each other recently. The communication technology now offers these amazing connection opportunities. It was really nice to get short updates from them all. One of them - see the photo - is undergoing treatments for terminal cancer and he told us that he is probably in his last year of life. We all knew this but it was still very powerful and emotional. One of the others is writing his 3rd novel and one is almost finished with his first. When I hear them talk about that, I am not sure if I have what it takes to make it to the finish line with my writing, but heck; I will enjoy trying to do it....

 

It's Christmas time again...

We put a few lights out again despite the fact that this year the Christmas holidays will be very quietly celebrated because of the COVID pandemic. Both outside and inside.

I started another puzzle last week; probably the toughest one so far. One thousand pieces and very challenging to distinguish between them. Today I made a nice salmon lunch just before completing this puzzle. It was a second-hand puzzle and there were 36 pieces missing. An extra challenge factor...