beeps and blips

The UPSs beeped and chirped for a few seconds this morning as the power glitched. It is windy like crazy so it’s no surprise that power might be unstable today. Luckily (?) it was just a blip and the generator didn’t have to engage. Although, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind an hour or two of power outage so we can see that the generator is running the house okay. I guess I should be careful what I wish for though!

Just as I wrote that more glitches, but it seems we are okay still. Or not… still clicking and blipping. Don’t think I hear the generator though. Aside from hearing it there is no clear way to know if we are running on gen power. I don’t like that. I might be hearing something… I’ll go out to the garage to hear better…

we still have power.

Yesterday we barely stuck our noses out of the house - on again, off again freezing rain drenched the laneway making it a terrible slippery mess again. I feel trapped in the house. It was a good day to try making a tomato rice soup:

4 onions caramelized in instant pot (slice, saute in butter for a few minutes, close and HP for 20 minutes, release pressure)

two thai hot peppers diced small

big spoon of diced garlic

can diced tomatoes

can coconut milk

big scoop of pesto (made with just basil, garlic and oil)

1 cup red lentils

Saute peppers & garlic, add rest of ingredients (except rice), cook on hp for 15 minutes, NR for 15 min then release, use an immersion blender to puree, add rice, reheat for a moment.

Easy and tasty.

Our colds are finally over so Carm has gone out in this windstorm to visit his mom. It's been a month since he’s seen her so will probably see a difference :-(

The wind has the dogs jumping up now and again when a particularly big gust hits the house.

The sun has peeped out from behind the clouds.

Wednesday night Trudie & Leo came by for leftovers from our dinner with Shane & Inga on Sunday. (does that sentence read right? maybe not). We had some pretty good discussions about relationships and what we’d put up with and how much work has to be put into one to keep it alive and well. Can you fall out of love or do you always love the person no matter what?

That’s me in the red sweater meeting my first Fjord horse. Who knew that this moment would be a pivotal moment in my life, creating a lifetime’s worth of dreams. Dreams that I pursued and made come true. The funny thing is, I can barely remember it, perhaps only because of the photo, and didn’t at the time recognize what a driving factor that pony would be in my life.

If you look closely in this photo you can see Spike as a 4 month old pup confined to a stroller. He must have been mortified to be in such a position at a dog show full of dogs who could see him! Or maybe he thought he was emperor of the land, king of his domain (he is rather full of himself).

He had hurt his leg badly a few days earlier and was still limping. We (and the vet) weren’t sure if it could have been a torn ACL so we didn’t take any chances. He was crate/stroller bound for about 3 weeks before we let him have any activity - that’s a long time for a 4 month old pup! All was good in the end though and he hasn’t taken a lame step since.

Those were fun days. We’d book a long weekend at Woodlands campground where the dog show was being held and would hang out at the show for a few hours everyday. The dogs got lots of practice being good around other dogs, we’d see all sorts of dogs from tiny to ginormous, and we’d get to talk to a lot of dog people. We did this every year from 2007 to 2012. We never got back into the habit after our summer travelling out west. Not sure if our new camper would fit into the spot either!

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. It is no season in which to wander the world as if one were the wind blowing aimlessly along the streets without a place to rest, without food, and without time meaning anything to one, just as time means nothing to the wind.

~Edith Sitwell