Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons is a chain of coffee shops that is ALL over Canada...it's now owned by Wendys - the burger chain but it used to be Canadian. EVERYONE goes to 'Timmy's' regularly for their 'double double's or whatever (double cream double sugar)...........they are almost all 'drive thru's' so you can just pull up in your car and order your coffee, donuts, chilli, soup, sandwiches...and now YUMMY breakfast sandwiches.............

In the mornings the lines are LONG - mainly Moms who are picking up coffee after the school run!

In the picture above, Lloyd had run into Tims to get our order because the drive thru was busy.....he saw me trying to take a picture of him so yes he is discreetly showing me the middle finger lol! :)

Such a funny guy lol - picture rolling eyes smiley ;)

Edmonton in winter

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago when we went to the Festival of Trees.....they show Edmonton in winter...including the frozen river.......as wide as it is, the river freezes over....normally not until January though. This year has just been very cold.

Alhtough it is safe to drive on lakes and ponds here (yes in SUV's etc) it isn't safe to go on ice that is on moving water - like a river.....yet every year idiots do! A few days ago a dog fell into the river through thin ice and disappeared - emergency services were called and went onto the ice to help but their boat type thing got stuck.....so then men were going out onto the ice to rescue their colleagues etc - dangerous! For a dog! Yes I LOVE dogs but still it was dangerous for the rescuers - because of a stupid dog owner - keep your dogs away from the river this time of year!

The other pictures show the Edmonton skyline with its office blocks - not sure they are tall enough to be sky scrapers but they make an attractive skyline with the river - and Lloyd works in several of these buildings - he has to walk between them for meetings each day.......luckily most of them are on the pedway - an underground passage system which means you don't have to walk outside in the cold!

Another pic is of 75th St which is quite a major road in Edmonton...it shows how the city clears the streets of snow........

Our little friends

Our Black Capped Chickadees on one of our feeders......they stay here all winter long despite how cold it gets and they are a delight to watch!

We have peanuts and sunflower seeds in our feeders..the Bluejays pull out all the sunflower seeds and drop them...just so they can get to the peanuts.....the chickadees eat both!

This feeder above though is one we made. It's a coconut shell and we have stuffed it with bacon fat mixed with bird seeds......they love it :)

Home Economics 101

Susannah LOVES housework....I think its her favourite thing to do! Today she changed Sam and got him dressed, dusted, cleaned up the kitchen and then asked me to show her how to do laundry....she also looks after her pig - cleaning up after her etc etc

She also helped me bake cookies today!

All this comes from her - not me.....

I wonder if she will enjoy it as much when she is older and HAS to do it!

clearing the driveway....

Here is Lloyd on his quad getting ready to clear more snow from the driveway.....

He is adamant that he needs a tractor though as the quad just doesn't cut it in the deep snow!