Our Message Archive
February 2025
Sunday February 16
Doing our bit for national unity
We went skating twice this week, outside at the Oval on Tuesday afternoon and inside at the RBC Centre on Thursday. We also spent a very nice day skiing at Martock on Wednesday. The weather was perfect — sunny and just below zero — and we ran into our biking buddies Erika and Robert on the hill. Ann went for a free lesson offered to members of the Ski Atlantic Seniors Club that we belong to. They also put on a special lunch that day and Ann and I both won door prizes.
The weather took a turn for the worse on Thursday with snow followed by freezing rain and high winds. That caused a birthday party for Mike to be postponed by a week. We have something similar as I write this; they were predicting 25 to 30 cms of snow but it looks as if we won't have nearly that much and it will mostly be rain.
Yesterday Ann spent the afternoon playing Mahjong at the place in Bedford where Marilyn stays when she comes to town. I stayed at home and finished the jig-saw puzzle that I have been working on (a painting of the Three Sisters, mountains near Canmore, Alberta, that I was given for Christmas).
We also both spent some time on our volunteer activities, Ann hosting the church Truth and Reconciliation Committee on Monday evening and working at the food bank on Tuesday, and me going to a meeting of the Ramblers Executive and working on the ride schedule for the summer.
Sunday February 9
The front yard after today's storm
So far it has been a pretty harsh winter. The temperatures have been well below average since before Christmas and our new heat pump has had to work overtime. We had about 10 cms more snow today. Tomorrow is forecast to be sunny but with a high of −5°C, considerably colder throughout the morning. We have decided to skate indoors with the option of going to the Oval in the afternoon.
I have not been as active as usual over the past week. I went to pick up the mail on Tuesday, wasn't careful enough on the stairs off the deck which were covered with ice, slipped and caught the edge of a stair in the middle of my back. I didn't do any serious damage but it has been uncomfortable to move around because I keep on tweaking sore muscles. It is not yet completely healed but it's close enough that I expect to be skating and skiing again this week. Ann has continued to skate without me but decided that she didn't want to go skiing on her own.
As I write this we are getting our yearly quota of football by watching the Super Bowl. None of us is particularly interested in the game but I like to keep abreast of what everyone is talking about. So far, in the second quarter, it is not going well for Kansas City. (Now in the fourth quarter it's looking even worse.)
A week ago Thursday, Ann and I went to a Magnificent Mozart concert by Symphony Nova Scotia including the bassoon concerto and Symphony 39, neither of which I had heard played live. We enjoyed it a lot (you can never go far wrong with Mozart).
After Christmas, turkeys were dirt cheap at our local Superstore so we got one for the freezer. I roasted it last Sunday, along with some veggies, some rolls and an apple pie, and we invited Barb and Carl and Roxanne to help us eat it. We still had plenty left over which we have been eating all week.
Ann has been to the movies twice in the past couple of weeks, first to see the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown with Erika and Judy and then, on Thursday, to see Wicked with Judy. They actually meant to go to Wicked on Tuesday but they got the time wrong, so they went to Marco Polo for coffee and had a long chat instead.
Every year the local restaurants host Dine Around Town in which they each make a special menu at a reasonable price (made even better at the moment by the temporary break from the HST). On Tuesday, Ann and I decided to take advantage by going to The Canteen for dinner as an early Valentine's Day outing.
Yesterday, while Ann was at the Ramblers Book Club discussing Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune (not well liked by the club), I went with Carl and Roxanne to see a friend of their's playing with his band at Station 6, a restaurant/pub in Spryfield. They played a lot of classic covers from the 60s with some pretty good harmonies.