Nigel took me out for supper on my birthday. We went to Cafe Compose in Annapolis Royal, where we ate a delicious Viennese meal (schnitzel). We sauntered along the boardwalk afterwards.

The sunsets last week were lovely. The air is still chilly, but the sky has been beautiful.

And then there is the gentle slide into the gloaming, accompanied by the melancholy of the mauve evening light and cool breezes whisping in on-shore.

In the gloaming, oh my darling / When the lights are soft and low / And the quiet shadows falling / Softly come and softly go / When the trees are sobbing gently / With a ...gentle unknown woe / Will you think of me and love me / As you did once, long ago?

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/751

We have had a lovely show of tulips this spring. They have bloomed in the small garden just behind the sunroom. I love tulips...they add such a joyous touch to the spring.

Nigel and I enjoyed a delicious bbq hamburger, cooked by himself, on the barbecue on the deck. It was still too chilly to sit outside to eat, so we retired to the sunroom for our meal. But that delightful bbq taste was there. Although we only had hamburgers, somehow, they were epicurean.

April 2 walk in Kejimikujik Park

Friends of ours, and we went for a long walk along one of the paths in Kejimikujik Park. This is a national park about 1 hour from our home. We took our dogs, of course. As you can see, it was a delightful day, and we all throughly enjoyed ourselves.

The Digby and Area Board of Trade hosted a Burns Supper on January 30. We attended, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My sash is New Brunswick tartan. Some of the gentlemen were kitted out in kilts. Dr. Matsusaki was in full regalia, and the others were in variations on a theme. Nigel Rollo wore his McIntosh (modern hunting) tartan kilt. The kilted gentlemen, looked quite debonaire.

Yesterday's snowstorm was quite amazing. It snowed all day, and consequently there was quite a depth of snow in the driveway. These snowdays create a beautiful landscape, but they do require some work to get moving around again. Nigel and I shovelled the driveway several times, and there is still snow to move today. Thankfully, a plow takes care of the road clearance. We were glad to see it yesterday afternoon.

Inside, we are toasty warm. There is tremendous pleasure in looking out the window at the winter wonderland beyond.

Nigel keeps track of the temperature with his weather station.

Not exactly a hot tin roof...Cat on a cold, snowy roof.

Phiri loves being out in the snow. She could sit out for hours and hours, just 'being'.

The snow started in the early hours of the morning. I noticed it at 0545, and it has been snowing continually since then (now 1000). I shovelled the driveway, but we shall have to go out for a second shovelling session later.

The dog loves to sit out on the front embankment and watch whatever is happening. With the snow falling, there is not much to see.

The backyard looks, as always, very pretty when the snow is lying heavily on the ground, and creating sculptures out of the trees.

It was my turn to slide. A trip down memory lane for me.

Time for anoother go. This time, the gentle slope in front of the art studio was the preferred hill. Dogs love chasing sliders. Somehow Nigel managed to get between the trees, and slid all the way to the edge of the property, stopping before he went over the edge into the ditch.

Nigel's first slide on a flying saucer. Because the snow has a lovely icey crust on it, the sliding is extremely fast, and perfect for a flying saucer.

There was, of course, the inevitable end, during which the slider deliberately falls off the saucer to prefent potential tragedy such as sliding into a tree or the dog kennel.