Snoopy undercover

Apparently it is too bright in the living room in the evenings for our ladyship..., so she goes "undercover" :-)

Rain at 9° Celsius

Well, after it started to melt yesterday... and rained all day today with strong winds, no snow is left anymore :-)

Somehow the weather is weird, one day we are running around with our special ski pants and thick jacket, and then yesterday evening I was outdoors late in the evening with just the pullover and my house shoes... warm... Forecast for the coming days: something like this, some snow followed by rain, dry and warmer temperatures... I have nothing against it, would prefer spring to come right now, as that means we can really get started! :-)

Unfortunately, I was a bit to late to document in pictures a really nice sunset, but here are some good shots:

 

I am usually no friend of pigeons, but this poor thing was sitting in the tree, completely soaked and was trying to get dried by the last rays of sun... feeling sorry for it a bit...

Merry Christmas Part II

Well, yesterday there was nothing with relaxed dinner at first... Mum cut herself in the finger during preparation and as I could not find the superglue, we had to go to hospital.

Waiting time approx. 1 hour. For some glue and plaster and then back home... But at least nothing much worse happened!

Dinner was then served with delay. Was still very delicious, also without the taste of blood :-)

In the evening we also unwrapped our gift from Germany. My colleagues of MedNet sent me a CD with pictures of the last exhibition and most of all - with pictures of our cocktail evening! Was just great to see everybody again!


And from Steffie I got a lovely tablecloth and this one here as a remembrance to Muenster and the christmas markets there:

What a lovely idea! The parcel arrived here about 2 days before christmas eve and I could hardly hold back not to open it right away. The smell of it was already like christmas! Thank you very, very much for all this! A warm hug to all of you!

This is the present we made ourselves for christmas this year:

Mum's school has sent us a lovely christmas card and by email a picture of the christmas party at school! How nice when all are thinking about us. A very warm thanks for it!

And - very proud of it - our home-made apricot mustard! Very spicy, but very very delicious!

Merry Christmas!

Knecht Ruprecht

First published in Unter dem Tannenbaum in the (Leipziger) Illustrierte Zeitung 39. (1862). Since 1864 in Storm’s Gedichten.
Saint Nikolaus’s best known companion is Knecht Ruprecht. ‘Knecht’ meaning ‘servant’. Historically Ruprecht was a dark sinister figure clad in a tattered robe with a big sack on his back in which, legend has it, he will place all naughty children. In Storm’s poem, Knecht Ruprecht is featured with a cane with which to chastise such children.

From out the forest I now appear,

To proclaim that Christmastide is here!

For at the top of every tree

are golden lights for all to see;

and there from Heaven’s gate on high

I saw our Christ-child in the sky. 

 And in among the darkened trees,

 a loud voice it was that called to me:

‘Knecht Ruprecht, old fellow,’ it cried,

‘hurry now, make haste, don’t hide!

 All the candles have now been lit --

 Heaven’s gate has opened wide!

 Both young and old should now have rest

 away from cares and daily stress;

and when tomorrow to earth I fly

“it’s Christmas again!” will be the cry.’

And then I said: ‘O Lord so dear.

My journey’s end is now quite near;

but to this town  I’ve still to go,

Where the children are good, I know.’

‘But have you then that great sack?’

‘I have,’ I said, ‘it’s on my back.

For apples, almonds, fruit and nuts

For God-fearing children are a must.’

‘And is that cane there by your side?’

‘The cane’s there too,’ I did reply;

but only for those, those naughty ones,

who have it applied to their backsides.’

The Christ-child spoke: ‘Then that’s all right!

My loyal servant, go with God this night!’

From out the forest I now appear;

To proclaim that Christmastide is here!  

Now speak, what is there here to be had?

Are there good children, are there bad?

Source: http://www.theodorstorm.co.uk/Life/knechtRuprecht.htm

With this, we wish you all a Merry Christmas! We will have you in our thoughts and send you a big hug!

Snow Pictures

Sorry, I am running a little behind already... We were quite busy the last days, just getting ready to organize everything for a nice christmas dinner for the two of us and in parallel get a push to our business. There are a couple of doors opening up at present, I am happy to see what's all behind... :-)

In the meantime, we had a day of snow, followed by one day of rain with everything been gone and today, everything was white again.



Our driveway is pretty long, and we do not have a Snowblower yet. Our neighbour will take care for the snow plowing for us now, he is doing this for other neighbours already, and the fee for it is pretty alright. So he will clean our driveway now. Otherwise I would have to shovel it free (yes, I do have a shovel and a pusher :-)), but when I start with this in the morning, I may be ready by noon, except it starts to snow in the meantime again...

Our neighbour has one of these plowers that you connect to the front of your truck and move this part up and down. With this you can easily clean the ways. Three or four times back and forth and the way is clean... Our road will be cleaned regularly, as it is an official school bus route. The ways that are taken by the school bus will always be cleaned, so we are happy on this aspect :-) See the story with the snowplower.. :-)

And here a couple of pictures, but not of today, as we have been on the road again... :-)

Our entrance to the Irishtown National Park

looks like covered with white icing sugar :-)

Caledonia Road from the Park back home :-)

They are just moving a house... Pic is not sharp, was shot from distance and I tried to zoom in... 

Who wants to have shoes with Rudolph? The nose do not light when walking :-)

Hot Chocolate with Mini-Marshmallows

I did not manage to get any more mini-marshmallows into my cup of hot chocolate! I like it!

Insulating Windows - Window Insulator Kit

As it is too late in the year already for changing the windows, as it simply gets too cold in the house when the windows are out, we decided to go for another alternative in the meantime. This one apparently is done here quite often and seems to really work!

You take a foil and just tighten it in front of the window. You can purchase it regularly in a DIY store and the glue comes with it as well. Just put the glue on the frame, foil on top and seal it by using a hairdryer. After the heating period you can easily remove it again. 

Unbelievable, but it really works! Here a picture of the packaging in which you can buy it. If it helps to save heating costs... and there is no draft since then anymore!

Hmmm... Mandarines....

We have been shopping, one 5lb box mandarines for CAD 1.96, we took two of them right away. Snoopy loves them as well, although they are not really good for her...

first of all sticking the nose in the box....

.. and then the teeths, in seconds the box was open... and saved from her hungry mouth... :-)

A Siegfried wo isn't really one...

Well, Siegfried is actually a bread prepared with a fermented combination of sugar, flour and water and some yeast.

After a couple of days with stirring and feeding with more sugar, etc. you can use part of it to make a bread out of it.

Well, our Siegfried was supposed to become a rye bread today. A rye bread came out of it, but the Siegfried is still sitting in the fridge...

but our trial with the yeast worked out perfectly well, the bread came out really good, so no brick stone! :-D

Herewith the prooof:

And here is Siegfried, who actually should have been in the bread. Well, now we have to do another bread... :-)

So, as this is now no Siegfried, what other name shall it carry? I am open for suggestions!

News from Snoopy - can I help?

With all our activities, we shall not forget Snoopy...





Here is a discussion between Snoopy and my mother, if Snoopy cannot give us a hand with something... :-)

No comment....

2011 Moncton Christmas Parade

Sorry, we are a little behind with our updates, we promise to do better :-)

We previously mentioned the Moncton Christmas Parade... we have been there of course and here is the link to our pictures at Picasa:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112291944127677370579/MonctonChristmasParade2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Otherwise, please check the link box to the right :-)

The parade is something you should have seen. For us a little bit odd, I have never seen anything like this happening in Muenster during christmas... :-) That would be an idea maybe :-)

The complete main street downtown was blocked by police. The you could see the first two police motorcycles roll down the road with all lights and the alarm signal on, followed by a police car, also with the full lights on... Not to mention the one that came up the road when we drove to downtown.. But that was the wrong direction ;-)

Little advise: do not look into these lights, otherwise you are blind for a bit... and the alarm is something to get used to...

Then you could see all the various organizations, schools, associations and companies. All with their own cars. And the opening was done by Majesta. That is the leading brand for washroom paper and paper napkins. You can see it on the pictures. 

The car of Home&Hardware was the best, you did not need any extra road lights, but very impressive ...

My favourites, however, were all the various mascots and figures joining the parade. For next year, I would love to participate for just being able to wear one of these costumes!

 

And of course these two gentlemen had to be at the parade as well... :-)

To round this up, here a picture of the light decoration in front of the city hall:

Drip - Drip

In the middle of the night I was woken up by Bianca, who stood there and said: do you hear that as well? It is dripping!
The whole day it was raining without a stop and in addition it was windy. You could hear the rain on the metal hose that is connecting our gas insert at the fireplace with the exit on top. That was not really the problem, but on top of the chimney to the roof, there is a cover and from there you could see and hear rain coming through. It came from the outer right corner. So we were running around in our sleep dress to put bowls at the place it was dripping to. We had to get a roofing guy to fix it.

Most probably the wind was lifting up the cover from the chimney to the roof and the pushing the wind through from there. 

Here a picture from the inside, our chimney going through the roof :-)

After a pretty short night by this activity, today is a wonderful day. The sun is shining and if you are not standing in the wind, the sun is very warm. Unbelieveable that it is December already..

We called a roofing guy, who was here already before at the first inspection of the roof before purchasing. So he is gluing the cover to protect the corner chimney / roof by a silicone - tar mixture. I hope that it is done by this, otherwise we have to have the chimney painted with a special cover. Then it should survive the winter and we should think about taking the chimney down in summer. This should solve the problem. 

We don't need it really anyway, as we do not have a wood heating. The hose for the oil heating is going through the chimney, so it would not be recommendable... :-)

And the Pellet Stove could also be used this way. That will be our wish when the propane tank is empty. It is nicer, has more feeling of a wood heating :-)

Furthermore, we got the good news that our clients of the garden portion of our property now got the notice to arrange payment. So, in the next week we shall hopefully receive first portion of our money. The house is still under discussion but it looks good that it ends well soon.