Merry Covid Christmas!

 Just a week before Christmas I came down with cold symptoms and tested positive for Covid.  Leo was not far behind.  This meant we had to miss our final Christmas performances and postpone our Christmas trip to Smithers to see my mom.  We missed out on the annual Christmas Bird Count. (Temperatures were in the minus 30s C so maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.)

We both were candidates for the antiviral drug paxlovid so that and our five vaccinations probably have something to do with our mild symptoms.  Nevertheless we have been self isolating for the last week and will continue till we test negative.

Leo is keeping busy shoveling snow and chasing cats, pigeons and this handsome fellow away from our bird feeders.

Our friends have been dropping essential groceries and goodies so we are hardly suffering. It's been too cold for cross country skiing or hikes anyway though now it's warmed up just in time for Christmas Eve.

Keeping the birds fed is keeping us on our toes as well.

A flock of 50 bohemian waxwings landed in our linden tree then flew off again, probably heading for the laden mountain ash down the street. This is the only shot Leo got!

So a quiet Christmas for us this year.

O Christmas Tree

 We drove out to the Riske Creek area across the Fraser River to find a Christmas tree.

No guilt tree finding here because it's supposed to be grassland.   Just doing our part to prevent infill. Kind of a long drive but once we arrived we found the perfect tree in short order.

And carried it back to the truck.

Perfect Christmas tree!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Quick Trip to Vancouver

 

Granville Bridge from Granville Island.  Did not notice that pink mural under the bridge when I took the photo.

In November we made a quick trip to Vancouver because Simon Fraser University's Master of Pest Management program was celebrating its 50th Anniversary.  Leo is an MPM 1989 Grad.  It was not a big do, just a 2 hour cocktail and appies reception as part of the Canadian Entomological Society's Annual Meeting.  

But we were invited to stay with our Vancouver friends Ken (also MPM 1989) and Sue, and hoped to meet up with some of Leo's cohort.  And get out of town!

We'd been having a cold and snowy November, but the weather was favorable for travel so off we went.

Unfortunately, we got the times wrong and arrived just as the reception was officially over.  We missed a few people, but actually were able to meet up with quite a few of our friends from long ago. (34 years long ago!)  Everyone stayed on chatting for another two hours so it was a great visit.

Marmot reunited.  Carl, Ken and Leo

The next day we visited Granville and did a little low key Christmas shopping and gallery hopping.

Some guest artists in residence painted up the (still operating) cement works.

Sue and I took an artwork and left an artwork at this little pocket street gallery.

Recognize my artwork?

The artwork I took had some sketches of girls faces, which reminded me of the many fashion self portraits I used to doodle as a teenager, so I tried to replicate my former style:

Out of practice.  Sue's crazy cat on left.

For supper one night we picked up fried chicken sandwiches from the Jollibee, a famous Phillipines fast food franchise that had come highly recommended by our Filipino friend Wilfred.

Not a bad chicken sandwich, but more to the point:  could I look any more like my Grossmutter?

Trombone Joke