Minerva's....

We went over to Donna and Neil's last night and ordered in from Minerva's...always lovely to dine in their place.  Neil and I had our usual souvlaki and Jim and Donna had chicken cacciatore.  It was the first time Jim had that since he usually has the chicken parmegiano.  Everything was excellent as usual and great to catch up with old friends.

The dentist for both of us today....joy of joys.  However,  I noticed The Daily Catch was advertising first fresh halibut of the season so had to by some.  It's like gold at $30 a pound.   And a whole crab is $32.  I will treat myself to that one of these days if they have live ones in but will have to cook it myself since they don't do that.  Ah...I miss my Victoria Thrifty's where I could always order a live crab to be cooked and then picked up within the hour.  And they usually put on a special on Mother's Day so you could buy one for around $11.  Well, those days are gone everywhere.

My mouth is watering at all the crab,  halibut,  and salmon Chris brought back from his yearly fishing trip and generously shared with us.

This is the amount of halibut I bought today for $15.31 (about 1/2 pound).  I'll make some halibut burgers with aioli...seems the best way to use a small amount of fish.

Well,  at least at our favourite Japanese restaurant in the area we still get our $7.95 beef or teriyaki dinner with includes miso soup,  tea,  tempura,  the teriyaki,  rice,  8 california roll pieces of sushi,  and salad.  I don't know how they do it!

First swim since returning home

It's hard to believe we got home just two weeks today.  it seems like much longer.  I guess because we've been pretty busy with one thing and another.

 It's also been Spring Break so didn't want to venture into the Aquatic Centre while that was on.  It's not like swimming outside in the sunshine in Palm Springs but not too shabby.  It was sunny and the sun was coming in the the glass roof.  And there was a couple doing some pretty spectacular dives off the 5 and 7.5 metre boards.  I think there's a new diving club at the pool. ...I don't remember the iDive Vancouver sign before.   Usually people aren't diving when I swim.  They have a completely separate pool so not a problem....great to watch.

From our balcony....

Sunset tonight....

We do live in paradise...

A few photos....

 I haven't used this tablecloth from Carqueiranne market for a while...love it!

 Our cat sleeping peacefully beside the lovely tulips Carol and John brought.


Quite the windstorm today,  but a Westerly so bringing the good weather (which we take responsibility for...)

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Four Seasons in Rome"

 "Four Seasons in Rome" by Anthony Doerr

I really enjoyed reading this memoir of Doerr's year in Rome following the birth of his twins and beginning to write "All the Light..."  He didn't get a lot accomplished but they had quite a wonderful experience living in Rome regardless and I was often reminded of our time living in France when Jim was teaching.  We were at least both completely fluent in the language so that made a big difference.

As a parent,  I loved this quote:

“Is this what it means to be a parent—to constantly fail to be in control of anything?"

Happy Easter to all my blog readers!

Easter Dinner with our family

Richard and Grace and John and Carol came for Easter Dinner last night.  It was great to have everyone together and I did a stress free holiday dinner....raclette.  I love dinners where you can do everything ahead of time then just relax with guests.  Carol brought over a wonderful chocolate cake and we all have lots of leftovers from it...thank you,  Carol!

Sunset last night....

So, my photos finally came into my photo stream...weird.

More Catfé...

Herons, stand up paddle boarders...

Well,  it must be Spring!

Magnolia trees in bloom in front of the Parks Board Offices....Mid-Century modern so I get a bit of a fix while walking in the park.

Some photos from Catfé.....I hope...

Catfé

I went to Catfé yesterday and it was great fun.  What a super facility...Michelle really has thought of everything.  I seem to be having some problem uploading photos from my phone so here are a few I took at the beginning before entering the area were the cats were.  I guess I'll have to mail the ones with the cats to myself.

Now,  my computer is messing up with the ones I do have....later.  Off to Las Margaritas for lunch...a cosy place on a rainy day.

It did work...finally.

Nick's for lunch...

We took the car in for servicing today and got dropped off on Commercial Drive.   Lots of happy hungry people at Nick's!

Jim had lasagne and I had the veal and salad....and of course Jim had some of my meal.  He wass in heaven.

Artist Trading Card Day

It was really fun to get back to this group and of course,  lots of goodies.

The other photos are ones I took of the sunrise the first day we were back to Vancouver....from the balcony,  Forgot they were on my camera.

Rainy day in Vancouver....no sunset

This from Hal Castle....sunset in Palm Springs today.

Wonderful visit with Kerry and her family today...

It was so great to see Kerry and also Donna and Katie and her lovely children.  Harmony is so grown up looking and only in grade one.  Zion was showing off all his "dance moves"...wow!  And the new baby,  dear sweet,  Noelle.  What a lovely and placid baby.  It was a treat to hold her in my arms.

Then,  downtown,  to get a new remote and modem from Shaw so we could upgrade our speed.  It all worked out well and we wandered around the Vancouver Convention Centre area.  We hadn't quite been in that exact place before.  We do live in an amazing city.

And we also got our Compass cards for transit so quite a day.  Still lots to do to settle in but we're getting there.

La Catrina Tacos

We were pleased to see this new eatery which opened this week.  The tacos look very good and three Mexican fellows are the owners so Jim can practice his Spanish a bit.  We went for a walk this evening and they were doing a roaring trade.  We're looking forward to tasting their wares.

http://www.tacoscatrina.ca/menu/

Super visit with Susan today

A big plus of coming home early was we got to see our dear old friend,  Susan, from Yorkshire.  We always just seem to pick up where we left off even though we don't see each other very much these days since she moved from Victoria to Yorkshire.  And Richard joined us too!   Lots of talk about Richard's antics as a small child.  Richard spent a lot of time with Susan and her family,

And Susan and Alan may join us in Spain next April....that would be fabulous!   They are very well situated and close to the Leeds-Bradford airport and planes go direct to many places including Seville.

So,  maybe we'll be strolling together along this canal....