Soon to have six recliners in our home....

Jim felt the smaller recliner we recently bought was a little too small for length but we added a footstool and it was fine. Then he found an excellent condition Lazy Boy on Craig's List for $50 plus the guy would deliver it for an extra $15. These go for around $1200 so Jim couldn't resist. Jim gave him $80 he was so pleased with it.

We put the smaller one in the "sunroom" area of our dining room and then thought why not buy another small one so we'll both be comfortable there. It was still available on Amazon so will be coming in a week or so.

Jim enjoying his new Lazy Boy....and it even rocks!

 His den recliner.

Our living room recliners.

Our "sunroom" recliner...the one on order will be facing it on the other side.

From Benjamin's FB post this morning...

This is what will be greeting Donna when she arrives in PS today. And another rainy dismal day here.

Good Morning Coachella!

The ever amazing Alexander McCall Smith

I just finished "The Second-Worst Restaurant in France" and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is second in his Paul Stuart series, the first one being "My Italian Bulldozer" which I also enjoyed. Light amusing novels set in Italy and France....how could I not like them?  And nice to read something set in a sunny clime when it's so dreary outside.

It's not great literature but when you want a light read McCall Smith does the trick. His output is amazing and apparently he writes at a rate of 1000 words an hour. Well, that might explain it!

He has also supported many good causes.

I really encourage you to take a look at the Wiki link....great reading!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McCall_Smith

Tis' the season for cooking....

Yesterday I made Autumn soup....always perfect.

And now I'm trying new things. I made this Jambayla today and really thought it would work out. Jim loved it but it just didn't work for me.  Ah well...

Jambalaya (/ˌdʒæmbəˈlaɪ.ə/ JAM-bə-LY-ə, /ˌdʒʌm-/ JUM-) is a popular Louisiana-origin dish of Spanish, French(especially Provençal cuisine), and West African influence, consisting mainly of meat and vegetables mixed with rice. Traditionally, the meat always includes sausage of some sort, often a smoked meat such as andouille, along with pork or chicken and seafood, such as crawfish or shrimp. The vegetables are usually a sofrito-like mixture known as the "holy trinity" in Cajun cooking, consisting of onion, celery, and green bell pepper,

Happy Hour at Biercraft Pub

Biercraft Pub in Wesbrook Village is just a few minutes drive just like The University Golf Club. When we had Mahoney's within walking distance we used that as our local pub but now that Mahoney's has closed we decided to give Biercraft a try.

Donna and I went there for lunch recently and I noticed there was a "Happy Hour".  We went there last night and really liked the food and felt it was a good deal. And they serve popcorn as a little taste before. It was also very festive and they have this great tree lit up in front.

I think this will become a local for us. But then, Brown's Social Pub is opening soon and will be within walking distance....ah, so many choices.

Nothing to complain about....

Jim and I have been complaining about how dark it is during the day here in Vancouver. It's been many years since we have spent December here so I guess we forgot.

This is what is happening elsewhere:

People in parts of the Deep South will be waking up this morning to damage left behind by a series of deadly tornadoes. More than two dozen tornadoes and high winds tore through parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama last night, killing at least three people and injuring others. The twisters are part of a larger storm system that is piling snow and ice across the Midwest and the eastern US through this morning. Parts of the Northeast – including in New York and around Boston – may see up to 6 inches of snow by tomorrow, the National Weather Service said.

Meanwhile in Palm Springs it's mainly sunny and high 60's to low 70's for the next 5 days. I hope it stays like that for when Donna is there for a week beginning this weekend.

Enjoying the music and the sunshine at Las Casuelas last month....

Our new little fireplace...we love it!

C-Lovers

 We went with Donna out to C-Lovers with Linda and Cec. It was Linda's birthday recently so celebrating. It really is the best fish and chips in the Lower Mainland...and they have mushy peas.  Lots of fun and Linda picked up cinnamon buns and chocolate croissants from Cobb's...all to die for!

Great day, guys!

Donna drove us home via the Alex Fraser Bridge. You avoid the tunnel this way which can get congested and it really is a gorgeouus bridge...wow!

From Wiki:

The bridge was the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world when it opened on September 22, 1986, and was the longest in North America until the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge opened in 2005. As of 2009 it is the 32nd-longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and second-longest in North America. It is 2,525 m (8,284 ft) long with a main span of 465 m (1,526 ft). The towers are 154 m (505 ft) tall.^[3] It consists of seven lanes, three in each direction with the middle lane acted as the counterflow lane, and has a maximum speed limit of 90 km per hour until July 24, 2019 when the speed limit was lowered to 70 km/h to accommodate the additional counterflow lane.^[4][5] Upon opening in 1986, only four of the six available lanes were open. Cyclists and pedestrians share two narrow side-walks one on each side. All six lanes opened in 1987 after traffic demand justified the need.^[6]

Jane Austen meeting

"Dec. 14:  Our annual birthday tribute to Jane Austen and special Christmas celebration. We will welcome special guest Justin Newell, Art Historian, Fine Artist: Painter and Photographer to discuss British artists who were Austen contemporaries including John Constable, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Joseph Mallord William Turner and, as a contrast, William Blake.

As usual we will enjoy a special festive meal featuring a baked ham and all the trimmings. Please bring a savoury dish to accompany the meal or a sweet offering to add to the birthday cake served with wine for the birthday toast."

It was a great meeting and Justin Newell was a wonderful speaker. So much yummy food and I even won a prize...a keychain with a photo of Chawton House.

These folks were singing Christmas carols.

Our speaker.

And it was a great day for Jim as he got the recliner he has been wanting for his bedroom...$198 on Amazon and free shipping. And this lamp from Canadian Tire for $24.

Theses are copies of paintings Huxley did.

A very fun day...

I began with my Brock House Bookclub. The December meeting is when we choose our books for the coming year. I'm so glad Donna joined us and is going to paritcipate in the coming year.

And then from 5pm - 7pm, our apartment managers hosted a reception with lots of goodies...we didn't need dinner!

I got this recipe in the Desert Sun when we were in PS.  They sounded wonderful. A bit more fiddling about that I would like and I'm glad I noticed they had to be refrigerated for several hours. I'm planning on taking them to my Brock House Bookclub. In December they pick the next year's books and have treats.

And then I'll take them to the Jane Austen meeting Saturday.

Just tasted some and they're good!

A lovely evening with Richard and Grace

It was such fun to see them and share a meal. Grace brought wonderful cookies she had made and of course, some wonderful wine.

Thanks so much, guys!

Carol and John brought this amazing bouquet of flowers and vegetables...

The white "flowers" are actually kale.  Carol posted these photos on her blog...yeah, she is now posting on her blog again now that she has finished her Masters thesis.  I have really been missing her blog.

A closer look at the kale. The website says their leaves have been hybridized to feature purple, rosy and creamy white colours, making them look more like large flowers than vegetables. Photo by John Denniston.

Carol's blog:

http://mountdunbar.blogspot.com

Carol and John come for lunch yesterday....

Always great laughs and lots of interesting conversation.

Great to see you guys!

Itty Bitty Book review: "Nutshell"

"Nutshell" by Ian McEwan

This was a choice for my "Liz" bookclub....relatively young folks still working. It's really fun to chat with these women.  I had started this novel when it came out three years ago (I usually buy McEwan in hardback) and surprised myself by putting it down and not going back to it. Well, I was going through the cancer thing at the time. That may have had something to do with it. This time I loved it from the beginning and thought it was quite brilliant...well, not as brilliant as "Atonement" but still pretty good.

McEwas has written two novels since "Machines like Me" and "Cockroach".  Both will be coming on Amazon soon.

I host next time and we're doing "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng.

A few new treasures

At our recent place in Palm Springs they had some rather large indoor  cacti that we thought were real initially. That gave me the idea of getting some artifical cacti to remind us of PS and we don't have to worry about watering them. And we miss our wonderful outdoor fountain at the place we owned so decided to buy a little indoor fountain. We're enjoying it already and very appropriate that it is sitting on the table of the Hotel Spendide painting I did.

And since I was doing artificial I decided to get some lavender. I planted lavender in PS but almost immediately had to take it out since it attracted a swarm of bees. I think it's perfect in the first pastis pitcher we bought in France.

Libraries in Canada

Our Vancouver main branch is among the top 7....way to go VPL!

Libraries are far from boring old buildings that simply house books. Many are architectural masterpieces that serve as community hubs, offering weekly classes and events, quiet work spaces and of course give access to more reading material than any one human could go through in a lifetime. Libraries are important spaces in any city or town, and though we often take their presence for granted, Canada is home to some impressive ones.

Earlier this year, Calgary’s shiny new Central Library was named one of Time magazine’s Greatest Places of 2019, thrusting it into the global spotlight not long after opening its doors. And out east, stepping inside the Halifax Central Library feels more like a glossy Apple Store than a stuffy home for hard- and soft-covers.

Read on to discover seven of the most impressive libraries in Canada that you’ll surely want to visit.

https://leaderpost.com/travel/check-out-7-of-canadas-most-impressive-libraries/wcm/65948e41-97b6-4c00-94ab-b0cfe2991519?fbclid=IwAR0BZv4opE5_olTsOTmdNFFzI2Ot8v9nWkdjCeGbeX92Q17MlQM3JG72_kY

I always loved this display when we lived in Victoria...more beautiful than ever!

The legislature was part of the federal government’s 34th Christmas Lights Across Canada event Thursday as holiday lights came on in Victoria and other capital cities around the country.

About 4,000 Christmas lights have been put on the legislature building and the large sequoia on the grounds. It took two staffers about two weeks off and on to install Christmas lights on the building. The usual complement of 3,450 white lights is still in place.

Various chores yesterday

 Getting my hair cut, picking up a hold from the library, lab tests, and getting batteries for our wonderful little snowmen Elaine gave us.

And you can see the little Christmas quilt that Fern made for us us peaking out from the tray...the first tray I painted many years ago.

And the sun was out today after days of rain since we arrived back. Not a spectacular sunset but a sunset all the same!

Looks like a really interesting book...from the New York Times book review

Ah....the world of books...always fascinating to me!

"Over the last 25 years, amid the releases of various screen adaptations imagining new lives for her novels, the critical conversation around Jane Austen has been much occupied with the diverse responses of her diverse reading communities: academic and popular, elite and fan-based. Janine Barchas’s exuberantly illustrated study, “The Lost Books of Jane Austen,” rides this wave with panache.

Austen too tried to understand and take some control of the market for her fiction — conning sales figures, aggregating reader opinions and pushing for reissues. She learned these tricks the hard way, from her own lost books. Having sold the copyright on her most popular novel, “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), she watched the profits from its second and third editions go straight into the pocket of her publisher, Thomas Egerton. The contemporary publishing model did not work in Austen’s favor. With the price of a new book higher than the average weekly wage, readership was not matched by ownership: “People are more ready to borrow & praise, than to buy,” she wrote in an 1814 letter, “which I cannot wonder at.”

Rest of the review here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/books/review/janine-barchas-the-lost-books-of-jane-austen.html?fbclid=IwAR1KIf7JRMPgqXU12EG2XTJu5TJXMzmErc-jpj6W85a3FdaqNNH8ON3FPZw

Christmas tree and decorations up

Well, it took more than 5 minutes since I was consolidating what we had in Palm Springs and in Vancouver.  It's looking a little crowded and I will probably find different places for things but at least everything I want out is out.

Sleepy time gal

It's always rather tiring coming home from a holiday and I accomplished quite a bit today including getting lots of groceries in. We were having our morning swim and saw some snowflakes so I wanted to get provisions in in case the snow really came down. The snow didn't develop but may do so in some suburban areas of Vancouver. Now that we have everything, it would be fun to get some snow while I'm putting up the Christmas tree today.

Catching up on local news and found this recipe by Eric Akis in the TC today. I'm a little surprised I feel like cooking it but found everything at IGA today and it does look and sound good. I bought a baguette and I think it will all do very nicely for a leisurely lunch with wine.

"A cool December night is the perfect time to make a hearty, aromatic, spirit-lifting stew. It could feature meat, but if local seafood is your thing, head your boat in that direction.

That’s where I dropped my anchor when preparing today’s recipe, which features B.C. cod and cooked, hand-peeled Pacific shrimp. Both are sold at seafood stores and some supermarkets and work very well in my Mediterranean-style seafood stew."

Full recipe here:

https://www.timescolonist.com/life/food-drink/eric-akis-seafood-stew-for-two-with-a-b-c-catch-1.24023882

And speaking of seafood, I did a post on our rather disappointing experience at Red Lobster.  I did email a complaint and we arrived home to a $25 gift card and apology. Businesses can never go wrong by with this kind of good will.  So, we'll be back for the Ultimate Feast in March.

Home Sweet Home

It's always nice to get home. Everything went smoothly and our manager turned the heat up for us so it was cosy. We unpacked most things so not much to do tomorrow.

We are sitting snug as bugs in front of our electric fireplace and having a Bowmore....