Saturday, February 15, 2014

2013-2014 -Sunshine here I come…

{I have finally caught up to the current year}

2013 -The Trip…
In the previous years we have always left really early in the morning, (like 5 am early) well this year we decided to leave at least when there is daylight (we must be getting old – or I should rather say ‘older’  J  )  When the sun finally came up we noticed that it had snowed overnight and there had to be at least two feet of snow in the driveway, lucky our neighbour came by with his snow plow and cleared our driveway. We listened to the weather and it was calling for snow, but nothing to worry about, or so we thought… 

We were about 40 minutes into our trip and the weather was turning a little stormy, by Bracebridge the highway was snow covered and we started seeing cars along the side of the road in the ditch. We started to think that maybe we should turn back, just as we were contemplating that we hear on the radio that they closed the highway behind us – no turning back now – we managed to drive through the two foot thick snow that covered the highway (the key to driving in snow every Canadian knows, go slow and drive in the middle) – as we hit Orillia the sun was shining and the roads were dry and clear… I swear it just snows where we live…and at my parents...

Just to give you an idea of how much snow we have in Canada...
My mom sent me a picture of her house just after Christmas - winter has just begun....

 - The Weather…
The weather has not been as nice this year as in previous years, so far in the last couple of months we have had frost three times – yep, there goes our beautiful garden yet again – not to mention we have had quite a bit of rain and it has been damn cold! Never thought I would say that I would be cold in Florida! It was cold enough for me to have to put the heat on! – but then again, that really doesn’t tell you much as my core temperature pretty much feels like it is at zero most of the time unlike “normal” people at 98.6 F J

So, you guessed it, I am bundled up in layers, lucky I brought my fuzzy socks…
Guess it could be worse, we could be getting snow like Atlanta.

At least I got to see how tall the Areca Palms have gotten before they got frost…

(Great for privacy, just see the roof top of the neighbour – on the down side when they get frost it sets them back again, but at least they do manage to come back fairly quickly)


I love seeing the Hibiscus in bloom

2014 -In need of something do…


So with the weather not as nice as it should be for me to get out on my bike I decided it was time I put some colour on the walls after the holidays. When we bought the house five years ago, everything was white. White walls, trim, doors, cabinets and appliances – I personally hate a white kitchen. I know all you white fanatics out there will tell me that you can do a white décor using different tones and textures, I know….  I am just not into it J 



I wanted my “Florida-ee” look, so I chose light and tropical with the feel of a Caribbean ocean. And for you white fanatics, I kept all the trim and doors white, choosing to go with an Ultra pure white so that the wall colour pops  – sounds nice huh? 

Probably easier to show you than tell you… 

Here are a couple of the rooms:


Before

After
Before - guest bathroom

After - guest bathroom


I have actually painted the entire interior of the house except for one guest bedroom… after that what the heck am I going to do if the weather stays cold… anyone need their house painted? lol

2014 –Bike tours:
The weather has really played a roll this year on keeping us from getting out on the bikes. (Mainly it is because of me, I am such a wimp when it comes to the cold) Hopefully as we get into March the weather gets better…

We went to the Fort Myers Bike Night – it was really cool seeing all the different bikes and if you are into ‘people watching’ it won’t disappoint you… - we did cheat though and took the car instead of the bikes – two reasons, would you believe that after five years of riding my bike I have never driven at night with it, and I don’t have any night driving glasses. We stopped at one of the vendors there, and we picked up two pairs of night driving glasses for $15, not bad. There is another Bike Night in March, so maybe we will actually ride our bikes to it then. (I better practice driving in my neighbourhood first)

Went back to the Everglade City Shrimp Festival this year, (Feb) pretty much the same as last year – more bikes than cars – I hate to say it, but it was more for the ride than the festival J

Here is a sad fact:  we are running out of places to ride – at least places to go that are more in keeping with a day trip. Right now I have my cats to care for, so we just can’t do the long trips.

..ain’t they just so cute… J



[For the record I am aware that “ain’t” is not a word J]

One day I would really like to go to Key West on the bike, I hear it is a beautiful ride. Also on my list is to go to Daytona.


- If you haven’t guessed by now, we kind of keep to ourselves, not that we don’t enjoy meeting people, guess we are both more on the introverted side… but I think we should change that, we should get out of our comfort zone and just get out there and meet new people and experience more. So I did something completely out of character for me and joined a ‘meet up group’ online. I don’t know about anyone else out there, but the older I get I just find it hard to go out and meet new people – (Check it out, meetup.com - there are thousands of clubs of different interests you can join and they are from all over the place) – of course our interest is motorcycle riding, so I found a local club and we go on our first ride this Sunday!  Sure hope the weather is good, so far it calls for a cold morning, guess I better wear lots of layers! (Wonder if I would look weird in a snowsuit?) 



Check out my newest blog: Frozen Canuck Mexico

The journey continues further south



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