In December my co-host Donna and I decided to treat each other for Christmas with an experience – Christmas High Tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. We had already tried a couple of high teas closer to home and I knew we would eventually make our way to the Grand Dame of all high teas on the island but didn’t think it would happen so soon. Kudos to Donna for suggesting it and making it happen!
We were kinda excited to make it to the lobby of the hotel. In case there was any doubt.High tea is always served in the upstairs Lobby Lounge. Our table (framed by potted palms and near the grand piano) was waiting for us, candles in the tea warmers already lit.Our server Yousef brought our teas shortly after we made our selections, and instructed us on the use of the tea timer.Yousef also offered to capture the moment of our first sips of tea. My beautiful friend and co-host, Donna.It was a Christmas High Tea, and the sweets tier reflected that beautifully.The savouries were also delicious! These are just a few of them.And the still-warm scone was absolutely amazing with clotted cream and strawberry-vanilla jam.Donna insisted I shoot this proof of her eating Christmas cake. (It was very good and I would have gladly eaten her piece and she could have eaten my chocolate thingy…which I ended up taking home for the kids, along with Donna’s macaron.)
During our 2 hour tea we were treated to piano playing as well as carol singers. Magical! After experiencing uh..overwhelm at the size and quantity of offerings at another high tea, we were pleased to be able to consume almost everything on our tiered tray…it would have been a shame not to; everything was so pretty and delicious!
I remember having high tea at the Empress back in 2003 with my late husband (then boyfriend) and the kids. He kept asking our server for more sandwiches, which were promptly supplied! I suppose this happens, with the men people with larger appetites who partake?I wonder if extra sandwiches would still be provided now, in these different times.
It was the perfect kick-off to the fast-approaching holidays, and with the perfect companion! Of course, we found our way to the hotel’s gift shop after our tea experience, and as well as purchasing some tea and one of those cute tea timers, I found the holy grail this:
I had been looking for a new waffle weave robe for years…ever since the one I had bought on my honeymoon had become threadbare from constant use been retired. SCORE!!! Merry Christmas to me 😉. Thank you, Fairmont Empress!
Please join me and Donna in sharing what’s on your plate! Join the Link Party or let me know in the Comments. I hope you all had a wonderful December however you celebrate (or not)!
After a good long ramble in the woods, comes a good long nap.
Let’s do this, Oma!Permission to come aboard the Good Ship Nap Time?You ready too, Oma?Ahhhhh…the life!Is there anything more peaceful than a little dog snuggled next to you and snoring gently away?
Wishing everyone a calm and peaceful midwinter’s nap along with many happy moments with family and friends!
Everyone likes to look their best for the season, and Bowser is no exception.
Back from the groomer’s dog spa, and feelin’ fresh!Who IS that handsome fellow I spy just outside the patio door?Whaddaya mean, it’s ME, Oma?I can’t blame the camera for choosing to focus on that face!
Are you getting a holiday glow up? We know it’s a busy time of year but there should always be time for some pampering too! (Bowser wants me to add that his idea of pampering is NOT going to the groomers; it’s being petted until he falls asleep.)
Bowser and I continue to visit the trail near our home(s) almost daily. There is always something new to see every day so it never gets boring. One thing stays the same however.
This particular view 🤣.
I watch Bowser carefully as he is my early warning system (usually) of others in the woods. At one point during one of our walks, he stopped and stared intently across the water (of one of the side streams that feed the main creek) at the opposite bank.
I took this picture because he looked so cute and alert, not knowing what was to come.
While Bowser was looking, I heard some major rustling from over there and thought “Oh, it must be a very large dog that he sensed.” Well friends, it wasn’t a dog. It was the most magnificent buck deer I have ever encountered. He was huge with a very impressive set of antlers too. Think: Bambi’s dad; The Great Prince of the Forest-impressive. And, even though I had my phone in my hand with the camera app open, I was too gobsmacked to take a photo. Here is a re-enactment:
What are you looking at, Bowz?OMG. He’s so beautiful!!! Oh no, now he’s leaving….And I forgot to take a photo!!!Try to picture Bambi’s dad’s head and shoulders peeking out from behind these ferns.Bambi’s dad. If I was at all skilled at Photoshop if I even owned the program, I would have pasted him in my photo somehow.
The next day, we disturbed a great big bald eagle at the shore of the creek. Again, no picture!!!! But this is what he was picking at.
What’s left of a very large salmon. I think it must have come from the creek? Although I’ve never seen any fish this big in it. But I had met a couple of people on the trail recently who told me that salmon do run it, usually in October 🤷♀️. I do see eagles flying along the creek (at certain times of the year only), so it makes sense.
I realize there are not nearly enough Bowser shots in this post, so here are a couple more.
He loves to run and leap over fallen branches.Don’t be sad you didn’t get any photos, Oma. Be glad you saw these things in the first place. Wise words indeed, Bowser! Thanks 💕
I came across a recipe last month that I think is perfect for this month of celebrating, potlucks, and hosting a crowd. It’s pretty easy to make (and make ahead!), can be made vegetarian easily, is gluten-free, is a HUGE amount of food, and tastes even better the next day! What’s not to love?!
Without further ado, I give you:
Riso al Forno recipe
I made this recipe AS IS (I know…who am I?!?!) for the first go-round but I am already planning to make it again with more and different vegetables added in…and maybe (spoiler alert!) cut the recipe in half next time 😉.
The meat sauce, ready to go!Assembled casseroles!!! If you watch the video, you will see that he makes ONE dish out of all the ingredients. I had so much food prepared, I needed to use a second casserole dish for the overflow!!! (Not a bad problem to have if you have the freezer/fridge space, though!) Sadly, Robert Plant the Fridge (he’s my tall cool one 😎) could not accommodate all this bounty so off to my daughter’s I went with it.Out of the oven.What’s On My Daughter’s Plate.Closeup of all that comforting Italian delicious-ness!
This recipe is a KEEPER, in my books anyways.
As always, my co-host Donna and I are looking forward to seeing what’s been on your plates! Please check out Donna’s post where she transforms one of my garden squash into a delectable meal. Here is how to get to the link up party…and/or feel free to let me know in the Comments!
The other day I was looking after Bowser and doing something (can’t remember what) in another room. Bowser was in the living room and being a bit too quiet for my liking.
I got to him just in time.
He’d already made a mess of the ball of yarn, and know he was reaching for my knitting work in progress!!!Bowser: This is the best game ever! So easy to get Oma’s attention now!!!Me: THIS. IS. NOT. A. GAME. BOWSER!!!!!
I should have remembered that Bowser has already demonstrated an affinity for yarn, as he did here (at his Mommy’s house).
I try to take Bowser out in any weather. But that doesn’t mean I want a soggy dog on my furniture when we come back inside. To protect my Bowser’s couch, I put a quilt down for him to lie upon. It covers most of the couch, leaving an unprotected space for me to sit upon. Easy to whisk off, shake off, and launder when needed.
But if I don’t get to my seat quickly enough, this happens:
Hey!You know that’s MY seat, right?!Oh….alright! I can’t resist that face.Going, going…Gone. Again.
Some days it’s not fit for woman nor beast to be outside (for too long). For those days, I have a stash of toys to keep a certain someone outta my hair interested and amused. However I need to replenish the stash from time to time as that same certain someone is very hard on toys.
Unfortunately while I was unpacking the latest haul of toys, I accidentally made one of them squeak.
Bowser: I’d recognize that sound anywhere! Gimmee gimmee!!!Yes. I caved and gave him one. Sigh!
And this short video gives you an indication of why the toys never last too long.
Bowser demonstrates with his favourite toy. The toy: an inside-out deflated soccer ball, that first appeared in this post. In Bowser’s defense (and heaven knows he needs one), he did not deflate the ball. That happened when a truck delivering materials for my garden backed over it.Bowser guarding another ball so I can’t steal it from him.After toy time, comes Rest with Oma time. 😁
We hope you have plenty of play and rest time heading your way!
Trigger Warning: I am going to be talking about MY experience at being widowed. If you are experiencing a different sort of grief and/or widowhood you may be offended or otherwise bothered by what I am going to say.
I woke up this morning feeling pretty damn fantastic, realizing I have been a widow now for 10 years. Becoming a widow probably saved my life because the stress of being married to my second husband had a high probability of killing me eventually. (I did have a couple of mini-strokes a few years later as I was still dealing with the mess left behind by his death.) A lot of this stuff is on ye olde blogge, if one cares to search…
Proof of That Stress…
2012 passport photo – married, exhausted, and stressed out of my mind. No wonder my daughter was worried for my health.2017 passport photo – widowed. I think I look completely different here (thankfully).
I had been living in Crazytown (as I called my life then) for quite a few years already (and it was getting steadily worse). I knew my health was being negatively affected by the pressures of living with this man and I was considering getting my own space to liveexist survive in, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. So my plans changed. The next 6 months were a blur of doctor visits and hospitalizations until he breathed his last a few minutes after midnight on November 14, 2013.
A few months later, as I was going through his papers I discovered that he had been having an affair with another woman (who also thought he was true as well as single) for 18 months while he was living with me (before we got married) and making me endure weekly (pointless, I thought) lectures on his thoughts about people who cheated on their loved ones and how awful and wrong they were. Hypocrisy, much? Guilty, much?
She had found out about me and kicked him to the curb but made the decision NOT to interfere in our relationship by informing me that he was cheating on both of us. I know she thought she was doing me a kindness but I deserved to have that information. Remaining in the dark of who this man truly was, I proceeded to marry him.
Did he really want to be with me or was I just the only option available now that the other relationship had ended?
I wonder sometimes how my life would have been different if I had known about his cheating at the time. It might have been better, it might have been worse. I am certain it would have turned out much differently. And my family would not have been so hurt by my relationship with my strange, secretive husband in the process.
This put me in a tailspin of confusing emotions. I had thought that – despite his mental illness (OCD), his love was something I could count on and draw strength from. After all, he spent a lot of time telling me how honest and virtuous and moral and good and Christian he was (subtext: a better person than me, in his mind.) And now that was proven to be false and all the memories that were supposed to comfort me in my widowhood ruined, by this discovery. And the worst part? I couldn’t even confront him with this knowledge and try to get some answers and closure for myself.
I’m truly sorry that my second husband had to die so young and of such a terrible disease as lung cancer. When he died though, my most prevalent emotion was an overwhelming sense of relief and that is the saddest thing, isn’t it? But it is my truth. My ordeal was over. My grief was very complicated and made even more so when I learned of his unfaithfulness.
The first few years of my widowhood were spent dealing with these emotions as I was cleaning up his hoard, selling my place to clear up the debts he left behind, and incurring more debt as I fixed up the decrepit building he left me with, and completed the MBA program we had both started. All while still working full-time at my career. Therapy helped; fixing up the building and making it profitable (finally) helped; becoming my alter-ego The Widow Badass helped (a lot). Friends helped too, although I had kept the knowledge of his infidelity to myself for many months after discovery because it took an awful lot of time for me to process, accept and acknowledge what I had learned and the full extent to which I had been manipulated and duped over the years.
Making the decision to retire at 60 and move to Vancouver Island was also very good for my mental health. I was no longer bombarded by memories every time I walked on a familiar trail or into a different room in the building my husband and I had spent so much time in. It was and is a fresh start and a new beginning.
Today I wake up every morning with a smile on my face and in my heart and look forward to the day ahead. This is me – a widow of 10 years. I’ve done my best to absorb all the lessons that can be gleaned from my travails and experiences so far and I am grateful for them all. I’m pretty sure I still have some revelations/a-ha moments in my future, though 😉…after all, if life has taught me anything it’s that I am a stubbornthickdelusional SLOW LEARNER 🤣 per my marriages.
