Another New Year

    I didn't manage to stay up until midnight but had a good sleep and was up with the sun which rose at 7:52 today. We have exactly 9 hours of daylight this week but it is to stay very cold. So sorry for the homeless people in town, the shelters will all be full again tonight. Look at the projected overnight temperatures!

Frigid air from the Polar Vortex seems to be stuck over most of Canada this week.

   I was invited out for lunch today (a nice surprise) and met up with some tennis friends at Carol's condo. She had a lovely light spread for us - salad, cheeses, smoked salmon, shrimp, all my favourites - with wine, then apple cake and coffee to finish. I will only need a small snack for dinner tonight. 

   The house got its last bit of sprucing up today and that should be it for a few weeks. I cleaned out the fridge and washed the shelves, threw out the contents of some cupboards in the laundry room that hadn't been touched in years, and got rid of all the fluff under my bed. It feels good to start the new year fresh and clean.

Hogmanay

   It was a day for "sweeping out the old year", a tradition I inherited from my parents and grandparents.  They would physically open the door and brush out all the dirt from throughout the house (couldn't do that here today as it was minus 19C this morning). The idea is to start the new year fresh and rid of all the accumulated debris of the previous year. I was only partly successful but will continue with the clean-up tomorrow morning.

   I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions but I did weigh myself this morning and resolve to, at least, not gain back the weight I have lost this year. I have done quite well and am about 4 lbs. below my normal weight, given all the overeating (especially chocolate) that occurred in December, but I did get down 10 lbs at one point. The secret, I found, is to severely cut back on carbs and I didn't find that too difficult to do although I do love bread!

   Last night's salmon was delicious! I made a lemon honey mustard glaze and just broiled it briefly. It was very tender and juicy. I have another piece in the freezer and will have it later in the week.

   To all my readers I wish a happy and healthy 2018.

A Change is as Good as a Rest

    A busy morning - laundry, shovelling snow, grocery shopping - but that's it for today. I had a call from one of my tennis friends inviting me to lunch on New Year's Day which I gratefully accepted.

   It got up to minus 7C today and we even had some sun, quite pleasant out if you were well wrapped up. I will have a piece of salmon for dinner tonight - thoroughly sick of the Christmas bird and all the trimmings! I may just poach the salmon for a nice light meal.

More Snow

  Only got up to minus 9C today. It's snowing like crazy here - we were promised just a few flurries but it is substantially more than that. I put the car in the garage and will definitely need to do some shovelling tomorrow. Luckily there's not much else on the agenda. I will plug in the battery for the snowblower tonight just in case.

  Tennis this morning and it was three good sets with Swan, Angela and Carol. I was on the winning side twice and we stopped at 2-2 in the final set so it was a good day for me. We were very evenly balanced and had several deuce games. A good workout!

   Still eating leftovers but defrosted a different soup for lunch today. Almost everything perishable is either eaten or in the freezer and tomorrow's shop will just be for fresh fruit and vegetables. I will have money left over so won't have to got to the ATM until the new year. Yaay!