Canadian Christmas

Canada is supposed to be the snowy frozen north, but in fact, where I am is around 900 kilometrees south of home. And it's wet and rainy, only a bit cold at between 2 and 6 degrees Centigrade most of the time I've been here. Unlike my house, theirs is very well insulated and you can strip down to bare arms, not huddle on the sofa in a fleece with an extra blanket. Here's a morning view. 

We've done a few trips out. One meant going cross country for the interesting route. But Ontario is flat with long straight roads and all the farms are huge and look the same with a farmhouse, outbuildings and some silos. Not surprising then that we got a bit lost on our way to London. But when we got to the London museum, it was worth it for the current exhibition of photos and stories of Londoners today. 

Being as I'm flying carry-on luggage only, they've been careful about giving me Christmas presents that I can take back. One present was a massage, something I'd like even if I weren't flying. We drove into Woodstock to MendMassageTherapy and Stephanie W looked after me. Normally I massage my body by moving it and this made up for the lack of exercise. We've ehad a couple of evenings of karate, which was fun but that's closed for Christmas and the best exercise I'm getting atm is walking, walking to the golf club, or to the gas station or round the new estate - SiL called it a sub-division.

It's rained and rained and rained again so we've not been for walks in what would be muddy treks. However, when the rain held off, we went to see the Simcoe lights. This is a several acre park of Christmas lights, lights in the trees, lights on trucks and vans and mobile stalls, reflecting in the light of the adjacent lake, many sponsored by local businesses.  Families were walking around with small and larger children, stalls offered hot drinks, chocolate, cider. My photo doesn't do it justice - go and look at the Simcoe lights web site. 

For Christmas, SiL has got daughter an aquarium, and various bits of equipment to fit it up. We went over to Woodstock fish and admired the mollies and platties. Now she's checking their water chemistry and temperature. They've put it in her work office and it might give her an option for meditation and contemplation. 

And at last it is snowing. This new year's evening, we'll go out in the snow and burn the spare cardboard that's too much to fit in the garbage. We're goiing to burn the Christmas tree too, although it's too early to take it down, just because it'll burn well.