Since I last posted. Almost a month ago. I guess there is just not much to tell these days! Spring is still a long way away (we haven't seen our lawn since December, as it is still covered by several inches of snow). But some birds are coming back, such as the robins and the red-winged blackbirds, so spring can't be too far away. And the fact that the days are so much longer (or so it feels) also makes it a bit easier.
Nolan was fighting a nasty flu bog for a while. We even ended up at the hospital, since they wanted to take chest x-rays to make sure he didn't have pneumonia. Luckily that was not the case, and he seems to finally get over his cough (four weeks later...).
Zora is doing great. Still puppy-hyper, but also very happy and getting better at her obedience classes, although we still have some things to learn. But she'll get there. She is definitely a great addition to the family; even Murphy thinks so! They play together quite a bit and look each other up, so that's a good sign. Fertile is indifferent, but she's old and as long as she can sleep in her bed in the sun, life is good for her (so we're hoping for a bit more sunshine...).
Work is also good but busy. We're getting close to year-end (our fiscal year runs April 1 - March 31), which is always a busy time. But I'm having fun, and that's the main thing. And next week will be a short one. I get Friday and Monday off for Easter, and decided to take Thursday off as well, so a nice long long weekend. Too bad Nolan has to work Monday :)
We went to see Whitehorse last night. A band we saw play at Bluesfest a few years ago and really enjoyed it a lot. They played at the NAC last night, and absolutely rocked. Very much worth it! And a great way to start celebrating being together for six years (today six years ago we met for the first time in person, at the Chapters in Kanata. Who knew we would actually end up in Kanata!).
Besides that, life is pretty much the same. Running has been pushed to the background. With Nolan sick, I walked Zora a lot, and didn't always have the energy to run as well. We finally started again today, so hopefully we can bring it back up again to reasonable distances this summer. And when Zora is old enough, she can join us. Right now we just walk her quite a bit, trying to keep her calm. But we can walk her for an hour, and then she easily runs like an idiot in our backyard for another 30 min. Too much energy!! I guess it keeps us in shape as well.
Happy Easter!
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Something is just not right here
And with that, I am referring to the weather conditions we are currently experiencing here in Ottawa. Average high for this time of year is +3. The record for March 19 (yesterday) was +14.6. We reached a high of 25.8. Today, while I'm typing this at 5 pm, it's 26.6 degrees. Did I mention that it is March?? In Ottawa?? We've had 20 + degreed weather since Sunday, and will have at least one more day of it tomorrow. Pretty much a heat wave in the middle of March...
Something is just not right indeed. And it's not that I'm complaining; I love the heat, but there is a time and place for everything, and this just does not seem the right time, nor the right place!
The snow melted in record time (not that we had much, about a third of what Ottawa would get in a typical year), and maple syrup season started three weeks early. And then it stopped four weeks early, if not more. Ideal conditions for collecting sap is below zero at night, and above zero during the day. That results in maximum run of sap, and it tastes good. Higher temperatures reduces sap flow, and it starts tasting pretty bad. This is the second year in a row that the maple syrup producers are experiencing a poor year, but this year is extremely bad.
Within a week, crocuses started to bloom, tulips came up, and spring peepers (frogs) are out their and living up to their name (i.e. making tonnes of noise). Other plants are starting to sprout, trees are budding and all the birds seem to have returned by now.
Our office is not ready for this weather; the heating system is still in place, which results in boiling offices by the end of the day. We're scheduling our runs around the weather, so either run in the morning, or later in the evening. Definite bonus: the trails are no snow-free, so we can run in the woods again!!
Here some pictures:
Something is just not right indeed. And it's not that I'm complaining; I love the heat, but there is a time and place for everything, and this just does not seem the right time, nor the right place!
The snow melted in record time (not that we had much, about a third of what Ottawa would get in a typical year), and maple syrup season started three weeks early. And then it stopped four weeks early, if not more. Ideal conditions for collecting sap is below zero at night, and above zero during the day. That results in maximum run of sap, and it tastes good. Higher temperatures reduces sap flow, and it starts tasting pretty bad. This is the second year in a row that the maple syrup producers are experiencing a poor year, but this year is extremely bad.
Within a week, crocuses started to bloom, tulips came up, and spring peepers (frogs) are out their and living up to their name (i.e. making tonnes of noise). Other plants are starting to sprout, trees are budding and all the birds seem to have returned by now.
Our office is not ready for this weather; the heating system is still in place, which results in boiling offices by the end of the day. We're scheduling our runs around the weather, so either run in the morning, or later in the evening. Definite bonus: the trails are no snow-free, so we can run in the woods again!!
Here some pictures:
The crocuses in our backyard
You can see the tulips in the background
Even the squirrels need a break in the shade...
It really is warm!
Another beneficiary of the beautiful weather! My Orchid blooming for the fifth (!) time
In other news: not too much. Work is busy (what's new?), but since we're approaching year-end (our fiscal year runs April 1- March 31) as much as possible needs to be done within the next two weeks, plus planning is in full gear for next year.
We're keeping busy with our running. Last weekend was our 26 km run, which went well (for the most part), and we continue to increase our distance during the week as well. So really, our lives consist of work, running and house chores!
Talking about house chores, we bought a washer-dryer set on Monday, to be delivered in a couple of weeks, so soon our clothes will be really clean! Not a bad thing since we're sweating a lot with all that running, especially in this weather!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Winter??
This past week was has been slightly busy at work, but I survived! Unfortunately not everything got done, just not enough hours in a day, but I will have a few more days this week to finish it all. Or at least most of it before I sign off Friday afternoon and take a break.
I spent Thursday at the PRF for a meeting discussing long term research sites, and we spent most of the day outside. The weather forecast called for rain all day, but what we got instead was a bit of a surprise. Sure, the odd shower, but it went up to 12 degrees!! Hello!!! It's mid-December, we should be freezing our feet off! It felt really weird, but admittedly made for a great day in the bush.
Friday it started to turn around a bit, and Saturday was officially chill, which continued Sunday morning with a low of -17. Of course, great weather for running! We ran a 16.5 km in the sun. It was a tad chilly, but besides that perfect running weather. It's amazing how quickly you warm up! Not sure what the rest of the week will hold, but a dump of snow would be nice, especially if it stays for Christmas. It's been hard getting into the Christmas spirit without snow.
We did manage to put more lights on our tree, and it actually looks really nice now. I know, next time pictures :)
And some exciting news: We won our curling game on Friday evening! So we really ended this part of the season with a bang. We'll get back on the ice again in the New Year, so hopefully we can continue our winning 'streak'.
I spent Thursday at the PRF for a meeting discussing long term research sites, and we spent most of the day outside. The weather forecast called for rain all day, but what we got instead was a bit of a surprise. Sure, the odd shower, but it went up to 12 degrees!! Hello!!! It's mid-December, we should be freezing our feet off! It felt really weird, but admittedly made for a great day in the bush.
Friday it started to turn around a bit, and Saturday was officially chill, which continued Sunday morning with a low of -17. Of course, great weather for running! We ran a 16.5 km in the sun. It was a tad chilly, but besides that perfect running weather. It's amazing how quickly you warm up! Not sure what the rest of the week will hold, but a dump of snow would be nice, especially if it stays for Christmas. It's been hard getting into the Christmas spirit without snow.
We did manage to put more lights on our tree, and it actually looks really nice now. I know, next time pictures :)
And some exciting news: We won our curling game on Friday evening! So we really ended this part of the season with a bang. We'll get back on the ice again in the New Year, so hopefully we can continue our winning 'streak'.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
December already??
Time just seems to fly, as usual. So before you know it, it's December! It just doesn't feel like December at all. Sure, the days are short and most people have their Christmas lights up by now, but there is no snow! We've had two minor snow falls, but that has all since disappeared. Everything is green, and today the temperature hit the double digits again! That, of course, won't help with getting the canal ready for skating...
Otherwise things are going well. Work is definitely picking up again. I have now four major projects on my plate, of which two could have quite the impact on our program. It's actually really cool working on things that really can make a difference, but it definitely adds to the pressure.
Last week I attended a two day session on biomass in North Bay, which was quite interesting. I was the moderator for the two morning sessions as well, so that added a different dimension to it as well.
Another highlight is that we won our first curling game this season! Funny part is that it wasn't even with our own team; we were sparing in JoAnn's team. But it doesn't matter, we won!
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but we bought another bird feeder, which seems to be quite popular with the local bird population. We have chickadees and house finches as regular visitors, and so far the squirrels are able to keep it alone! Next time I'll try to post some more pictures again.
And of course, tomorrow is Sinterklaas! I actually baked some real speculaas today, and the house smelled amazing!! We tried a couple of pieces and it tasted pretty good as well. We will save the rest for tomorrow, when we will have our own Sinterklaas celebration. Should be fun!
Running is also going well. The lack of snow does help with the ability to get out there, and we're really taking advantage of that. But I'm not complaining if we do get a bit of snow, and will be able to get our snowshoes out again!
Otherwise things are going well. Work is definitely picking up again. I have now four major projects on my plate, of which two could have quite the impact on our program. It's actually really cool working on things that really can make a difference, but it definitely adds to the pressure.
Last week I attended a two day session on biomass in North Bay, which was quite interesting. I was the moderator for the two morning sessions as well, so that added a different dimension to it as well.
Another highlight is that we won our first curling game this season! Funny part is that it wasn't even with our own team; we were sparing in JoAnn's team. But it doesn't matter, we won!
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but we bought another bird feeder, which seems to be quite popular with the local bird population. We have chickadees and house finches as regular visitors, and so far the squirrels are able to keep it alone! Next time I'll try to post some more pictures again.
And of course, tomorrow is Sinterklaas! I actually baked some real speculaas today, and the house smelled amazing!! We tried a couple of pieces and it tasted pretty good as well. We will save the rest for tomorrow, when we will have our own Sinterklaas celebration. Should be fun!
Running is also going well. The lack of snow does help with the ability to get out there, and we're really taking advantage of that. But I'm not complaining if we do get a bit of snow, and will be able to get our snowshoes out again!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
And the heat continues...
The one upside of the hot, dry weather we've been experiencing this summer? We haven't had to cut our lawn in over a month! We cut a part of it last week (that is beside the house, thus in the shade), but when we tried the do the rest, you couldn't tell the difference, and we want to keep a bit of length to prevent it from burning too much. Although I am sure it's to late for that now.
Not much to report this time. Life keeps on going, and we're having fun doing it. There are a few things that I can share with you though:
- I found a giant water bug on my way to work this week. It was flat and dead, but still very impressive. Not sure what it looks like? Here is the wikipedia link, and here is a link to the image search of Google. Pretty creepy, eh? I brought it to work, and gave it to my friend Debby. She loves bugs.
- Nolan is leaving for Salt Lake City tomorrow to attend a conference. He's excited to go, meeting new people and exploring a new city. I'll enjoy some nights alone, however with too many meetings planned in the evenings I won't have too much downtime. So much for a break! Oh, and his flight is at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. Which means we have to leave the house at 4:00 am, which means the alarm clock will go off around 3:15??!! Nuts!!
- We love our back yard, which we have mentioned many times, I think. But you know what's really cool? The squirrels gave us four oak trees! Well, the probably left the acorns behind and they sprouted. They are all in good locations, so I am looking forward to watching those grow into majestic trees. Well, maybe not that big in our lives, but a good way up there.
About those squirrels though. We like them, they are cute and all, but they also steel all our bulbs! So not sure how many tulips and crocuses will come up, but time will tell. Last week they were extremely blunt; they used the bbq for a dining room table and left the evidence in plain sight. Grrrr!
And just so you know, this is what squirrels in our neck of the woods like to do:
Not much to report this time. Life keeps on going, and we're having fun doing it. There are a few things that I can share with you though:
- I found a giant water bug on my way to work this week. It was flat and dead, but still very impressive. Not sure what it looks like? Here is the wikipedia link, and here is a link to the image search of Google. Pretty creepy, eh? I brought it to work, and gave it to my friend Debby. She loves bugs.
- Nolan is leaving for Salt Lake City tomorrow to attend a conference. He's excited to go, meeting new people and exploring a new city. I'll enjoy some nights alone, however with too many meetings planned in the evenings I won't have too much downtime. So much for a break! Oh, and his flight is at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. Which means we have to leave the house at 4:00 am, which means the alarm clock will go off around 3:15??!! Nuts!!
- We love our back yard, which we have mentioned many times, I think. But you know what's really cool? The squirrels gave us four oak trees! Well, the probably left the acorns behind and they sprouted. They are all in good locations, so I am looking forward to watching those grow into majestic trees. Well, maybe not that big in our lives, but a good way up there.
About those squirrels though. We like them, they are cute and all, but they also steel all our bulbs! So not sure how many tulips and crocuses will come up, but time will tell. Last week they were extremely blunt; they used the bbq for a dining room table and left the evidence in plain sight. Grrrr!
And just so you know, this is what squirrels in our neck of the woods like to do:
Not sure what to say about that...
So I'll leave it at that!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Busy Expo, heat wave and my life in general...
Expo 150 turned out to be a bit more attractive to people than first anticipated. The last estimations say that about 40,000 (!) people visited the site! No wonder if felt somewhat crowded on Saturday... But all in all it has been a huge success, for the organizers, but also for the PRF. We drew a lot of attention to our booth, which was exactly what we were there for! But by the time I came home on Sunday, I was pretty zonked. At least I had about 5 hours of weekend left!
The last few days have been nice and warm, although not as warm as the one day crazy-warm-humid-hazy-sticky-42 degree day we had last week. The interesting thing was that after this crazy hot day on Thursday, the temperature on Thursday never made it above the 20 degree mark. Funny how climate and weather do their own thing. I like it! Although I do prefer the warm weather over the I-wish-I-had-a-sweater-day. The last few days have been nice and warm as well (30 or so), and the weekend looks awesome. Mid-twenties and lots of sunshine. We could use a little bit of rain though, especially since our grass is starting to turn yellow. We also haven't cut it in over two weeks. It just doesn't grow. Somewhat opposite to earlier this spring, when everything was way, way too wet! The bush is still pretty moist, with lots of mosquito-producing puddles...
A recent study confirmed that Canadians like talking about the weather. I bet you that study only focused on Canadians, because I think everyone likes to talk about the weather! At least the Dutch :) Makes you wonder how will fund a study like that. Couldn't they do something a bit more useful?
After twelve days of work, I'm happy it's Friday. It's been a good, but long two weeks, and I'm ready for some down-time. And perhaps trying to get a run in? It's been a week now since I went out for a run, so hopefully I am able to get out tonight. But sometimes life gets in the way. Or OCTranspo, our city bus company... Last Wednesday it took me exactly two (!!!!) hours to get home. Isn't that ridiculous! It normally doesn't take much more than an hour, which is enough as is. But this time the first bus got cancelled, the second was full, after which I got frustrated and took another bus, which meant I had toured our neighbourhood... At least the bus driver was nice!
On a said note, remember the two baby raccoons we took to the vet a couple of weeks ago? The vet decided to put them down. I know it was the right decision, but it still sucks...
Fertile was at the vet yesterday for some teeth cleaning, and apparently she made a tonne of friends among the clinic staff. Everybody loved her! No wonder, when we picked her up she had those big eyes which looked even bigger on her already tiny head. Just really cute.
The last few days have been nice and warm, although not as warm as the one day crazy-warm-humid-hazy-sticky-42 degree day we had last week. The interesting thing was that after this crazy hot day on Thursday, the temperature on Thursday never made it above the 20 degree mark. Funny how climate and weather do their own thing. I like it! Although I do prefer the warm weather over the I-wish-I-had-a-sweater-day. The last few days have been nice and warm as well (30 or so), and the weekend looks awesome. Mid-twenties and lots of sunshine. We could use a little bit of rain though, especially since our grass is starting to turn yellow. We also haven't cut it in over two weeks. It just doesn't grow. Somewhat opposite to earlier this spring, when everything was way, way too wet! The bush is still pretty moist, with lots of mosquito-producing puddles...
A recent study confirmed that Canadians like talking about the weather. I bet you that study only focused on Canadians, because I think everyone likes to talk about the weather! At least the Dutch :) Makes you wonder how will fund a study like that. Couldn't they do something a bit more useful?
After twelve days of work, I'm happy it's Friday. It's been a good, but long two weeks, and I'm ready for some down-time. And perhaps trying to get a run in? It's been a week now since I went out for a run, so hopefully I am able to get out tonight. But sometimes life gets in the way. Or OCTranspo, our city bus company... Last Wednesday it took me exactly two (!!!!) hours to get home. Isn't that ridiculous! It normally doesn't take much more than an hour, which is enough as is. But this time the first bus got cancelled, the second was full, after which I got frustrated and took another bus, which meant I had toured our neighbourhood... At least the bus driver was nice!
On a said note, remember the two baby raccoons we took to the vet a couple of weeks ago? The vet decided to put them down. I know it was the right decision, but it still sucks...
Fertile was at the vet yesterday for some teeth cleaning, and apparently she made a tonne of friends among the clinic staff. Everybody loved her! No wonder, when we picked her up she had those big eyes which looked even bigger on her already tiny head. Just really cute.
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