Merry Christmas!

After a day of much rain yesterday (and I may post about that after tomorrow), I woke up (late!) this morning to see the blessed dawn of Christmas Day.  Sunshine peeking through the trees along Van’s balcony.  A glorious start to my favourite day of the year.

Merry Christmas!  I shall blog more after the holiday, for sure.  For now, enjoy your day, please!

6:48 AM

A bit of a later start for me this morning, and a shorter walk in order to get done and get home and get to work in a timely manner.  But, ah, that sunrise!

We're due for warmer weather this weekend, and I, for one, hate that.  I miss proper winters.

curry for dinner (plus a sunrise)

I turned to a recipe yesterday that I hadn't made in a while.  In truth, I don't even remember where I have the recipe written down.  At this point, I'm just going off recollections of things and winging it when I make the dish.  It's a long time favourite of mine, though:  eggplant and green pea curry. 

Tasty stuff.  A mound of rice, a dollop of yogurt, and it's a satisfying vegetarian dinner.  Take away the yogurt, and Bob's your uncle:  vegan!  Happy to have returned to this one again and make it for Van.

In other news (and thanks to Van for the photo), I am gay as a French horn and a real ham at times.

It's Friday, and Conrad comes home tonight.  Alas, we'll be down in Santa Monica for dinner and a concert (and I hope to blog those) and unable to pick him up.  It will be good to have him home, though.  It's an easy Friday so far, working away on program review today, a nice walk under my belt shortly after sunrise this morning.  And oh, a pretty sunrise through the oaks trees!

Happy weekend!

early mornings

I seem to have clawed my way back to some earlier mornings lately, waking up in advance of 6AM and getting out the door not long after.  Nice to do that.  So it was that I saw 6:01AM colouring the sky on my walk yesterday

and 5:57AM from a similar vantage point today.

I know people who rail against the shorter days, but I don't mind them at all.  I rather hate that I am missing out on a winter storm pummeling Vancouver, and I wish I were there, cozy inside our old condo, snow and wind and darkness outside.

I'm a romantic at heart, I guess.  😉

weekend update

It's a long weekend, so it's a little premature to do a weekend update.  On the other hand, it's a quiet, easy Sunday, so let me chime in here before I go do something utterly unproductive....

Friday!  I didn't get photos from most of the evening, but it was a nice one.  Our friend Richard was doing some work in Pasadena, so he came by late afternoon, had a cocktail with Conrad, then Van joined us in time to head to Maestro for dinner at the bar.  After dinner and Richard and Van had gone home, I sipped a bit more wine and read before bed. 

I love that it's getting to be cozy sweater weather!

Saturday morning I headed out on foot, past where the Rose Parade stands are going up at the corner of Orange Grove and Colorado,

past the Ambassador Auditorium. 

I eventually met up with Conrad, who has been dealing with a foot injury, and we had a short remaining walk together.  Then, as you might guess, we ended up at Amara for a satisfying breakfast and lattes.

Saturday afternoon I was in the kitchen pretty much all day.  I made a brown butter blueberry tart

and put together a spinach and caramelized onion

lasagna for dinner at Van's last night.  I also roasted some chunks of delicata squash for a salad of burrata, the squash, and some autumn fruits. 

And I put focaccia dough together.  Busy afternoon.  We enjoyed an aperitivo together - martinis for me and Conrad

- and then Jennifer and Sanders came over to Van's for dinner (along with their dog, Daisy),

and the lasagna made for a satisfying meal.

But boy, was I pooped by the time dinner was done and they had gone home!

I was out the door by 6:30 this morning, having already caught the sunrise from the deck. 

Another lovely morning, another nice walk. 

Just shy of 3.5 miles for me, and I took some photos as I went along.  Random things that caught my eye,

nothing in particular.  Buildings,

plants. 

The guys (and Olive) eventually got up after I got back, and Van made us all breakfast (thank you, Van!).

And now it's back at the condo, most of the afternoon stretching before us with little we need to do.  Natasha will come for dinner, and the leftovers from yesterday will make a fine enough meal.  A day off tomorrow, and an easy day at that.

Happy weekend, friends!

quiet mornings

Perfect times for walks.  I've been loving having the sun rise earlier thanks to moving our clocks back, and I've been able to catch the sunrise or near to it a couple of times this week. 

Having a morning to myself to listen to music and walk alone with my thoughts is a little gift at a time where so much seems so fraught with anxiety.

Wednesday morning shot

A small break in the blogging for me post-Ireland, but let’s kick it back up and finish October off right.  I have an anniversary post to write, but for now, a photo from this morning in Pasadena.  City Hall is always a beautiful sight.

last sunrise of the month

I feel like January postings this year have been a lot of first and last and so on and so forth.  Sorry for that.  Maybe I'm in a rut for titles?  Ah well.

Another short entry here.  I'll get this posted and then out the door for a day on campus.  It has been a quiet week so far, and I expect today to be the same.  I have a couple of things to get done, and that will be helpful for doing that work.

So then, enjoy this morning's sunrise.  I had a good walk without and then with Olive, and these lovely skies were the start of that.

Saturday at conference begins

Isn't that lovely?  If only I hadn't been lying awake for at least a couple of hours before that.  Oh, and a Starbucks run, which was welcome.

Ah well.  A new day at conference.  Bring it on!

Friday morning

A short post, a simple post, a lovely morning.  I was out the door before seven to walk a few miles, and oh, the morning sky. 

A hint of bad weather, red sky in the morning, but we have no rain in the forecast for days to come, so maybe it's just a beautiful morning sky.

And then a morning of working from home, decaf in hand!  Friday, underway successfully.

Safari Cafe morning

The past two days have been BUSY. Wildly so, it feels, and at my age, it's a lot. An easy morning over at Safari Cafe is just what I need. I may need it again this week.

I wasn't up too too early. I little after 6 or so. I started the morning quite enjoyably, catching up with a good friend over chat. As we typed at each other, I noticed the sunrise reflected in the nearby buildings (we face west, they face east).

Quite a cheering sight (as if I needed more cheering this week!). In the photos you can also see the globe of the Saskatchewan Pavilion so very close by.

After a bit, I wandered over to our favourite Vancouver coffee shop, Safari Cafe. We're here almost every morning when we're in Vancouver, and happily so. Adam makes a great cup of coffee, the closest thing we've found in NA to our beloved flat whites. He also spoils us with breakfast items. Egg, fresh tomato and avocado?
Wonderful. Small wonder I'm parked over here chatting still with friends, e-mailing, and blogging.

passing of time

It's a melancholy time of year: the days shorten, sunrise is later. I now get up most workdays before sunrise. A few days ago I slept in (relatively speaking) and caught this a little after 6 AM.



The passing of time. Of course, on the other hand, it does mean it's now less than 11 weeks until Christmas.

sunrise, YVR

Pretty, colourful sunrises aside, coming home from vacation is altogether bittersweet. By last Sunday morning when we were passing through Vancouver Airport, I was yearning for sleep in my own bed at home in Chicago but otherwise not even remotely keen for vacation to end.





My life sucks, he says melodramatically.

early morning, Vancouver, autumn

I was up a bit before 7 this morning - a kind of restless night of fitful sleep for me. A little sore, and little wound up. hard to explain.

I left Conrad asleep in bed (and even now, an hour and a half later, he's made only a brief appearance and retired to the sleeping in he loves so much) and came out to the living room. From Marie's place I had a great view of downtown and Chinatown, pre-dawn. Not long after, I noticed the sunrise reflected in a nearby building and took some more shots of the orange glow reflected in the city.