Gray, Drab and Snowy

Drab, gray and snowy are how I would describe the weather the past 3 days. I talked to my son from BC this afternoon after I finally came in out of the cold having spent hours outside shoveling the driveway again. He said he was talking to a friend who lives in Toronto and was told that we had 3 snow storms back to back. I was sure it was just one storm that had lasted for 3 days, but whatever...the result is the same. We had lots of snow that needed to be moved. My job would have been much worse, but a neighbour saw me struggling with the plowed stuff at the end of the driveway (heavy with  sand and road salt and well compacted) and he took pity on me and used his little tractor with the snow plow on it to remove the worst of it. That left me to just have to clear the top of the driveway of  the fluffy soft stuff.

Sunday is the day I get a lot of family phone calls, which is so much fun with face time. I have spoken today with Dee, my brother and SIL from Smith Falls, my son in BC and two of my grand daughters, and my sister and BIL in Elliot Lake. In between calls, I have been in the kitchen again. I have shredded the last cabbage and sauteed. I roasted 3 chicken legs with backs attached. I will have one tonight with stir fried veggies. I unloaded the dishwasher and filled it up again for a load that is washing now. I finally took down my strings of Christmas cards that were hanging on the dining room wall.

Goals Update:
Environment - House- Finished Spring Cleaning my Master Bedroom (except for the windows)
                                    Have begun the job of purging, though not much as yet.
                      Garden- I threw out a lot of old seed packets in the Fall, so I only have one glass mason jar where I have stashed some seeds. I have Shasta Daisies, nasturtiums and marigolds. I have seeds for green onions, red lettuce and radishes and I have veggie seeds for turnip, 2 kinds of carrots, cabbage, pie pumpkins, corn and some green beans. All of these seeds do very well by directly planting in the garden. The veggies that would benefit with an early indoor planting....I don't have any of them. So I will be on the lookout for peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and broccoli.

Finances- I only had one spend day this week when I spent approx. $25 on postage to mail out souvenirs to my grand kids. I am thinking I will let my CAA membership lapse this month and pick it up next month in March. With the car needing a renewal in February and also I need to pay for my license  renewal this month, it is too much to handle at once. I did not renew this week like I planned, so I will move that to next week's goals.

Family and Friends   I kept in touch with family all week, but did not call my friends yet.  I have been commenting on blogs this week. I worked on fixing the problem with my vacation photos. Now that I have it sorted I should be able to download my photos to a DVD and mail it out to my SIL. I should also be able to post them to my Blog.

Health   I went for my blood work this week but did not call to make an appointment with my GP. I have to do that tomorrow. 

Crafts I made my 6 birthday cards this week, but worked on them on two separate afternoons. I tried to sketch out an embroidery project but I didn't like it. I am going to try again today with something smaller. I have located some embroidery floss and found some small needlepoint projects. I checked out some iron-on patterns on Amazon but have not ordered anything. I will do some needlepoint before I spend any more money. I also have cotton to knit up some more dishcloths. I want to use up supplies that I have already.

More pictures from Aruba.....

 Hooiberg (Dutch for haystack) is the name given to this remnant of a volcano

 It is not the highest point on the Island, but because it is the centre, it can be seen from anywhere on the Island.

 Aruba is known for its white sandy beaches on the southern coastline, but the northern coast is ruggedly beautiful. They discourage swimming here. These small sandy bay openings are called Bocas.

It is strange to see semi-desert right next to wide expanses of water and crashing waves. You have already seen the photos of the stone bridge so I won't show any more. I took so many. I won't say too many because I just loved watching the waves crashing into the shoreline. After we left this area we drove here to see the Bushiribana ruins (an old gold smelter). A lot of my photos today were taken from inside a tour bus. We did not get out here to take photos, so I apologize for the glare from the window.

We did get out here at the Casibara rock formations and were allowed to climb to the top.

 Beautiful 360 degree vistas from the top. Love all the red tiled roofs.

At the bottom of these huge boulders, inside the stone wall, was a garden.

 Some views of the garden.

I climbed up that rock formation. 

 Fields of Aloe Vera. We stopped at the Aloe factory. It was Sunday, so there were no workers, but the store was open for business. I bought some hand lotion and repair lotion for sunburned skin. I got to try the sunburn creme later on in Jamaica. It worked great!

 The California Lighthouse, named for a schooner named the S.S. California that crashed on these shores before the lighthouse was built.

 There wasn't time to climb to the top of the lighthouse, but there was time to buy a smoothie.

 And finally we ended up on the southern shores with the famous white sand beaches. We only had 20 minutes here. A lot of people didn't even get off the bus to take pictures, but my SIL and I did. This was the first opportunity to visit a Caribbean beach since we started the cruise, and we were not going to miss the opportunity. I snapped these pictures and then I went in up to my knees. I was hit by a wave and knocked down. The undertow grabbed me and pulled me out. Try as I might, I could not get back to my feet. My sister in law had to grab my hand and pull me up the beach. I was laughing so hard, but in reality, it was quite frightening. I was bruised on the back  of my thighs from where the waves had bounced me hard under the surf.  I was still bruised at the end of the cruise.

I look at these pictures now and I don't understand how I could have fallen. This beach looks so inviting. Anyways, I had my little adventure and got back to the bus in time to head back to the ship. This tour was called "The Best of Aruba" and was just over 4 hours long. Tomorrow we will arrive in Curacao.