Big storm March 26 – had yet another snow day!
Trees laden with ice after freezing rain March 30 – it has been snowing again since!
First, what I didn’t like about March:
- 31 more days of winter including a huge snowstorm on the 26th
- Paying for yet another boiler/furnace repair (have decided to replace it with a heat pump/air exchanger system soon)
- Lots of work meetings impacting my fitness schedule! Same # of home workouts but only half as much walking and skating in March as in February. Sigh.
But there was lots to like!
Yeah, Canada!
First of all, Rom is a new Canadian! His citizenship ceremony took place at Pier 21 where over a million newcomers first landed in Canada. He was one of 197 who took the oath that morning. A happy day!
We did our duty as citizens and filed our taxes (and I did my parents’ as well). I got a massive tax refund from my RRSP contributions, but I must remember it is balanced out by paying the deferred tax later. Meanwhile it is going right into a TFSA.
Rom and I planned a trip to Toronto for mid-April. We’ll visit with our kid, Link, and take in the sights – always plenty to do. Looking forward to a get-away and some down-time! We have booked into a guest house in a busy part of downtown.
At the Gulag with Kermit/Constantine
Entertainment-wise, there were no big-ticket events such as concerts and plays. We went out to see the new Muppets movie, Muppets Most Wanted. I liked it a lot better than the last one (2011) because it didn’t have such aw-shucks humour as the last one, and it had more jokes for adults. I am a life-long Muppet fan!
I saw two movies on DVD this month. I had read The Hunger Games but somehow never watched the movie, so I finally saw it. In February, I read the book Oscar and Lucinda, and this month I watched the movie, which featured Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett. I was glad I saw it – it really brought the book to life. But I don’t think the movie stands up very well for anyone who hasn’t read the book.
As you may have seen, I read 6 books in March (a very wintery month), although I must say they were all short ones. I went to a book club meeting, and started the next book club choice, A Thousand Suns. (A list of what our book club has read so far is over at Goodreads – it is mainly fiction set in developing countries).
One Dish Vegan by Robin Robertson
I finally tried out the recipes I wanted to make from the One Dish Vegan cookbook, a tagine and a risotto. They were both very good and I have some ideas about variations for next time. I felt inspired again because I had been only cooking old favourites for a few months. (I am mostly vegetarian, but not vegan. However, we end up eating a lot of vegan meals, whether intentionally or not).
Also food-related, Rom and I went out for lunch three times over the course of the month. Our three lunches probably cost us the same as one semi-elegant dinner!
I signed up for a one-time class on needle felting. I hadn’t done any crafts in ages and it was really fun – incredibly simple but satisfying results. In the method I learned, you use a needle to poke wool fluff into a piece of wool fabric, making a design or a picture on the backing. Then you tighten up the whole thing in hot water and a bit of detergent. My kinda craft!
At work, the library renovations kicked off, and several small projects were squeezed into the current fiscal year which ended March 31.
March has been good despite the interminable winter (which has continued this week with snow and ice). I feel I’m never lacking things to do!
What did you think of March?
An Exacting Life 
Congratulations to Rom! It is great to get new inspiration with cooking, especially when ‘old favourites’ are starting to feel a bit old.
I still cannot get over that amount of snow! Makes for very pretty pictures but the practicalities of daily life intrigue me. Do children ever wander outside by accident? Does it cause mechanical issues with cars? (or are Canadian cars just built tough!) I have a few friends who post those ”Meanwhile in Canada” type photos – love them!
Sadly, I have heard about a few children who have wandered outside in the cold, but it is very, very rare. Cars are hard to start when it gets to about -20. That is not common where I live, but in colder areas, people install an engine block heater and plug their cars in overnight.
I am ready for a break from snow shovelling!
You must be so fed up with the snow now – it seems endless!
Congratulations to Rom – how wonderful for you both 🙂
Yes, but it melts faster at this time of year so we pretend spring is coming.
Thanks!
OMG is that for real? We have got off lightly this year – unless there is some to come that we haven’t bargained for. We are suffering endless fog at the moment and air poluution from the Sahara Desert. Congrats to Rom you must both be so pleased.
The vegan meals sound good you must post the recipes – and I must post my mushroom one for you as promised ages ago (whoops!) was it stroganoff or risotto?
March has not been good for me – I have totally overspent and dare hardly post my budget for March – so many things got in the way of focusing on the spending. You cannot take your eye off the ball for a second can you!
PS I like the white boarding on your house – it is quite camouflaged in the snow.
Yep, for real. I have heard about your desert smog! Would love to get the stroganoff recipe if you get a chance. I can email you the two recipes I tried – I don’t feel comfortable posting them since they were directly from a recent cookbook (copyright issue). I think April will be a high-spending month here because of travel plans. The white boarding on the house is typical vinyl siding in our neighbourhood!
Like other Aussies, the weather blows me away. I’ve just had two days at a conference, and you Canadians (and other countries) have challenges we can’t imagine, just keeping your electricity transformers running. We can use all these synthetic esters in place of mineral oil, but only mineral oil will perform at the negative temps you see.
Yay for Rom, and yay for the planned holiday. It’s nice that it’s ‘our’ kid, not ‘your’ kid. I love these little months in review, perhaps I should do them to help me with my ‘year in review’!
Thanks, and yes I like being able to look back on the year and sum it up! Amazingly we haven’t had any power outages this year, not even when the trees were covered in ice.
Yep, like the other Aussies, love and amazed by the snow.
Congrats to Rom.
March has been rather a forgettable time, one I’d rather forget. It’s been filled with sadness and with stress at work. Roll on April, I say.
I’m sorry to hear that, L. I hope April makes up for it.
That’s so much snow- I think that I have never experienced as much. We do have snow in North Greece but this winter was rather mild. Your March’s report is interesting and it is nice that there were more things that you liked than disliked! April will be far better with springlike weather and your Toronto trip!
Sometimes, I try to do the same by the end of my day and focus on the nice things that I am grateful for.
This March was contradictory for me; on the one hand, I managed to finish my thesis’ text on time (now I have to make alterations etc. according to the supervisor’s feedback) and on the other hand, my family is in deep grief as my uncle who lived in U.S. passed away last week. 😦
Hi Alice, I’m sorry for your bad news. But also very happy for you, getting the main text of your thesis done – good for you! I always, always have so many more positive things in my life than negative. I trust I will be able to keep my “don’t like” lists short!
Thank you for your kindness! It is a nice commitment, I will try to do the same! 🙂
How much snow? Desert smog here as well, getting everyone grouchy so hopefully the smog and our moods will lift soon. Look after yourself x
Hello! We only got about 8″ of snow but there were gale-force winds so it drifted up. I hope your smog lifts (or disperses or whatever it does).
Such a good month! Yay for Rom 🙂 And more goodness to look forward to this month – I hope you enjoy your trip to Toronto!
We were so luck the temperatures rose just enough for us to escape that snowstorm and just get rain. It was enough to shut down roads from flooding, so it would’ve been a doozy as snow!
Thanks! And yeah, it was just as well we didn’t get that one as rain. Amanda, what region do you live in? I’ve never quite been able to figure it out. I am guessing north-central US?
Yep, and right along the coast so we get storms from the west and the occasional Nor’easter as well 🙂
Congratulations to Rom and commiserations on all the snow. It has been so dry in Melbourne during March that my garden looks crispy.
I will pass along your well wishes. Oh no about the garden – is that typical? Will it recover?