Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Garden Peonies

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I hate to complain, it being winter and all … but it’s so COLD here in Toronto! This morning it was 16 Celsius or -21 C with the wind chill ( -5.8 F) it’s warmed up a bit since then … it’s -11 Celsius now or oops maybe it hasn’t warmed up as it’s -22 ( -7.6 F) with the wind chill. That’s darn cold!

So, as I was browsing through my photos to find a nice garden picture for Green Thumb Sunday I of course ended up picking out a photo of a nice late spring/ early summer flower.

The above photo is of Garden Peonies. I don’t know the name of this variety as all it said on the tag when I bought it was that it was an Amsterdam Garden Peony. So I guess that means it’s kind of generic right?

I don’t care whether it’s a common garden variety or a rare hybrid … it’s pretty isn’t it?

Unfortunately where I have this peony planted in my front garden bed the soil tends to be a bit dry. I don’t think I watered enough in the early season last spring and I didn’t end up with any peony flowers. What a shame. I think I’d moved the plant the Autumn before as well so maybe that’s why it didn’t bloom. Anyway, I’m certainly hoping that it blooms this year!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.





Fans of Corvettes will love this site

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I know that some of my readers are really into their cars. Me, well I know what I like, but otherwise I don’t know all that much about cars. Are you like me or do you want to know about every model ever made of your favorite type of vehicle?

If you fall into the latter range and you appreciate corvettes you might want to visit the Corvette Guys. They have a page on their site that discusses Corvette history. Well, I guess it’s not the complete history, but it discusses all of the models that have been made between 1997 and 2007. So for all of those who love corvettes you’ve got a decade worth of material!

You’ll find information about each years model, VIN numbers, paint colors used each year, production numbers matched to paint color, interior colors, photos, the retail price for the year the car was made, engines and convertible colors.

If you own a corvette that was made in one of the years that they’ve discussed you can submit photos of your car and vehicle information.

This site could be handy if you were doing a research project on Corvettes or perhaps if you were out with your friends and needed to settle an argument about one of the models particular features.

My oldest brother really enjoys his cars. I should actually tell him about this site as he’d probably enjoy the information at Corvette Guys.

Remember that’s my brother that sends about 100 photos of his new car when he buys a new one! Photos of the interior, exterior and all parts in between. It’s kind of funny. I mean if I was as into cars as he is I might find all those photo interesting, but since he’s not purchasing a Porche … well .. a couple photos would suffice.

It’s well past time to finish our renovation projects

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Since it’s so cold out today Chris and I spent some time talking about the renovations we’d like to do to our home.

Since our Living room / Dining room renovation project stalled three years ago we’ve been living with a ceiling that’s ready to have it’s tin ceiling installed, and walls that need floor and ceiling molding and quarter round done. We’ve got all the materials … it’s just as I said since we both went through periods of severe health problems we stalled. Big time.

So number one on our list is to finish the living room dining room renovations. Then we’ll move on to renovate our basement. We’ve got a bathroom and laundry area down there right now, but other wise it’s an unfinished basement.

The bathroom is really just a roughed in bathroom with a tiny shower stall and toilet. The sink is outside the washroom in the laundry area. So yeah, a really nice bathroom downstairs would be very nice. I definitely want to have a bathtub shower, a sink and some probably Grohe faucets to complete the look.

We still haven’t decided if we’ll put in a spare bedroom or just keep the majority of the space open and use it as a den/rec room. I’d like to have the spare bedroom, but as I’ve said many times our house is very small and even in the basement we don’t have a lot of space to fool around with. I guess we’ll have to think on things a bit more before we get started. Luckily we have that other project to finish first!

When it’s cold out everyone wears a coat!

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Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Important

It’s really cold out! It’s -15 Celsius with the wind chill (5 F) so keeping ourselves and our puppy warm when we venture outside has become very important!

Lab in winter coat 8

Unfortunately she doesn’t really love her coat. She’s trying to figure out how to wiggle out of it in the picture below:

Lab in winter coat 8

I think that’s in part because it doesn’t fit her all that well.

This brand has really long neck and abdominal straps … long enough that the straps are so big I can’t really even Velcro them together as I should be able to do! I’ll have to do a little sewing magic to the straps to make it fit better I guess.

When Chris took her for a walk in her coat she held one of the neck straps in her mouth and apparently walked really nicely. Perhaps we’ve learned a valuable trick? The next time we take her out in nicer weather ie when she’s not wearing the coat, we’ll have to let her bring a toy with her. Perhaps that will at least keep her from eating leaves, grass, dirt, rocks, stones and garbage along the way!

She’s been sleepy all day for some reason. She’s also had a lot of diarrhea this week – just when it had been getting better! I hope she’s not sick.

Here’s a photo of my sleeping pup. She fell asleep on Chris’ knee:

Close up of 4.5 month old puppy sleeping

She’s so cute when she’s asleep!

Give your loved one a very special day

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Valentines day will soon be here and it’s time to start thinking about a great gift for that special someone.

There’s a UK based company called Red Letter Days that specializes in providing special gifts in the form of an experience day. Now, an experience day is not only for Valentines, but since that’s the closest special holiday where we tend to pamper those we love I think it’s worth checking out.

Red Letter Days has an assortment of very special experience days that would make perfect valentines day gifts for him or for her.

You can gift the gift of a special experience day to your loved one in a variety of ways. There are special driving, adventure, pampering, flying, culture, gourmet, lifestyle, sports, wildlife and water related experience days. There are also special experience days for couples, and even junior experience days for kids.

Considering that Red Letter Days has such a variety of special experience days to choose from you should be able to give your loved one a dream experience.

As an example, if you wanted to get a special gift for your husband you might want to check out the activity gifts section. Perhaps the gift of a Ferrari or Aston Martin driving experience day might thrill him. Among the many experiences you’ll find body flying, Tandem Skydiving, tank driving, North pole fly in, the sports car thrill and many more.

There’s even an experience called the Yippee Ki Yay Action Day which sounds like it’s right out of Die Hard:

* Live Free or DIE HARD!
* Your mission is to play at being John McClane for the day
* Receive specialist instruction in evasive driving, weapons training and unarmed combat
* Like the movie, there’s even a helicopter rescue element in the final showdown
* Refreshments and safety equipment all included

For the ladies one might consider the Urban Spa Ritual, Mosimann’s Academy, a recording studio experience, An Italian Cookery Masterclass, Topshop VIP Experience, Makeover, Photoshoot and Four Prints, massage, chocolate wrap and several other luxury experiences.

You can use the personal gift finder to help you pick out the perfect gift for your loved one, or you can simply browse through the categories as I’ve done until you find something that sounds just right. If you can’t decide you can always purchase a gift card so that your special someone can decide on their own special experience.

Many of the experiences are located in the UK, but there are others that are located in other parts of the world such as Norway or Asia so I think that the site is worth checking out no matter where you happen to live.

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