So, I didn’t make it to midnight last night. It was 11, after first my book and then my phone kept falling out of my hands, that I toasted Bill with the last mouthful of Disaronno and closed my eyes. They were already halfway closed throughout the preceding hour. I was done for. Now, I did roll over at 12:10 to face Bill and got my first 2021 kiss. He was still reading his book and managed to stay awake until after 1 am.

Driving to Durham, the sun was just hanging in there
behind the clouds
Today,
Friday, Jan. 1st we were up by 8. We went down for our tea and
coffee, read blogs and sent out multiple wishes on social media upstairs. It’s hard
to reach everyone but we all try and then I’m glad when that part is over. Aren’t
you? The day is fairly mild and no precipitation for the morning, at least. Good news so far on this Ontario front.

Leaving the clear highway, Bill chose the back roads
to bypass Walkerton and Hanover
Bill had
his shower and then we had a bite to eat with our second hot brew of the day.
Everything is new. Everything is fresh. First time for this, that and the other
thing in 2021. The morning passed quietly and around 12:30 we headed over to Durham to
clean. The Mat was busy and cleaning around people was a bit challenging as
they were in many of the areas. 😊 Not unexpected. I’d texted Jamie to let him know of our later arrival.

It is going to be hard for you to tell how deep
this is but trust me, I'm glad I wore my knee high boots
We weren’t
there long when Jamie and his pretty daughter, Emma, showed up. He paid me for the month of December and surprised me by giving us a couple of Tim Hortons
gift cards. Not necessary but very much appreciated. From there, we drove to
the Ridge with the intention of dropping off the Christmas tree box, a stuffed
full box of ornaments and a couple of other boxes of ‘stuff’. Boy oh boy, we
didn’t quite expect it to be such a challenge.

It was pretty wild and windy up on the Ridge
so I didn't hang around taking pictures
The wind keeps the snow off the shed roofs
We had to park on North Line, no way were we able to turn into our lane, and walk through 15”of heavy snow all the way up the drive. You know the walk I enjoy all summer? Well, not today! By the time we got up there, after multiple rests, we were huffing and puffing. In shape? Not by a long shot. That was very difficult.

I tried following in Bill's footholes on the way up and down
but they were too far apart and twice I lost my balance and went
down on my knees
It was better for me to create my own holes 😄
I remembered what my little sister, Wendy, said about feeding
the birds on New Years Day so I grabbed a dish full of bird seed from the Bunky and spread it
out. It means good luck and can’t we all use some of that right now? For example, we needed it to get back down the laneway! 😓

I made this photo a bit darker so you could see our tracks better
It took
us 45 minutes to an hour to get things up to the Bunky and get us back down to
Ptooties again. On the way through Hanover, we made a stop to wish Donna and
Gerry 'Happy New Year' before trudging on home. We'd had to borrow his keys. For supper we had cottage roll,
carrots, peas and scalloped potatoes with a delicious blueberry buckle dessert.
It was delicious.

Baptist Church Road heading home
In our
room, around 7:30, outside our window was white again. The snow was heavy but someone must have missed the message that Christmas was over and we didn't want any more of the white stuff. Bill and Wes had
discussed repositioning our vehicles for the weekend to make it easier to get
the truck out for driveway clearing so Bill got Black Beauty and Ptooties moved
around before settling upstairs.
It was a
good day, nothing untoward for our first day other than forgetting some keys
for the Bunky. LOL Thank goodness we could use Gerry’s set or it would have
been a wasted trip. I hope your first day of 2021 was a good one. May you only
experience joy, happiness and good health in the days to come.
Thank you
for stopping by!

