2023 was a wonderful year for the garden, even if only because it was the first year here that the garden really started to feel like mine – to start to grow into the vision I had for it when we first bought the house.

It began with plants I’ve always wanted, but never had…

Winter Aconite and Hellebores

And spring came on with a feast of daffodils

Followed by a rainbow of tulips…

With a wealth of other spring bulbs (hyacinths, crocuses, and alliums throughout)

Clematis, a plant I always struggled to grow, flourished this summer

Irises filled the time between spring and summer

The Lupins stood tall and proud as summer began

I’m really hoping to add some more colours in 2024.

The roses had a tough time with with the aphids and the sawfly larvae, but they still managed to bring much beauty

I was blown away by how quickly the climbing roses (the pair on the bottom) grew and bloomed). The arbour is going to be absolutely covered next year.

My Lily collection grew in number and continued to delight

As did my daylily collection

The foxglove flourished…

And with the way it reseeded – we’re set to be exploding with fox glove next year.

And as summer gave way to fall…

… the flowers of Autumn took their time to shine.

And now the garden sleeps… and we wait. Another year, bigger and better is just waiting to burst forth.

I know it’s not Friday Felines, but I just couldn’t resist sharing this pic of these two.

It makes me laugh because Rupert was soooooo put out about Relic joining the household. His nose was out of joint for more than year! But now… he just loves getting in nice and close to Relic to share his warmth. Relic tolerates it – which I think is pretty amazing, given how Rupert absolutely harassed him for so long.

And while they look close in size here, Rupert is 1/3 the size of Relic, which makes their pair even more odd.

I know you’re all dying to see what crazy thing I made for my brother this year. A while ago, this pattern came out, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it for my brother. But I didn’t want to make a whole quilt. So…

I made a giant body pillow instead! I made it in the colours of his dear kitty Zappa, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year.

I made it as a pillow case that can be slipped on and off (for easy washing) and it’s full lined so there are no raw edges

On the back I have this cute grey tabby fabric. It was another of my Spoonflower purchases from earlier in the year. Like the other prints, I wasn’t thrilled with quality of the printing on the fabric, but this was a good use for it.

Of course, making this just got me on a roll for other small gifts on “theme”

So, I also got him these

A cat butt cookie cutter, and a key chain…

And then this…

I mean… how could I resist?

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Bearbottomquilts

Lord Burton Bearbottom, Baron Rupert Von Scrufflebutt, Relic von Hindenpurr, Lemmy Purrmister and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Since we got all the excitement and work of the holidays out of the way on Saturday, we plan on spending all of today in bed!

…and then it was all over. At least for us. We had the family over yesterday, had a wonderful meal (and yes, my mince pies were decent), and lots of laughs. I was so busy, I took very few pictures.

In fact, the only pictures I took were.

Two very angry kitties staring down from the top of the stairs. And why were they so angry?

There were DOGS in their house. It was too long of a day for Mom and Dad to leave Jem and Chevy at home, so they came a long to celebrate with us. (Just pictured is Jem, but I promise, Chevy was there too)

And though the dogs were about… the cats ruled the day.

I received these fabulous Hello Kitty baking dishes!

A lucky cat planter!

And some beautiful china mugs with black cats on them. So…. looks like I got spoiled again. And I have to go spoil some kitties to make up for those dirty dogs in the house!

One of my favourite treats of the season is Mincemeat pie. Mom always used to make it for me, and when I moved out, I made it every year if we weren’t making it to Christmas dinner at Mom’s . But then COVID hit… and the brand of jarred mincemeat I normally bought stopped making it. And I couldn’t find anything to replace it. In 2021, I finally found a very fancy, expensive brand. And it was HORRIBLE.

Last year, it was the only thing I could find, so I did without. This year, it looked like it was going to be the only brand on the shelves again (most stores don’t even carry mincemeat at all), so I decided to just bite the bullet and make it myself.

It turned out to be even easier to make than I thought – basically just toss it all into a pot, and simmer. I made it up Thursday night, and yesterday, I scooped it all into tart shells.

It certainly smelled like mincemeat. How did it taste….? well the few bits I ate off the spoon when I was done tasted pretty good. But I’m saving the actual tarts for after our Christmas dinner, which we are doing today.

There will also be….

Apple pie (Dave’s favourite) and Pumpkin pie.

And butter tarts too… but I didn’t take a picture of them.

I’ll report back on the mincemeat success soon…

Last Sunday, I took the opportunity to get the majority of the presents wrapped (SILs sock’s being the only exception)

But there was a little kink in the production. That kink being LEMMY! I don’t remember him being very interested last year (he was very into the tree), but this year he thought it was just the BEST THING EVER.

After removing him from my wrapping space, retrieving my scissors, chasing him away from the wrapping paper, picking the tape rolls up off the floor, etc…. I finally got smart

I gave him a few off cuts of paper to play with on the floor.

He kept busy, shredding it to bits, and I finally got to wrap my presents in peace!!!

I did it!

I got these little babies off the needles and grafted last night. Now I just need to wrap them up and all my Christmas gifting is done! I just have baking left to do, which I will tackle tomorrow.

Now as to the details of the socks. Nothing fancy – my usual vanillas, letting the yarn do all the work. As to the yarn… I don’t know what it is. I got a full (or nearly full) ball of it at a thrift store. I think it might be Regia – it feels a lot like Regia. But it could be something like Opal. Regardless, it’s pretty, and I wish I has more to make a pair for myself!

On Monday, I booked the day off work to go visit someone very special.

Long time readers will recognize that lady to the left of me, as my best friend Samantha. We met when I was 12 and she moved to my town. She was a year older, but we rode the same school bus. And she basically punched me and harassed me every day on those bus rides until I agreed to be her friend (it took about a week and several bruises, but we’ve remained besties ever since – despite the fact that moved away just a year later. In fact, we haven’t lived closer than 40 minutes to each other since – we are now almost 2 hours apart) .

As I just turned 44, you can do the math and realize that means we’ve been friends for more than three decades. We usually see each other a couple times a year (in a good year), but of course, chat daily through text.

Well – last month, Samantha was diagnosed with breast cancer. It wasn’t a huge surprise, she’s been getting mammograms yearly since she turned 40 because there’s a history of in her family. But nobody, not even the doctors really expected it to happen in her 40s. Anyway, prognosis is good so far. She had surgery last week and is waiting to hear on further treatment (they will do radiation, but they are still deciding if chemo is needed too).

She’s off work for a while, so it was the perfect time to head down to her place for a visit. She’s doing very well after the surgery…

Her beagle, Calibre, is keeping a very close watch over her. It was a really nice visit – we sat and chatted and chatted and chatted, realizing it’s the first time we’ve gotten together without the husbands around in a very long time (at least 3-4 years). It was nice to have some strictly girl time.

Unfortunately, the visit was only a few hours, as the weather was turning and the route home was under a snow squall warning. So I hit the road before it good too bad. In fact, I got home just at it really ramped up.

But it was a great visit, and we both agreed we shouldn’t wait for something as crappy as cancer to get together. In fact, we already have plans for January (weather-permitting, of course!)