bright like a diamond

happy new year, and here it goes! coldest cold snap in years/decades etc, depending where in the east of north america you are. (kind of hard to relate to european ppl at this point). for myself, i'm happy that i don't have to go outside (though i still do, occasionally - but clearly less than others) and also that for once, everyone's complaining about weather, so i am in solid company.

the days just before the new year, my main photo project was sitting by the window and trying to photograph ice flowers. montreal (and our home to some extent) is good for this because of general bad insulation. my mum, from the country of above zero temperatures, no snow and double glazing, pretends that she hasn't seen ice flowers on windows since she was little, growing up at my grandparents' - which must be bogus. one just gets dis-used to old circumstances so fast. me, i like our ice flowers! and, we might have just a tiiiiiny bit of a draft in the kitchen and salon, but i've never considered it drafty enough to do extra insulation (the plastic wrap DIY type that's so popular here.)

safe viewing distance from "feels like -35C"

usually sunshine means cold. (i feel i'm saying this every winter). but the light is still good, if i'm going to stay inside all day i prefer to have light.

cold and comfort food go hand in hand still...every time we plan a trip out (lately it's been to various stores to buy/ or research weird baby things), we need to have a reward in the form of, either eating out, or bringing desserts home. these are indian sweets from pushap at namur, a very nice restaurant in spite of being overhyped.

after the christmas baking marathon i calmed down a bit, so this is all i made for new year's eve: scones and a normal cake. i hope you can see why i normally don't take more pictures of the cakes i make - it's just not very illustrative of how good the cake is, or of anything.

 

 

 

 

keeping up with the belly pictures as much as i can - almost 35 weeks, on new year's eve. the angle is pretty bad, the camera was on the kitchen counter, so a bit lower than ideal. (also, every time i look at this picture i consider actually wearing proper bras! especially since i seem to have miraculously achieved a couple of nice nursing bras with some support.)

my belly shape is really bizarre in this one, but at least tina is included. (also, my fancy earrings!)

official new year's picture (= the kind every couple posts on facebook...lol, do i mean to snidely suggest we're better than other couples? sure, but not for not posting!) (i mean, i am clearly biased!) also featuring my new 3$ dress from old navy.

and the version in which, after 10+ attempts, we managed to make tina sit still with us and look at the camera. apart from this ~spontaneous midnight photo session, the most fun thing on new year's eve was B.'s sudden project of downloading a whole bunch of classical music, because our kid is supposed to be exposed to classical music!!!!1

during an otherwise very quiet week, shopping and crowding up goes on downtown, inside the underground city. this is from bonaventure railway station, which is connected to metro bonaventure and to place ville marie, from where i walked all the way to eaton center and then up to the peel metro stop without having to face the outside temperatures. all in all, a good day's exercise!

meanwhile, outside...trying to make winter cheerful...

a simple way to make winter cheerful is to go and have early breakfast at your own neighbourhood corner diner - in our case, the celebrated Corvette on jarry. We got out this morning (-19C, feels like -26C) with the understanding that after that we were going to hibernate the whole day - this is a good mindset from which to smile at people shoveling their alleys and unburying their cars from the fresh snow. (and an illustration of why shoveling stairs is important)