It is the end of March and I have neglected updates this winter. This is a bit unusual as Winter is usually pretty active.

January

The beginning of January was a bit quiet with Sam and Mumtaz under the weather. Things improved later in the month. A flying trip was cancelled due to bad weather in Florida (imagine!) so Mumtaz and I drove to Arlington Virginia to visit Bob and Felicia. Sadly Felicia was hospitalized shortly after we left but she has recovered. The trip was quite pleasant, we travelled more leisurely than usual and stopped in Hartford on the way to the Washington area and Cranberry Township north of Pittsburg on the way home. We drove the US15 corridor through Northern Virginia for the first time and found it quite scenic and historic. So the trip was a success but on balance January was a bit … gloomy.

Mumtaz’s Birthday

This is an odd numbered year so no trip to Wiarton; but, Groundhog Day was on a Sunday so we seized the opportunity to have Sam and Trevor visit for a unified celebration of Mumtaz’s birthday and Groundhog Day. Here are a couple of photos from Mumtaz’s birthday celebration:

Not quite the blow out party from last year but quite satisfying and enjoyable to all.

Groundhog Day

We were up early on 2/February to see the live feed from Punxsutawney; always impressive, especially so when falling on a Sunday. Punxsutawney Phil predicted a late spring.

Star and April were due to attend the General Beauregard Lee festival in Savannah, Georgia. You may recall that we met them in Wiarton years ago; they visit a different Groundhog Day celebration every year and their blog is quite entertaining. We checked a delayed feed of the General Beauregard Lee festival, noting that his habitat is absolutely spectacular. Have a look:

Well we didn’t get very many good views of the audience but learned later that Star and April were in a serious accident in their rental car on a side trip to the ocean from Savannah. We are relieved to hear that they were not hurt; they were, however, unable to make it back to Savannah for the festival. Here is a link to their blog entry from where you can also read about the rest of their trip to the Savannah area and their past adventures.

As to Wiarton Willie, there is one positive note which is that that the live stream was actually easy to find this year. Otherwise, again this year, the effort was actually quite half hearted. Willie predicted an early Spring which was quite accurate. Willie was quite composed and professional, it was human support structure that was lacking.

Trip to Florida

There were a lot plans for flying in Florida and beyond this winter and I was planning to spend some time in the Miami area with a backlog of family, friends and colleagues to visit. We were weathered out in January and too busy in February. In the first half of March weather opened up nicely but due to prudent decisions, we flew the airplane back to Canada with a quick turn around in the Daytona Beach area. I don’t think that there will be much of a ferry business to and from Florida next winter but there are some interesting adventures coming up later in the Spring.

Pi Day

Hard on my arrival from Florida, we embarked on the annual pilgrimage. Every year we search for a special pie in the run up to Pi Day. This year, our pie comes from Wanda’s Pie in the Sky in Kensington Market, Toronto; here are some photos:

We also dropped a pie off with Sam and Trevor which increased the sense of anticipation for Pi Day

During the Groundhog Day festivities, we neglected to take the annual Mandatory Misery Shot so we fixed that on Pi Day.

And here is our wild blueberry pie from Wanda’s Pie in the Sky which was absolutely delicious. We were guests at the Yuk Yuks comedy club in Niagara Falls in the evening which counted as our Circle Measuring Party.