Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Tag: Christmas

  • The Christmas Wreath

    The Christmas Wreath

    Problem Child

    This is the problem child. He came to our house for Christmas in 2019 and was perfectly well behaved. This year it seems he’s in a “terrible twos” phase.

    Shortly after taking up residence along side our front door we found him down on the ground propped up along side the car!

    The fine wire that I used to hang him up and to be virtually invisible had broken. It seems that in a strong south wind he gets a little excited and flys around banging against the house. Being a little slow, me not him, I re-hung him using the same wire but with a new safety improvement. I attached his power cord to a screw that hold the facia on. This way if he slips off his perch at least he wouldn’t hit the ground, or so I thought.

    The other night both Shirley and I were woken up at 4 a.m. by our problem child banging around in the wind. As I stood at the front window he decided he’d had enough and jumped off the house. Sure enough the safety system worked and he was now dangling around suspended from the edge of the roof. Well, I couldn’t just leave him there so I got dressed and headed out to rescue him.

    However, in the 2-3 minutes it took me to get out there he’d completed his escape and was lying on the ground in the flower bed. Not only that but he took some of his friends with him! A section of aluminium facia was also on the ground with him and about 20′ of Christmas lights were also ripped from the roof and flapping around in the breeze. Well, at 4 a.m. it’s still dark and things couldn’t get much worse so I left him there until after sunrise.

    At 9 a.m. I’m out there with a new plan to rescue the boy. The facia is hammered back into it’s original shape without looking too much the worse for wear and easily re-attached. A new 1/16″ stainless steel cable is used to secure him from above and a 150lb test line is used to secure him from below, hopefully to eliminate the flapping around in a breeze. Christmas lights are re-positioned and everything is re-connected and it seems all good.

    But we’re not done yet! This morning he’s banging around again! Pretty sure he can’t jump off the wall this time but the string holding him down has some slack in it now allowing the flapping around. So, I teach my self the Trucker’s Hitch knot, the gold standard in securing a load and keeping the string tight. So far, so good.

  • Christmas 2018

    I had a fabulous Christmas with family and friends! An awesome Christmas Eve church service, a long standing Christmas Eve party with friends and a very special Christmas Day with family. 

    Here is a little video of the Christmas Day highlights.

    Christmas 2018 Highlights

  • Rullu pylsa, or Rúllupylsa

    The annual (sort of) tradition of making Rullu Pylsa is living on this year with a bit of a first ever twist.

    In late November we called Thor’s Meats in Selkirk, our normal supplier of boned lamb flank, and were told it was unavailable and we should have called in September to secure this hard to come by cut of meat. This was a little disappointing, which led to some  googling which led to some “other” recipes where they used beef flank. So, that’s what we did this year, same recipe, different cut of meat. It will be interesting to find out how it tastes! So different, beef vs. lamb, lean vs. quite fatty, but we got them done and are now in the 5 day marinating period. Here is the prep stage.

    I started with 3 beef flanks and managed to split two in half to make a thiner layer for rolling. The third flank had “issues” so its in the original thickness and resulted in a much fatter roll. End result, 5 Rulla Pylsa for Christmas.

    The “official” recipe from my mom.

    If all this is too complicated, time consuming etc. there is a Canadian made option! Order it from vinaterta.ca, and while your there get a Vinaterta too! My wonderful sister made me a Vinarterta and shipped it from Saskatoon for my birthday, yum!

    On a more tech/blog note I was looking at the site stats recently and while the site traffic is very low, the most popular post ever is Rullupylsa in the Raw and visits peak in December, prime time to make your Rule Pylsa. Happy cooking!

  • Up Early

    I’m awake in the early hours. Thoughts of all kinds are zooming around in my mind. After a while I get out of bed. It’s 5:00 am.

    After the usual morning routine I settle in with a coffee to read the Bible. Today is a bit of a big day for me, it’s day 365.

    Today is the day I’ve completed reading the entire Bible for the first time. Certainly being retired has helped with setting aside the time and I know I should have done this a long time ago, but here I am. I’d say the daily reading habit is now firmly entrenched.

    On occasion I’d miss a day or two, but always managed to catch up in short order and get back on track. The YouVersion app has been a really big help. Some parts of the Bible were tough slogging (might have skimmed through parts of Numbers and Lamentations) and with other parts I found myself looking forward to the next day to find out what happens next! (Job, Daniel, Revelations).

    So now what? What will I read now? Well, it’s Advent and focusing on the coming of Jesus into the world seems quite appropriate. I actually miss the Advent traditions from my days in the Anglican church, so this will be good.

    I scan a few reading plans and pick up on two that seem good for me. I’m sure one or both of these will stick.

    The first one is this.

    I’m reading the @YouVersion plan ‘The King Is Coming’. Check it out here:

    The other is this one.

    I just finished day 1 of the @YouVersion plan ‘One On One: 100 Days With Jesus–ADVENT’. Check it out here:

    Now I’ve read John 1 before, several times in fact, but it’s never impacted me like it did today. So beautiful, powerful, profound and more, beyond words