The past two months have gone by pretty fast. But the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May have alternated between warm and sunny to cold and wet. We even had a tornado warning a few days ago!! The next couple of weeks are supposed to be fairly warm around here, however it will probably be a little cooler and damper on the cruise. I keep checking the weather forecast for the different places that we will be stopping at, but as the forecasts keep changing every day we will just have to see what we get 😊. …And of course … a lot more yard work over the past couple of weeks. I usually take an hour and a half a day to do part of the yard – it takes about six hours to do the whole property – and the grass grows so fast that after four days .. I have to start again. All the trees have leaves and or blossoms. And when I see the trees like that, the first thing I think of is that in five months time I will have to start raking and bagging leaves again. I will see if I can break last year’s record of 148 bags of leaves to take to the recycle. …And in less than four days time we’ll be heading off on a seven day cruise from Montreal to Boston!! I’m really looking forward to that.
The war between Hamas and Israel is still going on – about 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 69,000 wounded, The death toll from the October 7 attack stands at 1139 with dozens still held captive. Since Israel has announced that they plan to invade the city of Rafah over 360000 people have evacuated the area. The U.S. has threatened to stop providing funds and weapons to Israel unless a complete ceasefire is called.
The war in Ukraine is still ongoing. The Ukrainians have had to make a few minor retreats due to low reserves of artillery shells and man power. The American Congress passed the $95 billion dollar bill that will provide $60 billion to Ukraine for weapons and ammunition. The Russians keep throwing thousands of soldiers against the east with a loss of tens of thousands of soldiers and equipment. They had promised to retake Chasiv Var by May 9th – Russia Victory Day – but failed to do so. As a result Putin replaced the defense minister Sergei Shoigu with Andrei Belousov - a civilian. The Russians have intensified drone, missile, and aircraft attacks against most of Ukraine over the past month especially in the Kharkiv Region. However, the Ukrainians are continuing to do drone attacks against Russian airfields and refineries ☹. There have been multiple attacks against the Belgorod, Kursk, Rostov, and Bryant regions. The Ukrainians also set a drone record by hitting an oil refinery 1500km in Russia from the Ukrainian border!!
… A lot of cooking has been going in the past six weeks– we have had many different pasta dishes; Ham Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing; Beef and Pork Roasts with Roasted Veggies; Pork Lo Mein with Snow Peas and Noodles; Shepherd’s pie; Chicken Pad Thai; Egg Foo Juan; Scandinavian Meatballs with Fresh Pasta; Mediterranean Chicken with Feta on Romaine Lettuce; lots of different type Paninis; Steaks; BBQ hamburgers and Sausages on a bun; and many other dishes . We are really looking forward to the meals on the Volendam in 4 days. The food on Holland America ships is amazing 😊.
On the Netflix and Prime front: We watched Season 1 of the Czech series ‘Ambition’ - about a family empire in Czechoslovakia following the First World War and the early ‘20s. I watched ‘Blood Coast’; a French action series about a vicious drug dealer trying to take over the drug trade in Marseilles and the police squad of detectives who are trying to stop him. I watched ‘Between Lands’ a drama series set in 1960’s Spain about a woman working through an arranged marriage so that she can protect her sister and the rest of her family. It was actually quite good, the acting was excellent, and the visuals were outstanding. I rewatched all five seasons of Rita – a Danish Dramedy for the second time. It’s an extremely engaging series about a rebellious teacher and her own unique ways of caring for the schoolchildren while trying to resolve all her own personal problems. I’ve rewatched the excellent Russian sci-fi series ‘Better Than Us’ – a futuristic thriller about a world where all the helpers, servants, lower level employees, etc. have been replaced by cyber bots – and not all the people are happy about it.
On the NHL front – the Maple Leafs secured a spot in the playoffs and played against the Boston Bruins (again) ….. and lost to Boston (again) 4 games to 3. But they were pretty impressive coming back from Boston ahead 3 – 1 winning the next two games to force game 7. Vancouver and Edmonton won their first round and have moved on – to play each other. I predict a Canadian team to win this one.
On to baseball –MLB just started their regular season a month ago, and Toronto have managed to be at the bottom of their division ☹ . But Seattle is in second place in their division only ½ a game behind the Texas Rangers 😊.
On to golf … Canadians are as usual fairly inconsistent. They tend to start off really well in the first two rounds…and then blow up in the last two. Mackenzie Hughes, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin have done relatively well but very up and down. Top 10 one week and don’t make the cut the next ☹. The Masters Tournament at Augusta had four Canadians in the mix; Corey Connors, Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin, and Mike Weir. Taylor and Weir didn’t make the cut; Connors finished tied for 38th, Hadwin tied for 53rd. The RBC Heritage the next week had 5 Canadians playing – the best result was Mackenzie Hughes tied for 39th. The Zurich Classic of New Orleans had players in teams of two – Hadwin and Taylor (who finished runner up last year) finished 10th; Connors and Pendrith tied for 11th. And two weeks ago was the CJ Cup Byron Nelson with two Canadians making the cut – Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes. …. And Pendrith won by one shot for his first PGA win!! And $1.7M U.S. … so pretty good day for him 😊.
Last week was the Wells Fargo Championship – one of the signature events, so lots of extra prize money and Fedex points were awarded. There was no cut so all six Canadians that qualified played all four rounds. Three Canadians finished in the top 13 – Mackenzie Hughes for a tie for 6th, Taylor Pendrith tied for 10th, and Corey Connors tied for 13th. The PGA Championship will be played this week and the RBC Canadian Open will be played the end of May beginning of June. Maybe Nick Taylor can repeat his win from last year.
NFL news – the NFL Draft was held at the end of April. Seattle picked up Byron Murphy, DT, in the first round; Christian Haynes, G, in the third round. Both are expected to be starters. They had six more picks – all look pretty solid.
Have a great and safe month … pray for Ukraine … we will see you in a bit!! 😊