Y is for Year at ABC Wednesday

To see what others chose for the letter Y today on ABC Wednesday, click here.
To see what last Year was like for Kay and Dick and Lindy, see below. Except for Lindy's dwindling eyesight, it was a pretty good year. Here's a review:

 New

Year's Day

last

year

Our new grand-nephew
was 3 only months old
in Jan. '13.

Hoar frost looks lovely on trees, right.


I saw Lindy's dog cousins Jasper, left, and Roxy, in BC.

In February, Dick and I flew to Florida, to embark on a cruise from Miami to Venice.

Left, Valentine's Day aboard the Carnival Destiny. We dined with a lovely young lady named Jo and her husband, John, a philosophy professor I kept threatening to adopt. 
To the right, we can almost see the sun setting behind our ship.

Our first landfall was southern Spain, where this courtly gentleman statue greeted Dick and his camera, left.


Here I am in Barcelona, right, one of my favourite cities. I like it as much as Paris.

As shore excursions from the ship before we rounded the "boot" to sail to Venice, we visited Florence, above; Pisa, above right, and Rome, right.

Venice, of course, is indescribable, resulting in more photos than I can ever include.
















The coast of Italy is spectacular, especially the northwest region known as Cinque Terre, and the southern region called the Amalfi Coast.

Here I am outside Pompeii, right, before our tour to the Amalfi Coast, below. Dick was able to explore Pompeii, but I wasn't up to it.

Amalfi Coast, Italy

And then, when we got home...

our grandchildren in Medicine Hat had two dogs, Rajah and Jezebel, and then... they had sixteen dogs...Jezebel gave birth to 14 puppies. Rajah, not a particularly proud papa, didn't know what all the fuss was about, but he barked protectively when prospective puppy owners (and grandparents) showed up. Here are six of the pups...

Pronghorn
Antelope
We used to see lots of antelope, but a recent bad winter followed by construction in our area means we seldom saw any last year.

But the spring of last year brought cherry and crabapple blossoms, only a little bit late.

And, out in BC, our grandnephew was getting curious about things he could see out the window.


















Dick visited Red Rock Coulee (right)
and the town of Manyberries, with the
Grasslands Naturalists group.

Deer continue to visit our neighbourhood, but Lindy doesn't always see them. We didn't know about her eyesight yet in early summer, however.

They're 40 now.

Dick and Lindy and I drove to the west coast to visit my family in July of last year. While we were there, many of us got together to celebrate my two eldest nephews turning 40, one in the spring and one in the fall.

The star of the party, of course, was our youngest grandnephew, who was eight months old and a lot of fun. There were five other children there, too, and of course Auntie Kay loves them all.

Lindy didn't seem to be enjoying the party, or the baseball-with-a-tennis-ball game at the park afterward, but we didn't know why until we were on our way up my brother's front steps, and I noticed her left legs were over the edge of the steps. Right behind her, I grabbed her and moved her over. That was our first hint that her eyesight was fading, and when we got home, her vet confirmed it.

Lindy smiled a lot when took her to visit a friend and fellow blogger (Penelope Puddle) at a Starbuck's patio table, though. In fact, this photo at left, taken with Dick's cell phone, is our favourite of her. 

Lindy isn't the only member of the family who looks like a redhead in the sunshine, either.




She was still happy when we loaded up the car to head homeward, too. On our way, we stopped in Kelowna to attend my 50-year high school reunion.
During the reunion dinner, Lindy stayed in our hotel room with a super dog-sitter. His name is Riley, and he was 12 at the time— the two of them stayed entertained with TV and snacks while we were out. Riley took Lindy out for three walks, just in case!



Lindy's mom enjoyed visiting a dear school friend at the lovely farm she and her husband have in Winfield, BC.

And then, when we got home again, we saw evidence of...

Summer rain

Bunny love

Mule deer

Magpies

Full moon

Horse at the coulee

Deer in our yard

Dick's trip to Elkwater and the Cypress Hills

and to Dinosaur Provincial Park

Trees in Alberta's very arid areas drop their limbs during a drought,
to save the trunk and roots.

We had our trees professionally trimmed, to prevent them
deciding to drop limbs on our house.

That done, I went by plane, train and rental car to Mathews County, Virginia, to spend a wild and giggly September weekend with other women who blog. Flying, though fastest, was by far the most strenuous part of my trip, the train the most relaxing.

Beautiful beaches!

Beautiful deck on which to relax!

Beautiful waterfront after a lovely lunch!

Historic Yorktown, Virginia. When I read "historic" I thought "civil war" so I was surprised and thrilled to find out it was even more historic...would you believe the American War of Independence?
Really!
In 1781, American and French troops combined to defeat Britain's General Lord Cornwallis.
Who knew?







Beautiful relics of days long gone are arranged for perfect viewing and photographing on Yorktown's shoreline.

 September, 2013

Then, when I came home, I would have loved to go to the west coast in October, because guess who had his first birthday? Unfortunately, I was too tired to travel.

Also in October, Dick and Lindy saw a deer climbing some stairs. Lindy can see deer if they are not too close to her, and if they are moving. She gets excited, but doesn't bark.

Stair-climbing deer are pretty unusual, alright, but what about this person flying on a motorized parachute on November 1?

And, of course, the Grey Cup Game was in Saskatchewan this year. Lindy likes football probably about as much as I do (not) but she does have a photo of herself in Saskatchewan colours, taken one year when she was visiting her Auntie Gayle and Uncle Larry during football season. They often take her to Saskatchewan, so she really likes it.

Then came December, with no deer sightings! Lindy can see them at a distance, if they're moving, but this year's sightings stopped in November. Very disappointing for our girl.

Along came Christmas, however, and a lot of excitement for you-know-who out on the west coast. Guess who got a toy cell phone for Christmas and guess who loves it?

Wishing everyone at ABC Wednesday, especially Denise, Roger, Wil and the rest of the ABC crew, a very happy and prosperous 2014.