Happy 2009 to everyone
I only seem capable of getting Christmas cards out every other year, sadly. A personal failing I will try to deal with in the coming year – which should be one of my card years anyway!

I've posted some of the doings of 2008 elsewhere on this site, but this is the formal and official, Katie's 2008 year in review.
For one thing, the winter of 2008 was snowy. Very snowy.
The top picture shows the only corner of light available from four panels of floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that in summer lead out to the patio.
The lower picture shows the scene from the outside. The small black blotch to the left of the arbour is the top of the patio table. Lucy's grand nieces, Trynne and Simone had a lovely time playing on the new mountain and sitting on the edge of the roof.
The city ran free cross country ski lessons for seniors, so I signed up and flailed away on the skis I haven't used in a couple of decades. It was a lot of fun.
Then during the series of snow days (a lot last year) Trynne, Simone and I tackled building a doll house. Poetic justice in this as I had given the kit to their Aunt Sophie some 20 to 25 years earlier, and HER mother had decided it was too complicated to do so it sat in its box untouched until it came back to me to work on. The girls come here after school until their mother (Akou) picks them up after work, and snow days – and flood days – they are here for the whole day.
Staircases – above – are intricate and frustrating, involving many many tiny pieces. But over a period that included March Break, the house came together. Fun with wood, glue and paint!
Emboldened by the miniature effort maybe, but Lucy and I with the help of Mike Johnston painted the entire downstairs and rehung the paintings. Many of the rooms had not been done for 20 years or so, so it was time, and finally the art I brought back from Toronto is up on the walls as well as the works that had been here before. There's lots to look at!
The trip to Morocco with painting friends is well documented here, so I won't repeat myself.
But a visit in May with this sweetie (these sweeties) deserves note.

JJ and Mei, Mei in her "fetch" phase, and Jamie, Mei and JJ after the bath. She's about 10 months in these pictures. And lovely. But what grandmother wouldn't say that? Particularly when she has my double chin and gappy teeth! Below, Rachel dropped in from Singapore for brunch that included grandfather Ross – who quite clearly joins the crowd doting on this little girl.
And finally summer came to Fredericton and the garden burst out of its winter white and into the glorious colours of spring, summer and autumn. The raspberries rasped, the asparagus asparaged, the asparagus beetles thrived and were murdered on a daily basis, a two-year tally of deaths of eggs, grubs and adults developing on my computer.
The courses I took in silversmithing and painting with encaustic are, like Morocco, well documented at the noted links.
Exhibitions came and went at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre; family came and visited; friends shared food and drink; Fredericton Heritage Trust put our garden on its garden tour – weeds and all. And in August Lucy and I went to Pictou to link up with Jamie, JJ and Mei, who were in Halifax for JJ's sister's wedding. Yes, this means more Mei pictures.
Clockwise: Almost walking; All the world's a phone; @%#* papparazzi!; It's the Atlantic Ocean; and Here's looking at you, Kid! She's about 14 months here.
This page is getting a little long, so I'm going to link here to another one, which will cover the rest of the year,