Happy Saturday! Welcome! Can I offer you some homegrown mint tea for this final #weekendcoffeeshare of 2024, hosted, as always, by the lovely Natalie of Natalie the Explorer?

Can you believe this is the last weekend of 2024?

It’s been an incredible gray week with lots of clouds, snow, and rain. This weather is supposed to stretch all the way until Sunday. That’s 7 straight days of gray! “Good grief,” as Charlie Brown would’ve said.

I was glad to had sneaked in a few photos of flowers and the garden when I had sun and blue skies. I’m thinking of picking those tatsoi before the new year and seeing these pansies brought me cheers when I needed it.

I’ve barely been out of the house all week despite I’m off work until the 2nd of January. This bad weather caused me to tackle another jigsaw puzzle. It was actually the second of two puzzles that I finally tackle after almost 30 years. I completed the first of the two puzzles in 2023.

The puzzle I completed this week was a continuation of this puzzle, with the newly completed one going on the left. It was not an easy feat because with the puzzle being monochrome and the pieces cut similarly, it made me constantly doubt whether I got the right piece. I actually had to re-do the puzzle pieces quite frequently because there were pieces that looked like it fit but wasn’t the right piece.

This puzzle took me 4 days but it was well-worth it because it re-directed my attention to the otherwise gloomy weather outside.

Beside the puzzle, there was absolutely nothing special that went on Christmas this year. While I occupied myself with jigsaw puzzles, my mom spent the week lying on the couch with her tablet watching YouTube videos while my aunt slept. Without work nor anywhere to be, my aunt just slept until dinner at around 3:30 PM.

If I didn’t have my puzzle to keep me occupied, I would’ve gone crazy because the YouTube videos my mom watched, it was news. It was like CNN on steroids and in Chinese. I only ever watch the weather on the news and to have to listen to the news broadcast over and over would make anyone insane.

Then whenever my aunt came down for dinner, another layer of noise would enter because my aunt would either watch videos of her figure-skating obsession or she would watch cliff-notes versions of TV shows and movies. If I was occupied with puzzles, I would be seeking a hole to crawl under. I don’t know about you but one can only watch so much YouTube videos before the blurriness of the eyes take over.

I was glad to had sneaked in a walk on Christmas. There was a white Christmas this year (just barely), with just a light dusting of snow. I had the park to myself and with music playing through my earbuds, the walk was very soothing and a wonderful respite from the noises at home.

I even managed to sneak in a few shots on my phone during my walk, with some touch-up in Lightroom afterwards. Somehow, I’m using my phone more than my camera for photos these days. I guess my phone’s tiny 50-megapixel camera has proven its worth over the last year.

Well, that’s all I’m going to say, thank you for dropping by. I’ll be back next week. Until then, Happy New Year!