Well, that was an exercise in silly. We've owned and lived at our current home for the past 32 years. Before the acquisition of our current home we owned and lived in another not too far from this one, in a different community but within the City of Ottawa, for almost 30 years after moving from Toronto where we grew up and where our children were born.

Housing has become inordinately expensive in Canada. On the other hand, although our first modest house located just north of Toronto in Richmond Hill cost us $12,500, some 65 years ago -- a princely sum to us back then -- salaries were nothing like they are now. We were both working full-time when we bought our first house and our combined salaries likely amounted to less than $3,000 a year.

Salaries are considerably more now, and that's an understatement. Another understatement is the price of housing gone through the proverbial monetary roof. Not only are houses expensive but they're also in short supply. The demand is high for many reasons; among them a larger population, fed mostly now by huge immigration numbers. Amounting to almost 400,000 new immigrants annually. That's a lot for any country to absorb, much less one as relatively sparsely populated with a huge land mass, as Canada.

So, now, all home owners must complete application forms on line attesting to their ownership as well as their residency. The idea is that vacant homes are to be faced with an additional taxation premium to ensure that no housing stock sits unoccupied. Why any would, is beyond me. It's meant to discourage speculative ownership based on rising house prices for resale.

In this house of ours yesterday we decided to once again make the kind of pizza we 'pioneered' back when our younger son was visiting with us, from Vancouver. He enjoys exploring new taste sensations and whole food combinations and brought with him an idea for a different kind of pizza. Topped with an unusual set of ingredients. But we found they worked well for us. So yesterday we did a repeat; I just made a plain bread dough for the crust, but added pizza spice/herbs into it while preparing the dough. We used chopped garlic, shallot, green onions and fresh dill. Also tomato paste, sour cream, sliced tomatoes, feta cheese and anchovies. And into our handy little pizza oven it went. The pizza oven is actually a 'drawer' at the bottom of our microwave, and it works very well.

 

Another icy day came along today following last night's -16C temperature. But by the time early afternoon rolled around, sun that had shone earlier in the morning hours had disappeared under a solid canopy of grey cloud, while the temperature rose to -8C. You felt the chill like an frozen mask being adjusted to your face, on exposure.

Which didn't stop Jackie and Jillie from frisking happily about on the trails, and greeting their pals who eventually came around for visits. In this cold, even large, short-haired dogs wear winter coats. I know what that's like; after decades of cutting my hair short every time I looked in the mirror, reaching for a pair of scissors, I retired those scissors a year ago, and since then have acquired once again a head of hair. And that hair makes a difference in the warmth quotient on my head; much appreciated.