I am looking forward to my first week off work in a very long time. I've had weeks and months off but not while actually keeping a job. So this is going to be nice. Plus St. Patrick's Day is coming. I will treat myself to breakfast out and maybe a jot over to the liquor store for a bottle of that caramel Baileys that was so nice at New Years Eve. I also bought myself a new book. Really new, not just new to me. This one came from the big bookstore. All the pages are new, untouched by human hands. I can't wait to start the book. It's the latest from Kelley Armstrong, a Canadian writer.

Smiley Saturday: Post about something that made you smile or might make your readers smile.

How was the whole peanut butter and jam phenomena started? Don't look for the facts, write the story as you create it. What can you come up with?

I'm not a peanut butter fan.

Lady Banana selected me and this blog as a Treasured Blogger. The Treasured Blogger idea came from Dancin' Fool as a dedication to a blogger she will miss. I've also had a few people who I came to know through their blogs only to have them disappear one day. It is sad. For some you think of them years later but have no idea how to ever find them again, even if they did start blogging once again.

So thank you to Lady Banana. It really is an honour to be someone who would be missed. I think a lot of us write these personal blogs as a way of being heard, getting some feedback and maybe as a way to feel connected to the world and all the people in it. That isn't something you can always find in the day to day daily grind where people often don't even know their neighbours. It really is more than nice to be a voice out here in the world who would be missed. Thank you to everyone who comes along this way, thanks for listening, even for a short time.

Bloggers that I miss are Happy and Blue (Glenn) and Skye. Skye has a new blog but posts pretty rarely.

Bloggers I would miss if they disappeared would include Lady Banana but she sent me the award so I will mention her but not have her create another list for her blog.

The grrls as I think of us, from my Ontario Rural Ruins group. I'd hugely miss seeing photos from The Navigator, Kate, Lee Ann and msDeKay. Not only do they find great things but they take great photos too.

I only know him as twintam44 on Flickr but I have wondered if he knows b13fotographica, then there are The Useless Men, Terry aka Latte Girl, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Jade who has the best newsletter with quotes, Bev Walton-Porter who has several blogs but I still don't keep in touch as I'd like to, Rainy Pete and others who I have known in the past and lost track of in the now. I hope you know who you are if you wander this way.

Face Your Pockets

Contents: Tim Hortons coffee card, HBC Rewards card, house keys on a kilt pin, coins and Toronto subway tokens and one Barrie bus transfer. A floaty pen for breast cancer. Half a pack of citrus Halls. My Chinese fortune. The ribbon from my card key to get into work. A pair of scissors. My hair and my lips, blurred.

It will be interesting to see if the goldfish in the pond survive over this winter. I don't know if this is a hard winter for Barrie or pretty standard. It's our first year living in Barrie. But the pond and fish were there from the past owner. I am hoping the fish will pull through and see sunlight again. Won't know for a few more months I think. I do think of them, down there in their icy lair.