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What’s Been On Your Calendar in April/May 2023?

April

Filled with family, friends, flights and fine food, April is a difficult month to beat no matter how hard you try!

May

But you have to admire May. For a stay-at-home-month, there was much to see and do. Here are a few shots from my camera phone to remind me what I’ve done.

How was your past month? Please share in the comments or by adding your post to the link below.

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84 thoughts on “What’s Been On Your Calendar in April/May 2023?”

    1. Hi, Suzanne – I wondered which astute reader would mention the hair-colour change first. That happened May 5 and was kind of an accident. I thought that I was using temporary hair colour. It turned out to be a good move. It pushed me out of my indecisive ‘should I stay or should I go” routine and surprisingly, my curl is now more manageable. Thanks so much for the Camino link. I am off to check it out now.

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  1. Two months full of family and friends, Donna. I like how you laid out your fun dates with the images and captions. You sure live in a beautiful area! Not sure I’ll join in this month but thanks for the inspiration!

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  2. What a fun and fantastic way to share your month/s Donna. I really enjoyed seeing all your photos and the little snippets of info that came with them. You’ve certainly had a lovely time over the last several weeks. Looking forward to what June has in store for you. x

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    1. Thanks so much, Leanne. Plans for June include taking our grandson to a baseball game and watching his school play (Alice in Wonderland). There’s Father’s Day, a memorial for a local hero of our small town, a felting workshop, a hike with Erica and WBA and our youngest son arrives from Hong Kong. I will keep you posted!

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  3. Hi Donna – I can agree with other friends … you show us a lovely array of a fun time – in your country and overseas. Excellent you’re going to Portugal in a few weeks – enjoy the practice hikes – cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks, Hilary – Our Portugal trip is a few months away but I have been so out of the hiking routine that I have now started a sincere practice mode. I hope that all is well there. I always love hearing what is happening for you!

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  4. Hi Donna, I love the format of this post and can see you’ve had a wonderful time. I’m excited for you to be doing another Camino. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

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    1. Thanks, Jennifer – Our first Camino (2010) was from Tui, Portugal to Santiago de Compostella. For this Camino, we will arrive in Lisbon and hike the Coastal Route, with a detour to Fatima. We don’t have the exact order of the detour sorted yet, but we do have our plane tickets. And we always like to leave room for making things up as we go along! We are both super excited about this.

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  5. Hi Donna, this was a great way of sharing your (2) months with us. I love your new look too and you have such a beautiful happy smile. Wow another Camino sounds perfect for you and Richard!

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    1. Thanks so much, Debbie. I am sorry that you (and others) had to resubscribe to my blog. I didn’t think that I had changed any settings. Hopefully all will work smoothly in WordPress Land from here.
      Your trip photos on FB look fabulous. Please give Dottie an extra big hug from me!

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  6. Hi Donna, Looks like you’ve had wonderful April and May. I love the art piece (a crane or heron?) that came home with you. Thank you for the #WBOYC linkup. I added my link.
    P.S. The last two times that I visited your blog, WordPress showed that your post is only open to subscriber (I’ve been a subscriber of your blog for several years). After I re-subscribed, it sent me a verification code to enter before I can see your post. I hope this is not happening every time I visit your blog. It happened to me on another WordPress blog, too.

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    1. Hi, Natalie – Thank you so much for letting me know. I didn’t think that I had changed any settings on my blog (at least I didn’t change any intentionally). I’ve just checked and both viewing and commenting are set to ‘public’. I have opened up a few more settings to try to avoid any further difficulties for readers. If you experience any other troubles viewing/commenting, please let me know and I will get in touch with the Happiness Engineers.
      And yup, that’s a heron. At least I believe that he is! 😀

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      1. Hi Donna, That’s great! I thought I’d mention it as it was something new that added more steps for blog readers to get to the post.

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  7. My WOYC won’t compare to your pictorial. Spring is all about gardening & projects. A fence line was brushed 2 winters ago providing much firewood. My cousins & I have been bucking up & splitting wood to keep us warm next winter. Corrals were torn down last fall. Free standing panels will arrive on Wed. My neighbor will help me set those up. I’ll feel like I can enjoy summer with those projects completed. Home Routes house concerts returned after a 3 yr pandemic hiatus. I hosted a concert last week, 2 performers from Vancouver. Regular programming will resume in the fall. A bear on the deck caused a little excitement last week. It retreated in response to me banging on some pots & pans, not to be seen since. There were medical appts for my mom & I. Without getting into an organ recital, I’ve discovered an irregular heart rate that’s needed checking out. Tonight I get to go to Edmonton to see a concert – For King & Country – that has been postponed for 3 pandemic years. And soon I’ll get to live vicariously through your & Richard’s Camino trail trek. All is well.

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    1. Hi, Mona – Wow! That more than compares. You have been so busy there with lots of advanced planning, physical activity, and fun concerts.
      I am so sorry to hear about your irregular heartbeat. I am sending you warm thoughts and prayers that all is well. Please keep me posted. Thinking of you.

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  8. Your spring looks like it has been delightful so far. Good luck on your upcoming Camino! And thank you for hosting the WBYC linkup.

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    1. Hi, Bernie – Thank you so much for your perseverence. Especially when you are busy trying to catch up on grandchildren, sleep, laundry and life. I wrote you back on IG. The fault of this subscription error was mine. For some reason, I had the “send to all subscribers” box checked for this post as opposed to the “send to everyone” box. If someone had subscribed under a different email address and then signed in with an alternative one, WP would not let them in. Lesson learned!

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  9. Wow – your 5th Camino coming up! I loved this pictorial look at April/May. Thanks for the link-up.

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  10. Hi Donna – I love seeing all your “out and about” pictures. Looks like you had a great time visiting with family and special friends, going out and having fun. And it’s always nice to get new technology 🙂

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  11. It looks like you had a wonderful couple of months! I wish I lived so close to the ocean. There’s something about a coastline that sets my mind right. And LOL at “Muttley Crew.”

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  12. Love your photo memories of what you have been up to. Your garden visitor looks very cute and congratulations on signing up for your 5th Camino. That’s a wonderful achievement. Good luck with the training

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      1. Hi, Janine – In the past we have walked Caminos ranging from 8 days to 28 days. For this trip, we have given ourselves just over three weeks but have not set a definite goal on how many of those days we will hike. We definitely want to hike into Fatima and along the Portuguese Coast. Fingers crossed that our feet are willing and able to accommodate!! 😀

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  13. Both months sounds equally fabulous just in different ways! I love travel and spending lots of time with family and friends… but then I like a bit more solitude and time at home and just relaxing afterwards too.

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  14. Hi Donna, I have been fortunate to see some of your photos on other sites. I love seeing all of the smiles! Family is one of the greatest joys and challenging for you to see your loved ones in person. I agree with how I still notice something new, even when I visit local areas. We also have a young, resident rabbit – not sure what happened to the older one? Your photos remind me how lucky I am to live here. Have a wonderful weekend!💕

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  15. I have considered doing the Camino with a couple of friends. It sounds pretty difficult and I’ve chickened out both times. Your 23 km hike sounds amazing. I average about 6.74 km per day, and one day last week, I did twice that. That’s still a long way from what you are planning. Good for you. You have an amazing amount of energy! 🙂

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    1. Thanks, Marsha – If you are still inclined to do a Camino – I highly recommend it. They are so personalized to the individual that your Camino can be as physically (and mentally) easy or difficult as you choose it to be. My husband and I have walked Caminos of just over 100 kms to one of 700 km with relentless climbs! Each one was unique but we always learned a great deal about ourselves in the process. Our favourite Camino so far was walking 400 km from Luca, Italy into Rome. There were truly no words to describe it!

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      1. How long did it take you to do them? At 4 km per hour one that’s about 25 hours for the 100 km. At my pace of 10,000 steps per day, or about 6.7 km, that’s nearly 15 days, or half that much since I’d be dedicated to walking. That would be a full vacation. I’ve heard there are many ways to take breaks.

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      2. For our first Camino (2010), we walked 110 km from Tui, Portugal to Santago de Compostella, Spain. That was a relatively flat hike that we did at a relatively leisurely pace. We finished that hike in 7 days. Typically we average 22 km a day on our Caminos but many keep it to under 15 km a day while others do 50. What I love most about the Camino is that there is no right or wrong!

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  16. Aww … a wonderful selection of photos and the warmth, love and fun between you shine out! The one of you and your mother is wonderful and wow, you’re preparing for your 5th Camino!! That is amazing and I’m in awe of you both! How true that even while home there is often much to enjoy outside the house and a beautiful photos of your outings. I spent a month in Sweden where we had the most amazing thunder storms, then warm sunny days and to start with snow! At home visits to family and friends around the country and enjoying trips around the locality … old castles, Gainsborough’s house and gardens, the coast, caves beneath a city centre. It is heavenly to be out and about again! Happy Trails! Hugs xx ❤️

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    1. Hi, Annika – Old castles, Gainsborough’s house and gardens,, caves beneath a city centre…that all makes me want to go there right now. Travel is so much like books. I always have a great “want to” list and never enough time to explore all from those lists!

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