Can't imagine what they were doing

Conditions at 5:30 - overcast and -1*
Expected later - mix of sun and cloud and 2*

Saturday afternoon, I came home from work and was bringing wood inside when I heard this loud booming airplane sound. It sounded much closer than any plane that would normally be flying over here. When I looked up there was this old looking military type plane approaching from across the Pisquid river. It headed my way and came right over the house, made a big turn and circled back to the river. It was flying quite slow and very low. I stood and watched as it circled around again and came back. It continued these big circles over the river and just to the back of our property and then back again for over an hour. At one point, about 1/2 hour in, two people parachuted out of it into a field on the other side of the river and it continued circling. I have no idea what they were doing- some sort of maneuvers I suppose but no idea why they were in this area.
I eventually went inside as Brenda and Bernie were coming over for supper. I came into the house just as the phone rang, and it was Brenda inquiring as to what time they should arrive. I told her anytime but I was a wee bit behind schedule. Fortunately it was a simple menu. Curried chicken crepes (but I had already made the crepes ahead of time), potatoes, carrots and green beans. I made pears poached in red wine for dessert and we had hot artichoke dip with nacho chips to nibble on before supper. It wasn't fancy but I figured they would be busy getting last minute things done before Bernie left and would appreciate not having to make dinner.

He did finally get away on Sunday. Apparently there was a delay in the flight getting in from Ottawa and then there was some kind of mechanical delay. But eventually they were on their way. He was spending the night in Toronto at Meghan's then he flies to L.A. today where he has a 10 hour layover before his 13 hours flight to New Zealand.
On Friday night when Brenda and I were at curling, he was on the computer trying to find a car rental. I mentioned Wicked Campers to Brenda and she looked it up when she got home, and it looks like they may go with that option. Bernie was questioning what they were like and if they were clean. I told him they were not new or fancy but ours was fine when we used one Australia.  Hopefully they will have as good an experience as we did.  We really had a lot of fun in the camp grounds we stayed in. The beaches were spectacular and it was quite comfortable, and being able to do our own cooking at the end of the day was a nice option. Not sure how that will work for Bernie.
When I stopped in to pick Brenda up on Friday night, Bernie was making icing to put onto a cake that he'd baked from a cake mix, all by himself!  As he was stirring the icing,  he told he he "doesn't do kitchen". He'll have to spend more time with Lloyd - then he'll do kitchen really well!

Brenda and I had planned to make dark Christmas cake last night, but we talked ourselves out of it. She's not driving the bus this week so it's just easier to do hers at home rather than carting everything up here. So instead, she picked up some movies and came over and we had a glass of wine, and finished the dip and chips from the night before, then she went home to put her feet up and just veg. I pretty much did the same thing. I finished off some Christmas cards that I was working on, then  had a nice hot bath, put on my PJ's and watched one of the movies she had rented.I had done some work on my sewing project for James' birthday and it's almost done - just the hand sewing but I can do that when I'm watching TV in the evenings. Then I just have to do the binding on the outside. With any luck at all, it will be done by the 22nd.

It feels funny not to be stressing over what to prepare for cooking class on Tuesday night. There's no pile of stuff on the island in my kitchen, there's no endless lists of things to buy, things to pack, things to prep. It's great!

Abby is back at work today and I'm very glad. I was so bored the past two weeks. Sometimes I had little jobs to do but for the most part, I had nothing to do and that makes for a very long day. I'll be glad to get my shuttle job back today.