It was a productive weekend in spite of the weather

Conditions at 5:20 am: 7' and overcast
Expected later: 20' with some sun and some isolated showers


It would have been nice to have some of these nice mild temperatures on the weekend, but unfortunately that was not the case. Although it was good for people working, such as those cutting wood.
Friday was a quiet evening. We had supper, BBQ steak and garlic mashed potatoes and salad with a lovely bottle of Australian Shiraz. After supper we went over to the Van Gaals to pick up the Sizzix for a project I planned to work on at work on Saturday. We had tea and muffins with Brenda, as Bernie was out at his firearms course, in preparation for a hunting trip he's taking in the fall to Newfoundland.


Saturday morning was cool and wet. In fact it poured rain on my way into town. I completed my project at work and it made the day go by very quickly.  At 2:00 I met Lloyd and Brenda at the Globe for the Saturday afternoon blues. Fortunately Bernie's course wrapped up much earlier that any of us had expected so was able to join us quite soon after. A great time was had by all - lots of food and a few drinks and some great music - what a great way to pass an otherwise dull Saturday afternoon.

A job well done 

While we were there, plans were made for Lloyd to join the boys on a bike trip to Sussex, NB on Sunday. When we got home Lloyd got his bike out only to discover the brakes were not working properly. Probably just as well as the license was expired, as was the insurance. But never fear, Bernie called at 7:00 on Sunday morning to advise he had a bike Lloyd could use. So off he went at 7:30, wrapped up like an Eskimo in multiple layers of clothing in an attempt to keep warm. It was quite chilly and promised to get up to 10' so they were optimistic. Around lunch time, I went over to Brenda's as it had warmed up a little bit and we got our bikes out and headed into town. I needed a couple of things at the grocery store so we went to Stratford, got what I needed, the stopped at Phinley's for a tea and a snack. The we made our way back home but by the time we got here, it was mighty cold. We did go up to the Anderson's when we got back but it didn't appear that anyone was home.We returned to Brenda's parked the bikes, and I went home, where I indulged in a nice warm bath, followed by a nap. I was just lounging around watching TV when Lloyd got home, around 8:00.  I was surprised that he found it not such a bad day weather wise and he really enjoyed himself and had a great day.


Monday morning was at least sunny. Still not very warm but at least it was more pleasant to be out if you were dressed for it. Lloyd continued cutting wood and I cut the grass - or at least

Good food, good friends, good times!

attempted to. Unfortunately part way through the belt on the mower started to smoke and was no longer usable. So I did the grass around the house with the push mower and Lloyd will try to replace the belt today. We also had a couple of guys come out to look at the truck. They took it for a ride and decided to buy it, just like that. So that was one more thing accomplished. Brenda and Bernie were coming over for supper so I spent the afternoon doing prep and tidying up. They came over around 7:30 and we had a nice time with them. We started out with some Oyster Crostini, little rounds of toasted bread brushed with olive oil, topped with melted camembere cheese and a broiled oyster and strips of red pepper. They were quite tasty. Our main course was sort of my take on  Surf and Turf. I looked up the recipe for Lobster Thermidor and found it was really quite easy. So we had grilled Beef Tenderloin steaks, half a lobster stuffed with lobster meat mixed with a creamy sauce and topped with Gruyere cheese, then broiled. We also had a rice pilaf and nice fresh fiddle heads that Lloyd had made a special trip to the farmer's market to obtain. All in all it was quite tasty. Dessert was a strawberry cheesecake turnover we saw in the Canadian Living Magazine. It didn't look quite a fancy as the picture on the cover of the magazine but it was pretty tasty.

All in all, a great weekend in spite of the weather. 


(sorry but I'm having some technical difficulties this morning and the text is all messed up, but at least it's done and it's readable and I've run out of time to try and figure out what I've done wrong!)