Back to life on PEI - which is NEVER boring!

 

Conditions at 5:15 am: 15' with clear skies'
Expected later: sunny and 23'

Getting ready for the crowds

The big news from last week was the successful obtaining of much sought after Elton John tickets. I tried all morning the day they went on sale but unfortunately I was not lucky enough to get through. However, Bernie, who had predicted "it won't be sold out" got in and was able to get tickets, (before they sold out the same morning). Brenda was also lucky, as was her cousin, Maureen. So we have the tickets we need. They aren't all together and some are singles, but that's a lot better than the 20,000 plus people who were not so lucky.

They took a while but many said they were worth it

We cooked while everyone else attended the outdoor Mass

Yesterday was Brenda's church picnic. She had asked if I might help with cooking the mussels. I was more than happy to assist, especially after Saturday night, but more on that later. The day dawned to light rain showers and cool temperatures so instead of kayaking as planned, we tidied up the yard then had some toasted home made bread generously, spread with her freshly made strawberry jam. We planned our strategy for later in the day and hoped for the best. And we were not disappointed. By mid afternoon, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. The plan was to have the Mass outside while the rest of us got the food ready. There were approximately 130 people on hand who enjoyed steamed mussels, hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream and strawberries. They haven't done this for many years but everyone who was working declared the day a resounding success. We had a lot of compliments on the mussels so I was really grateful for that. Of course they were plump, meaty mussels that had likely been out of the water less than 24 hours from just down the road, so it was pretty easy to supply a quality meal when you had fabulous ingredients to start with. But I was glad they liked them.

Strawberries and ice cream - yummm

Now Saturday. In the evening Brenda came over after working hard all day and we sat down to a glass of wine and to make our plans for Sunday. We had talked about maybe using the large pot that we have for the mussels and I took Brenda out to see it in the shelter that Lloyd put up when he was here last time. She was suitably impressed with the pot and can't wait to see it in action, but as they had already made other plans for cooking the mussels, we decided to just leave things as they were. So we went back into the house to finish our wine. As we sat and chatted we noticed a huge black cloud approaching and it seemed to be right overhead with clear skies in the distance in all directions. We went outside to have a look at it and it was pretty windy. we were back in for a little bit when Brenda decided it was time to go home. I went outside with here and I happened to look over in the direction of the shelter we had just been in, and it looked odd, because all I could see was the stuff on the lawn that was inside. But no shelter. It wasn't just blown over, it was COMPLETELY GONE!  We went over to the area where it was and the motorcycles were both lying on the ground, the lawnmowers (2) were upside down and everything was all over the place. We looked around the yard but there was no sign of the shelter to be had. We got into the car and were just backing out when Lianne, who lives two houses down, was just walking across the yard. It seems it had blown clear over the trees and into the neighbours yard, who are away right now. Her husband had dragged it over to a clump of trees and tied it to one of them.

A good time was had by all 

We got out the tools and decided we needed more help so Brenda called Bernie and he and Caitlin came over and helped us take it apart and get it back home. So now it's all in pieces and the covering is folded up inside the other shelter that didn't move because the doors on both ends were open so it was safe. So Sunday morning while Brenda was here we took everything out of the mini barn and reorgainzed enough to get most everything put away. Of course the bikes are still outside so I'm going to pick up a couple of tarps today to cover them. All in all it was a pretty eventful weekend.

The same cloud , as viewed from North Rustico (found this on the Weather network along with several others)