Monday, July 4, 2011

Gosh, where do I begin?

Conditions at 4:30 am: 17' and a few clouds
Expected later: 24' and mix of sun and cloud - drove by Great George St. at 6:00am and people are already lining the streets!


Lloyd left on the early flight this morning so I'm going to work my way backwards. He'll be glad to get back to Ontario just to get a rest!  He split all the wood while he was here, built a step at the front of the house, got his bike road ready and attended several events.
Yesterday afternoon, I let him have some time off and went into town by myself to watch the arrival of the royal couple. I was meant to pick Caitlin up on the way but I got home too late to do that. Good thing she let me know there was stuff going on downtown or I would have missed it! There were crowds of people and I ended up in a different spot than Caitlin but I managed to get a couple of pictures. The trouble is you're in such a rush to get the shot that there is significant camera shake but I got enough to know who they were and the fact that I was there!

While I was waiting for them to come out from the press conference they were attending inside, Brenda called. I told her "can't talk now, waiting for the prince and princess" and she told me they had passed  by them out on the bypass. When the royal couple had left, I headed home and called Brenda on my way. She suggested I stop in for a tea on my way home. I wanted to find out how their trip was anyway. I called Lloyd who was at home, and I suggested he take my bike and meet me over at the VanGaals (his bike had the seat off of it, in hopes of getting it recovered. So you can imagine our delight when he drove in the driveway looking like a circus bear on one of  those little motorbikes. (actually he didn't look that bad but we had to joke about it anyway).

Bernie and Brenda had a great trip to New Brunswick, while we were kept busy here on the island. On Sunday afternoon we were off to Souris for the Village Feast. Once again it was a huge success and they were totally lucky to have a warm sunny day - something we haven't seen much of this year so it was a treat all round.  We met Brenda's friend, Rika, and we told her we would likely both volunteer next year. The Food Network was there doing some filming as was ET Canada so now the word will be out about this wonderful event.

Prior to going to Souris, we stopped in to visit with a couple I'd met shuttling at Honda. I'd driven Fran several times and we struck up lengthy conversations about old houses, etc and we decided to get together sometime. As they live near St. Peter's we stopped in on our way to the Village Feast. They have a lovely spot and they both really enjoy cooking so we all got along very nicely. After some warm rhubarb crisp and a couple of glasses of wine we agreed to get together again soon. Turns out it will have to be sooner than expected as Lloyd left his hat there. Just gives me an excuse to go back.
 Sunday morning was spent doing a few things around the yard and Lloyd finished up the wood. It's now all split and in a big pile, all I have to do is move it and stack it. You don't realize how big the pile is until it's all cut up and on the ground. While I truly appreciate the fact that's it's now all split, I still have lots of work ahead of me.
But that's okay - the exercise will do me good.

Saturday morning was spent working in the yard and then after lunch, we went into Stratford to the hardware store as I had left the watering can I purchased on Thursday after work, at the cash. I also picked up a couple more flowers for my front flower bed as well as a new nozzle for my garden hose. A stop for ice cream at Phinley's new dairy bar nicely rounded out the trip to town. We knew Saturday night was going to be a long one, so Lloyd had a nap and I cut some grass, after a little shorter nap (but not by much). After supper we headed into town for the Meatloaf concert. It was a lot of fun. I've never seen him live and there was a lot of energy in the park. It was a most enjoyable event except for the tired feet at the end of it. I hate to admit I might be getting a bit too old for those stand through the whole thing type of events. (but we'll see when I'm at Yankee Stadium in two weeks).

Instead of fighting the crowds to get out of the parking lot we walked over to the Gahan House and had a beer and a snack. It was a gorgeous night outside and it was fun to be in the hustle and bustle of the bar scene on a Saturday night but I couldn't do it every Saturday night! The up side of this is that when we returned to the parking lot the attendant was gone and the gates were open so I ended up with free parking.

Back track a little bit to Friday, Canada Day, and we did more outside stuff in the morning, and dropped over the the Van Gaals for Lloyd to do his geek thing and me to get some compost. Lloyd ended up staying for a bit and I went home to shovel the stuff off Brenda's truck. She called and informed me that Bernie and Lloyd had just left the house with a rum and coke so I might as well come over for lunch. It worked out well as I was able to return her truck. In the afternoon some new friends dropped over for supper. I met Jens at Honda and had visited them at their house a couple of weekends ago. They arrived around 3:00 and left at 10:00 so I think they enjoyed themselves - in fact a great time was had by all.

Needless to say it was a very busy three days and I was really grateful to have both Friday and Saturday off work. Speaking of work, I need to get going and do some for today.

No comments:

Post a Comment