Friday, December 21st - better write this quickly as the world is supposed to end today!

It's been a couple of really busy days. I arrived on schedule on Wednesday morning, actually a little ahead of schedule so Patti and I were both pulling up to the gates at the airport at almost the very same time. We had no trouble connecting and making our way home. The kids were still here and very welcoming - lots of hugs and kisses going around.
First order of business - drive James to school. He opted to have his grandma drive him instead of taking the bus. After getting back home I drove with Patti to take the other 2 to school. She still had lots of last minute touches to complete on some of the costumes so we started right in after getting back. Pretty much the entire day was spent on costumes. We were still sewing at 5:00 but managed to get everything done in the nick of time. I have to say that Patti totally outdid herself with the costumes this year. I really don't know where she finds the time or the ideas. I know she said this was the toughest one as it hadn't been done before but I think she did a totally amazing job. I can't wait for the video to come out in January.

Grandma adding trim to Belle's dress

Getting everyone organized and dressed

One of the waitresses

 

 

A very handsome waiter

A beyond too cute towns person and waiter

A very debonairre baker

The evil and nasty Gaston

The handsome prince (what would a Disney movie be without one)

 

Mrs Potts, the teapot

Just one of the three very proud grandmas in attendance, with Tristen, James and Chip the teacup

Townsfolk Tristen with Chip

Cogsworth, the clock - by far,  the fan favorite costume

Cogsworth up close and personal

Gaston, Cogsworth, Mrs Potts, Belle and Chip

The brilliant Lumiere

The Beast, Gaston,and  Lumiere

The evening was a great time for some old friends to spend time catching up

 

The show was another huge success and everyone was blown away with this years production. One of the teachers painted the backdrop and did an absolutely amazing job.

Once again, congratulation to all the staff, students and parents for a job well done.

So now that the show was over, Patti could finally turn her attention to the next upcoming event, which happens to be Christmas! We spent Thursday morning getting the car serviced and finishing off the last little bits of shopping. All that's left now is clean up her house, which has been a sewing centre for weeks, and pack up the car.

She had to work on Thursday night so I took Tristen to his Karate class, where he was becoming a member of the Black Belt Club. He was given his black belt, which will now be hung on the wall at the studio with the date he expects to complete his training to be able to wear it. He had a new uniform that he was very proud to wear.

A fierce Karate Kid



Proudly receiving his black belt


 

Besides taking Tristen to karate, I also took Meghan to dance class. They were having a bit of a holiday party and were allowed to dress up as they wished. Meghan got herself all together and did a great job.

She did learn a valuable lesson about mirror images. She wrote HO HO HO on her face with face paint but didn't realize that it's backwards in real life. So her face said:

On our way home we took a side trip through Riverside Park to enjoy "Sparkles in the Park".

 

 

Monday, December 17th - winter has arrived for a short time

This morning it's a milder -2' and we should reach a high of +2' later on. The weekend certainly seemed a bit more seasonal. It snowed off and on all day Saturday and was fairly blustery on Sunday as well but it looks like we'll loose the little bit of snow we currently have. Not to worry, I'm sure more will replace sooner rather than later. On the other hand, we are little more than a week away from Christmas and every year that the kids have come down for the holidays it's been mild and rainy and totally messes up any chances of outdoor fun. Hopefully that won't be the case this year. But it would be nice if it waited till we get back to the island.

It was a pretty productive weekend. Friday night we enjoyed some supper with the Van Gaals. A delicious new soup recipe and homemade biscuits followed by an apple rhubarb crumble with ice cream. Comfort foods at their very best! Of course the company, as always, was the best part. With the holidays coming we won't get many of those nice quiet evenings for a while.

Saturday I worked and watched the ever changing weather. One minute it was like a blizzard outside and 20 minutes later, the sun was shining. The another 20 minutes or so would pass and it would be heavy snow once more. Strange day.  Lloyd called me when I was there to advise that he'd been invited to join some local fellows for a few drinks around the pot belly stove in a friend's garage.  I remember this particular party from last year and it started out innocently enough at 3:00 pm and stretched out quite late. I knew this year was likely to be the same. So I called Brenda and we planned to get together to bake some cookies and have nachos and wine.   And that's precisely what we did. After she left I headed off to bed around 10:30 and was wakened by the "Honey, come and get me" phone call a little after 11:00. So everyone was finally home safe and sound.

 Sunday was a work day. I spent the day getting all the beds ready for company, and doing some little last minute chores. One of those was to wrap the Christmas presents. I thought the kids might find it fun that I went with a green wrapping. I had earlier stamped some Christmas characters onto sheets of newspaper with water based poster paint and let it dry. Once the presents are unwrapped we can use the  paper for starting fires. The essence of reduce, reuse and recycle. I know their school does a lot of green initiatives with the kids and I thought they would like the idea. Then I recently saw an article somewhere on how to make a bow out of paper so I used more newspaper to make bows. They actually turned out not too badly.  Some day they will either remember this grandma as the forward thinking one or the absolutely crazy one! 

One of the other jobs I completed on the weekend was a Christmas stocking someone at work commissioned me to sew. She did supply me with a black and white photo of what she was looking for and my job was to recreate it. I think it turned out okay. It's meant to look like a boot but the toe seems a bit elf-like, but that's how it looked in the photo so hopefully it will be acceptable. Of course, now that it's done I've come up with some ideas to improve it so I'll get her to give it back to me after the holidays and I'll make some adjustments to it. Check back in the new year for the new and improved 'boot'.

Friday, December 14th - just a few more days to get ready

It's a cool -3' this morning with a few clouds but we should warm up to +3' later with some sun so not a bad day in store again today. The last couple of days have been beautiful - cool but very sunny and bright. Perfect weather for getting out there and getting the last bits of shopping done. I'm doing what I can a lunch times but the stores are busier now so I can't accomplish as much in an hour as I did a month ago - too much time standing in checkout lines. But it's getting there. I'm hopeful to have another productive weekend. I've even asked if I can take this Saturday off but the jury's still out on that one. Hopefully I'll find out today.

Lloyd is still quite under the weather with a really bad cold but hopefully he'll feel a little better today. He did eat some supper last night so it looks like he might be on the mend. Better to be sick now than over the holidays I suppose.

The other night when I got home from work, the outside Christmas lights were up as I mentioned earlier. It's the first year we've had lights outside since moving here. As I drove down the road, it looked so nice and bright. When I got inside I thanked him for putting them up for me and his response was "I think we need some candles in the upstairs windows".  I was slightly taken aback at that comment because he's always been somewhat of a Bah Humbug kind of guy! Did I just hear those words come from you?  Sure enough. So not to be discouraging of this new found Christmas spirit, I picked up an electric candle the next day. Only trouble was I forgot that the window upstairs at the front of the house is actually two together so I needed another candle. I picked up a second one yesterday so it's all starting to come together.

I stopped at Brenda's last night to drops off some things to her and she has a new candy cane decoration that's made by a fellow who lives closer to town. It's wooden with Christmas light on it and it's painted red and white. It's really nice and looks great at their place. Now that I've really had a good look at it, I'm surprised at how many of them there are around. The fellow who makes them does a really fine job and it's nice to see that his efforts are being supported. It's quite an ingenious design that can be hung on a wall or put onto a stake in the ground. I'll have to get some pictures of it one day when I'm over there.

Wednesday, December 12th - one more week

At 6:00 am it's a chilly -5' heading for a sunny high of -2 later on. What a strange few days of weather we've had. Monday it started snowing in the morning and by the time we left to go home it was freezing rain. Needless to say the roads were a little slick. Then it changed to rain and rose to 12' overnight. No a speck of snow on Tuesday morning and mild temperatures. Then Tuesday it stayed mild most of the day but did cool off a bit in the afternoon but it was still hovering around 5'. It's a little hard to determine these days just how to dress when you leave in the morning.

Monday night I baked a couple of batches of cookies to add to the freezer. They need to be kept frozen so some people don't eat them all! It's can hardly be called Christmas baking if it's all gone before Christmas gets here.   Lloyd took advantage of the nice weather on Tuesday and put up the Christmas lights outside. It was looking ever so festive when I got home. Unfortunately he's come down with a bad cold so is feeling a little under the weather. So being as he went to bed early last night, Brenda came over and we finished off a bottle of Dubonnet that was hanging around  in her cupboard. There was just enough left for two drinks. We had a couple of laughs over silly things and  watched a program I had taped from the BBC called Victorian Farm Christmas. It's an interesting program about three modern day people who are sent to live in the country on a farm in the same way the Victorian's did.  They had spent a year there previously but then returned to modern life. Now a year later, they are returning once again, several months before Christmas, to prepare for a Victorian Christmas feast. I'm going to save it for the kids to watch because it's taking place sometime after the War of 1812, which James is quite intrigued with. It will be interesting for him to see how farmers at that time lived. Check out this link for more information on the program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_Farm

I still have boxes of Christmas decorations sitting in a heap in the living room that need sorting. I think I'll make that my priority tonight. Then we'll be ready to decorate the tree when we get back. One week from today, if all goes as planned, I should be on a plane heading for Toronto. In a perfect world, Patti, who is flying the night before, will arrive in Toronto around the same time I get there and we can drive home together.

Yesterday I agreed to sew a Christmas stocking for someone at work.It's fairly intricate and Brenda thinks I'm slightly mad for taking on yet another project but as Patti and I texted yesterday, sometimes we are our own worst enemies, as she struggles with designing and implementing the costumes for "Beauty and The Beast". I'm sure they will be great, as usual. They haven't done this production before so it's the first time for these particular costumes. On previous shows, they were doing it for the second or third time so had some previous efforts to work from - what worked and what didn't and what needs changing. This time she's starting from scratch so it's quite a challenge. But I know she'll do a great job and everyone will be thrilled with them. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Monday, December 10th - everyone made it safely home

It's currently -4' at 5:15 am. The weather forecast according to the internet is looking a little wonky. It's showing us gradually getting warmer throughout the next 24 hours with it going up to 9' overnight and 10' by morning but at the same time it's also saying we could get between 15 and 20 mm of rain and up  5 to 10 cm of snow. Not sure how that's possible with 9' temperatures so it looks like the next 24 hours are anybodies guess!

Fairly productive weekend. Friday evening we had a dinner at the Rec Centre but we were finished by 9:00 followed by tea at Brenda's before heading home. Saturday morning I worked but left at 1:00. I had a couple of stops to make on the way home and had to get ready for the Christmas Party and back into town by 6:00. I finished off the last of my Christmas cards and got those in the mail on my way home so I'm pretty happy about that.

The party went well although I'm actually glad that Lloyd wasn't here to go with me. It was a very noisy space so he would have had to turn off his hearing aids, so it would have been impossible for him to carry on any kind of conversation with anyone. After dinner there was a bit of a trivia contest. Our team didn't win but we finished a respectable third so that was okay as well. The meal was a buffet and it was pretty good. I sat with Mike (from the parts department) and his wife Willow, along with two other couples. It was a pleasant evening and I was home by 10:45.

Sunday was also not so bad. I baked my fruit cake, two cherry loaves and some gumdrop cookies. I'll try to baked a few more batches of cookies through out the week. I figure if I get one done per night I should be in pretty good shape by the time the family gets here.  I also got out the rest of the Christmas decorations that are now piled in boxes in the living room. That will also be one of my jobs this week - to sort through those, check the lights, etc in preparation for decorating the tree on Christmas eve.





Last weekend Brenda and I went into the woods in search of greenery and whatever else we could find to make an outdoor arrangement. It's amazing what you can find when you look at dead foliage with a different attitude. Here's the results of my efforts.
The bucket everything is in, is inside a PEI Rutabaga burlap sack, courtesy of the Van Gaals.



I received a call from Brenda yesterday afternoon telling me they were in Hartland NB and wondering where Lloyd and Frank were. I called Lloyd but they were about an hour away from there so that wasn't going to happen. No travelling together this time. He expected they should be home around 11:00 but it was about 11:45 by the time I heard the car roll into the driveway. They still made pretty good time driving. I'll get details of the trip later on this morning. Hopefully the weather will be just as cooperative when Patti and I drive down in a couple of weeks.

Friday, December 7th - a nice relaxing evening

It's a calm -3' this morning but we should go up to 2' later with sun. Not a bad day. We were expecting 2 to 4 cm of snow yesterday but we really never got more than just a light covering. Brenda had called me a little before 7:00 to advise that there was freezing rain out there and I did have to clean some of it off my car. But by the time I was leaving it had turned to snow and the roads were actually not so bad. Of course by the time I got to work there was no snow. It did come a little later but really didn't amount to much. Just to be prepared I had my winter tires installed yesterday afternoon but I really didn't need them, however one of these days really soon, I will.

Yesterday morning the radio was mentioning it was  the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre in 1989.  Then when I got to work, Canada AM was on the TV and Jeff, one of the hosts, was broadcasting from Disney World in Florida. For me that was a really weird thing to have happen. The morning that the news broke about the massacre back in 1989, was the morning we were driving to Florida to visit Disney World. A really strange coincidence.

Last night was a relaxing evening. I came across a recipe for a warm Southwest Spinach Dip that I wanted to try. So I called my partner in crime, Brenda, and suggested that if I picked up a bottle of wine, she could come over and we could give it a whirl. It had good flavour but I think I left it in the oven too long. It wasn't as creamy as I would have expected but it still tasted pretty good. I'll watch it a little closer next time. So we had that with some nacho chips and a Yellow Tail wine that I hadn't tried before. It was really quite good and we totally enjoyed it. It's a white with just a hint of sparkly bubbles and it almost has a bit of an ice wine flavour to it. It was called Moscato (and I say WAS because we drank the whole thing!) I will definitely buy that one again. So we sat and ate and drank and watched a couple of programs on TV and it was a very enjoyable evening. We had to do it last night as we have a dinner at the Rec Centre tonight. Besides I was ready for a night off from working around the house. I can make up some time on the weekend.

Just found out yesterday that we are closed on Christmas Eve. So I'll switch my vacation day on the 24th and use it on the 31st. That will mean I'm off from the 19th right up until the 2nd of January! That's a full two weeks off. The last time I as off work for more than a week was when we went to Australia, and that was MANY years ago. Looking forward to spending that time with the kids.

Wednesday, December 5th - and the mild weather continues

It's a balmy 4' at 5:00 am and it's the 5th of December. We should reach a rainy 9' later this afternoon. That's nothing compared to the rainy 16' they experienced in southern Ontario yesterday. It's unusual but not totally unheard of to have unseasonable temperatures this time of year. I remember the year that James was either one or two, and Patti and I went to a shopping mall in Mississauga to do some Christmas shopping. It was mid December but all we needed was a light sweater for strolling around outside. We thought it was pretty amazing as it was the first time we'd ever experienced that, but it has certainly been happening more in the past 10 or 11 years.

Lloyd is keeping busy in Ontario but it sounds like most of his activity involves food! He's having a great time reconnecting with all his old friends. But he's also getting some work done on his plane. He needs to send me a photo I can post so we can see that it definitely is starting to look somewhat like an airplane. James is going to the hangar with him on Saturday morning. He's really enjoying sharing this experience with his Papa.  Brenda and I were talking about it last night over a cup of tea and she commented that it would have been nice if James had been the age he is now, when Lloyd started building the plane. It would have been quite the experience for him to witness the rising of the plane from the pile of metal pieces that it once was and to have a hand in the whole project. But at least he's old enough now to appreciate it somewhat while it gets finished and taken for it's first flight.

Lloyd's expecting to be home sometime on Monday. Our weather forecast is predicting some snow for Monday but it's early yet. The weather for Toronto for the same time is mild so hopefully he won't be following the snow as it travels east, although it's looking like they might get some in the Ottawa area. We'll just have to wait and see. He may end up having to stay a day or two to wait it out if it's not looking too great. That's the trouble with traveling this time of year - the weather can be so unpredictable.  But it is Canada and it is December so what else can we expect?

My cleaning jobs are moving along. Monday night was pretty exciting - I emptied everything out of the fridge and took it all apart and scrubbed all the inside parts. It's a thing of beauty now. It's almost a shame to put food in there and mess it up! Last night I worked on the linen closet area. I underestimated how long it would take but it's pretty much done. A few more jobs to be done but I should be finished by the end of the weekend. I'm hoping to spend all day Sunday doing some baking, then that job will be out of the way as well.  Then I still have another 10 days or so before I leave so I think I'm in pretty good shape.

Other than that not much is new around here. It's pretty quiet but productive.

Monday, December 3rd - back to rain

It's 8' this morning and raining. We will see the rain end this afternoon but the temperature will go down to 4' later. Needless to say there is very little remaining of our weekend snow. Saturday morning it was snowing when I got up and by the time I left at 8:00 the roads were quite snow covered. There was quite a bit on the ground but I bravely broke the trail into the Van Gaal residence before heading into town. I had a couple of things to drop off and wasn't it just my good fortune that there was hot coffee and warm cinnamon rolls upon my arrival. Does it get any better on a snowy morning?  I think not! Of course, when I got to town the sun was shining and there was virtually no snow on the ground. Figures.

After work I did a couple of errands in town then headed home. It was a very quiet day at work so I was able to complete most of my Christmas cards. I was missing a few addresses as they were in my long gone Blackberry, so an email to a few people has resulted in the remaining addresses being received throughout the weekend. Now I can get my cards done and in the mail. Cross that one off the list.

The list is one I made on Saturday  of all the things I would like to, or need to finish before I leave on the 19th. I have to admit some of them are things that have needed doing for a couple of year but I'm going to do my best to complete as many items as possible. For instance, the closet in the mud room has been a dumping ground for quite some time and now with Lloyd here, we have a lot more shoes and boots than before. What to do with them all. Some were put away for the winter, such as sandals, but I spent the time to empty out the closet and now the boots are all in there. Amazing how much space you have when you use it efficiently (or at least as it was meant to be used!). A lot of the things on my list are like that - take time to accomplish but on the surface you won't notice a thing but it will make life a little less complicated.

So the bulk of my weekend was doing just that - slowly working my way through the jobs. There are still lots to do but I'm hoping to have the majority of them done by the end of the week. I've taken some of the tasks and assigned them each to a night of the week so that I can do one job a night instead of stressing over what to do next. Break it down into little pieces will make the list much more manageable.  So I'm feeling quite good about the weekend in spite of the fact it was short. I did manage to enjoy myself a little. Some wine and nachos with Brenda on Saturday night and on Sunday a trip to the woods to gather some vegetation to put into our Christmas greenery.  I need to find something to put mine into so that's my goal for lunchtime today.  We found all sorts of things that will make our displays  a little more interesting. It's really quite remarkable what's out there when you really look. I took the dog with me and he really enjoyed his romp through the fields. Although at one point he wandered off and then couldn't find us. We don't have to worry about him ever getting lost in the woods because he began his howling like a wolf  routine he does whenever you leave him alone. This time it continued on until I called him and he could follow the sound of my voice repeatedly shouting his name. After a couple of minutes he came bounding down the lane. What a dog. He happily spent the afternoon at home in front of the wood stove picking at the snowballs that were stuck to the long hair on his feet.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working away before sitting down to watch a movie I had taped a while ago.  All in all, a pretty productive weekend. Of course it's also keeping me busy till Lloyd gets back. They had a good trip to Toronto and all went well. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the trip back. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, we should see increasingly milder days with maybe some rain. But that's days away so we'll just have to see.

Friday November 30th - a rude awakening yesterday

This morning the wind is howling and it's a chilly 9' but that wind is making it feel more like -18'. That's pretty chilly for this time of year in this area. I suppose part of the problem is we've had such unseasonably nice weather for so long that to plunge us right into this is just downright mean on the part of Mother Nature!
Yesterday morning Lloyd and neighbour Frank left at 5:00 with just a light skiff of snow on the ground. Fast forward two hours to 7:00 when I left and it was a whole different story. There was probably 3" of snow on the ground. It had started snowing really hard and kept it up right after he left. The roads were pretty slippery  out this way and the highway wasn't much better. It hadn't seen a plow yet and at least one vehicle on my way to work hadn't slowed down for the road conditions. There was a utility trailer of some sort overturned in the middle of the road. My concern was what if the roads got worse the further I went and the guys were having to drive through that. But as I neared town, the snow became less and less and there was very little snow the further west you traveled so I was happy to see that. It did stop snowing and the sun came out and melted a lot of it away. We still have some on the ground at home but not really much left on the roads.

I talked to Lloyd around 4:30 yesterday which would have been 3:30 where they were and they had just stopped for gas and were on the road just outside of Montreal. My calculations should have put them at their destinations a little before midnight but I haven't heard yet. I'm sure I'll hear from him today. He's going to have a busy time while he's there catching up with everyone. I'm sure the time will probably fly by for him and hopefully the weather will cooperate for the trip home.

Not much else is new - just trying to keep warm. I have a lot of things I have to get done before I leave for Toronto and this week will be a good time to tackle some of the things on that list. Tonight there's a dinner at the Rec Centre so not much will be accomplished tonight but I'll have a bit of time in the morning and I have a project to do while I'm at work tomorrow. Then I'll see how productive the rest of the weekend will be.

Wednesday, November 28th - The Class of 2012 complete

It's a chilly -8' this morning and we're warming all the way up to 1' later today. There is a possibility that we might receive from 5 to 15 cm of snow by tomorrow. Lloyd's leaving for Toronto at 5:00 tomorrow morning so let's hope it's not too bad for driving.

We had our potluck last night and what a feast it was. As usual there was WAY too much food but a good time was had by all. We were missing two girls from our cooking class. Lesa was going to be arriving late as it was but she was also not feeling well, so didn't make it at all,  and Heather and her husband had tickets for a concert in town last night, so also couldn't be with us. We missed them both at our last opportunity to get together.  Everyone seems okay with the fact that we're not teaching the class again next year. I'm sure some of our paths will cross in other classes next year. We'll see what they are offering and then decide what class we're going to take.

We finally got everyone together for a group picture.

Donagh Community School Class of 2012

The instructors are only required to bring rolls to the potluck but Brenda made some really great biscuits and I made cupcakes. I decided to get a bit creative and made some poinsettias and snowflakes out of fondant a few days before so they had time to dry out a little. I couldn't find a poinsettia cookie cutter so devised my own out of a star. I cut out two stars and laid them on top of each other. The results turned out not too badly. I'll make those again.

We were entertained after dinner by the guitar class (only one student played)

and a large fiddle class (13 played in this one).

This was the 10th year of the Donagh Community School so hats off to the folks who put so much time and effort into organizing it each year. It is truly appreciated.

Yesterday Lloyd rented a gizmo to dig trenches so that he can run wiring from the house to the garage to the bunky. Next door neighbour Frank is coming over today with a tractor to fill in the trenches that now contain the wiring. Next step will be to hook everything up but that will have to wait till he gets back.

Monday, November 26th - Winter is definitely coming

Judging the by the amount of wind and cold on the weekend, winter is definitely on the way - just not yet. After our string of nice sunny days and mild temperatures, we had rain on Saturday, although still quite mild but that certainly changed on Sunday. We woke to strong winds and much colder temperatures. But the sun came out in the afternoon so it didn't look quite so cold. Lloyd had planned to put the Tyvek wrap on the building but needless to say, it was much too breezy for that. Hopefully it will die down some this week.
This morning is still very breezy and the temperature of -2' feels like -10.  But the sky is clear and lots of bright stars can be seen so no precipitation is expected today, but maybe later in the week.

I worked on Saturday, then did a few errands in town. It was a pretty quiet evening - just some supper and a bit of TV. Sunday morning was a little busier as I worked on some French Macarons for my close friends and family (those who like the orange/chocolate flavour combination - and you know who you are!). Basically just a puttering around kind of day, doing odd jobs that needed doing. We had a fundraising spaghetti supper in the afternoon at the Rec Centre that Brenda and I have become the chief spaghetti cookers for. This year Brenda was also the chief sauce maker and she received a lot of compliments on her sauce. Be careful, you just might work yourself into a full time position! The crowd was down a bit from last year but did starting filing in a little later. For a while it was looking like it was only going to be a hand full of people show up, but that turned out not the be the case in the end. The crowd may have been down a bit because it was Grey Cup Day so they'll have to make a note of that when planning next year. But all in all, a good day as we were back home by 6:15.

I have to admit I wasn't out to the garage at all this weekend, and I was away last weekend so it's been two weeks since I was last out there. Of course it's dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I get home, so not a lot goes on during the week. It's soon going to be closed in completely but I still have some wood to stack. No time this past weekend but hopefully, next weekend will be better.(okay, I could have made time but.... see weather notes above!)  Lloyd got the waterproof membrane put on the  floor  area of the little balcony  so that's finished. Now he just has to close up the two large openings on the front and the tyvek on the outside and that just may be all that gets done this year, but it's come a long way in a short time. He's hoping to get the electricity run  this week so that he can work out there if he wants to over the winter. We do tend to have mild spells from time to time and it would be nice to be able to take advantage of that.

Bernie loaned us a large piece of scaffolding on wheels that made it easier to get to the higher areas. The funniest sight is my trusty little lawn tractor pulling this huge piece of equipment. It takes a bit of effort but it gets the job done. I knew she wouldn't let us down!

And here's how the building is looking now - slowly getting there but still quite functional for winter storage, even at this point.  Once the openings are closed in, it will be a mighty useful space.

Friday, November 23rd - and still the nice weather continues - for now

It's a balmy 6' outside this morning and we should reach a sunny high of 10' later this afternoon - a perfect day to be outside, once again. The last couple of days have been gorgeous and much progress has been made on the building. The top is now complete and today he's working on the little inset balcony area. The roof is covered as are the two ends so thanks to the weather this week real progress has been made. This should allow him to be prepared to go to Ontario some time next week. While he's away, I'll use that time to sort and get the house somewhat ready for Christmas. By the time he gets back, it should almost be time for me to fly to Toronto. The time is going by so fast! But then December is always like that.

Yesterday I found the listing for my friend's house that's for sale in Guelph. They did an amazing job with the virtual tour - check it out:

http://htours.ca/serve_media/Slideshows/18honey/ht.html

As I watched the video, I know that others will see an absolutely gorgeous house, but I see something else in that video: 

• I see countless parties with good friends, 
• I see Jana and I up till the wee hours working on Scott's parents scrapbook at the dining room table ( just one more page!), 
• I see people hovering around the stove waiting for the mini burgers we prepared along with countless other dishes for a massive fundraiser we put together in a couple of weeks, for the local Children's Foundation, 
• I see starry nights sitting out on the balcony drinking wine,  (and Scott being dismayed at how some people guzzled what was a very expensive and beautiful wine)
• I see the kids playing in the pool or jumping in the bouncy castle or sliding down the inflatable slide (the little kids during the evening, the bigger kids after the little ones had gone home), 
• I see a table set for 26 people as we had the after Christmas parties every  January with all the staff, 
• I see many hours spent in Jana's kitchen with Kay and Jackie as we prepped for the summer BBQ, 
• I see Maple Lodge Farms setting up the big BBQ's in the driveway and roasting 100 half  chickens for the same BBQ, 
• I see Scott, Ryan and Kristi setting up the bar for numerous parties outside on the patio
• I see Lloyd's apartment that was his home away from home for quite some time while he worked to be able to join me on the island
• I see Frank Balnar sitting at the bar in the kitchen before dinner at numerous gatherings - after Christmas, dinner with their friends from Vancouver - holding court with all the staff
• I see Scott playing the part of bartender at all the functions as he skillfully mixed drinks (here, you've got to try this one)
• I see Kristi running experiments for a school project that involved drinking either copious amounts, or carefully measured out ounces, of wine  and then using a breathalyzer to determine our level of intoxication 
• I see the same experiment run the second time because of an equipment malfunction the first time
• I see Sarah spending countless hours on the bricks in the hallway
• I see a huge, real Christmas tree in the downstairs family room that reached up two stories tall

I see many things when I look at that video, and when the house is sold, it seems like another chapter of my life will be coming to a close.

Halifax part 3:  Before we left on Sunday morning, and after we had dropped Ange at church, we spent some time touring the area known in Halifax as the Hydrostone neighbourhood. This area was re-built after the Halifax Explosion. The houses are all in rows with lanes running between the back of each row of houses for parking, garbage collection, etc. In between the rows of houses at the front, on each street is a very wide grassy green space. There are a number of rows of these houses and were made with a special man made material known as hydrostone. Some still remain in their original form but many have since be covered with siding and other materials. Those that have been left and maintained have a real interesting quality to them. At one end of the area, are two rows of building that are shops of all sorts and by the time we left it was filled with people. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and the area was very well utilized by the locals. We went into a little patisserie and had coffee and a pastry then walked through and toured the little shops. What a pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning.

Wednesday, November 21st - last cooking class and Halifax Part 2

It's a chilly 0' at 5:00 am but we should warm up to 7' later with some sunshine. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous - very mild and sunny. When I went out for lunch I truly wished I'd had the day to spend at home puttering around outside. But such is life!

Shamus adding the finishing touches to his apple

Last night was our final cooking class. We made caramel and chocolate covered apples with festive sprinkles. Some of the class brought in samples of Christmas favorites along with the recipe. Besides various cookies we enjoyed a fluffy fruit salad and a creamy crab dip. Needless to say a feast was had by all. Our apples turned out okay but the caramels were a little thick when they were melted as was the chocolate so they were very well coated. But they got the idea. We made some chocolate candy cane bark with the left over chocolate that turned out not too badly. Now all that is left is our pot luck next week.

Halifax part 2: (click on the photos to enlarge and view details)

On Sunday morning we met Brenda's aunt Ange for breakfast before dropping her off at church. We went to Streak and Stein and had a nice meal and a lovely chat.









Before we dropped her off at church, we visited a cemetery that has the graves of the some of the victims of the Titanic sinking.











There are row upon row of stones that initially only contained the date of death and a number.










Over time the victims have been identified and some of the families have chosen to add the name or a new grave marker.











In come cases, in spite of the person being identified, there still remains no name. The option to add the name was strictly at the families' doing so possibly in some cases there is no family remaining to do that.

It was quite a moving experience to walk through the rows in the sunshine and view the graves of those lost, especially those of young sailors and in some cases, whole families. It started me thinking.


















Today so many people opt for cremation instead of burial (me included) and I know this is probably the most environmentally friendly option, rather than taking up floor space in a cemetery somewhere. But on the other hand, once you're gone, you're really gone with no physical record that you were ever here






I know there's a paper trail to say that you lived, got married, died, etc but nothing tangible. It brought to mind a conversation we had in the car many years ago when Patti was still in school. We were talking about cremation and after thinking about it her question was "But where do people go to miss you?" We laughed and talked about the memories still being alive but now I wonder if she had a valid point?

 All those people, in that cemetery, were someone's family member. Even if they only have a number, there is still something that marks the fact that they were here. Something to think about.

Monday, November 19th - what a great Jesse Cook weekend!

This morning it's bright stars in a clear, dark sky and -2' but we should reach a sunny 5' later. Pretty much a carbon copy of what we had in Halifax all weekend.
The weekend started out with packing on Friday evening and getting ready to go, and celebrating Patti's birthday by sharing some chocolate cake and ice cream! (Many years ago, when Patti was a teenager, we lived in an apartment building beside a large shopping mall. The three of us would be sitting watching TV and the two of them would start - Lloyd would whisper "Chocolate Cake" to which Patti would reply "Ice Cream". This would then entail a trip to the store for said items so the three of us could enjoy 'chocolate cake and ice cream' - this happened quite frequently!) So in honour of Patti's birthday we enjoyed 'chocolate cake and ice cream'.

Saturday morning bright and early I picked up Brenda and we headed down the road to the boat that was sailing at 6:30. One little glitch - after I got to her place I realized I'd forgotten the folder with all the confirmation stuff in it, so a  quick trip back to my place before heading down the road. Once we headed down the road we almost (literally) ran into a traffic jam. What is this?  Who the heck has a convoy of vehicles coming up the Monahan Road  at 5:30 in the morning? Turns out it was Bernie's hunting friend and his buddies heading for a farmers corn field in an attempt to bag some ducks and/or geese. As we passed the vehicles Brenda recognized the truck so she called his cell phone and inquired just why they were causing such gridlock at that hour of the morning???  After a bit of fun with that, we continued on our way.

Made it to the boat in lots of time and got in line with the other 3 or 4 cars that were waiting. Once on the boat, we ran into a lady that Brenda knew many years ago, so a bit of time was spent catching up with her. Then it was into the restaurant area where we enjoyed "The Islander" breakfast, which I'm told is the islander thing to do when taking the ferry -  2 eggs, bacon, home fries, toast and coffee. It was quite good, enjoyed along with the daily paper. It also saved us from wasting valuable shopping time eating breakfast upon our arrival.

The weather for driving to Halifax alternated between a light drizzle, overcast and then some sun - not really a bad day. At this time of year, it could have been much worse. As we got to town we decided to check out a shopping area called Dartmouth Crossing. It's basically a large shopping mall but without a roof.
It's kind of ironic really, because it's re-creating the downtown shopping experience outside of town, when that's what they had all along, before building the big indoor malls that have destroyed many downtown areas.  We got there a couple of minutes before the stores opened and there were a couple we wanted to check out. Good thing we got there when we did because when we finished shopping the two stores at one end, the parking lot in the centre was packed when we came out. We found a few items for Christmas gifts for various people so that was a good thing but time to move on.

Next stop was the farmer's market. It was located at the seaport and in a large warehouse. It's huge and has lots of really interesting vendors. We had lots of things to sample, including several wineries.  Needless to say, not just produce was purchased at this stop!

A short drive further down the road was a craft sale we'd seen online. There were lots of lovely things but neither of us won the lottery the night before, so pretty much everything there was WAY out of our price range.  But it was nice to look.

By now we were starting to get a bit hungry and it was late enough that we could check into the hotel. We hadn't realized that the Santa Claus Parade was taking place on Saturday through the downtown at 6:00 pm so it was good that we had strategically booked a hotel that was almost precisely half way between the restaurant and the concert venue.  We'd be able to walk everywhere we needed to go.

After parking the car out back, checking in and changing into our good jean (as opposed to our traveling and shopping jeans!) we headed out for our evening on the town. The hotel wasn't fancy by any means but it was comfortable and the location turned out to be perfect.

We headed down to Barrington Street, on foot,  where we had reservations for 5:30 at Chives,  a local restaurant owned by Chef Craig Flinn, who used to be on The Inn Chef with Michael Smith a million years ago.  After checking out several shops along the way we realized it was only 5:00 and the streets were beginning to be lined with people and lawn chairs, and police had closed off the street and were working on towing away those cars that were still in the way. Good thing we walked!  So we went into Chives and they were very accommodating and let us change our reservation to 5:00. Good thing too, because we were starting to get cold and more than a little hungry. We really hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast on the boat.

Chef Craig wasn't there but his fellow chef was. What a treat. We enjoyed our meal immensely.  We started out by sharing an appetizer of SMOKED SALMON BRUSCHETTA - Local smoked salmon, lemon ricotta cheese, grilled garlic crostini, pickled red onions & crispy capers, and fresh cut chives. Two large pieces that were perfect for sharing.

Then the main course. I had the  BRAISED NOVA SCOTIA LAMB DU JOUR
Roasted squash risotto, market vegetables, sherry lamb jus reduction, and pumpkin seeds.

Brenda enjoyed LOBSTER CRUSTED HADDOCK with new garden vegetable hodge podge and lemon fennel salad. Both dishes were beautifully prepared and presented.

The menu made a couple of suggestions for complementary wines with each that made it an easy choice.
For dessert we shared a decadent slice of Flourless Chocolate Cake, with Cinnamon Ice Cream, Port Poached Pears and White and Dark Chocolate sauces. YUMMMMM.


After coffee and tea we waddled out onto the street only to find it clogged with hundreds of parade watchers enjoying the festivities in full swing. It became obvious very quickly that we needed to change our walking route so headed over to University Avenue to avoid the crowds and make our way up to Dalhousie's concert hall.

We made the right decision to walk because a number of people arrived at the concert late due to difficulties in finding a parking spot due to the close proximity to the parade.

As usual, Jesse did not disappoint.  I've seen him a number of times now and this was by far the most high energy show I've seen with the greatest degree of audience participation. I suppose it was helped by the fact that one of the fellows who plays with him, Chris Church, is from Halifax and they really welcomed him back home. It was an amazing show with lots of favorite tunes and some new voices.  He featured an unknown (to us, anyway) female singer from Toronto. Emma Lee was wonderful and Brenda bought her CD at the break. We really enjoyed listening to it on the way home but more on that later.

When it was all over, we walked back to the hotel. It was cold but not windy, so it wasn't really so bad.  A warm cup of tea upon our arrival made all the difference and after so much walking all day we were glad to finally get off our feet for the day.
See you Wednesday.


To be continued.....

Friday, November 16th - Happy Birthday, Patti!

Out here on the coast we're enjoying great weather for this time of year. It's a little cooler than it was earlier in the week but still pretty nice for mid November. Looking ahead, it should stay this way for at least the next week.  Hopefully Patti is enjoying a nice day today too, for her birthday.  Be careful when you light all those candles!!!

Happy Birthday, Patti!

 The bad news is Lloyd is finished his construction job and doesn't yet have another to go to. The good news is, he now has time to get his building finished, or at least as finished as it's going to be this fall. It's still not completely closed in as yet so the next weeks nice weather will suit that purpose nicely. When he gets that finished, he's going to head to Ontario for a week or so, to pick up the rest of his 'stuff' that's still in Guelph. We figure at this point he may as well just wait till after Christmas and then start looking again for work, unless something happens to come along in the meantime.
He'll just get home and then it will be my turn. The kids school play is taking place on December 19th this year so I'm flying up that day and staying until Patti and James (and Meadow) and I leave to drive here on the 23rd. I'm not sure what day the others are planning on flying down but we should all reconnect sometime on Christmas Eve here on the island. That will give me a brief chance to drop in on a few folks for coffee (you know who you are, so get the coffee ready!!).  I'll plan my schedule over the next month. I'll also have to make sure I'm all ready for Christmas before I leave as there will be no time when I get back. In fact we'll be going out to cut down the tree when as soon as we get here so it will be really last minute on Christmas Eve, but I suppose that's what the  pioneers did - and that's what this will be - a pioneer Christmas, partly in honour of James' fascination with the War of 1812. So everything for our dinner will have to be locally sourced. That will mean lots of root vegetables and a locally raised turkey. We can handle that. James has requested Grouse for Christmas and a local hunter friend is looking into that for us.

Brenda called the other night to advise that they received  some pork that had just been butchered. So she and Lloyd got together last night to try their hand at some homemade breakfast sausage. It went very well and the results were great. They just made a small batch but plan to get together again after Christmas some weekend and we'll all make a big batch of several types. Now we'll have great tasting sausages with no additives.

The initial mix of meat and spices 

"The Pisquid Sausage Company"

The finished product