Monday, September 30th - what a glorious weekend!

It's late September and the weather this past weekend was absolutely gorgeous! It was warm and sunny both days and islanders took full advantage.
Saturday I worked in the morning but left a little early to attend the Women's Health and Fitness expo. There were lots of people out and about on the streets enjoying the day. When that ended I popped into the hospital to visit a friend who's there. After spending some time with her, I headed home. Lloyd had also been taking advantage of the fine day to cut the grass. I had thought I would do that when I got home but he beat me to it. He spent part of the day emptying the small shed beside the garage. Our plan is to use that one to store wood. We have a smallish pile outside the door of that one  that will need to be moved before the cold weather hits. Then it will be our main wood storage space. Right now there's a large pile stacked in the garage but that will get used this winter. Although it's hard to think about those things when it's sunny and 23' outside!  It was a quiet evening with nothing much going on, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Then on Sunday it was the same thing again, more sun and warm weather. Lloyd had a few things he wanted to do around the house and Brenda and I headed out to play. First we went into town to visit Farm Day in the City. It's larger this year and the place was packed. Everyone in the city it seems, was there, along with the 600 passengers that were here on a cruise ship. What a nice treat for them to have this event taking place while they're here. It would certainly make their day much more interesting.

After walking around and checking out all the vendors, we headed out to Cavendish Beach. I need pictures from 4 more beaches and now it's down to only 3.

There were a few people there, some even in bathing suits laying in the sun. It was a perfect day to be there. We met a couple who were sitting in chairs by the shore and they were visiting the island from Waterloo, Ontario.

 They had all kinds of questions about what life was like here on the island for someone from away, and of course, I told them it was wonderful. But I may be a little biased in my opinion.  We had a lovely chat with them and then we headed back to town.

 We found this little note in the sand that someone had written earlier in the day. How perfect for our purposes. Too bad the person who wrote it will never know that it will be used later at a national conference!

Brenda and Bernie joined us later for supper. We were BBQing Mary Brown - the first chicken from our little flock to be sampled. And boy, was she delicious. We did the bird on a beer can with a dry rub on the outside and when it was done, it was juicy and delicious. 

We've both been counting calories now for about a week and so far it's going very well. I have to admit I could have eaten twice as much of that juicy bird, but I knew I'd have to account for it so common sense prevailed. 

Before supper, Brenda and I spent a bit of time practicing our dance steps, as our teacher has sent us some music, so that now makes it much easier.
Practice makes perfect, so I'm told. I need LOTS more practice!

Friday, September 27th - the rain has finally ended - for now

It seems like it's been raining forever, but really it's just a few days. It's a coolish feeling 12' this morning and it's pretty much going to stay there all day, maybe rising a degree or two, but the sun will come out and already the rain has dried up somewhat. It's a bit breezy this morning, which will surely help dry things up quicker. But look out, the weekend is looking to be lovely and warm and sunny. Let's hope we're not disappointed.
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It's been a quiet couple of days, with not a lot going on. Work has been busy so the days are going quickly. Lloyd and I are both on a dietary change to try to lose a few pounds and so far it's going well. We're counting calories with the help on an online program that tracks your progress for you. We've both done it before and had success, but not at the same time. This time seems so much easier with both of us doing it together. It makes meal planning so much better when we're both on the same page, so to speak. We'll see how it goes. It's only been a week and I know I've maybe lost a couple of pounds but I already feel so much better because, really, I eat too much! There's just no denying it. I've always had a healthy appetite and that's what's gotten me where I am today so it's time to start doing it right. We'll keep you posted on our progress from time to time.

It seems we're going to be busy in the future with a couple of catering jobs. We're doing lunch again for three days at work in another week or so, and we may be catering a Christmas dinner for an area  fire department. That came about because of the wedding we helped out with earlier in the summer. Still some details to iron out but it's in the works. Mind you, the organizing committee is having a meeting on Monday evening to discuss options and they have asked someone else as well, so it's not a done deal as yet, but it's looking good. Keep you posted on that one as well.

The only really big news today is coming from the Dennison house. They have a new addition to the family - that's right, Meadow has a new sister. We met her last night on skype. Her name is Amber and she came from the humane society. She's Meghan's own dog.  She's agree to take full care of her, feeding, walking, etc as well as contributing 50/50 to her feed and other expenses, as well as paying for her yearly dog licence. She is going to be doing a paper route, starting next week. There's a local little paper that  comes out twice a week, so on Tuesday and Thurday she'll be delivering papers. She also has her yearly shopping trip to Buffalo coming up so she'll be able to earn some of her own spending money for that. We'll see how that all works out!

Wednesday, September 25th - a very wet fall day here on the island

It's not that cold this morning, 9' but it will only rise to 13' later and rain pretty much all day. It's looking like that might be the norm until the weekend when it will warm up a bit so that's something to look forward to.

I have to wish our friend Bernie a very happy birthday. It was actually yesterday but we celebrated on Monday evening. We joined them for supper and a couple of drinks after work because:
     a) he was going to be busy on Tuesday and not sure when he'd be home
     b)Tuesday is our dance class

In the end he came over and had supper with Lloyd so he didn't have to eat his birthday supper all alone! We had our second dance class last night. For reasons not quite clear to us, the two gals who were in our class last week have been moved elsewhere. So now it's just me and Brenda. Guess our awesome talents were just too intimidating for the others (yah, right!). This is a good thing for us as we're really slow and now we can just move along at our own pace. We pretty much just did the same steps as last week but we didn't have those down too well yet, as he really did throw a lot at us the first week, so we need to practice those more this week.

I have one more photo from the weekend. There was a second plane that James went up in at the Guelph Airport. This one was a four seater so his mom and brother were able to go up with them as they soared over the area.

Sitting in the co-pilots seat --- for now...

It was great that the weather cleared up on Sunday and it seems like a fine time was had by all.


Due to a bit of a delay in obtaining his criminal background check, Lloyd doesn't start his new job until next week. That gives him a little bit of time to work around here. He's supposed to help Bernie with some work on the farm for a couple of days, but not sure if that will be happening in the rain.

Monday, September 23rd - another great island weekend!

The weather was wonderful all weekend long, sunny and warm, with temperatures in the 20 to 22' range. Today is the first full day of fall and mother nature is letting us know it. At 5:15 am it's 19' but it feels more like 25. However it's raining and from the looks of the large puddle outside the back door, it's been raining for quite some time. The temperature will drop to 15' this afternoon but that's still pretty mild for this time of year.

Friday, Brenda met me after work and we headed out to Summerside to attend a Fall Flavours event called "Beef and Blues". While we were waiting for the doors to open we toured around the complex. We found an upstairs door that was unlocked and when we went inside, it was the upper part of the arena where the event was being held, so we had a birds eye view of the preparations.

Tables of 8 were set up in the centre, and around the perimeter were food stations. There were 17 local restaurants with offerings and one by Chef Mark McEwan from Toronto. Besides being a big time celebrity chef, he's also the owner of several restaurants in town, one of which we really enjoyed at the north end of the city when we lived there, on Yonge Street called North 44. I was chatting briefly with Mark and he told me that next spring is the 25th anniversary of North 44 - no small accomplishment in the restaurant world.

The doors opened promptly at 7:00 and everyone headed inside. There were no announcements of how it was supposed to work but we figured it out pretty quickly. You just wandered up to any station and helped yourself to a plate, and what plates they were. I'm really wishing they had a printed list of everything available because they were too numerous and varied to remember them all. They were all beef and they were all delicious. There was a duo playing music - some really great blues - on stage to add to the atmosphere. It was dark inside and I tried to take a photo of some of the plates but it didn't turn out so well. Should have brought my camera instead of trying to use my phone.

It was a really interesting evening with great food, great company and great music  - although it may have been a little too much great food because we were both uncomfortably full by the time we left, and I don't think we sampled everything.

I wasn't sure how late we were going to be getting home on Friday so I took Saturday off. It was a beautiful day and I was so pleased to be able to enjoy it for a change. I had some cleaning I wanted to get done at home but I took a break part way through the morning to go over to Brenda's to check out some wild cranberries they has growing on a piece of their land. We drove out and spotted them. It was hard to find many really ripe berries, but we picked some of the less ripe ones as well. Hopefully there's enough colour in them to make them work for us.  I now have a decent sized bag of berries in my freezer. It was interesting to see how and where they grow wild. I'd never seen that before, so once again, thanks to Brenda and Bernie for another unique island experience!

I spent the remainder of the day puttering around the house, bringing in a bit of wood because one of these days, it's going to get cold enough to need a fire, and just enjoying my day off. I was in the middle of reading a book and a fair chunk of my afternoon was spent trying to finish it. I succeeded.

I was awakened early Sunday  morning to yet another beautiful day. Brenda had gone sailing with her cousin Maureen and husband George. They planned to spend the night on the sailboat and it looks like the weather cooperated. There was quite a breeze on both Saturday and Sunday and a bright full moon at night, with not a drop of rain - perfect weather for their little adventure. I can't wait to hear all about it later.

I knew that Lloyd was on his way home as I had spoken with him on Saturday afternoon and he was just outside of Montreal. I knew he'd be home before lunch , and sure enough, he drove in around 9:30.  After a cup of tea, and some video of his plane flying, he was off for a nap. Here it is VERY short video of it  just taking off

Earlier in the week, Meghan was on hand for the application of the logo on the side. It looks really good on the plane.

The proud artist with the final product...

While Lloyd  napped, I took the opportunity to drive down to the Dromore Trails and take the dog for a walk. It was such a gorgeous day it seemed such a shame not to be out enjoying it.

By this time of year, we really enjoy these beautiful fall days - lovely weather and very few mosquitoes.

Lloyd didn't sleep as long as he thought he might, so when he came downstairs at 12:30 I made us some lunch. After eating, we browsed through the flyers, unpacked the car, put stuff away, really exciting stuff like that. While we were doing that, Patti called to say that it was better weather there on Sunday than it was on Saturday. At that moment, James was up in the air going for a flight in a Tiger Moth.

He called shortly after to report that it was "AWESOME". He was headed over to go for a flight in another plane that could also take him,  his mom and Tristen. Sounded like they were having a pretty amazing afternoon.
More on that experience later in the week. 

Later in the evening, I was making supper and Brenda called to tell me about her weekend. She had a great time but some other members of the family had unexpected issues and we'll leave it at that other than to say everyone is just fine!

Friday, September 20th - A girls night out

The summer weather just keeps on coming. Wednesday and yesterday were  absolutely gorgeous days. The temperatures hovered around 22 to 23' but it felt much warmer in the sun. Looks like today might be substantially cooler -  currently 13' at 5:00 am but we will only go up to 14' this afternoon-  but we should be back into the warmer temperatures and sun for the weekend.

Wednesday evening I had a lovely time over at our friend Linda's cottage. She and her friend Joyce have been here for a couple of weeks now, and are leaving on Saturday to head back to Ontario.The cottage is quite secluded and when I arrived after work, and having a glass of wine, the sun was just setting. This is the view from the living room

 Lloyd and I were invited for supper with them on Wednesday but, unfortunately, Lloyd had to miss it as he's in Guelph. I was treated to BBQ steak, baked potatoes done on the BBQ, baby carrots, Caesar Salad and for dessert, Peach and Blueberry Buckle. Everything was delicious and we washed it all down with beer and/or wine, depending on your preference. Linda's going to send me the recipe for the dessert, as it was really nice. When I get it, I'll share.

I told Lloyd about our lovely evening and he suggested that we didn't even miss him. I told him we did discuss the fact that too bad he wasn't there ..

...we could have used a dish washer!

I know he would have enjoyed himself as well, but we just had to make do with just the three of us girls.

Thursday was yet another beautiful day. I talked to Lloyd and the flying is going well. There's been a little bit of necessary de-bugging of the plane but that was to be expected.  Little things but for the most part, the fellow who is doing the initial flying, is very, very pleased with it and the way it handles. I'm still waiting on pictures...

Meghan was to go over after school Thursday to be there when Lloyd put the sticker on the side. It's her work and she wanted to be part of the process. I'm sure there will be photo's tomorrow. The sticker turned out really well and Lloyd's very impressed with the final result. Here she is, finally, Little Miss Guided!

 I think 11 year old Meghan, did a pretty awesome job recreating this from a tiny picture Lloyd found.I can't wait to see it on the plane. She's going to be very proud of herself, and rightly so.
Speaking of Meghan, I received this picture last night and I can tell it's her by those cute little freckles!

The caption read "guess who got their ears pierced?" ( I hoped it wasn't James or Tristen)

Tonight, Brenda and I are taking in a Fall Flavours event in Summerside. It should be fun and she's probably ready for a break as they've been harvesting all week, taking advantage of the nice weather. Details to follow on Monday.

Wednesday, September 18th - It flies!!!

At least that was the two word message that was left on my answering machine when I got home last night. I talked to Lloyd later and yes, it does indeed fly. Unfortunately they had only put a little bit of fuel into it and didn't have access to more, so they were only able to do little crow hops, as he called them, but the plan is to get her into the sky today, if the weather cooperates.

Our weather here will be pretty near perfect - going from the 11' we have this morning to a high of 19/20' and sunshine later today. Hopefully they'll have some of the same in the Guelph area today. No pictures to share with you yet, but I'm sure I'll be receiving some soon. He was one happy camper when I spoke with him last night.



Last night was our first dance class. I've been wanting to sign up for some kind of exercise and Brenda and I both signed up for Step Dancing Classes. Our instructor is a young fellow who lives close to Mount Stewart and he's teaching at a Yoga Studio on University Avenue in town. There were four in our class last night but I think one of the girls is moving to another group so that will just leave three of us. It's a bit of a learning curve and it's going to require a fair bit of practice to get anywhere but hopefully it will come. It was quite a work out and the hour went by very quickly.  He taught us a lot of steps last night and we may have to get him to slow down a bit until we get proficient at each new step.  The amount we learned was a lot to take in all at once, but then again, maybe I'm just not as quick a learner as I used to be. I need to find some tap shoes as well, or at least some shoes with hard soles.  It's hard to get a feel for the steps without the sound.But we will get there - I have a goal in mind but I'm not sharing that at this time!

Tonight I'm having supper with Linda and Joyce. They called on Monday to invite Lloyd and I over on Tuesday but I had to decline because of our class. I also told them that Lloyd was in Guelph, which was a bit disappointing as he was meant to do something with Linda's computer when he went over. They just get me instead.

Monday, September 16th - Another short but great weekend

It's a chilly 13' this morning and it's only going to go up to 18' later but may feel more like 21'. We should also see some rain this afternoon as well. Not to worry, it's a work day although not so good for various friends visiting the island from Ontario. It can't be anything like Friday was - huge amounts of rain fell during the day but at least the wind wasn't too bad. I hear other parts of the Maritimes were much worse off than we were.  Really not much happened here other than everyone and everything getting really wet!

First thing this morning I need to wish my good friend, and partner in crime, Brenda, a very Happy Birthday!
 

Hope you have a really great day. We actually started her celebrations last night with some wine, some snacks and a movie. One of the books that we've both read was recently made into a movie so it worked out really well that it was on TV last night.

Our new friends Patti and Brian were meant to come for supper but instead it was changed to earlier in the day. Funny sometimes how things just seem to work out. My plan was to tape the movie and watch it one night during the week so it worked out well. I had made some snacks for their visit and there was left overs so, as Bernie would say, it was all good.

Lloyd was planning to fly to Toronto either last night or early this morning but those plans got changed in the past few days. He decided instead to drive so he has the car there, and he has a few things he needs to bring back with him. Next Saturday is a fly in at the Guelph Airport and he plans to have his airplane on display there. Patti and the family will be going as well so it should be a good time. Then he'll leave on Sunday morning to come back. He starts his first shift at his new job on Monday night so it might be a bit of a challenge but if he makes good time on Sunday, he'll have a shorter drive on Monday - hopefully, so he can get some sleep before he heads off to work at midnight. It will take a bit of adjusting on our parts to work around his new schedule but I'm sure we'll figure it all out over time.

We had a lovely visit with Patti and Brian and their friend Kyle. They were here till around 3:30, then Lloyd had a wee nap before heading out on the road around 5:30. He figured if he got a good 4 or 5 hours into the trip before stopping for the night he'd make some headway on the trip today. I know he'll be excited to take this trip because he now has all that he needs to fly his plane for the first time. It's been a lot of years to come to this point, it's too bad I won't be there to see it. I should have told him to take the video camera and have someone tape it for me. Never thought about that.

Okay, time to go - the dog's telling me it's time for breakfast and for me to go and get ready for work.

One last little note: I've been noticing that I have a regular visitor coming in from Moscow, so good morning to you, who ever you are and greetings from Canada!

Friday, September 13th - as if that wasn't enough to mess with our day..

...we're also waiting for the side affects of Hurricane Gabrielle. Shouldn't be too serious an event, but heavy rain and maybe some wind could make for a pretty messy time. It's 19' that feels more like 25' at 5:00 in the morning! Later it will only rise to 21' but still feel like 28' but maybe 50 mm or more of rain will fall throughout the day, depending on which part of the island you're on.

 Oh well, at least I don't have to be worried about the poor chickens out in the severe weather. They are now safely tucked into the freezer. Good thing we bought a larger freezer because there's no way I could have found enough room in my other freezer.

Some of them had gotten very large and once killed and cleaned, and put into a plastic bag, the largest bird weighed 11.8 lbs and a couple more were just a little less than that.The smallest ones are in the 7 lb range, not too shabby either. We have a total of 94 lbs of chicken in the freezer - that should keep us stocked up for a little while! I think we'll do this again next year, although there are a couple of small changes we'll make. It was truly a learning experience.



 And speaking of a learning experience. I'm a big fan of the old fashioned press back chairs - something you really don't see anymore other than the odd one here and there in antique shops. I decided I would like to replace my dining chairs with old press back ones but I'd like to know a little bit about them so they each have their own story. I have one I picked up at friend Richards garage sale. I'll have to ask him about that one. It needs a bit of gluing but I love the designs on it and the colour of the finish. I was on Kijiji the other day and found this one over in Stratford. I stopped in on my way home and purchased it after seeing it.

  I asked the owner if she knew anything about the chair but she admitted she didn't as it had been bought at a local antique store. Not to worry. Then I carried it out to the car and when I turned it on it's side to place it carefully in the back seat, I noticed something glued to the bottom. I bent a little closer to take a look and it's a hand written note regarding the chairs history. Oh my gosh, what a great thing to find. The note says:

"Chair was purchased for the new home by Clair and Laura Dunn- 320 Bain Avenue, Toronto. Married July 18, 1919. It serviced their lively 5 kids - Marjorie, Leonard, Ruth, Victor and Alonzo. Dad painted the table and chairs numerous times with numerous colours. Walter worked hard to strip the old paint off to reveal it's beauty"

 I can only assume the note was written by one of the two daughters, either Marjorie or Ruth and that Walter was her husband?  What an interesting find. Now I suppose I'll have to do the same thing with each chair, add a note of my own as to where I acquired the chair and when.  (James (who enjoys history,  is going to love this story.)

And one final bit of great news - Lloyd has been offered a full time job. He still has to go through the hiring process and obtain a security check from the RCMP but it's in the works. He's going to Ontario next week and will be back to start his new position the following week. It will be a bit of an adjustment as he'll be working from midnight till 8:00am but if he does it all the time, hopefully he'll get used to the routine. He'll be working at a men's homeless shelter. I think he'll be good at that, as he's a very kind, caring and compassionate person.

Wednesday, September 11th -( a date that will never need any further comment)

It's a mild 15' at 5:00 am and we should reach a high of 23' that will feel more like 29' later - very summer like but nothing like they had in Ontario yesterday - in Guelph it was a high of 32' that felt like 42' - unbelievable for mid September. We may get a few showers this morning but nothing too significant.

Well, today is the day the chickens will meet their doom. I was awakened VERY early by the sounds of much commotion out in the chicken yard. I looked at the clock and it was 3:00 am. My first thought was something was attacking them in their yard and it turns out I was right. It was Lloyd, outside trying to catch them in the dark and put them into the cages. He had woken up early and decided it might be easier to cage them before they got too active. Good thought until the first two or three let everyone else know something was up. Guess I should have closed the bedroom window before going to sleep! I got dressed and went outside to see if he needed any help but he had just finished putting the last cage on the trailer. Now they're all ready for their trip down the road.

Speaking of going down the road, I was on the by-pass yesterday when suddenly there was a burst of sirens and multiple police cars whizzing by. It was the convoy of windmill parts coming down the road and it is quite the sight to see.  I was able to snap a couple of pictures as they passed by.

And off in the distance, here comes another one

I would love  to see how they get these beasts through the round abouts!

Busy couple of days - Raymond came over twice to
a) find out what was wrong with our furnace, that quit working in the spring and
b) to fix it after getting the appropriate parts. 
Thank you Raymond, now we won't freeze this winter. Trouble is it probably seized up from lack of use as it really doesn't get much use in the winter. The wood stove and propane fireplace seem to do a pretty good job.

The garage is finally looking really good now that the door is on. It arrived on Saturday. I'm not sure if it's actually functional as yet but at least it's in place. Still a ton of work to do but at least it's now closed off before winter comes, so work can take place inside all year long now.

It's come a long way from where it was one year ago today - well done Lloyd ( with a little help from some friends)

And one last thing - welcome home, Patti and Brian ! See you on Sunday. Hope you enjoy your time on the island.

Monday, September 9th - it was a wet and blustery weekend

Okay, Saturday was great - much warmer than was predicted but very windy. Sunday just very wet and really windy. Not a huge improvement this morning - still very windy and 9' that really feels like 7' but we should warm up a little to 17' later on with only a slight chance of rain so things should dry up nicely.

Our weekend started out great with supper at a local watering hole - chicken wings and beer - does it get any better (well, yes, it could, if you're not a big fan of wings!) Fortunately they have lots of other choices as well. Lloyd had spent part of the day trying to get the Van Gaals new-to-them printer/scanner/fax to work with their new computer. Still not there yet, but now it's a challenge! I met them at their place and we all headed out for supper. A great evening with friends.

Saturday after work, I did a few errands and got home in time to have tea with Lloyd and put stuff away before heading out again. Brenda and I went to the movies to see "Good Ol' Freda" a documentary about a woman named Freda Kelly who was hired at the age of 17 to be secretary to a local group of lads who had formed a music group and had a bit of a following around town. That town, of course, was Liverpool, and well, you know the rest of the story. She was their secretary for 11 years so she was there for the duration. Lots of interesting information for those of us who are still fans.

Sunday morning dawned gray and dreary and very rainy. Fortunately I had invited Linda and Joyce to join us for supper. What a great way to spend a wet day - inside cooking.  It really is my favorite way to spend the time. Lloyd worked for a bit on his new garage door and it looks great! Still a bit of work to do but at least it's now in place. When we look out the window now, we can see just how much has been accomplished in the past year. Still lots to do but now the progress won't be quite so obvious.

We decided some oysters might be a good choice as a first course. We still had some in the fridge but they had been there for a couple of weeks. We called our oyster friend, Jackie, to see if they were still good and he suggested that we come and get a few more as now that we're into September they are starting to get meatier and boy was he right. Lloyd brought some home and they were fabulous. Linda had only ever had one oyster, and that was several years ago when she and I were at Fishbones and I bought her the first oyster she'd ever eaten. So she really wasn't sure. Joyce had eaten them in the Caribbean and enjoyed them. By the time the oysters were gone, we had two new oyster lovers. 

Supper was a small bowl of Leek and Potato Soup, a small caesar salad (with lettuce from our garden) followed by Cheddar Stuffed Pork Loin with a molasses mustard glaze, whole wheat speatzle, swiss chard and beans from the garden, and sticky date pudding with rum sauce for dessert. There was lots of conversation, lots of wine and lots of food - which could explain why I woke up around 1:00 am with a headache and heart burn. That should teach me not to overdo it (NOT!) 

All in all, a pretty good weekend, in spite of the weather.

Friday, September 6th - back to a routine again

I love the summer, don't get me wrong, but I also love when the fall comes and we are back once again into a routine. Even though I don't have kids in school or anything like that, it still feels good to have the rest of the world back into reality. Even the weather is better. This morning it's a chillier 8' (that feels like 6') but it's going to get better later on and warm up to 14' and even better tomorrow.  It makes sleeping much better, at least for me, when it's not so warm (of course that's probably an age and hormonal thing). But the big plus is the lack of mosquitoes.

Last night was awesomely fine without any bugs. After supper, Lloyd went out to feed the chickens and came back in and announced he wanted to do something - had no idea what, but something. He suggested a bicycle ride but my bike needs a bit of repair so we opted instead to go for a walk. We headed down the road and turned at Joey's Road. On the way we met a fellow walking the other way and he commented on how nice it was to walk without any bugs and of course we agreed. We ended up walking around the block - a bit of a distance for two people who have done nothing active in quite some time. It was very dark when we were walking up the hill on the Fort Augustus Road and we encountered the same gentleman who was obviously walking around the same block - just in the other direction. Needless to say my feet and legs were pretty tired by the time we got back. But it was a good work out, for sure.

Now that fall is here, that also means Brenda is back driving a school bus. Yesterday was the first day of school out here, and she's back to the same route she had last year, for a while at least. Our fall routine when she needs to get stuff done in town, is to walk or get a ride to my work after her run in the morning is done, then she can take my car and do her errand. Sometimes that might involve a coffee and visit with her cousin, or lunch at some interesting little spot, before she picks me up at 1:30 and I drop her off at the bus. Then I can stop in at her place and drop off her purchases on my way home - a system that works great - especially on very warm days when we go out to Cows and have ice cream - something I wouldn't normally do!   I could,  I just never think of it. But yesterday was too cold to be an ice cream day.

I loved the fall when I was growing up - it was my very favorite time of the year. I had a horse and I found fall was always the best time of year for riding. Summer was usually too hot, and the horses were  very lethargic. Winter was too cold and slippery, and spring was generally too wet and muddy. Yes, fall was always the best time - pulling on a warm sweater and then just heading out for hours on end and enjoying the fresh cool air and the fall scenery. We had a neighbour who also had a horse and sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday we would take our horses and  head out  for long walks through the woods and race across the fields. Those were great times.

Fall here, is also the shell fish festival and fall flavours. The past two years our friend Linda from Ontario, and her friend Joyce, have come out to Linda's cottage for a couple of weeks to take in the festivities. I talked to her on Wednesday evening, as they have just arrived for a three week visit. We're going to see them over the weekend.

We really didn't have any visitors this summer, other than James for a few days in July. It's like that - some years are really busy and others not so much. But it still managed to be a busy time for us. Even Brenda and Bernie didn't have nearly as many visitors as last year. Does that mean next year will be really busy again?? We'll just have to wait and see.

Wednesday, September 4th - Happy Birthday Greg!

It's a quite warm 19' at 5:00 am that feels more like 26'. It has rained, pretty much for the past 24 hours but it's stopped at the moment. We may go up to 21' and more rain will likely fall today but not the amounts we received yesterday. It was a pretty rainy day all day but had pretty much stopped by the time I left work to go home. My garden will have gotten a thorough soaking for sure.

Now that I have the correct date in my calendar, I must wish son-in-law Greg a very Happy Birthday. I'm fairly certain there was ice cream cake on the weekend to be shared with the other birthday boy. Hope it was a great time with your family.

Happy Birthday Greg

Monday was a little more productive than Sunday was. I made some biscuits for breakfast, while my bread dough was made and rising. After breakfast I had some sewing to do and quickly got that out of the way. 

Once the bread was finished I made a ham and cheddar quiche for lunch. Of course, it was really nice to go out to the garden and pick nice fresh lettuce for the salad to go with it.  By the time the quiche was baked, and we had  a late lunch, it was almost time to get ready to go over to the Rec Centre- again. It was a busy weekend for everyone there. I stayed a little later chatting with some of the ladies. The dishes weren't done yet but the ones we needed to do by hand were all done. The rest were being put through the dish washer but our work was done so Brenda headed out as she still had company. I got home around 10:30 so it wasn't as late as we thought it might be.

Tuesday was the first day of school for our guys in Ontario but here the kids don't go back until Thursday - good news for bus driver Brenda who had the day with Meghan before she left in the afternoon to fly back to Toronto. What a wicked day it was - bucketing down rain for most of it. I was glad I had  my lunch with me and didn't need to go out at noon. Today should be a little better - not so much rain expected, but you just never know.

Patti sent me a text message to advise that the kids all made it off to their first day of school. This is Meghan's last year at Montessori so next year all three will be at different schools. That should prove a bit of a challenge at times.  Patti said that James was amazed to realize that he was now in grade 8 - buddy, you should see it from this side!

September 11th will be coming up really soon - the day the chickens will be landing in the freezer. We were checking out the used ads online on Monday afternoon and came across an ad for a freezer for sale. I had been looking at new ones on Saturday afternoon before coming back from town but hadn't made any decisions. Then suddenly there was one online, that had only been posted a couple of hours before. So off to town with the car and the trailer. Now there's a medium sized freezer out in the garage just waiting for said birds. Guess I have no excuses for not having bread in the freezer anymore!

Monday, Spetember 2nd - Happy Labour Day and Happy Birthday '"T" !

It's another dreary overcast morning but it's not raining - yet. It's 15' at 8:16 and we should reach a high of 19' that will feel more like 24' with rain expected this afternoon. Yesterday was pretty much the same but Saturday was gorgeous. It was chilly in the morning but by the time I left at 2:00 it was beautiful.

When I got home, I went with Lloyd to pick up some stuff he's purchased at an auction earlier in the day. One item was a tractor blade but it was for our friend Richard (we already have one). When we got home, it was almost time to get ready to head over to the Rec Centre for a wedding. And there was Saturday - gone.

Now Sunday, which was our day to go out and play wasn't cooperating. We has talked about maybe going for a bike ride on Sunday afternoon but it was just not conducive.  Instead it turned into a laundry / TV watching / weaving day. I took advantage of the time to set up my loom to give me something to try out. It's a bit of a challenge as this project is  wider than I'm used to but it is an experiment with some of the balls of wool I picked up at Zellers when they closed.  I'm hoping it will grow up into a throw for putting over your lap or shoulders when watching TV on cold winter evenings. We'll get back to you later on that one. We had planned to go over to Dalvay for Afternoon Tea only to call and find out that Saturday was the last day it was served for the season. Guess that's what happens when you keep putting things off. 

I talked to Tristen yesterday, as it was his birthday. He has his Papa's sense of humour. They're at the cottage for the weekend and when I asked what he was doing for his birthday, I got this very sad little 'nothing'. Then when I asked if he received the gift I sent him, another sad little 'not yet'.  Then when I suggested we should speak to his mail man, he started laughing and said "I'm joking Grandma, yes I got it". Too much time hanging around with Lloyd for that boy. I'm pretty certain that his birthday with Gregs family was great fun. Of course I'm sure it was a double celebration as Greg's birthday is on Wednesday. (got the date right this year!)

This morning is a quiet one. Lloyd is still sleeping and I have a batch of bread dough rising in the kitchen. I have some sewing to do for one of the girls at work so I can work on that while the dough does its thing. Then this afternoon it's off to the Rec Centre again for a fundraising dinner. This one is a big one so will be a later night. And that pretty much wraps up our long weekend. Might have been quiet but it was still nice to have that extra time off. Lots of things should have gotten done but they'll wait - they always do.