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!