Tuesday, April 26th - Lloyd has some pretty amazing friends

It's still unseasonably cool but the sun is shining from time to time so it's not all bad. Plus the cooler temperatures are perfect for getting outside work done.

Lloyd is heavily into the planning stages of the barn for his goats. He acquired some used telephone poles, from a good friend, that were to be cut down into square poles for the 'bones' of his little barn. With the help of another good friend who happens to have a portable sawmill, the poles were cut down to size, squared off, and delivered to our yard. None of which would have been possible without the help of some very kind and generous people. That was Monday and Wednesday of last week.

Meanwhile I spent the majority of my time planning and executing the food for a baby shower that was taking place on Saturday morning. From 45 to 50 people were expected so I had some work to do. Fortunately I didn't have to do any desserts, as other members of the mother-to-be's family were taking care of those. One of my favorite things was the bread that I baked earlier in the week and put into the freezer. I tinted some blue and some pink. The colours were maybe a  little more intense than I intended, but as I learned form a very wise woman, it was a design feature and I intended for them to be those colours. I also used some green wraps to round out the multi coloured array. Unfortunately I was so busy I didn't actually get any photos at the shower.


I requested a vacation day from trivia this week so I could work on party food. While I was doing that on Friday night, our neighbour Margie came over for tea. Shortly before she left, Lloyd and Bernie returned from their supper burger outing. Just after Margie left, Brenda arrived so I had lots of company as I finished up and it was much faster thanks to Brenda's help with the dishes (yet again!). The event went well and I think everyone was pleased.



While I was at the shower, Patti texted to let me know she was at a karate tournament with Tristen, who did very well for his first time at a large competition. He was a bit nervous but had a great time. James on the other hand, isn't having such a great time right now. He just got braces on his teeth, which is making it a little difficult to play the bagpipes. Hopefully once they settle down and don't hurt anymore he'll be back to playing. 

Because Saturday been a very busy day for everyone, I invited the Van Gaals over for a very casual supper, complete with paper plates so no one had any amount of washing up to do. Just the ticket for us all.

Sunday morning I called Brenda and suggested that she needed to come over for tea sometime in the morning.  After breakfast she arrived so we could make some plans for the upcoming pancake breakfast at the church. While she was here, I suggested she might be interested in joining me on a little road trip. It seems a certain elderly British singer is touring once again this summer. I was quite disappointed to learn that he would be in concert in Hamilton, Ontario on July 21st, the same day that Lloyd was leaving for the Azores. Oh well, I accepted the fact that it wasn't to be this year. Then lo and behold, on Sunday I saw a report that new dates had been added to the tour and he's doing a concert at Fenway Park in Boston on July 17th - can you say ROAD TRIP??? Tickets go on sale this Friday morning so I'm not getting too involved in planning anything until I know I have tickets, after all that is the point of the trip. I even told Brenda she didn't actually have to go to the concert this time but being the trooper that she is, she said it was all or nothing. So wish me luck on Friday morning.

Sunday we were  invited out for supper at our friends in Hope River. There were 6 of us transplanted Ontarions and we had a really lovely evening. Everyone brought something to contribute to the feast. I was to bring a gluten free dessert so I opted to make a pavlova with whipped cream, and instead of using fresh berries I diced some canned peaches and the result was perfect. Everyone raved over it (of course, they're all very polite people) but every morsel was eaten and we decided we would make this variation again.

The goats are now outside full time and they have some little buildings they can tuck inside of until they have a permanent structure. It was the funniest thing on Saturday afternoon. When I got home from the shower, Lloyd had taken the goat pen apart that was in the garage and cleaned the place all up. We let the goats out of their field and they headed right back into their old 'home' inside. They were very confused to find a big empty space and they wandered around and around inspecting every corner looking for their old house. It was a pretty funny sight to see. They've become used to their new yard but it will be much better when it finally gets a bit warmer.

Lloyd is heading to Toronto this weekend via Air Canada and returning next week courtesy of 'Denny Air'. He plans to fly his plane back to the island so please keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well and mother nature cooperates and gives him some nice clear weather.