Tuesday, November 7th - Only 7 weeks till Christmas - but who's counting!

Okay, don't hit me for that one. The time between now and December 25th will go much faster than we would like. Just doing my bit to keep everyone up to date!

Another crazy weather week. Temperatures up and down like a roller coaster but still often on the higher side. Yesterday it was quite windy but 18' so how crazy is that?  I guess the best part of that scenario for everyone is we're not using a lot of heating fuels, be it oil or wood or whatever. I remember the first fall I was here and I had the fire going in September, but then again I was a wimpy girl from Ontario and was yet acclimatized to cool damp weather. But along with all this warm weather we've had some very strong winds. One morning I went out after a particularly blustery day and saw very few leaves on the front lawn, where the large trees are, but a big pile in the back yard. Thank you mother nature for raking the leaves for me (of course the large hill of gravel helped stop them).

Another productive week. I've been working on a project for the past few weeks, but I can't tell you what it is as it's a Christmas surprise. But it's finally finished and I'm ever so glad. One more project to get going on and then I'm pretty much done. It really helps that I don't have tons of people to come up with gifts for.  I also spent an entire day cleaning and organizing my craft room. It's been so neglected for such a long time and had become something of a dumping ground. But now it's looking fabulous again and I can't wait to get onto the next project.

Bernie flew up to Ontario last week to attend a funeral. He flew out of Charlottetown but flew back into Moncton. So on Wednesday afternoon Brenda and I went on a quick road trip to pick him up. We left after she was done her bus run and got to Moncton with little time to spare. We had hoped to have a nice dinner somewhere but we ended up at a Thai fast food place sharing an entree. But actually, it was really quite tasty. It was also very close to the airport so we got there in time to pick him up.
It was a beautiful evening for a drive and not a moose was spotted - we always breath a huge sigh of relief and the muscles just automatically relax once we get onto the bridge.

Brenda was leaving on Thursday along with Meghan and Maureen, to drive up to Montreal, to visit an aunt. Our neighbour, Sharyn is also away, so I thought the only polite thing to do is invite both husbands over for supper. Pat and Bernie came over on Saturday evening and we enjoyed hearing all about Pat and Sharyn's recent trip to Ireland. It was quite a lovely evening - good company, good food, good wine, does it really get any better?

Our other friends, Charles and Laura, have gone up to Ontario for two weeks - one week for a conference and one week to visit friends and family. We're dog sitting  Abby - their  Great Pyrenees. She's a beautiful dog and a pleasure to have around. With this nice weather, it's great to take them for walks down the back lane and let her and Cooper run in the fields and explore in the woods. Also not so bad for us either, to get out there and do some tromping around in the fields - a little fresh air and exercise.

Brenda's coming over this afternoon to help make cabbage rolls. We acquired a few cabbages yesterday from the Salvation Army. They have way more than they can use thanks to gleaning. For those of you who don't live on the island, let me tell you about gleaning. We grow all kinds of vegetable crops here on PEI. All crops are mechanically harvested in one way or another. But these methods aren't fool proof. Some produce stays behind in the fields, whether it's potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbages, etc. So once the farmer had taken what he can, the rest has historically been left to rot in the field, and just get plowed under for the next year. So now it's quite acceptable for groups to go into fields after harvesting and pick up what's left. We've done that a few times in the past with local potato fields. There was actually a story about it on CBC yesterday morning. The person doing the gleaning can keep 1/3, another 1/3 is offered to the farmer, but in most cases they don't take it, and the remaining 1/3 goes to groups like the Salvation Army. So you can well imagine how much product they might receive during this time of year. Lloyd just happened to stop by the church for something yesterday and they were more than grateful to have him take a few cabbages. Waste not, want not!  Hence the need to make cabbage rolls.