Tuesday, December 26th - Happy Boxing Day Everyone!

Another Christmas has come and gone. I sincerely hope you all had a lovely holiday visiting with friends and family.
It's been a busy week, sometimes, and relaxing at others. In fact, there were days when we didn't get out of our pajamas until midday.  Such is the stuff of vacation days I suppose.
Last Tuesday evening Brenda, Petra and I went into town to see Irish Mythen, an Irish singer who has made PEI her home. She's got an amazing voice and is funny as hell to boot. A very enjoyable time was had by all.

I worked a couple of  days so I recruited Petra to come and help me. Lots to do to keep the cards stocked up for those last minute shoppers.




One day we went for a walk in the woods. Petra had some nice warm furry mittens that a friend had
given her before she left. It wasn't bad in the woods but walking back to the car she needed them. We've been watching the temperatures in London and they are hovering around 10' to 12' with some sun thrown in. Needless to say she's finding it quite chilly here, in spite of our constantly telling her "this isn't cold, it's a lovely day".

We spent an enjoyable afternoon at Dave's shop. He puts on a bit of a celebration every year and we are fortunate to be invited. Caitlin and Mike had arrived in the wee hours of the  morning so they were also able to join us.






We took a drive out to Borden one day to see the bridge in the daylight. It was really cold that day,
 with the wind coming off the water. It was dark when we drove across it last week so we wanted her to see it in the daylight.

On our way there we stopped in to Summerside so she could see Lloyd's plane. She was impressed that he built it all by himself.







We had planned our trip so we would get back via North Rustico. I've heard they have amazing Christmas light displays. It wasn't dark yet when we got there so we found a little spot to have some food and by the time we were done, the lights were on. They seem to be in clusters but are quite fun to see. 

Christmas Eve was another lovely day, no snow in sight. We spent an enjoyable evening with the VanGaals. Lots of food, lots of great conversation, lots of dishes left for the host family!

 Christmas morning was a leisurely time with coffee and a late breakfast. Once again, Santa spoiled me much more than I deserved, I'm sure. We usually do stockings for each other and we did one for Petra. She was quite thrilled as she hadn't gotten a stocking since she was a child.

We had been watching the weather all week. As Christmas day got closer the weather forecast got worse. Eventually we were up to an expected 25 cm of snow predicted. What to do. Should we postpone our dinner till Boxing day so our friends who were traveling could get here safely. We decided to wait it out and in the end it was a lot of hoopla over nothing. We got a bit of snow and a tiny bit of freezing rain, but in the end, everyone arrived safely.  We had a lovely dinner and great company once again. We skipped the turkey and opted instead for roasted Cornish hens

 with a rice stuffing. Sticky date pudding with toffee sauce rounded everything out nicely.

I have lots of work to do this week. I have to take down all the Christmas cards at the pharmacies and put out the valentines cards. Now I'm one of those people pushing the seasons seemingly way too early!

Tuesday, December 19th - what a difference a day can make!

Remember last Tuesday, when I showed you our lovely snowy wonderland?

This is what we woke up to on Wednesday morning. Bit of a downer when you're trying to get into the Christmas spirit!

It was an uneventful week, just some cleaning and getting ready for Petra and Christmas, as well as keeping my card shops topped for the holidays. Brenda and I enjoyed some snacks and wine and a festive themed movie on Thursday evening and then I was off to Halifax on Friday morning.
Fortunately the weather was good, although quite cold,  and roads were for the most part, clear and dry. I arrived in plenty of time and had a bit of a wait as quite a number of passengers on her flight were sent to secondary search, including Petra. But we were back on the road  before 4:00 pm. Some of the ride was in the dark and unfortunately it was too dark for her to see the bridge she was crossing so we might take a drive out that way one day to have a look at it in the daylight.

I'd gotten an unexpected call from a lady in North Rustico on Tuesday looking for some food to be catered to a party she was hosting on Sunday. Needless to say, Petra was put to work on Saturday morning helping in the kitchen.

With her help, we finished up early enough to go over the back lane and cut down our Christmas tree. Lloyd came with us and brought the chain saw to make quick work of the job. Good thing cause it was freezing!

 On our way back, we stopped in at the neighbours for coffee before bringing the tree in and putting the lights and a few decorations on it before retiring for the night.

I still had a few things to finish on Sunday morning so I was up very early to get those underway. By the time we had breakfast and got everything packed up, it was time to leave. We needed to delivery the goods by noon, and it was roughly an hours drive. However it had been snowing lightly most of the morning so we thought it might take a little longer, but in the end we arrived right on time.

Once our delivery was over, we headed back towards town and stopped in at
Island Hill Farm.  I was so happy to see they had some newborn baby goats to cuddle.  Petra loved seeing them all and having the chance to interact with them.



 By now we were both getting hungry so it was back into town to find some food.  Since it was Sunday, I knew there would be live music at the Old Triangle so we headed there. We enjoyed something to eat and some lovely music before heading back out to the country.

On our way home, we stopped in at Brenda's to check on progress. She and Meghan were baking cookies and were well into it when we arrived.  A short visit and then back home. Lloyd had very graciously offered to make dinner for us and was knee deep in prep when we arrived. This left us no choice but to fix ourselves a drink and retire to the living room to keep out of his way.

After a delicious supper of poached salmon, rice and beans, we said good night to him and sent him off to bed. When the dishes were done, we retired to the TV to watch some more festive programming. All in all, a great end to a lovely weekend.

Monday was a day with no plans. I had some cookie orders to be filled for Friday so I spent the morning tidying up the kitchen and checking out my supply of cookies to ensure I had enough. Petra had the morning to herself to just relax and chill. She is, after all, on holidays!

Lots of stuff going on the rest of the week!

Tuesday, December 12 - it's beginning to look like --- winter!

The snow started falling yesterday afternoon and accumulated quickly. It's looking quite festive out there but unfortunately it may not last but there's more to come. Hopefully it will wait till I've returned from Halifax on Friday.




 We enjoyed the community school pot luck supper on Tuesday. We were treated to a wide variety of delicious dishes and entertained by some of the students. As usual, a very entertaining evening. The rest of the week was spent getting ready for Friday nights party for the flying club.


 It went okay but once again we learned a lot. Several things to change and do differently next time but a big shout out to Brenda for all her help at several times through out the day and to our other friend Jens for helping out as well.We really could not have done any of it without you folks. Lloyd and I were in town early in the morning to start setting up the tables and Brenda joined us part way through. We were done before lunch so it was a good start to the day. All in all it seemed to go over well but we did learn a lot.


There was a guest speaker at the party, who was one of the pilots who flew the Vimy planes across Canada. As he was telling his story and showing slides of their adventures, who should pop up in one of the photos, but James. They had spent some time in Guelph and the Cadets were part of the event. What an amazing coincidence.

The first part of Saturday was spent doing dishes - lots and lots of dishes. The hall had few facilities or equipment to speak of so everything had to be brought in, and taken back home again to be washed. In the end it was quite a huge task.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I did some tidying up and pulled out a few of the Christmas decorations. The rest will wait till this coming weekend. We plan to go out and cut down a real tree, with Petra's help, of course. With any luck, we'll have snow for Christmas - the first time she's had that in her life!

Tuesday, December 5th - 10 more sleeps to get ready for our Christmas guest

December always seems to fly by much faster than most months and this year is no exception. While we're busy getting ready for a catering function this Friday, I'm also trying to sneak in a few other chores that need doing before Petra arrives, as well as make a small start on decorating for Christmas. Plus throw in some cookie orders and it's all good. Fortunately I'll have all most of next week to really get busy.

This past week I once again worked at Island Honey Wine bottling mead. It's always a full day but this time we only had to do 1,000 bottles, although it still seemed to take just as long as last week's 1,500.

Thursday was an absolutely gorgeous day and after working in town for the morning, I suggested to Lloyd when I got home that it would be the ideal day to put up the lights outside. Fortunately for me, he didn't have anything specific planned for his afternoon. So up they went. Just in time for Brenda's arrival to watch some TV and enjoy some snacks, supplied by Meghan, thank you very much!



Friday Lloyd acquired a number of gallons of raw  cows milk so his plan was to spend the weekend making cheese. Needless to say I found it best to just stay out of his way. I worked on a few other projects over the weekend while he made several varieties of cheese.

 I made some cookies and fashioned a large wreath to put on the outside of the house with fresh greenery - we'll see how it holds up in the strong winds that are predicted for Wednesday. 

 I also took some time to 'trim' some of the trees in our yard and came up with greenery for my rack by the back door. It's starting to look a little festive around here!

 One task that I did complete was the centre pieces for the tables at this Friday's events. The way we're setting up the tables will give us a large table that will seat 10 people so I needed something fairly large to set off such a large space. I saw this idea online and thought it would be perfect. It did involve cutting up a value village table cloth, scrounging habit for humanity for old globe lights and having Brenda rummage through her recycled tins to find suitable cans.  In the end I think they turned out not so bad. Check back next week for a photo of the tables all set up with their finery.





Other than that it was a pretty quiet week. Okay, I'd better get back to work. Lots to do to get ready for Friday. There are no supplies at the fire hall we're using, so that means we have to bring absolutely everything - dishes, cutlery, etc, etc so lots to think about to make sure I don't forget anything. (But we all know I'll miss something!)