Monday, March 25th - hello from Wheatley RIver

The last leg of my traveling is underway. I arrived in Wheatley River this afternoon and as I write this Charles and Laura are busy finishing up some last minute tasks before they head out in the morning.

I can't believe just how quickly last week sped by. Tuesday and Wednesday I did cards and spent my evenings catching up on some programs and doing some reading. Thursday was a longer day, as I was bottling wine out at Charles'. We started at 8:00 in the morning and finished up a little before 5:00. Needless to say my feet, legs and back were pretty tired by the end of the day. I thought I might have a bath in Brenda's lovely whirly tub but I was just too tired.

Friday was a drizzly kind of day but it was brightened by two visitors - Sharyn and Heather came over for coffee.  We sat at the table and chatted and before we knew it the clock told us it was almost noon.  Sharyn and I confirmed we were going to meet to go to a movie in town on Friday night.

Before the VanGaals left Bernie and the boys dug some trenches around the house to divert the rain water from coming into the basement so there were no issues there. Just before I was to meet Sharyn, Ethan dropped by to check on the shop.( He stopped by every evening on his way home from work to make sure all was well). I'm really grateful that he did. There had been some water leaking into the shop and the floor in one corner was quite wet. So we grabbed some mops and buckets and headed up to sop up the water. In a few minutes we had things under control. In the meantime Sharyn arrived and we headed into town. We saw "Lost and Found", a really cute movie centred around the lost and found department of a train station in Ireland.

Saturday was a free day, with nothing to do and no where that I needed to go. Perfect. I spent the day baking butter tarts, making chili and a pot of Irish Stew (for those who weren't home on St. Patrick's Day) a great day just puttering in the kitchen. Gosh how I miss that!

Sunday dawned to find that the Van Gaals had arrived home at approximately 4:30 in the morning.They must have crept in very quietly as I didn't hear them at all. I woke up around 7:00 and saw that the truck was in the yard so I knew they had made it back. So it was my turn to creep down the stairs, make a cup of tea and park myself in the living room. Bernie was up first and I learned that Brenda had come down with a terrible cold the last day of their travels. Needless to say Sunday was pretty much lost on her. She slept most of the day. By this morning she was starting to look and feel only slightly better but at least she's on the road to recovery.

I hung out at their place until 1:00 when I attended the annual meeting of the Shamrock Seniors Club. Since I'll be living in the area it seems appropriate that I should become involved.
After the meeting, I headed out to Wheatley River, where I'll be in residence for the next month. The weather is slowly improving and we can actually begin to believe that spring is on it's way.

Meghan had a very busy and successful dance competition this past weekend. There's a rumour that the competition next weekend may be live streamed. Hope that's true. I've never been to one of her competitions.

 While she and her mom were away, James impressed everyone with his new found crepe making skills. I have it on good authority that they were delicious!

Monday, March - hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day

What a crazy busy week we had.

Thursday night I arrived at the VanGaals to make supper as per our usual plan. Things were well underway once Brenda got home from work. This week we had Chicken Picatta - basically a boneless skinless chicken breast breaded and served with some angel hair paIsta and a lemon cream sauce.

I left early on Friday morning to meet up with our friends Mike and Willow for breakfast at the Culinary Institute. Then it was quickly back out to the country to make my phyllo tarts to take to our basket weaving open house.

We've all finished our 3 baskets and now it was time to display our talents to the rest of the community. A representative from the government was on hand as well. We had a lovely and impressive display of baskets and an even more lovely and impressive display of treats!

I stayed out in Fort Augustus on Friday as Brenda and Bernie were leaving early on Saturday morning. Meghan came out from town and brought pizza from town that I was happy to share with her and Ethan, Will and Amanda and of course, their parents.

I woke up early on Saturday morning while they were getting ready to leave, but I was able to go back to bed. After a little bit of drama. they arrived with their friends John and Janet, in New Orleans. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did many years ago.

I headed into town at 8:45 on Saturday morning as James was flying over from Halifax. His flight was supposed to land at 9:01 but due to heavy fog in both Halifax and Charlottetown his flight was rescheduled many times. Eventually he arrived at 11:45. After some lunch we headed over to the Inn to move our stuff out. I had previously packed up a lot of stuff and and he helped me bring it all downstairs and pack it into the car.

It was mild with light drizzle when we headed over to Patti Lane. We packed some of the boxes of stuff that we won't need until we finally move, into the storage trailer. The rest we brought over to Brenda's. There's still some sorting to do but I have all week.

We had picked up some chicken for supper and the rest of my week. We spend some time cooking together. I showed him how to cut up a whole chicken, and several ways to cook chicken pieces. We also did a little bit of knife skills.

We then went back in to town to see a movie - They Shall Not Grow Old. It was a really interesting documentary about world war 1. Needless to say, James really enjoyed it.

Sunday morning we headed into town to the Old Dublin Pub for their St. Patrick's Day charity breakfast. Another pub had a line outside waiting to get in, at 9:00 in the morning. The Dublin was not quite that busy but was bustling just the same. We invited a friend of ours to join us. Eric had an uncle who was killed in the war and he's been invited to travel to Scotland in April for a memorial ceremony. I knew that James would enjoy talking history with Eric and I think they both enjoyed their chat.

Live music at breakfast

After breakfast we took a drive out to Wheatley River.  James had a really quick tour of the winery  before we left them to get all their work done before they go away next week. 

Then it was off to Iona so James could tour our mini home,  picked up some food for Cooper and stopped in at Rosa's for a visit with all of them. While we were touring around, we received a text inviting us to the Duffy's for Irish Stew. Great way to end a St. Partick's Day.

James was flying out at 8:00 so I dropped him at the airport at 7:00. I stayed in town until I knew he was on his way. I went back to the Inn and finished packing up the last bits of stuff, while I waited.

Monday morning was a slow morning but I went into town around 11:00.  I finished packing up the rest of our stuff and tidied up and vacuumed before I left for the last time.

For the first time, I'm truly feeling homeless. Even though thanks to the kindness of friends I have a place to stay but I still feel a little uncentred. I'm assuming that after a good nights sleep I'll feel better. I have a whole week here then I'm  out to Wheatley River for a month. I'm hoping this next move will be the second last one. Weight restrictions are in place on our roads so nothing will be happening until those are lifted. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. I know it will all work out in the end but I can't wait for it all to fall into place.

Monday, March 11th - hello longer afternoons!

Now that the time has changed, it's such a joy to have that extra time in the early evenings.
Last night I decided to take myself out for supper a little after 5:00. After enjoying some sushi at my favourite Japanese location, it was such an uplifting walk home. We enjoyed sunny, slightly milder temperatures all weekend and it was wonderful walking home in broad daylight and sunny skies after 6:00. You can almost feel spring in the air. There's some heat in that sunshine now and it feels glorious.

This morning I'm waiting for my car to get an oil change so I'm enjoying a coffee at my favorite little coffee spot. It's raining this morning and should get to 6' later. It's nice to get all the salt from my trip to Halifax washed off the car.

My week was mostly quiet after getting home from Halifax on Tuesday. Thursday was once again supper at the VanGaals. I was expecting to be receiving some lamb from our friends Charles and Laura but it wasn't going to arrive in time for Thirsty Thursday. But I had my taste buds all primed for some lamb burgers so a quick stop at the  farmer run grocery store provided me with my main ingredient. My menu this week was lamb burgers with tzatziki sauce, red onions and lettuce, accompanied by a greek salad and lemon roasted Greek potatoes. Of course, some wine to go with that was a given.

Brenda was off on Friday so we went into town early to have breakfast at the Culinary Institute. One of the options was a Vietnamese Breakfast Bowl. I thought I'd give that a try and it was absolutely delicious. Brenda opted for the lemon meringue pancakes with bacon and fresh fruit. Combined with coffee for a total of $6.05 each, it's a pretty great way to start the day.

Vietnamese breakfast bowl

Friday was also our last basket weaving class and all projects are now complete. Next Friday is our open house when all are invited to come and view the fruits of our labours. Watch this space for photos next week.

We completed our afternoon with a short snowshoe trek in the woods.

I was back out in Fort Augustus on Saturday after picking up my lamb from Charles. and dropping it off in the freezers stashed at friend Richard's.  Remember those chicken pot pies I helped with in December? They are mighty tasty in the middle of March. I was able to enjoy some of those at the VanGaals for lunch.

After lunch Brenda and I headed out to Iona. Because of the amount of snow we took our snowshoes with us to visit the mini home. Good thing as we needed them to get in. We poked around and discussed some possible redecorating ideas. I'm getting anxious to get started.  Since we were in the area, we wandered over to Belfast to the Mini Mills. I picked up some needle felting supplies to take with me to Wheatley River so I'll have something to work on.

On our way home we made a detour to Montague and stopped for a beverage at Copper Bottom Brewery. It was my first visit. Lovely views out big windows of the Montague waterfront.

Sunday was the home show here in town. I spent a bit of time touring around there and asking some questions. It was another absolutely beautiful day. I had several things hanging around in my car that I needed to find space for so I made a trip out to Fort Augustus. On my way out I stopped and had a quick visit with Jens and Linda and after dropping stuff off at Patti Lane I checked in with Anna. It was a visiting kind of day.

Then it was back to town for something to eat and some time to contemplate packing things up. I've collected a few boxes and that will be my focus this week. Can't believe it's my last week in town. I can't help feeling that things are moving along, even if it's only me that's doing the moving!

I saw two movies this week at City Cinema, both old ones. The first was an Alfred Hitchcock called Vertigo. It was really interesting, especially to see what passed for special affects in 1958. The second one was a bit of a cult classic  - An American Werewolf in London. It was from 1981 and one I'd never seen, It was a little gruesome but I suppose nothing compared to what we see today. The treat for me was one of the main characters was a very young Jenny Agutter. I knew the face and voice but it wasn't till the credits that I realized that she plays a beloved character on Call the Midwife.

And finally this blast from the past. I was surfing through the TV channels on Saturday evening and on CHCH tv out of Hamiltion Ontario, what did I find but an updated version of an old, old TV show called Tiny Talent Time. It was on the air when I was a kid. In fact, I actually tap danced my way to stardom when I was 12 years old. Unfortunately all the old tapes have been destroyed (maybe that's a good thing!). Anyway it was certainly a trip down memory lane for me.

The older version with host Bill Lawrence

The new version

Wednesday, March 6th - welcome back winter!

Winter hasn't really been too bad the past few weeks. But this weekend mother nature wanted us to remember just what winter really is.

I took a little vacation away from my house sitting duties and wandered over to Halifax for the weekend. After a delicious supper on Friday night at the VanGaals I left earlyish on Saturday morning.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for traveling. Brenda, Meghan, Will and Ethan were going over to New Brunswick to ski and we passed on the road. I arrived in Halifax in time to take James out for some lunch. We had a lovely meal at the Old Triangle and spent a long time chatting. When we were finished we headed out to Bedford to check into our airbnb. It was a very comfortable and roomy basement apartment with it's own entrance through the back door.  There was some snow in the yard but not so much that it was difficult to get through, although the hosts were very welcoming and kind and suggested that we might prefer to come in through the front door. But we didn't like to disturb them so we usually used the back door.

When I was booking the airbnb there were some activities that you could sign up for, through their site. One was to learn how to make crepes. I've made them before but wanted to get proper instruction as I know the consistency of the batter is crucial. I signed us both up and it was scheduled for 7:00 on Saturday evening.

The weather was predicting a big snowstorm to start around 4:00, We left shortly after 6:00 and there was no sign of any snow as yet. We made our way to Dartmouth and found the location, It was a private home and we were warmly welcomed by our host, Davis. He spent several years in Paris and was very knowledgeable. There was only James and I and we felt like we were just going over to a friends kitchen to cook. We each made our own batch of batter (it's a totally hands on experience).
Once the batter was made it was off to the stove to learn how to spread the batter on the buttered pan, cook one side, then flip the crepe over to finish the other side. The first few flips were not totally successful but after a couple of tries we both were flipping like pros.

Mixing the batter

Cooking the crepes

Once all the crepes were cooked it was back to the table to enjoy them with some nutella, various cut up fresh fruit and whipped cream. We were even given some to take home with us. All in all a really fun way to spend a Saturday night.

When we went out to leave, the car was covered in snow and it was coming down quite heavily. By this time the roads were treacherous and there was no sign of any plows yet. The drive home was very slow and I was very grateful to have James' help in watching the signs. With the heavy snow you needed two sets of eyes for sure. It's especially tricky when you don't really know your way around and you're trying to navigate in the dark, in a snowstorm. But we made it home safely and spent the rest of the evening watching a movie on netflix.

Sunday morning I was scheduled to attend a class on making wax infused fabric food wraps. It was to start at 10:00 but needless to say no one was dug out yet. The hostess of this experience had emailed me and we agreed to reschedule the start time to 2:00. The sun was out and it was a gorgeous day and by lunch time the roads had been cleared, and my car shoveled out. James stayed behind and caught up on some tv.

It was in Chezzetcook, a fair drive out of Halifax.  Wendy, the hostess, lives in an absolutely beautiful log house on the water. While everything was frozen and white, you could see just how wonderful the views must be in the summer.  Again it was a very hands on experience. I was the only guest and I was able to make two food wraps, one of which I used when I packed up to go home on Tuesday.

Fabric pieces are cut to size and shape

Grated bees wax is sprinkled on top

The finished product is used to wrap foods instead of using plastic wrap

When I got back to Halifax I picked up James and we went into town for something to eat. We chose Piatto Pizza. I've aways enjoyed the food at the one in Charlottetown and I was looking forward to sharing it with James. We had a nice meal and then it was back to our apartment. We both put on our PJ's and sat down to watch some more movies. It was a very relaxing couple of days for us both.

It snowed again on Sunday night and once again the roads were treacherous. We ventured out around 11:00 to find a local place to eat. The roads were quite hilly in the subdivision we were in and a couple of spots you literally just slid down the street. Needless to say we didn't venture out too far. After a lengthy lunch and more chatting, we went back to watch some more Netflix. We had a bit of a movie marathon going on. Patti was scheduled to arrive in Halfax around 6:00 pm. This is where it got really interesting!

We arrived at the airport around 5:30 and Patti had texted us that she was on her way. There were no seats available on the flight but as she had just returned from Paris she was still in uniform. This allows her to take the jump seat in the cockpit if it's not already occupied.

Flights were slow coming in because there was only one runway open. We had been getting text messages from Patti that they were circling along with a few other planes, waiting for an opportunity to land. Several flights were diverted back to Montreal but at the last minute a second runway opened up and Patti texted that the captain was going to try to land.

They were told the runway was wet but in fact it was actually icy. There were a very scary few seconds in that cockpit as the plane came down and started to slide on the ice. The pilots tried to get it under control by cutting engine power etc, but just as they were approaching the red lights that mark the end of the runway, the wind caught it and spun it around and into the snow to the side of the runway, where it came to a stop. Needless to say it was quite the experience for Patti to have a front row seat to all of this. In the photo below you can see the lights on the runway on the right hand side. That's the side of the runway that should be on the left hand side of the airplane! 

OOOPS!

There were no injuries as it was a pretty smooth slide and there wasn't any damage to the aircraft. However they had to wait for Transport Canada to give them instructions, as now it's technically an "incident". Complicating matters was the weather and the lack of buses at the airport. Eventually after almost 3 hours, the passengers were picked up by the little park and fly shuttle buses.  By the time Patti got into the terminal CTV news was already set up to interview passengers. Golly news travels fast!  By the time we were leaving the airport the story was on several networks websites including CBC, CTV, Global and even on the weather network. Must have been a really slow news night. But in reality it was an experience that had a very happy ending.

We made our way back into town and stopped at a McDonalds for a quick bite to eat as it had been a long evening. When we got back, we  changed into our PJ's and watched a movie and chatted about the evenings experience. Tuesday was check out day so we were packed up and on the road by 8:45.
 We had spotted a local restaurant that was serving pancakes on Tuesday morning (shrove Tuesday)  so we headed there for breakfast.

 After a leisurely breakfast together I dropped Patti and James back in town. James had a class after lunch and Patti had a couple of things she was wanting to do in town. Her plan was to try to get a flight out on Tuesday evening.

It was another gloriously sunny day after all the nasty weather over the weekend so it was great for traveling. A stop and tour around Ikea and then back to the island. PEI pretty much got the same snow that Halifax did so now it looks like we're back into the winter weather once more. But the sun is shining today and snow clearing is under way. It's a good day!

Patti also shared another picture with me that another flight attendant shared with her. This is what happens to a plane when it comes in contact with a bird in flight. Looks like they were both losers in that battle.