Tuesday, July 31st - Happy Anniversary Cheryl and Norm

It's a balmy 16' at 5:30 am but we are expected to reach a high of 28' later with sun and a humidex that will make it feel like 34'. And people were complaining of the heat yesterday!

Well, it was a pleasant evening, although nothing too special. I got home from work, and Lloyd and I made a quick supper because Bernie was coming over with a big tractor. It was going to take Lloyd a very long time to move the shed by hand so Bernie fixed all that. He arrived on the tractor and then his brother came over right behind him with his wife and Brenda in the truck.

The non-leaning Tower of Pisquid

It was amazing how much quicker it was to move it with three guys and a tractor. Once again, we owe a huge thank you to the Van Gaals. Now it's in it's new spot, back a bit from where it was meant to go, but there's a bit of a slope right there so now it's on a hill. It even has a concrete step now that will make clearing the snow in front of it easier in the winter.

It's a big relief to get that moved and with any luck the digging will start soon on leveling out the area where the garage is going. Once that's done, Lloyd can actually start building. We hope to at least get the outside walls and roof on before winter so that we can store the wood inside. He'll pour the concrete floor and finish the inside next year. But we'll see how it goes. He's planning a quick trip to Ontario soon so that will take up one of his weekends.

Our friends Judi and Gail are coming down to the island and will be staying with us for 10 days. I'm planning a get together on the last Sunday that they're here. I'm thinking corn and mussels and maybe some rolls. That should feed a hungry crowd and be some fun. We don't really know that many people here on the island but so far I have close to 30 people on my list. If we're not careful, this could turn into a party!  

Our plan is to one day have a big BBQ like the one that Walt has in Ontario that you can roast a whole pig on if you wished. Each year we hope to host a large BBQ and make it an annual event. Perhaps this year will mark the first of many. 

I talked to the kids last night when they called to wish me a happy birthday. They are all pretty excited. James if moving into what used to be the playroom in the basement. That means Tristen can move into James' old room and Meghan will stay in her room but she won't have to share it with her little brother. So now they will all have their own space. Meghan is quite excited and advised that she doesn't want any toys for her birthday but instead would rather have money so she can buy things for her new room. Her Grandpa (Greg's dad) is going to paint it for her. I asked what colour it was going to be and she says purple. Good thing I put lots of shades of purple in the quilt I made for her. It's only a single size and I suspect she'll be getting a bigger bed but it will still be a nice warm cover to lie down with for a nap or just if you want to wrap up in some of Grandma's love!

Gosh, the summer is slipping away. I'll be tied up for three weekends with company, Brenda is busy this weekend, and before we know it, she'll be off to Holland. Our biking is taking a serious beating this year, and we're not even going to talk about the kayaking!  Oh well, one of these years we'll both be retired and maybe then we can find some time during the week.  But fall is usually pretty nice so we should get some good outdoor activities in then, even if it's just a hike in the woods every so often.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that we all (me, Lloyd and Brenda) went to the Confed Centre on Saturday night to see a play. It was called Kitchen Witches and was great fun. We thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to any one who likes a good laugh.

http://charlottetownfestival.com/en/25-The-Kitchen-Witches

On our way home, we stopped in at the Rec Centre to help celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of Anna and Charlie Duffy. There was quite the crowd and it was really nice to see such a turnout.

Which brings me back to today's greetings.  Back when I was in college (we're talking WAY back) I had a friend named Cheryl. During the summer between our first year and second year, she and her boyfriend, Norm, got married. We all felt so grown up the second year because all of us single girls who hung out together - me, Debbie and Liviana - would go into Toronto and have supper at Cheryl and Norm's apartment.  Gone were the days when the four of us girls would just cruise around in Cheryl's Plymouth Duster.  Now she was an old married lady. So happy anniversary, you old married couple. If my calculations are correct, this should be your 41st anniversay??? Oh my gosh, how did we all get so old!  Time flies when you're having fun so I guess we must all be having a real blast!
Happy Anniversary guys !

Monday, July 30th - Happy Birthday to Ethan (and ME!)

What another glorious weekend we had! It's an overcast 16' right now at 5:15 am but the sun will come out later and provide us with another wonderful 24' day. We sure can't complain about the weather this year - at least if you're a beach person. If you're a farmer, then maybe not so much. But it really has been quite exceptional, and it's forecast to be more of the same for most of the week.

So Friday was a fun evening. We invited the Van Gaals over for a BBQ (well, really we just wanted to use up the left over salads from Thursday, but they weren't left over to them so it was all good!) We had a few drinks and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics online and had a lovely evening. Of course the rum soaked slushy drinks helped as well.

Saturday morning I worked and when I got home, Lloyd was attempting to move the shed - by hand. He had jacked up one side, placed long poles underneath and was rolling it from point A to point B. It's a very slow process to do by hand, moving a couple of inches at a time. He still has a ways to go but he may get a bit of help today or tomorrow.  Right now, it now has quite a lean to it.  This is all in preparation for the digging up the site for the garage, that he hopes to have the outside shell completed before winter.

The "Leaning Tower of Pisquid"

 While he did, that I finally got started on the flower bed I've been wanting to dig up since June. When Patti's aunt died, she bought a lilac bush for me to bring back. Jean loved Anne of Green Gables as a young girl and always wanted to visit PEI. I was so pleased to essentially make that happen by moving here. She came to visit the summer of 2010 and was able to visit Cavendish and see all the memorabilia surrounding our beloved Anne. Patti thought a tree planted on the island in her memory would be a nice thing to do. So she purchased a lilac bush - it had to be small enough to fit into our already crowded car - for the trip back.  But I needed to dig up a spot to plant it and I wanted it to be just right. Finally after a month, it's now in the ground. We all talked about the fact that now the family members will have to make to pilgrimage to the island to visit the memory tree (or in this case, bush).

A reflection of Jean's rural roots and her fondness for PEI

Sunday morning dawned a little foggy but that soon burned off. It wasn't as sunny a day as was predicted but it was lovely and warm. Lloyd went off for breakfast with the boys on their bikes while I finished up my flower bed and tree planting.  I still had some sod to remove and the soil to dig up. Once that was done, I headed over to Brenda's to see if there was anything I could help her with. She had lots of company arriving and was in full on cleaning mode. I arrived in time to help with a couple of small chores until Bernie got back. When he arrived I was ordered to go home as my husband was also at home.

A perfect spot to cast in a  line

 We decided to go for a drive and  have a picnic. We headed down to Murray Harbour, where the guys had traveled last Sunday. There's a lovely drive out towards the water and the road ends at a series of tall red cliffs, overlooking large rocks. Lloyd slowly picked his way down the cliff to the rocks to try his hand at fishing. But it wasn't so successful as there's lots of greenery in the water there that kept snagging on his line so that experiment didn't quite go as planned. But in his walk about he saw that off to one side there was a sandy beach - a perfect place for a picnic. If you could have seen the two of us navigating this cliff with picnic backpack, table and two chairs you would have thought we were both nuts - but it was worth it in the end. We set up our table (that folds up into a carrying bag when done) complete with bottle of wine, wine glasses, cheese, pate, a lovely fresh baguette and some grapes.  When he first mentioned a picnic I was thinking salads, maybe some fried chicken, that sort of thing. But I didn't have any of those things available. Then we thought, wait a minute, we have to drive right past a couple of grocery stores in Montague on our way.  So we picked up what we needed there  and it all turned out quite pleasantly. We did see one couple, who came walking along the beach. I'm sure they must have thought we were totally mad! But it was fun.

"Oh, look honey, I found a beach for our picnic"

All we have to do is climb down this steep hill

 

Now this is what I call a feast!

Can't go wrong with a bottle of wine, a nice piece of cheese and a loaf of bread!

We packed everything up just in time to get back to Sturgeon, a little hamlet on the way home, to attend a musical evening in the church hall. Our neighbour, Margie Carmichael was performing along with a host of other folks. It was a very enjoyable evening and a good time appears to have been had by all.

Neighbour Margie (far right) with some of the other performers

 This morning is mine and Ethan's birthday. So Happy Birthday to you, Ethan.  You have lots of visitors at your parents place so a good time is sure to be had by all. Have a great day. As for me,  nothing special is planned. It's off to work as usual. I had thought about baking a cake to take with me to work today, but I was just too busy yesterday. Not a big deal. Brenda and I plan to go out sometime later on when things are not so busy - but from the looks of it that might not be until October! haha
I guess my celebration will come in August - when I receive my first pension cheque!

Friday, July 27th - it was a great day to be off!

It's a brilliant red sunrise over the river this morning and even though folk lore tells us that it should be bad weather (red sky in the morning, sailor take warning) the weather people seem to think it will be a fine day. It's 17' right now with some clouds  and a sunny high of 23 expected later. We'll see who's right.

I had a wonderful day yesterday, finally getting to some of the little jobs that have been needing to be done for quite some time. I moved a few things from the pantry out to our new temporary storage in the bunky, so it's not quite so cramped and crowded in there now. My floors got their first mopping in quite a while and the bathroom doesn't have quite so much of a 'lived in' look to it. I managed to sleep in a bit before getting started on the salads, and then finally sitting down and doing the blog. Once everything was nicely under control, I went up the road to pick some strawberries. They aren't too plentiful now and those that are there, are quite small. But I managed to find enough to fill two boxes. There are still berries there but it's time consuming to find them. When I went to pay for them, there was a young girl at the house collecting the money. She says the raspberries are being picked right now and will likely only have another five days or so,  which means if I want to make any jam this year, I'd better get to it over the weekend.

My ice cream base had been chilling in the fridge overnight and I poured it into the new machine and turned it on. In 25 minutes I had delectable ice cream. It was still a bit soft so I put it into an ice cream container and put it back into the freezer to harden a bit more. It turned out perfectly.  Now I'm anxious to try out some of the other recipes in the book that came with it.

The almost finished ice cream, churning away

 The salads were tasty. The potato salad was different but I liked it. I love broccoli salad but I have to admit that I've never actually made it myself. The recipe called for almonds and raisins but I substituted toasted pecans and dried cranberries and it was quite good.  Fortunately there are left overs so the VanGaals can try them out tonight.

My frozen slushy drink also turned out really well. I found several recipes and made a couple of substitutions. Mine has orange and pineapple juice and a bit of rum for the alcohol. Mixed with a bit of lemon/lime soda, it makes for one tasty beverage on a hot summers day!

Tony and family arrived a little later than anticipated and the chicken was a little overdone but it was still good. But then anything off the BBQ is great in my opinion!  We had a lovely evening and their two kids really enjoyed trying out the loom. They did quite a large chunk with white wool, which is adjacent to the dark red that Tristen did. I told them when I take it off, I'll mail it to them. I'll do the same thing with theirs as Tristen's and make a pot holder/trivet out of it so it has a function. 

Working on the loom

 They left a little after 11:00 so I've slept in slightly this morning so I'm heading off to the shower now. Have a great weekend. I know we will. We're going to see the play "The Kitchen Witches" on Saturday night and them maybe a picnic on Sunday, but we'll see where the day takes us!

Thursday, July 26th - a glorious day to not have to go to work!

The weather network says it's 10' and foggy, but let me tell you, that is not the case out here in Pisquid! The sun is streaming in the front windows and glaring off the river. It's a gorgeous morning! I did sleep in a bit this morning, just because I could! I've taken the day off to clean and get diner ready for our guests from Ontario. It was a bit cooler yesterday and it may rain tomorrow so it looks like I totally lucked out choosing today.

Last night we put a few things away and moved the dining tent to the back yard closer to the house. Because it's meant to be quite warm I think we'll be much more comfortable eating outside. I'm currently working on the salads so they can spend the day in the fridge and then before it gets too warm, I'll be off to the neighbours to pick some strawberries for dessert to go with our homemade vanilla ice cream that I made last night. I also made a bowl of slush to make some refreshing cool drinks. I enjoyed it on Saturday night and thought it would be a fun alternative for tonight. I made mine slightly different - it has a mixture of orange and pineapple juice with rum. It seems pretty tasty in it's liquid state so frozen and mixed with a bit of sprite, it should be just perfect!

So our menu for tonight is as follows:

Loaded potato salad  (a new recipe)

and/or 

new potatoes sliced and cooked on the bbq in foil with butter and salt and pepper 

(for those who might not like potato salad)

Brocolli salad

Ceasar Salad

Beer can BBQ chicken

Fresh baked rolls and butter

Homemade vanilla ice cream and fresh picked strawberries

Does it really get any better than that?  I think not! At least I hope not. They were going for lobster last night so I wanted to do something different.

I stopped in to the Van Gaals on my way home last night to check on progress and things are moving right along. They actually have three separate projects going on at the same time so just looking at one doesn't give you a feel for the enormity of what they are doing. Brenda commented that they had put new doors on the closet - to which I replied "You have a closet???" She's going to let me see it once it's all done so I'll be REALLY jealous. We have these tiny little added on closets in two of our bedrooms and nothing in the other so having a real closet would be a dream. But then I just need to look over my right shoulder at the beautiful view and accept that I can't have everything! I'm really grateful for what I do have. It's nothing like the view of the back loading area we had at our previous apartment.

Wednesday, July 25 - Only five months till Christmas Day - does anyone care?

It's an overcast 19' this morning and we may see some more rain this morning but it should clear up this afternoon and reach a high of 20'

I'm taking Thursday off to clean my house and prepare for some dinner guests. Some folks from Guelph are vacationing on the island and he just happens to be our financial advisor who has some papers he needs signed. Seems a little extreme to drive all the way to the island, dragging the entire family with you, then renting a cottage on the beach for a whole week just to obtain a couple of signatures. Boy, we must be really special!

Since Lloyd arrived I really haven't had any free time to get any work done around the house and you can tell.  So I'm taking a cleaning day from work. It should be warm and sunny tomorrow so I'm hoping we can eat outside, but I want to move a couple of things around first.

Yesterday Brenda texted me to let me know about the Paderno sale at the arena. I'd already seen the flyer. I stopped in at lunch and picked up a couple of things. One of them was an ice cream maker, that I've been looking at recently. I'm planning to make homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries for dessert tomorrow night. I'll go up and pick some berries early in the morning. The rest of the meal will be fairly simple - a chicken roasted on the BBQ, a salad, some veggies (probably purchased at a road side market on my way home) and a new recipe for potato salad that I'm itching to try. 

Other than that, not much is going on. I haven't talked to Brenda but I'm assuming that progress is being made on the bathroom renovation. 

Last night when I picked up the mail, there was a letter from Meghan that she wrote from camp. It sounds like she had a great time.

 

I know Patti was a little concerned that she might get home sick part way through the week and it's a long ways from home, but apparently her worries were needless. Meghan did just fine her first time away from home (except for visiting Grandma, but that doesn't really count).

Tuesday, July 24th - another coincidental meeting

It's a cooler morning with a promise of only 22' later. We should get some rain later but they've promised that before and not delivered. Let's hope the brilliant red sky at 5:00 am was a true indication of some badly needed rain.

This week Lloyd is working 10 am to 6 pm so it gives him a bit of time in the morning and then I have some free time when I get home. Last night as I drove up the road, I noticed that he had cut the front lawn and I was amazed at how brown and dry it was. There's still lots of green but the brown patches of dry grass are there - something I've not seen here before. Usually it stays lush and green all summer long. We just need a couple of days of continuous, gentle rain and everything will be back as it should be.

I finally got to the weeds in my front flower bed before Lloyd got home so I was very happy with that. When he arrived, we decided to make a trip into Stratford to look at yet another sofa.

In our quest for a new one,, we saw an ad online from an older lady who had purchased a very nice set about 5 months ago but has since moved into a smaller apartment and it's a little too big. The style and price were good so we thought we may as well check it out.  When we arrived she was apologizing for the 2 mosquitoes that were outside by her door. We laughed and told her not to worry, we were accustomed to many more. She asked where we lived and it turns out she's the lady friend of the fellow who used to own this place. Regular readers will remember the story of my finding Edwin Walsh quite by accident when he came into the dealership one day back in the spring. He came out for dinner and when I invited him, he mentioned that his 'lady friend' was away out west. Turns out that's who we met last night. It's such a small world here on the island.

We didn't choose to take the sofa, but we spent quite a while chatting. She seems like a very lovely person and I hope we will meet her again, which I'm sure we will.  I have this idea. When our friends Judi and Gail are here, towards the end of August, I'd like to have a get together, maybe a corn roast and invite lots of people (well, the few that I know!) We can put up the big tent in the yard and hope the weather cooperates so we can eat outside.  But more on that later.

By the time we got home, had a quick bite to eat, that was it for the day.  I thought about calling Brenda to see how work was progressing in the bathroom. Their company ended up not arriving as scheduled so it allowed them to go ahead with more work on that project.  But I figured she was either still busy, or really tired and gone to bed by then. I'll check in with her later today.

Monday, July 23rd - back to hot and humid weather today

It's a breezy 18' right now (at 6:00 - I slept in) but we should reach a high of 26' that will feel like 30'.
The sun is rising over the river with a few clouds to obscure the view, but they are quickly dissipating and by the time I get to work the sun should be streaming in the front windows.

Another busy weekend has passed. It feels like that will be the norm for the rest of the summer.  Friday Lloyd and I were out looking at sofas as we're on the hunt for a new one. It was almost 8:00 by the time we got home, so once we had something to eat and cleaned up,  that was pretty much it.
Saturday morning I worked while Lloyd stayed home and accomplished quite a bit. He finished blocking all the wood (now it just needs to be split) and installed the vanity in the upstairs bathroom. He needed a couple of things from the plumbing aisle at the hardware store so he met me in town at 2:00 where we looked at a couple more sofas.

I had baked some cupcakes on Friday evening to take to Lesa's birthday gathering and I had iced them on Saturday morning before going to work. I just had one more little touch I wanted to add so I did that when I got home in the afternoon - a little chocolate letter 'L' to each one. 

Before long it was time to pick up Brenda and head to the party. Lesa's quite liked her cupcakes, and I was pleased about that.

Happy Birthday, Lesa!

Her sister was visiting from Halifax and does readings on people regarding their guardian angels and what the angels would like to see them doing to gain inner peace and balance in their life. I was told I need to say 'NO' a little more often, but it was pointed out to me that 'NO' didn't apply to:
1) cooking school and
2) any requests from Brenda.
It was a good time and everyone enjoyed themselves. We even all went home with gift bags. I had the extra pleasure of getting one of her sisters books, that I'm sharing with Brenda. To learn more about Lesa's sister, visit www.karenforrest.com 

Sunday was the church BBQ but it wasn't until the afternoon so we had some free time in the morning. Lloyd went off for a ride with Bernie and Ray and Brenda and I ventured over to Tracadie for the Lion's pancake breakfast. Let's just say our day didn't get off to the greatest of starts, and leave it at that, but all was good in the end. Maybe the rest of the day had something to do with the pennies we found in the parking lot that we picked up for good luck - at that point we both needed it!

The BBQ, the second annual, was another great success. The numbers were down slightly from last year due in part to a competing event going on, but it was still very successful. We took our big pot to cook the mussels in and it was a bit of a guess for us as to how long it would actually take to cook 100 pounds of mussels and we were pretty close.

First the wine, carrots, onions and celery

Then in go the entire 100 lbs of mussels

All ready to start steaming

The finished product - YUMMMMM!

We know next year how long they will take and be better able to time it. Everyone who had them enjoyed them and there was lots of positive feedback on them. But really, how can you miss with fresh out of the water mussels, a little white wine, some onions, carrots and celery.  It was a bright sunny day with a light breeze so it all went very well. It was also a great opportunity for Lloyd to meet some of the Fort Augustus people. After 3 years, I'm sure some of them thought I was making up the story about having a husband!

After packing everything up, Brenda and I went back to her place to unload, wash up all the dishes and end the day with a nice cold beer.  We were all pretty tired and a nice hot bath to soak my tired feet was the perfect ending to a great day.