Staying home

Well, here we are, in the middle of a pandemic.  Not much fun.

From our kitties to you:  stay safe and warm, and ride it out.

Thanksgiving

The cottage year is winding down. Thanksgiving usually marks the last full weekend at the lake for everyone. Most of us shut down the water and close our places up soon after.

Iain enjoying the sunset while barbecuing dinner.

We were blessed with warm weather and no rain (none of the s-word, either).

Sheila came to visit!

It was nice to have company for the weekend! Thanksgiving isn’t the same without family. Not everyone could be there, unfortunately, but we were happy to have those who could come. We ate tons of food and visited. I was too busy enjoying myself to take pictures, but you must trust me when I say the meal was amazing. Dodie and Myles roasted the turkey (Mom supplied it) and stuffing, made cabbage salad and cranberry sauce, and made awesome gravy! Iain made bacon-wrapped stuffed mushroom caps, mashed turnips and sliced carrots. I helped a bit and made peas. Sheila brought yummy buns. Janet whipped up some great potatoes, Brian brought tomato juice, and Carolyn provided us with TWO pies, one a deep-dish pumpkin and the other an amazing apple!

I took this pic with my phone, so it isn't the best quality, but just LOOK at the autumn leaves crust!

We were so stuffed, but we sat down to the same meal of leftovers on Monday before going home!

Mom enjoys sitting in the sun with a magazine or puzzle book.

Mom has had a pretty good summer with us. Since Dodie and Myles were at the lake so often, she spent more time there this year than she had for the last several.

There was hardly room for the Blue Jay to fit on the feeder, but he managed it.

Between the birds and the squirrel and chipmunks, we couldn’t keep the feeder full.


My favourite view!

At the narrows.

The Little Lake.

This oak gets more beautiful each year.

Still and lovely.

The colours were less than spectacular this fall, and many of the trees were past their best by this weekend, anyway, but the views were still wonderful.

Hitching a ride.

We encountered a red dragonfly which appeared to be cold and seemed to be having trouble drying out its wings. Iain picked it up and it perched on his thumb, tilting its wings down so they wouldn’t catch the draft as we walked along. After a few minutes it suddenly took flight, finally warmed and dry enough.

Now grow, dammit!

We finally got around to transplanting another tree, which we hope will survive the winter. We are told the fall is the best time for this, so I hope this little guy can make it. This one is a Quaking Aspen, and I wouldn’t mind getting a Big-Tooth Aspen and a Swamp Willow as well. Iain is interested in an Olive tree, and we’d both like a Cottonwood (not sure if one could survive in this soil, though – the sand seems most suited for poplars, willows, pine, birch, and tamarack).
Next weekend will be busy with putting away lawn furniture, chimes, and ornaments, and putting some plants to bed. Then the water shut-off, and good-bye to the lake for a while. We are thankful to have had another year to enjoy here.

Having a happy birthday was easy!

Being spoiled always is!
Iain loves to cook, and he decided to make homemade ravioli with his own tomato sauce. He also made meatballs for those in the crowd who didn’t want pasta.

He’s always happiest in the kitchen!

He had help from Irene, who also made the Caesar salad I’d requested! And Dodie supplied dessert – New York style cheesecake with raspberry and chocolate sauces. To DIE for.

Discussing the plan of attack.

Words cannot describe how wonderful these were. I’ve never eaten better, anywhere!

Imagine them smothered in a delicious tomato sauce....

I was spoiled on my birthday, alright!

A Few Hours at the Museum

The thing with summer is, it’s so short, and so busy, one doesn’t blog as often as during the long, bleak winter. So here is a brief update:

Iain and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on June 3, and to mark the occasion we spent a day in Ottawa with friends, touring the Royal Canadian Mint and the War Museum, dining out, and just enjoying the day and evening. It was a lot of fun! I have a few pictures from the War Museum to share (no photos allowed at the Mint, so I left my camera in the car).

The museum covers the history of war involving Canada from before the country’s beginnings, including first nations artifacts. I don’t know if these items are preserved originals or reproductions.


Good grief, hockey players wear more armour than this!

Like most Canadians, I find the War of 1812 very interesting, but I didn’t get a picture of Sir Isaac Brock’s uniform (if you haven’t seen it, check it out here ). Brock represents for me the quintessential Canadian hero: one who dies and achieves greatest recognition after death. That bullet hole has always haunted me.

This WW1 gas mask creeped me out a bit.

Rather reminds me of a Far Side cartoon: "Oooooooo".

A very blurry pic of Iain in the trenches. I used the “museum” setting on the camera, so this low-light shot, and many others, were somewhat out of focus.

Not often you see someone happy to be in the trenches.

A little boy’s letter to his dad at war, and the memento his father carried. Any Downton Abbey fans out there may be reminded of Mary’s gift to Matthew.



No trip to the museum would be complete without Hitler’s Car. I was reprimanded by a guard for touching said car, years ago at the old museum. The sign clearly stated “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE EXHIBIT” but I was strangely compelled to do it anyway: I had to connect with that old evil, it seemed.

The new museum has put the car safely out of reach - I don't think Shaquille O'Neil could touch it.

There is way too much to see at the museum in a few hours. I could easily spend a full day there.

The mannequin in the display seems to be checking out my picture-taking.

Thanksgiving

It’s nice to have family around at Thanksgiving, and though everyone we wanted to have there couldn’t make it, we enjoyed what we had!

This is the “penultimate” cottage weekend for us, this year as most. One last weekend to relax and enjoy the beauty of the place.

Sheila and Kyle joined us for a walk.

Iain can't pass up a chance to undo some beaver work.

It was so beautiful and calm!


One of my favourite spots on the lake. Love this view, from Hefts' property.

There aren’t a lot of birds around now, so the woods are quiet and still.


Dandelions: the first to come and the last to leave.

We checked out the vinyard, where we’d been told the grapes were plentiful and not being taken by the birds for a change (few birds + a plentiful year = more grapes for us!).

This was Len’s vinyard, and he would have been so happy to have a harvest like this.

It took me about 30 seconds to find all these.

On Sunday, we prepared for dinner. Just about all set up here, waiting for people to arrive.


Sheila doing some setup.

It was a great meal, by the way. Many thanks to Dodie and Myles for an excellent turkey!

A Short Visit

Port Hope is a nice place to visit, especially when you get to spend time with great people like Carl and Irene.  Five of us made the trip down for the weekend: Dodie, Myles, Jo, Iain and me, ostensibly to watch the “Float Your Fanny” fun, but really to just talk and eat, which is what we do best.



His name is Dibbley, and he is C&I's neighbour. Isn't he adorable?


The day was clear and a bit chilly, and we were happy to be on the sidelines watching, and not be participants in the race!

Really did need the hood.

The race ran very slowly this year, probably as a result of the lower-than-usual water levels.  We didn’t see anywhere near all of the entries. After watching for a while we headed home, stopping along the way to check out the fish ladder at the dam, where no salmon were jumping. Oh well.

These guys are getting their craft out of the river to portage around the dam.

Port Hope is full of lovely old buildings and structures.

This mill is near the dam.

The railway trestle is marked as being built in 1913! I wonder does anyone remember that this is their centennial?

Just snapped it while we were driving by.

Downtown Port Hope. Home of Ken Bell's store - awesome costume jewelry.

Lots of very impressive churches in Port Hope.

The view from the edge of Lake Ontario always humbles me: it could be an ocean, it looks so vast.


The water looks inviting.

Just a note: Sunday

Having a nice early Christmas with Mom, Kyle, Craig and Karen.  Wish it could be longer, but they have to head back to Toronto today.  We expect the driving to be better than it was for their trip up on Friday, thank goodness.  Iain had a white-knuckle trip to Renfrew and back to retrieve me, that day, as well.

There's nothing better than time with friends and family.  Yesterday, some old friends of Rod and Sheila came over for a little visit.  Bev used to teach at the same school as Rod, and her husband  Orville is an international consultant to governments on their healthcare needs. Very interesting and intelligent people, who it was a pleasure to meet.

Today we are having a slow, lazy wakeup:  lots of coffee and snacks required.  We did our best to sleep off the huge turkey dinner we ate yesterday evening.  Compliments to Iain, Craig, and Kyle, who prepared the meal!  We had to take a break before enjoying the plum pudding; we were just too full.  Bedtime came early as well; we hit the pillow before 10 p.m.

A bit of catch-up blogging...

Mom's birthday was on September 3.  She turned 94!  Just a few pics from that day.

Here she is with our little cousins Taylor and Hope.

With our niece Janet.  It was a very tiring day for Mom, but she had a good time.

Dear goodness, where did April go?

Well, it went to a few places:

Don't know why it uploads with all that space around it, but no matter. You can see it is a cute little thing.

1. Cottage dreaming and prep:  We've decided it's time to build anew, so we have spent the last month working on preferred layouts and cottage styles.  The one we've decided to go with is small but efficient.  Iain has been very busy with contractors and I have mostly just played with diagrams.  It probably won't be built this year, but there is an outside chance it could happen if everything falls into place.  We'll have to gut the old cottage, but intend to keep it as a storage shed/workshop if we can.  Much more to come on this in future posts!
2. Spring cleaning:  To be honest, this never gets done the way it should, but we did manage to clean the windows inside and out, and scrub the front siding and porch.  Much more to do, but when?
3. Baking:  We just had our spring bake sale and yard sale at the church.  For that I made baked beans, and cookies:  shortbread, chocolate chip, skor/pecan, almond macaroons, oatmeal; and a couple dozen buns.  Also trucked down some stuff for the yard sale, and spent Saturday morning helping to run it.  If you think I baked a lot, it pales in comparison with the scores of pies and loaves made by Carolyn and Pastor Tom and Dodie.  Of course Bill contributed his famous date squares, and Marlene brought lovely "cookie pops" made by her and her kids, and Kim came in from Pembroke with Earl Grey tea shortbread paired with books - a nice little package, suitable for mother's day.  It was fun to do, and was nice to see everyone who dropped by, but I think the sale is becoming a bit much for me:  too few workers, so we have to do a lot of baking, rather than having everyone just bring a couple of things.  It may be my last one.

I have been stepping back a bit at church.  I'm no longer a deacon, which makes me very content; it was never a comfortable fit for me.  It was one of those situations where I answered the call to serve, but - how can I put this - I've always felt more comfortable in administrative roles than in managerial ones: does that help?  Anyway, I still have lots of things to do there, being involved in the audio/video end of things, and I'm still the church clerk.  But I'm looking forward to the summer, when I am away more than I am there....I need a break.

Today is Mothers Day, and we are having a pot luck at my mom's.  Afterward, we are heading to Ottawa to spend the day with Sheila and take her out to dinner.  So blessed to have our moms still!



Christmas 2009

I promised Iain I would put something on my blog, and include a pic of me, at his request (really. not my idea. don't like pics of me.). It has been hard to find the time for it, even now that we are post-Christmas-rush, but if one never takes time, how can one ever have time...
So, for your perusal, here are a few pics. The one up top is our tree, which was just SO PRETTY I had to show you all. The next is (a bit goofy one of) me with my mom and sister Dodie, in front of one of her trees. She and Myles had three of them, two indoors and one outside.

We had a great time this year; dinner was shortly after the above pic was taken. A delicious (locally grown) turkey and lots of side dishes. I personally made the requisite "green jelly salad" which only we three pictured above really love. Jeff was brave enough to try it, and declared "I like it!" to the surprise of many; he thereby became an even more favourite family friend.
Iain and I travelled to Ottawa in the evening and spent a couple of days with Sheila, Kyle, Craig, and Karen. Had lots of fun.
Had a second Christmas dinner on the 29th at Janet & Jayme's place, and got to see Les, Janice, and Maddie. Another great meal and fun evening!
To those we didn't get to see over the holidays - you know who you are! - we missed you, and look forward to seeing you someday soon.
These last two pictures are taken New Year's Eve, as we headed for Carl and Irene's cottage at the lake. The first is on the highway, probably the Quadeville road.

This one is (I think) taken along the road that leads to the lakes. Photographs never capture enough. The laden trees were so beautiful that I had to try, though.

More about our new years visit to come...

Easter

Had a nice weekend, with dinner at Janet's & Jay's on Saturday. Turkey, ham, and all the fixings, and they were GOOD! Kyle was able to join us, which was very nice, but it seemed odd to have Easter without Sheila. We also missed Brian and Matt, who were ill.

My Mom and Jay have a chat before dinner.

Carolyn baked several of her famous pies. I think Iain had three pieces of the cherry.

Janet is a great hostess, and took care of everything! She even made a birthday cake for Pam, who turned another year on Saturday.

James gives Mason a ride while Iain carves the turkey. Poor little guy wasn't feeling great, unfortunately.

Myles relaxes with a brewski. Janet is bustling in the background (wearing stripes).

I really did intend to take more pictures, but I admit to feeling a bit self-conscious with my camera. I know some people don't like having a camera on them all the time. So, there are no shots of us playing Guitar Hero. I'll tell you right now, I was not a hero - got booed off the stage (I really thought I could do Enter Sandman - but it's harder than it looks!).

Somebody came to visit!

Just thought these were so cute! Mr/Ms Raccoon paid us a visit Thursday morning. I'm sorry to say there were no treats available on our front porch, just some flowers, so our visitor was gone by the time we took this pic. We are hoping he/she has not taken up residence under said porch (or the back deck, for that matter).

This weekend will be a bit hectic, but enjoyable: my nephew Les is tieing the knot with his lady love Janice. Nuptials to take place at our cottage. Exciting! We are hoping the predictions of rain are exagerrated, but if not, well, we do have the gazebo!

Labour Day weekend always seems to end up being very, very busy. Why is that? Well, partly because it's Kyle's birthday on Friday, my birthday on Sunday, and my mom's birthday on the 3rd (and due to the busy schedule everyone has with the Renfrew fair, we had cake and prezzies for her this evening), and much celebrating must be done all round.

I'm happy to report that Iain spoiled me on the whole weekend, starting out with a raspberry mousse cake, suitably decorated for the occasion, on Friday night. Saturday we attended a couple of auction sales, at one of which I purchased a very decrepit (but usefully large) cocktail shaker. Saturday night we had the best prime rib roast ever, barbecued by Iain using the Weber and with the assistance of an interesting bit of technology supplied by Carl.

On Sunday we came home from the cottage, dropping Mom off and heading into Ottawa to see Kyle and Sheila. First however, a little shopping! Iain gifted me this little item, and I am still getting used to how to use it. Lots of bells and whistles to explore.

Sheila treated us to a great dinner and we hung out for the evening, heading back to Renfrew this morning. Today was rest and relaxation!

Nice Weather

It's warm outside! Yay!
This is turning into another busy month. Iain started his new job this week, so we are getting into the rhythm of the work week again. I'd really gotten used to the housework being done for me! Now that he's on the road several hours a day, I'm back to taking care of the bulk of it. I'd rather do it than have to do the driving he does. Anyway, it's the price we pay for living here instead of Ottawa.
Lots of church activities up to the middle of June, many of them involving baking. We have a meeting this month with another church, and then in May we're doing a tea & bake sale, and then our celebration service is at the end of May (with special music in the evening and a lunch afterward - more baking!).
It's all good, though. Good to be busy, and doing something worthwhile. Now that the nice weather is finally here, I'm not dragging my butt around so much. Spring gives a lift.

In the dark, again

So, did you sit with the lights out last night? We did, even though we were having a birthday party for Dodie (sshhh, don't tell anyone, but the b.d.girl is six-0h!). It was not all that unusual for us to sit by candlelight, as we've had to do it lots of times at the cottage (thank you hydro one for making us so green) but as the power is seldom out in Renfrew it was probably the first time we've done that since the ice storm.
Speaking of which, there is a call for freezing rain tonight, as a prelude to the rain coming Monday and Tuesday. At least it isn't snow!

Remember Halloween?

...and I promised to post a video of some of the goings-on? Well, I've finally done it. You can view the video here.

Halloween

Meant to report here on Harry Street's Halloween Happenings, but I've been spending most of my spare time on other activities than blogging. My neighbour's grandson was too adorable to allow to leave without taking a picture, which I share here with you. We had 250 little visitors that night; we had planned for 180, but my other neighbour decided her dog would create too many hassles if she were going to the door a lot, so she donated 70 bags of chips and left her porch light off. I'm going to put together a mish-mash of video, to be posted later on youtube - but now I'm off to work!