We can all breathe a sigh of relief

We have a house sitter!  On Sunday a friend told me about a different web site which lists sitters and home owners, so I joined......and within half an hour had a reply from a local woman.  We met up with her the following day for coffee, we all liked each other, so we brought her here to meet Bianca and it was love at first sight on both sides.  Her references checked out, so next week she will be moving in to sit for us.

We are very relieved, because now we can enjoy our holiday without being so anxious that our house (and Bianca, of course!) will be looked after......which is good, because in just eight days we will be driving to the Big Smoke then, the following day, flying to Canada.

On our last trip I took what seemed to be a thousand million pics of autumn leaves.

 Just a few of many I took the day we visited Bayfield.

 We don't get glorious reds and golds like these!

My photograph-taking finger is already itchy......

Over the next week there will be washing to be done, the house to be cleaned, packing to be organised and a thousand and one things to be remembered.  If we forget something we will be able to buy it in Canada, it's not an isolated far-flung outpost of the empire, but there are a few special gifts that we don't want to forget.  By this time next week I hope to be pretty much organised, but if I'm not......why then, I'm not.

However next weekend I will be taking some time out from organising to attend my quilt group meeting, some relaxing sewing may be just what the doctor ordered.  There is also a quilt show on so a couple of hours on Sunday will be spent there......then back to packing.  This year I have no finished quilts to be exhibited but recently went through my stash of patterns and kits, resulting in many being donated.  The quilt show is an annual one run by a organisation supporting local folk who have cancer, so it's a worthy cause - my patterns and kits should bring in some money for them.  While I was sorting them out I decided that it was time to let them go even though I still liked them, because if I had really wanted to make them up I would have done so ages ago.  Some of the patterns have never been used, a few have been made but I don't need to keep them just in case I want to make them again.  It's time to be ruthless.

"Discretion in forming acquaintances.
While an acquaintance formed in a railway carriage or on a steamboat continues only during the trip, discretion should be used in making acquaintances.  Ladies may, as has been stated, accept small courtesies and favors from strangers, but must check at once any attempt at familiarity.  On the other hand, no man who pretends to be a gentleman will attempt any familiarity.  The practice of some young girls just entering into womanhood, of flirting with any man they may chance to meet, either in a railway carriage or on a steamboat, indicates low-breeding in the extreme.  If, however, the journey is long, and especially if it be on a steamboat, a certain sociability may be allowed, and a married lady or a lady of middle age may use her privileges to make the journey an enjoyable one, for fellow passengers should always be sociable to one another."

One can't help wondering what the author of this advice, given in 1885, would have thought of plane travel.

Enjoy your days!