Slowly getting back to normal here

Or what passes for normal in this household......

Some stitching has been taking place!  Nothing too exciting yet, just a block for my quilt group which is not yet finished.  Right now it's coffee o'clock,and I won't take anything other than water into my sewing room lest some unwanted fabric dyeing takes place.

On Thanksgiving in Toronto we went to Rosetta McClain Gardens, a short bus ride from where we were living.

 We had been past the gardens on previous visits and the weather was glorious, so we thought it was time for a visit.  Many family groups were having picnics and a lot of people like us were just wandering around enjoying the lovely day.  We even heard an Aussie bird voice - one local bloke had brought his pet cockatiel to the park on his shoulder!  It was Canadian born and raised, though, so it didn't understand our Aussie accents.  The Rose Garden had just about finished blooming but I managed to get a picture of the Julia Child rose in my blog header.

 The gardens overlook Lake Ontario where some yachts were sailing, it's not far from Bluffers Park Marina.

 Trees were just starting to colour.  The gardens are a popular spot for weddings and would make a very pretty setting.

 First time I ever attempted to photograph squirrels, and both pics turned out well!  They are not easy to capture in a picture, because squirrels move really really quickly.

 Canadians were surprised to find that Australia doesn't have squirrels.  To Aussies they are a novelty, I know they are rodents......but they are cute!

A very Canadian maple leaf.......fallen leaves make beautiful pictures.

The uke group has finished for the year.  We played our last gig at the music school Christmas party on Friday evening so now we have several weeks off until we resume our class.  We haven't heard if we will be playing during the country music festival next month - we have played the last two years.  Perhaps our moment of fame and glory has been and gone, never to be seen again.

The two cyclamen which our house sitter didn't quite kill are reviving nicely.  One is a few years old, and to tell the truth I'm surprised it hasn't gone before this with my not-always-tender ministrations!  The gardenia will be replaced but not until next month, as we will be away for a couple of weeks visiting our grandkid and his family.  After we come home we'll go plant shopping and pick a couple of plants for the empty pots, one of which held the late lamented gardenia and one which had been plantless for quite some time.

Grandkid Euan turns one next weekend, it certainly doesn't seem like a year since we had that phone call to tell us we were grandparents!  We will have a quiet Christmas here, just us two Olde Phartes, then go to Canberra a few days later.  Euan won't know or care if we are there for his birthday.......I suspect, being just one year old, that he will be more interested in wrapping paper and boxes than in the gifts they contain.  We have some Canadian picture books for him which, hopefully, he will enjoy when he's a little older.

"Remember that children are men and women in miniature, and though they should be allowed to act as children, still our dealings with them should be manly and not morose.  Remember also that every word, tone and gesture, nay, even your dress, makes an impression."

Well.......I shall endeavour to deal with Euan manfully, although I suspect it will not be easy.

Enjoy your days!

A first time for everything

While in Canada we chalked up many 'firsts', which just goes to show that, even at our advanced ages, we can still enjoy new experiences!

We visited the CN Tower for lunch, and very nice it was too.  While not the cheapest meal we ate in Canada it was very good.......I suppose the Tower restaurant is a showcase for local produce.  While up there my camera had a good workout.

You can see a very long way from that far up in the sky even on a cloudy day, but the cloud cover meant that photos didn't suffer from too much glare.  My fairly new camera seems to have done as I asked, the zoom certainly works.

The same day we saw our first live raccoon  strolling round downtown Toronto as though he/she owned the place (which it probably does), but missed the photo op due to traffic congestion......it's very busy downtown!

We saw our first real chipmunk while visiting with Rose Marie and Gilles, they are such cute little fellers!  We even helped feed it a few peanuts to help it through the winter.

We saw our first real live bison on a farm in eastern Ontario, like many people we had only seen them in western movies.  They are big fellers.  Quite large.  I can imagine that there would be many steaks on one bison.

On the food side, we tried poutine for the first time......it looks disgusting, but was really really nice because the gravy was very good.  We also tried deep fried brownie......interesting......done it now, probably don't need to do it again......and tourtiere, which is quite different to Aussie meat pies.  Kevin also tried a bison burger which he said was good.

And of course we really really enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and meeting new people and making new friends.  While in North Bay I sat in with the local ukulele group - that was such a fun night!  They meet in a local music store which was filled with tempting things, several of which came home with me.....no new instruments, though, just books and a couple of CDs of local performers, and a nifty light with two arms for my music stand.

Actually, quite a lot of 'loot' came home with me......loot for eating, for sewing, for wearing, and just for enjoying!

Most of the time the weather was amazing.  We had an occasional cold day and even a few really really cold days, but saw only a few snow pellets and not much rain.  We do have pics of the autumn colour, but fall colours weren't as glorious as three years ago.  We were told that summer had been mild and wet which affected the autumn colours, but even so they are much better than we have here.

Even those long plane trips weren't as nightmarish as the last trip.  On both legs we were lucky enough to have a row of three seats to ourselves, and I can definitely recommend valium as a sleep aid on the return trip.  There were only a few babies and small children on both trips and, fortunately for their fellow travellers, they settled easily.

Sadly our house sitter didn't work out as well as we had hoped - the house was still here when we arrived home, Bianca was well and happy, but we came home to several weeks' worth of tall weeds in the garden (obviously nothing had been touched while we were away) and some dead plants, including a treasured potted gardenia just outside the back door which should have been easy to care for.  Fortunately we had previously arranged for the lawn to be mowed every couple of weeks.  We have since had reports from our neighbours that, despite being asked not to do so, she brought her two dogs here.  She also ignored our neighbours and wouldn't even open the door to them; we have always had a good relationship with the other folk in our street and we want that to continue so, because of these and other things that have also come to light, we have decided to report her as unsuitable to the house sitting website, something we have never even thought of doing to previous house sitters.  As we had been let down with such short notice by our booked sitter we felt obliged to accept the first offer to our ad in case no one else offered and we did check references, but will be even more thorough in future.

If you write to the owners of the home where you are staying to ask can you bring your dog and the answer is "no, definitely no animals" then you don't go over their heads and bring in not one, but two of your own.  Perhaps the thought was "they're on the other side of the world, they will never know".  Rubbish......we talk to our neighbours, and we find things out.  I don't think we can be blamed for being a little snippy about this.

"The little civilities which form the small change of life may appear separately of little moment, but, like the spare pennies which amount to such large fortunes in a lifetime, they owe their importance to repetition and accumulation."

Exactly.  Civilities and manners, which means not ignoring a request.

Enjoy your days!

The wanderers have returned!

We had a wonderful time in Canada and wish we could have stayed longer......but just the same it was so good to sleep in our own beds, with our own pillows, last night.  Photos have yet to be downloaded from our cameras, but they will appear here in due course.

We even survived two long flights over shark-infested waters......

We'll be back in late November!

Our house sitter problem has been solved but something else has reared its head......airport security workers have been striking at international airports.  Not all day, just at busy times like 7 am to 9 am......guess when we will be going through the airport.......the day we fly, Wednesday, is supposed to be the last day of the strike.

When I am finally sitting up there in the flying tin box I am going to have a glass of wine, because my nerves will be so shot from dealing with problems and dramas and getting through the airport and onto the plane that I will probably need it, even though all sage advice says not to drink wine in a plane because it's dehydrating.  By then I will be so relieved to finally be airborne that I won't care.

Recently we had a visitor who sat on our back yard washing line and posed for us.

Kookaburras are quite handsome birds, aren't they?  This was taken from inside our house; he/she would probably have flown off had we gone outside with camera in hand.  We've been hearing them quite a lot lately - many local birds have been active, they are probably nesting.

Earlier today my two guitars and three ukes were packed in their cases and are now safely stowed until we come home.  The room looks very bare without them......my music books are packed away too, and my fingers are already itching to plink a note or two.

Sadly, I have come to realise that my Flower Basket blocks won't be making the trip with me!  When those six inch blocks were being assembled they were small enough to take anywhere, but now they are being joined into nine-patch blocks they are not so portable.  If I were to take just six of those with me that would be 54 small blocks so, reluctantly, they will have to stay home.  A mystery book will go in their place, but I shall keep an eye out in my travels for a small hand-work project.  Those blocks have kept me company through many long dreary hours of waiting in airports; when that project was started early in 2006 its purpose was to keep me company while we travelled, and it has been overseas four times.

Ah well.  Those blocks will still be waiting for me when we return.

"Never allow the servant, or the one who pours, to fill your glass with wine that you do not wish to drink.  You can check him by touching the rim of your glass."

I won't be checking anyone who is prepared to pour me my glass of wine on the flight, I will smile sweetly and say "thank you".

Enjoy your days!

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!

In which we are feeling very stressed

A few days ago our house sitter, who was booked in early May, told us she was unable to sit for us due to a death in her family and associated dramas.  While I am sorry for her, she had already known for six weeks - six weeks! - when she finally deigned to inform us, and then only in reply to an email from us about the garden.  If we hadn't written to her first we are wondering when we would have been told......the day before she was due to arrive, perhaps?  Because of the late notice we hold out no hopes at all of getting a house sitter, so Bianca has been booked into Deb's cat holiday shack (she has holidayed at Deb's before and has coped well) and we are arranging for someone to mow the lawn and tidy up the garden.  Nearly eight weeks is a long time to leave the house unoccupied.

This has taken some of the pleasure out of our holiday, let me tell you.  We aren't fabulously wealthy and our home is our greatest asset, so we would like it to still be here when we return.  Added to that is the expense of Bianca's being boarded and garden maintenance (all of which would have been done by our sitter for free) and our holiday has just become a little more expensive.  Yesterday we were told about a local woman who house sits, we contacted her and she told us that she charges $35 a day - that's nearly three times what it will cost for Bianca's holiday!  Needless to say, we declined.

Is it any wonder I am feeling somewhat stressed?

Perhaps I should just take some of those amazing tablets the doctor prescribed for the flight, and just sleep away the time until we leave......they work really well, as I found out earlier in the week......

On a much happier note, last week my new jumper was finished.

In real life it's a little less blue and a little more purple than this.  Yarn is 100% alpaca from Bendigo Woollen Mills, bought many many years ago on our so far one-and-only trip to Bendigo, and is equivalent to Aussie 8 ply or DK.  Pattern is from an old Patons Classics book, a raglan sleeved jumper with a diagonal rib stitch on the bottom, neckband and cuffs instead of the plain K1 P1 rib as in the pattern.  Alpaca is reputed to be very warm, so that should keep me cosy should it be cold in Canada.

Only 16 days to go........it's been so busy lately that my ukes and guitar have barely been touched.....only one more lesson and the current term will be done, I won't be back until a few weeks before the end of the lesson year.

Recently we went to the movies to see a documentary, "The Women He's Undressed" - sounds quite salacious, doesn't it? - but it wasn't.  It was about a Hollywood costume designer whose career spanned over three decades, Orry-Kelly, and who was born in the small Aussie seaside town of Kiama, something not widely known until recently.  Non-movie buffs would enjoy it, and anyone interested in sewing, costume design, or history of fashion will find it fascinating.  Apparently dressing Bette Davis' bosom was quite difficult.....poor Bette!

This morning our local historical society held its Spring Fair, and a lovely early spring day it was too.  Lady members were dressed in long black skirts and old-fashioned white blouses, topped with white aprons......all quite Edwardian.  I was selling ice creams for a couple of hours, they were very popular!  Came home with a few books, one of which may accompany me on the plane.  I have a tablet with a Kindle app for reading but I'm a quick reader and would read so much that the battery would die long before the flight ended, so I thought a paper book (actually, two books in one) may be a better choice.

"A home.
After marriage one of the first requirements for happiness is a home.  It will best be found in a house or even a cottage apart from the immediate association of relatives or friends, acquaintances or strangers, and here husband and wife may begin in reality that new life of which they have had fond dreams, and upon their own actions must depend their future welfare."

Home is a very important place for any of us, and we hope ours is still standing when we return.

Enjoy your days!

Spring is thinking about springing!

Today is sunny and nearly warm, very nice if one can find a sheltered sunny spot, but in the shade it's cool enough to remind us that winter hasn't left yet.

Here are some Aussie spring flowers to help spring along.

A large department store in the centre of The Big Smoke has floral displays with a different theme each spring, and they are truly wondrous.  The year before we moved here to the Small Smoke I went along, gaped along with the large crowd and took some photos, as that year's theme was Australian native plants.

The red beauties below are Gymea lilies - they are spectacular growing in the wild, as the flower heads can be 15 feet or more above the ground.

Some people prefer tame confined garden flowers that grow all over the world, but I love our unique flora.

A few stitches have been taken in the sewing room, isn't this floral the most ghastly fabric you have ever seen?

I'm not even sure how it came to be in my stash, I'm sure I wouldn't have bought it specially so perhaps it came in a bag of scraps......but the large-scale print is just right for a shadow box block.

The second shadow box block was made of four different bright prints from my stash, and I quite like it.

This month it's my turn to provide the monthly block and its instructions for my local group.  I much prefer more intricate piecing but this time thought of doing something different; they are so quick and easy to make that I am suggesting one of each block be made.

There will probably still be complaining though, because the block has two triangles......some group members will do anything to avoid cutting and/or sewing even one triangle, so I feel it my bounden duty to provide them.

It's been a busy couple of weeks!  This week we went to the theatre on Wednesday night to see a comedy performed by an excellent local amateur group, while the following night the uke group performed in a concert at our music school to celebrate Adult Learners' Week.  Judging by the rest of the program - a flute piece by Mozart, violin piece by J.S. Bach, etc. - I reckon we were there as comic relief.  We even had two kazoos playing in one song, one of them played by me......now that's really highbrow, folks.  The sound of a bright green plastic kazoo is really something, you know.

Also on Wednesday I saw my doctor and asked for something I have never ever asked for before - I asked for something to knock me out for at least part of the long 16 hour flight back from Canada, as the plane leaves Vancouver at midnight.  He prescribed something which hopefully should help, but suggested I try it out at home beforehand in case of an adverse reaction.  What a good idea.......

He is also trying to get me to consent to a couple of tests which I don't want to have done, because having to remove clothing and have strange people touch, prod or attach things to bits of my person is such an ordeal that I will not do it.  Having my shoulder operation the year before last was difficult enough.  There is a chance that the test may show something which needs to be medicated or checked or treated, but I don't care.  If I can't keep all my clothes on, I am not having any tests done.  That's it.  End of story.

It will not be referred to again.

Only 24 days until our holiday starts, that's a much more cheerful thought!  Even though it means such long flights, floating around Up There with 300 of our new best friends.......

"The comfort of others.

In seeking his own comfort, no passenger has a right to overlook or disregard that of others.  If for his own comfort, he wishes to raise or lower a window, he should consult the wishes of passengers immediately around him before doing so.  The discomforts of travelling should be borne cheerfully, for what may enhance your own comfort may endanger the health of some fellow-traveler."

Do people still feel this way, I wonder?  We can but hope........

Enjoy your days!