Absolute Delight

The last few evenings have been delightful......spending special time with my girls....birthday times. Dawn's birthday on the 16th and mine on the 17th, makes for joint celebration.

Heather took us out for dinner at the Port Pub, us being Dawn, Lindsay, Rae and her friend Colton and me. We enjoyed this special time together, with lots of laughs and good food. A wee glass of wine for the birthday girl, helped me relax for a change and just enjoy. So nice!

Then, last evening, Dawn, the girls and Colton and I went to the Fundy shore, at Morden. I hadn't been over to the shore to just sit and enjoy for quite a long time. I only took a few pictures, because I didn't take extra batteries. It is a little difficult to walk on the rocks, but Dawn held her ol' mom up and even took a chair for me. Rae had thought to get a cake for us, but cake on the rocks would be a bit messy perhaps, and so we had birthday cream puffs. Delicious, and so easy to pop in your mouth.

It was a little cool, with the wind blowing, but so enjoyable. Dawn made a little fire, and we toasted marshmallows, which I hadn't done since we camped in Cape Breton a few years ago. The marshmallows were huge, and I had to lick every finger, I had made such a mess. (And Dawn was worried about eating cake :)) I was huddled in a jacket, as was Dawn. The young ones didn't seem to mind the brisk breeze.

Lindsay posing for Grammy

Rae posing for Grammy

Rocky shore

Rae and Colton

Our Yummy Cream Puffs

Toasting marshmallows

Sun Setting

Almost gone

Birthday flowers from Rae

A lovely, lovely time, and this morning weary, but well satisfied with life, I find myself remembering my blessings, the love and the support from my girls, and am thankful, so thankful. No matter what this old world brings, through the ups and downs.......my girls make it all worth hanging in there...

Today is the day......

       ..........cleaning out the freezer totally, and throwing everything......everything but a box of Girl Guide Cookies I bought from Lindsay a while ago. I'm pretty sure that the power being off for three days would not have affected them. Because we have green bins for our food waste and special bags for our garbage and paper/cardboard, my job is cut out for me. Open each package, food in green bin, boxes in recycling bag if they are not too yucky, and garbage.....not sure there is any plastic stuff in there, but there are bag ties.
     You can see that I am procrastinating......the freezer is calling....I turned it off this morning.....it HAS to be done today since garbage pick up is tomorrow. I didn't want to leave meat and fish in the green bin for a week, as it may have provided a picnic site for bears and raccoons + who knows what else. I will have to wear gloves because the freezing cold hurts my hands after a while.

Have I told you the story of.........oh, never mind.  That was my attempt to spend more time at the keyboard and less time in the freezer.......

........all done except for final defrost and washing up of freezer, not to mention all the containers that now await me in the kitchen sink, waiting.......waiting.......

It is a shame that all that food was wasted, but to look on the bright side, the freezer really did need defrosting and cleaning.

It has been a strange kind of day, with beautiful blue sky, followed by dark clouds and a heavy downpour, returning to blue sky and then the cycle repeated. Sadie took turns laying on the rug, then hiding under the desk. She is not partial to thunder storms.

******45 years ago today, Apollo 11 blasted off for the moon, and the famous moon landing, but even more important than that to me, the birth of my first daughter Dawn. Now that's special!

I do believe I'm tired, and so the dishes in the sink and the freezer can wait until tomorrow........

Hay and Grass

It's a bit showery today, and cooler, which is a good thing. I worked too hard on Friday and Saturday, and need a couple of days to recuperate. Yesterday was definitely a day of rest, and I guess I need today as well, though there are still house chores to do.

I did get a picture of Sadie on her hay. She has had a great time 'organizing' the work. She would sit in the yard, and bark at the tractors and trucks and whoever was in the field. Some of the hay was baled in the big rolls. Sadie likes those the best.

She would stay on the bale quite a while if I let her.

They also baled the square ones, but Sadie was not as keen on them

I decided last week that as I was feeling better, that I should attack the front 'garden?' plot. It had not been tended for years, and the grass had taken over. In the middle were Iris, and they were crowded quite badly. I knew once I started on the grass, the bulbs would have to be moved, I am not much of a gardener, but I carried on. I tried to work only a short time and then take a break, but I would get so involved that I would work too long. I mostly garden sitting on a small stool, using hand tools, since bending over hurts in my back and 'rear end.'

I did take pictures to show what I was looking at, and then when I finish, I hope to see a big difference.

Here you can especially see what I was dealing with

And here

The garden strip is right along the ditch, and there is no controlling the ditch and what grows there. Trees are popping up, and there is a lot of lupin growing in the ditch. I suppose I could have just let the bed go back to grass, but I needed a goal, so the garden was it. I have moved some Iris, and I hope that they will survive.

It was so nice spending the time outside, with the birds and the little chipmunk that runs through the grass. I rested at the picnic table and just soaked in the day. I am not finished, but with a break of two days I hope to get back at it this evening or tomorrow.

Oh dear, Arthur was here...

As I write this (in my word program on my battery powered laptop) (this would be Sunday) the power is still off, has been since yesterday morning at roughly 7:15. Yesterday was wild, to say the least. When I got up it was raining, and the wind was blowing a bit, but not that hard so I thought, but then the power went off. We had lots of rain, some real down-pours but then the weather seemed to settle down. The calm before the real storm. The wind picked up in the afternoon, and more and more places around were without power. It was supposed to be back on at 11:30 pm but that didn’t happen.  All I could think of was those poor guys on the lines, working in the strong wind. They have to be a special breed of people to work in dangerous situations like this, and even more so in the winter….

My daughter has a camp stove, so we went for breakfast and coffee this morning. Church was cancelled, not only because there was no power there or any where around, one road was blocked off because of a large tree across the road, and there was no way any of us could get cleaned up.  It is strange to cancel church, and then sit out on Dawn’s lawn and eat breakfast.

Some areas around are getting power back, but I am sure it will take a while.
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Our power was restored Monday evening at 8:40 pm, and we discovered that we still had no water. Dawn was able to prime the pump, and voila, water. We lost all the food in the fridge and the freezer as the power was off 60 hours. Now I have to get rid of it. Waiting until next week to throw spoiled fish and meat in the green bin, so the bears or raccoons won't be looking for snacks. Garbage day is Thursday.The freezer was quite full, so I have my work cut out for me.

We didn't have a great amount of damage. The apple tree in the backyard was pushed over, but not uprooted.

It is a little difficult to see, but the ground is humped up and the tree is leaning on its far branches

There are still about 6700 homes still without power as I write this. (Wed.. am)  Some houses just down the road were still in the dark last night. 

The orchard wasn't hit too hard, nothing blown over, and 2 wires holding the raspberries were broken. Dawn is thankful there wasn't a lot of damage there. It is hard to notice any small broken branches, but they will be visible once the leaves start to turn brown.

There has been a fair amount of wind all week, nothing like Saturday, but 40 - 60 mph.

I have run out of words, so will stop here for today.......

Arthur's Coming

Arthur is not a friend, but rather a hurricane, at least at this point. By the time he reaches Nova Scotia, he will probably be a tropical storm. I can almost sense that something is coming....the air is very heavy and humid, and the sky is full of grey clouds. The sun is trying to shine. Sadie is having trouble getting comfortable. Last evening was especially hard on her, but she got through it.

The end of the school year has come, and both granddaughters passed. The youngest is coming home from PEI today, after her KCC choir sang in Charlottetown on Canada Day. The eldest is holding the fort, so to speak.

The Captain is off on another drive. I don't know where he goes, but he can spend hours driving around. He is not pleased with my decision to not go to Newfoundland......I would love to see the province, but there is no way my body would hold up to hours of driving every day, which is what the Captain chooses to do. Oh well, that's just how it is. I am sure that he does not really understand the difficulties I have.....he told me once that all I needed was exercise, and to lose weight. Uh huh........

Raspberries are ripening and gardens are growing. Pictures of folks at the pool or the ocean are showing up on facebook, along with photos of Grads. Young people beginning a new phase of their lives.

I have been doing a bit of felting. Here's the latest effort.

It is so strange where my mind goes.

Haying has begun....

Sadie is watching closely

She gets so excited with all the machinery and activity.

I shall get a picture of her on one of 'her' bales, probably today.

I let her outside once and before I could get her leash on

off she went, heading for the hay field. 

For once, she stopped when I called her.

I have been dive-bombed by my little hummingbirds. Once, I could feel the brush of wings in my hair. Usually it is because one is chasing away another from the feeder. They are a joy to watch. One will sit on the feeder rest and drink, and squeak, and drink and stare at me, and drink more. It seems like she is more comfortable with me watching than the male.

I'll be listening to the weather forecast and getting things picked up outside if we do get the storm.

That is it for now........

Finally

       How many times in the last few weeks have I sat at this laptop and tried to convince myself that I really should try to write a bit. It has been a while, and so as I begin this post, I know that it will not be done in one sitting. It has been difficult lately to put two thoughts together that made sense, let alone try and put them down. I shall not delve into the ups and downs of the past month, except to say that it has been rough. The fibro begets depression and the fight begins......
.......this time I think I am winning, but it isn't over yet.

Yesterday was the longest day of the year. Did you notice? I didn't. Today will be about 3 seconds longer. I won't notice that either. It is sunny this morning, and the day should be warming.

A dear young friend, Kayley, weeded my flower garden, and finally I can see the flowers that were hidden. It makes me mad at myself when I can't even weed a little. When I feel up to it, I've done a little whipper-snippering, managing about 10 minutes at a time, but that is better than nothing. I have to stop expecting myself to be able to do what I want to, at least, at one time. You would think I would learn after 20+ years.
I guess when I was younger I could get through days much better than now. It is hard to accept that, and the fact that I sometimes have to ask for help, or accept it when offered.

....It's another day, and I am feeling somewhat better, though the day is young. I wonder what I will accomplish today. I have finally made an inventory of the books on my shelf, and the ones that I have put in the church library. My oh my. I would like to go back and read them all again. I am thinking that I will put the ones I have here in the library as well, so that others will enjoy them, too. First though, I have to card them, so it will be a while before they get settled on the church shelves.

In the comments, some have asked about patterns for the felted creatures I make. I do not use patterns, but there are many places on the internet of needle and wet felting. I usually start with the head and body and then the imagination kicks in and then a bear or a cat or whatever appears. There are lots of books and sites that teach about felting, and I look at some felted things on line, but mostly I just do my own thing.

Sometimes I just use small bits of wool and just make little balls.

They are good for cat toys.

My latest paintings. hj says the one on the right is a bit scary.

I'm wondering if people would want these sort of paintings?

They are definitely weird, but I was thinking of giving some to the 

Children's Wish Foundation. A friend is very involved in this group, and

is planing a fundraiser.

I think that I am going to post this now. It is a start, and means that I am on the way back from my stay with Lady Gloom. I visit her quite often, but I never want to stay too long. Sometimes she is a comfort, but she lives in a very dark room, and eventually I need to see the light. Thanks to Heather and Dawn for opening the door.

I am hoping that Barney and Belinda will get going again soon. 

Sadness

My heart goes out to the city of Moncton, the people in the immediate area and the family and friends of the RCMP Officers who were killed and injured.
 I hope it ends peacefully and soon.