Gate with Lantern more or less at the one month mark. I'd
estimate at this point I'm about 2/3rds done with the cross
stitching. There is a wee bit of back stitching to be done as
well.

I'm about to start two weeks (less one day) of vacation, so I
hope to get a fair amount of stitching done on this piece
during that time. Unless I decide to begin another piece,
you know, in celebration of vacation. Hey, it's allowed
under the rules. Go check. I've never stitched anything
in a Halloween theme, so maybe it's time that I did.


May I introduce to you my newest treasure, Eden Grace.
This is a Barbara (Mainly Stitching - okay is there anyone
out there who doesn't know Barbara???) designed and
stitched piece and I love her...the bird I mean. Okay I
love Barbara too. Who doesn't? Er...anyways...

When I saw Grace on Barbara's Etsy site I tried to resist
and I actually managed to hold out for a few days. But
when no one else picked her up I knew it was inevitable.

The above picture was taken from Barbara's blog, since
I can't get clear close up pictures like this with my
camera. Hope that's okay Barbara.

Grace is stuffed with organic Lavender and when I opened
the package that she came in the scent was incredibly
strong and fragrant. Of course my kooky cat Rupert
reacted to the scent as if it were cat nip. I caught him
trying to take Grace off to have his way with her. I put
a stop to that immediately and Grace is now safely
displayed away from little cat paws.


The above picture is of our favourite pub, The Copper
Kettle, located in Glen Williams. I've mentioned it so
many times here that I thought perhaps a picture
should be posted as well. This was where my 50th
birthday surprise party was held, and the picture was
taken by one of the co-conspirators, Darlene. The
building was once a general store and is around 150
years old.

The proprietor is Brenda Gove, and her daughters Tracy
and Leigh help her to run the place. Excellent food,
great beers to choose from (if you're into that sort of
thing) darts, jam night, open mike night and other events,
plus an outdoor patio make this a great place to stop in
for a visit. Brenda and her girls are the heart of the
place though, and probably the main reason we love
going there so much.


Things are a little crazy in Toronto right now. Seems a
propane distributing facility blew up starting around 4:00
am this morning. The blast knocked people living in the
area out of their beds and rattled windows and shook
foundations. The authorities have evacuated a large area
around the facility, closed off a large portion of the 401
highway, one of the busiest highways in north America,
and firefighters are working to get the fire under control.
This is a photo from CP24 news site showing the fire and
plume of smoke. No word of injuries or worse at the
moment, but I'm not sure if emergency personnel have
been able to get into the site to check yet. Some of the
video taken from balconies miles away from the site
show explosions of incredible intensity, with flames
and fireballs leaping high into the air! It's scary.

Shades of the Mississauga Explosion of 30 years ago,
when a train carrying chemicals derailed and
exploded and during the course of the next few days
an entire city, with a population of 250,000 , was
evacuated until the situation was stabilized and the
site cleared of danger.

Things are reported under control now, and the
firefighting officials are cautiously optimistic
that everything will be fine.

***********************************************

Moving on to more pleasant topics.....

The weather here yesterday was like something
out of the tropics. After a sunny start to the day
the sky started to cloud over, and by 11:00 it was
teaming down with rain. DH tried to get the
lawn mowed before the rain started but only
managed to get the backyard done. And except
for short breaks here and there it rained pretty
much well into the night.

And it was really cool out. More like weather in
mid-September instead of August. I even got the
little portable heater out of the closet and had that
next to my feet to warm them up last night. We
spent the day relaxing, accepting the weather as an
excuse to recharge our batteries. Apparently this
afternoon we're in for more rain and thunderstorms.
A great way to start our vacation, but there's not
much we can do about it except go with the flow.

*********************************************

I finished reading Breaking Dawn yesterday, since
I couldn't bear to leave it until my last day of work
on Monday. It was an excellent read, and for me
the best book of the four. I won't say any more
because so many of you are reading the series, and
don't want to know what's going to happen.

Lynn: The series is about the love story of Bella,
a human girl, and a Vampire named Edward. Of
course there are all kinds of complications, as
true love never runs smoothly, especially between
human and vampire. It's a good bit of escapism
fiction, especially if you like Paranormal fiction.

**********************************************

Dani had a happy dance this week when she
finished Moonlight Guardian by Dragon Dreams.
The dragon, named Indigo, is a beautiful creature
and the piece has a gorgeous border around it.
I'm sure that in person it's quite shiny and
sparkly. Congrats Dani!!

And Andrea finished Winter into Spring by
Drawn Thread and it's magnificent. So many
different types of stitches on this one, and it's
a delicate design that pictures can't do justice
to. You have to look at the close ups to really
appreciate the detail and the work that went
into this piece.

Well, I guess I'd best finish this post off and
get the laundry started. Into work for me
tomorrow, and then I join DH for the rest of
the two weeks on blessed vacation. Happy,
happy, joy, joy!!!

Take care everyone, thanks for stopping by
and happy stitching!!!!

Cheers!!!