Caution! Do not read this post on an empty stomach

The first sign of Fall around here is when the Robins all
more or less suddenly disappear at the end of August,
beginning of September. The first birds to return in the
Spring from their Winter down south somewhere and
the first to head back down there at Summer's end.

Well, most of them anyways.

We have a Mountain Ash tree in our back yard and this
year it is loaded with berries. The berries are still fairly
hard because they haven't fully ripened yet, but that is
not something that concerns the birds who gorge them-
selves on them. There have been a half dozen or more
Robins who have put their vacations down south on
hold while they do their very best to strip the tree of it's
Autumn bounty.

Robins are so common around here and they aren't
the most handsomest of birds, red breasts not
withstanding, but this picture I took from our dinning
room window of this fellow in our tree looks pretty
good with the red of his feathers and the red of the
berries and the red of the changing leaves all around.

And following the red theme even further ... this is one
of the cherry trees at the front of our house. These
berries are also quite hard and since they are also quite
a bit bigger then the Mountain Ash's berries they don't
get eaten as early in the season. In late Winter and
early Spring the Robins and the Ceder Waxwings will
devour these bright red globes as fast as they can
swallow. In the meanwhile we have the berries hanging
on the bare limbs of the trees for color and for our
enjoyment during the dull, cold days of Winter.

I love RED!!

I've been stitching away on Halloween Quaker this
week and enjoying working on the little motifs as
a break from the larger ones with the ... uh ... less
then enthralling borders.

Don't you just love that little bat with the BIG eyes?
So cute. I love the little off white accents in this
design which add just a little extra oomph to the
whole piece. There are a couple of pumpkins to
stitch of course and I considered stitching those in
a shade of orange of some kind, but in the end I
decided to keep to the designer's vision of how this
should look.

What I've been up to this past summer
and Fall - an ongoing report .....

Regarding the trip to the Mennonite Fall Fair at
Black Creek Pioneer Village in September. There is one
major reason why we love going to this fair whenever we
can. It's not just the ambiance, or the quilt auction, or
the costumed volunteers demonstrating various skills
and activities in the buildings. No, it's not even for the
ride in the horse drawn wagon.

What is the real honest to goodness, just
between us, reason why we go to this fair??

It's the FOOD!!

Check this out!!! The Mennonite folk arrive at the
fair every year with tons of delicious home made food for
the enjoyment of us dedicated fair goers. Home made
bread, cakes, pies, cookies and other delectable delights.
You can buy whole loaves of bread, or entire pies etc to
take home with you or you can buy slices of this or that
and eat them right there and then.

Pie anyone??? How many flavors can you spy there??

There are also booths set up selling food cooked
on the spot. So, having been doing this for years we have
our agenda all thought out and ready to follow. First stop
... the booth selling back bacon and a fried egg on a bun.
Then we hit the booth selling spring rolls which were
three per plate and came with a home made sweet sauce.

That's me noshing down on my back bacon and
fried egg on a bun. MMMMmmmmmm!!!!!

Then it was time for a sweet. Deep fried rosettes with
home made strawberry preserves and home made ice
cream on top!!

After that we took a break from eating and began
to walk around the village, taking in the sights and letting
our first course settle. I think that I had a cup of hot
apple cider during this time because after all there's
nothing like apple cider to put you in the mood for
Fall, right??

In one building a couple of ladies were busy
making bread. There is an outdoor brick oven to bake
these yummy loaves of whole grain goodness and the
flavor of these is unbelievable. You can put in an order
to buy a loaf or two when they're done if you like but
you have to be there pretty early in the day to do so
because they sell out in no time.

Is this what it looks like when you're baking
bread at your house Barbara???

After seeing (and smelling) the bread making and
baking we decided that it was time to have something else
good to eat. After all it had to have been at least forty five
minutes since we'd last had something good to eat.

Another highlight of the day is the open fire pit
where chicken legs and thighs are roasted to a lovely
golden brown and then offered to hungry foodies ...
like us!!

From left to right: Darlene, Helen and I enjoying
our finger lickin' good roast chicken legs.

After that we decided to have a veggie so that
we could at least say that we'd had a balanced meal
that day. Corn on the cob, dipped in melted butter
and sprinkled with salt. Sounds healthy doesn't it?

After all that ... er ... healthy eating (!!) we of
course had to have a desert. We planned on a slice
of pie (see photo at beginning of this report) but
were horrified and dismayed to discover that the
tables formerly covered in pie slices were now bare.
Not a flake of pastry or a bit of fruit left in sight.

Sigh!!

So we went to plan B. Hot, deep fried apple fritters
covered in maple syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon
and icing sugar. MMMmmmmm .... maple syrup.

Another cooking demonstration that we
found was making beet butter. I think I mentioned this
stuff in a previous post. It was so delicious, hot from the
pot and spread on little biscuits taken hot and fresh
from the brick oven, that it just bears mentioning
again. Sweet, sticky and delicious!

Here are Helen and Darlene about to help
themselves to their share of the beet butter samples.
There was also pickled beets and eggs soaked in
beet juice that we were encouraged to taste.

At the end of the afternoon, having walked (and
eaten) our way all around the village we were tired and
ready to head home. The booths were mostly sold out of
food anyways so there was no added incentive to stay.
But just before we left the village proper and headed
off to the gift shop we stopped at the back bacon on a
bun booth and bought one more round for the road.
Why no, we have no shame! Why do you ask?

In the gift shop located near the exit to the
village and in the old merchant store in the village
itself you can buy old fashioned candy and other
treats. You know, just in case you get peckish on
your way home.

I've been busy reading several awesome books
in the past few weeks and have ripped through these
totally awesome stories as fast as time allowed. The
first is book two in this series by Jacqueline Carey.
As usual wonderful characters, enthralling story, and
incredible imagination for creating a world from
geography to mythology and traditions make Ms
Carey's books fabulous reads for any fantasy lover.

And for those of you who enjoy their knitting,
or who love stories with characters that you fall in love
with and come to believe in totally then this one is for
you. Loved this one sooo much I immediately went on
line looking for sequels and anything else by Kate Jacobs
that I could find. If she'd published her weekly shopping
lists in a series of books I think that I'd have bought 'em!!
Yes, she's that good!

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

Monday night was election night here in Ontario.
We voted for our choices for local government including
Mayor, councilors and school trustees. Except that
our mayor got in by acclamation because no one ran
against him.

But what our local election campaign lacked in
drama and excitement was more then made up for as
we watched the goings on down in the big city of
Toronto where the Mayoral candidates have been going
at each other hammer and tongs since last January.
Fun to watch, but I wouldn't want to live there.

It was reported in our local newspaper that
only 25 % of our areas eligible voters actually
bothered to turn out to vote. It wasn't raining, there
wasn't a foot of snow, there hadn't been a total
eclipse of the moon or anything like that. People just
didn't bother to show up and vote. Ah Democracy!!

And yes, Phil and I did make a point of getting
out to vote. We always do.

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

Well, it's getting on and I've got chores to do
and candy to put out and special treat bags to make
up for any trick or treaters who show up at our
door this evening for Halloween.

Hope you're all having a great Fall and enjoying
any festivities that might be occurring in your
neighborhood this weekend to celebrate Halloween.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving your
always welcome and greatly appreciated and enjoyed
comments.

Take care!

Cheers!

Hello! I'm starting off this week's blog post with a photo
that might be one of my most favorite of all the pictures
that I've taken so far with my new camera.

DH and I were invited to a birthday party for a little boy
turning one year old back in September. The gathering
took place in a park near the parent's home so we were
outdoors for the entire time.

It was a cold, windy day unfortunately and there really
wasn't much in the way of shelter to get away from the
elements. We tried huddling around the barbecue but
it got a little crowded which made it difficult for the cook
to work, so DH and I went for a little walk around the
grounds to try and keep the circulation going and perhaps
warm up a trifle.

One side of the park grounds was edged with tall grasses
and weeds, all of which were nearing the end of their life
cycle for the season and were either drying out to brown
stalks, or were bursting their seed pods and sending the
tiny seedlings out to find themselves a safe place to set
down roots and sleep for the winter. With the wind
blowing and blustering that day there were a lot of
fluffy bits dancing through the air.

The tops of these plants caught my eye and I just
held up my camera and took a quick picture as we
passed by them, and here is the result. I love it!!!

Yesterday I actually sat down and did some stitching!
I've been itching to start a new project that had caught
my eye recently so I ignored The Book Store and started
digging around in my fabric stash looking for something
suitable for the irresistible new design. I chose a cut of
Sassy's Fabbys Jobelan, 28 count, in the color Toffee.

The design is a Halloween Quaker by Jardin Priven
which is stitched in black and off white DMC thread.
As you can see I haven't gotten much done yet, and
since Halloween is just a week away it won't get done
in time for the holiday itself this year (and we won't
make any promises for next year either because we
know better) but I'm enjoying myself and that's the
important thing.

This weeks featured sampler from Black Creek Pioneer
Village is by Margaret Ann Todd and it uses some of the
same motifs as her sister Sarah's did, plus the same
colors. But the border is different and obviously so is
the verse.

I should note here that I'm just assuming that Sarah and
Margaret were sisters since there was no information
provided about the samplers that were hanging in each
of the buildings in the village. Maybe they were cousins?
I still can't get over how well the colors look on their two
samplers. Still quite bright and vibrant after all these
years.

And this just in .....

I am once again in love and lust!! What a beautiful
design Diane has come up with here!! Wonderful
colors (RED) and lovely motifs. And bunnies!!!
'Scuse me while I go rifle through the laundry and
the bottom of my purse to rustle up some coin for
this sweet chart ... and maybe one or two others.

Note: Photo above filched from Stitching Bits and Bobs
website.

What I've been up to this past summer
and Fall - an ongoing report .....

In August my DH's company arranged a boat cruise and
dinner to take place on one of the many boats that sails
around Toronto Harbor in the good weather. The boats
leave their berths during the late afternoon so you can
enjoy the views of downtown Toronto, the Toronto Island
Airport, and the Toronto Islands during daylight. The
cruise continues into the evening, ending around 10:00 pm
so you also get to see the Toronto skyline all lit up after
dark. It's quite spectacular to see.

DH and I arrived over an hour before we were to meet up
with everyone for the cruise so we had time to wander
around the Harborfront, looking at the attractions and
venues that are there, and people watching as well.

I use to work in this area and so know it pretty well, but
it's been 11 years since our company moved it's office
out to the suburbs, and things have changed considerably
since then.

Condos, rental apartment buildings and Co-Op buildings
have been going up everywhere on the valuable, much
sought after and somewhat limited shoreline of Lake
Ontario and that has caused some concern for the other
residents of Toronto who are loosing their views and
their access to the waterfront.

But we're not here to debate Toronto's building choices
today. So let's move on and do some site seeing instead.
A much more pleasant topic, don't you agree??

This is the ship that we were to spend the evening on.
Two levels with tables to eat at, places to set up the
buffet meals, and small dance floors for those who might
wish to work off their meals a bit afterwords. The top
deck was open to the sky, and you could sit up there and
watch the views pass by.

There was a market in full swing at Harborfront, with
booths selling clothes, jewelery, and all kinds of other
treasures and trinkets. And food vendors selling just
about any type of cuisine you would care to think of.
In this picture you can also see the stage on the right
where live music was being played, and the ubiquitous
condo's surrounding the area.

There is a very shallow pond where you can rent a canoe
and paddle around for awhile.

And right next to that is an artificial (obviously) skating
rink where you can rent skates and take a spin on the
ice (??). There was one or two kids wobbling their way
around the square ice pad but I didn't manage to get
them in this picture.

Walking along the boardwalk at the water's edge you
pass the many small cruise ships as well as this
bigger, masted schooner.

A pair of smaller cruise ships that can be rented for
group excursions on the Lake around the harbor
and the islands.

There are bays where people can rent a space to dock
their boat and I suppose that they can even live on
board for the season if they so choose. I would imagine
that the rent would be quite dear for a space here and
there's not a lot of privacy.

And sometimes the neighbors can be a bit ... er ...
off the wall??

Anyone for tennis???

It occurs to me that this post is getting pretty photo
heavy so I'll finish off the narrative for this fun day
next weekend. Here is a view of the Toronto skyline
taken as dusk is falling and the two most famous
of Toronto's downtown buildings ... The Skydome
where the Toronto Blue Jays play baseball, and the
CN Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world.

Scrounging money out of the pockets of clothes in
the laundry to buy stitching charts. Why???

Wellllllll ....

Ya see, there was this sale of books at Chapters and
... well ... uh ...

And did I mention the new second hand book store
that's opened in downtown Georgetown as well???
The one that I now walk passed just about every
day of the week???

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

The week just passed was pretty uneventful until Friday
afternoon at work. I was just sitting at a table in the
cafeteria reading during the final few minutes of my
lunch break when the evacuation alarm sounded.

After climbing down from the ceiling (damn, that thing
is LOUD) I gathered up purse, lunch bag and book and
joined the rest of the employees shuffling out the front
door.

Heading through our parking lot we walked toward
the parking lot of Leons furniture store which is next
door to us and which is where my department is suppose
to meet so the team leader can count noses. At first we
had no idea what was going on of course but then our
noses clued us in.

Do you guys smell gas???

Uh oh.

Yup. Workers at the back of the building had been
drilling (no idea why) and of course they hit and
punctured a gas pipe.

We milled around in Leons parking lot for awhile
with those of us without coats huddling together
for warmth. Then we were sent to a banqueting
hall nearby where we waited inside where it was,
thankfully, nice and warm until it was safe to
return to work. It took about an hour for them
to shut off the gas and then we headed back to
our desks.

And that was our excitement for this week.

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

Is it my imagination or is this the never ending blog post??
I've gotta learn not to be so verbose I think. I don't talk
like this, on and on and on and on, in real life ... do I Jennifer??
Darlene?? Linda??? Dani??? Kathy???

On second thought ... never mind.

Have a great week folks! Thanks for stopping by and
plowing through all this stuff, and for leaving comments
for me. Love hearing from you.

Cheers!!

Good day one and all. It's Sunday morning once again which
means it's time to compose and create another post for my blog.
Thanks to my long absence from blogging during the summer
I've got a backlog of pictures and other "stuff" to catch up on
as well as reporting on the things that have been happening in
the here and now. And I've got to keep from boring you all to
tears or into a coma in the process. Well, I'll do my best to
make this entry entertaining and informative and ... AHA!!
Your eye lids are drooping there!! Just for a second ...
Stay with me now ...

We're starting out with a couple of glamor shots. I was out
walking yesterday morning when the sun was just clearing
the tops of the trees and houses and the light frost was still
spread in patches on the ground. I happened to notice a
carpet of leaves lining the sides of the sidewalk and each was
limned with frost along veins and edges. Lovely. I
wondered if my magical camera would be able to capture

this amazing detail. It did.

I'm really delighted with how these pictures turned out.
Click on them for close ups so you can see the tiny beads
of frost on each leaf. Especially in the above picture.
Mother Nature is a whiz with her magical paintbrush and
knows just when and where to add the bling ... and how
much is just enough.

Last week I gave you a small glimpse of my current
stitching project and wondered if you could guess
what it was. Well, here is the full picture showing
my progress so far. Now don't tell me you're surprised
by my choice of this design because I know you're not.

I'm all over the map with this one, stitching a bit of
this section, and then a bit of that section, and then
working on a bit of the border. Do you do that??
Or do you just stitch each section and finish it before
moving on to the next part?

I've been dabbling on Ebay this month as well and found
a great dealer selling lovely small cuts of fabric in gorgeous
colors. I love the color of the piece on the right which is
called Autumn Blush, appropriate considering the season
we're in right now. So much so that when I placed another
order for a few more cuts of fabric in other colors I also
ordered another one of these. These will be a joy to work
on.

Another of the samplers that I found and photographed
during our visit to Black Creek Pioneer Village. This one
is lovely too, with some wonderful motifs and amazing
colors.

Here's a close up of the verse and some of the motifs.
Sorry about the flash in the centre of the picture. Isn't
that butterfly wonderful?? Next week I'll post a picture
of Sarah's sister Margaret's sampler which is a variation
of this one

What I've been up to this past summer and Fall - an ongoing report .....

A few weeks ago a bunch of us attended the twentieth
annual Word on the Street festival which took place
on the grounds of the Ontario Legislature ... also known
as Queen's Park ... in the heart of downtown Toronto.

A beautiful place to have a festival of any kind because
of the many wonderful old trees on the grounds and with
the lovely stonework of the Legislature building itself as a
backdrop.

We ate hot dogs and samosas and spring rolls and
corn on the cob, and I had my first Funnel Cake.
Look at that thing!! Deep fried batter sprinkled
with sugar and lots and lots of cinnamon. I love
cinnamon!!! And yes, I'm ashamed to admit, I
ate the entire plateful of it.

Now you know why I walk ... a lot!!

The booths were scattered amongst the trees and
shrubbery on the park's grounds and there was so
much to see and so many books to buy. We worked
our way around from booth to booth, browsing
through the books that caught our eye and making
the odd ... ahem ... purchase.

There were celebrates on hand for the occasion, including
this well known fellow who was, if I remember correctly,
celebrating his 70th birthday this year.

I've been chasing this lady around Ontario for years!!

Uh ... let me explain.

One of my most favorite authors is Kelley Armstrong.
I've got all of her books and love 'em so much!! Ms
Armstrong is from Ontario, and presumably doesn't
live all that far from me. In all the years that I've been
reading her books, and in all the years that she's been
making promotional appearances around Ontario, as
well as the rest of North America in general, I'd yet to
meet her and get some of my books signed.

There were lots of Canadian authors appearing at this
years Word on the Street and one of them, happily
enough, turned out to be Ms Kelley Armstrong!!

Of course me being me I forgot to pack one of her books
to be signed during the event so had to buy another
copy of one that I already had just so she could sign it.
DOH!!

But the important thing is that I finally got to meet her,
have a book signed and my picture taken with her. I
was delighted.

So guess who showed up in Georgetown on Friday for
a visit and signing???

Isn't that always the way???

Sponsored by a local kids bookstore, The Freckled Lion,
Ms Armstrong appeared in the gallery that is in the same
building as our library to give a talk, read excerpts from her
Young Adult book series, answer questions and sign
books.

Well yes, of course I went. And this time I
remembered to pack a few of my books for signing. And
I even remembered my camera. It was a great evening.
Kelley (may I call you Kelley??) is a funny, eloquent
speaker and it was cool to hear her read some of her latest
stuff to us and answer our questions.

Did you know that Angelina Jolie wanted to play Elena when
the screenplay adaption of one of Kelley's early books was
shopped around?? Wow!

Sadly the movie never got made. The powers that be in
Hollywood decided that chick flicks featuring women with
super powers just were not in demand thanks to the failures
of the movies Catwoman and Electra. Of course the fact that
these two movies were badly written and produced in the
first place might have had something to do with that, but it
would never occur to those bozos to take that into
consideration.

Well, another epic production comes to an end for
another week. So many of you left wonderful
comments after last weeks post offering comfort and
sympathy for the emotional first Thanksgiving
dinner without my Mom and I am so very
grateful to you for that. It helped so much to
read your understanding and eloquent words.

I hope you all have a wonderful week with lots of
stitching time and I'll be back next week no doubt
with more stuff to share. Take care!!

Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This has been something of a whirl wind weekend for
DH and I, as all such holiday weekends seem to be. An extra
day added on to a weekend does not necessarily mean more
time to do whatever we want. Rather it means more stuff to
do and not enough time to do it all, even with the extra day.

My days all started with getting up around 7:00 am,
getting dressed and heading out for my walk. Knowing
how much of Thanksgiving is celebrated with knife and
fork in hand I figured that I'd better be getting my walking
exercise in, no excuses and no slacking off. So each day
I've walked for one and a half hours and covered six miles
per walk. As of today I have therefore walked eighteen
miles over this weekend!!

Saturday I took my camera with me during my walk and
stopped often to take pictures of the trees in their Fall
splendor, or of favorite houses, or of the Farmer's
Market that we have here in Georgetown every Saturday
morning from June until the end of October. This little
house and the beautiful Fall foliage around it caught my
eye and begged to be photographed. I was happy to
oblige.

At the Farmer's Market there was lots to entertain my
camera and me both visually and gastronomically. Not
only the fruits and vegetables of the season, but also the
added pleasures of back bacon on a bun, maple syrup,
fresh honey, and baked just that morning strudels. Not
to mention hand made jewelery, knitted things, and so
much more.

The Fall foliage this year has been spectacular. It seems as
though we're getting more reds and oranges in the mix (along
with the usual yellows and golds) then we usually do and the
resulting display of Autumn's glory is breathtaking. Do you
have more of these colors then usual in your neighborhood as
well?? We still have plenty of trees left that haven't yet begun
to have their leaves change color so this awe inspiring show
won't be over for some weeks to come yet, I'm happy to say.


I had another stitching finish of sorts this past summer. I worked
on this piece while my Mom was in the hospital and found it to be
perfect because of it's size and because it only used the one color
so required no color changes and only one skein of thread to be
carried around. And it was silk thread too, which is always such a
pleasure to work with. I haven't decided whether to put in the
date and initials as charted in the original design. I kind of like it
plain and uncluttered, the way it is now. I'm not planning any kind
of a specific finish for this right now so I can let the decision simmer
in my brain for awhile yet.

And here's a tease for you. My current project, though it's
been sadly neglected these past few weeks. I owe it a good
long chunk of dedicated stitching time today if I can, but
that may not be possible. We'll just have to take it one step
at a time. Can you guess what this design is??? It won't be
hard I'm sure.

I got this years JCS Christmas Ornaments issue a few weeks
ago and there are quite a few designs that I really, really like.
I would love to stitch a few Christmas ornaments and actually
have one all picked out and ready to go. It means time
away from my above project but thems the breaks. Diversity
is the spice of life, right??

What I've been up to this past summer and Fall - an ongoing report .....

A couple of friends and I went to Black Creek
Pioneer Village during the third weekend of
September.


One of the things that I look forward to every Fall is the
Mennonite Fall Fair at Black Creek Pioneer Village in
Toronto. An authentic village recreated using buildings
from around the Toronto area that were moved to the
site to save them from demolition and neglect. Black
Creek Pioneer Village is a wonderful opportunity to travel
back in time, and spend the day in a country setting
while still being within the city's borders.

Volunteers in period clothing put on demonstrations
of various sorts in the buildings, including the lady
in the above picture who is putting out freshly made
Beet Butter onto small also freshly made biscuits
that she'd just taken out of the brick oven behind her.



Have you ever tried Beet Butter??? Me neither. Oh
boy was it delicious though!! Sweet and sticky and
so wonderful on those little biscuits. I confess that I
snuck back and had seconds of this yummy treat.

Each building is furnished as it would have been back
in the nineteenth century, including those decorative
features that would have made these places a home.
And that of course includes a number of samplers.
I took pictures of any that I came across that day and
here is one that I particularly liked. Isn't it a beauty?
Love the border, and the bouquets of flowers. It's
perfectly stitched and check out that little dog at the
bottom. You can click on the picture to get a closer
look at all the details.

I'll post pictures of the other samplers in future posts,
as well as some other pictures taken around the village.


I have been reading while this computer was off for repairs, and
I'll try to post a brief report about the ones that I enjoyed the
most and would recommend to you. I need to update the list at
the side of my blog there of the books that I've read since it is
woefully behind.

I just finished "An Impartial Witness" last week and I really
enjoyed it. It's the first time that I've read this author or, to
be specific, authors because this series is written by a Mother
and Son duo. They have two mystery series on the go, both of
which take place during the first world war era. This is the
Bess Crawford series, and is the second book in that series. I
haven't got the first book yet, but after reading this one plan
to get it as soon as I can.

I really enjoyed this book because of the main character, Bess,
and because the authors have done a wonderful job of
recreating the WWI era. The mystery is interesting and keeps
your attention but it's the strong, vividly well drawn characters
that kept me reading this book whenever I could grab a free
minute. Bess is a strong, intelligent and intuitive woman with
a strong belief in doing the right thing and taking duty and
responsibility very much to heart. She will not walk away from
the investigation until the truth is discovered, no matter what
the danger to herself. I really, really loved this book and will
be getting as many of the author's other books as I can find.

On Saturday DH and I went to visit my Aunt and we all
went to Swiss Chalet for lunch. DH and I had their
spare ribs which were part of a special offer where if
you ordered the ribs you also got a quarter chicken for
free. Great deal. We'd never had ribs at Swiss Chalet
before and were quite pleasantly surprised by how
fantastic and delicious they were. You know how dry
ribs in a restaurant can be?? These were fall off the
bone tender and so very tasty. Back at my Aunt's
we had a slice of cherry and a slice of apple strudel
with French Vanilla ice cream. The strudel being
from the Georgetown Farmer's Market and was
fresh baked that morning. MMMmmmmm!!!

Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday was just DH, his sister and
myself. I made turkey and all the trimmings, and my SIL
brought pumpkin pie for desert. Then we sat down at the
table, just the three of us, to eat and I found myself over-
whelmed with emotion. I guess that the empty fourth chair
was a glaring reminder of my Mom never being here again
and it caught me off guard. I'm afraid dinner wasn't as
enjoyable as it would otherwise have been for me. But we
got through it.

Today is leftovers day. Left over everything, including the
pumpkin pie, whipped cream and the strudel and ice cream
which my Aunt would absolutely not allow us to leave
behind with her.

Now you know why I walked 18 miles this weekend.

DH and I went to the Terra Cotta Conservation area,
a twenty minute drive from here, this afternoon and
spent a couple of hours walking some of the trails.

Yes ... more walking.

It was overcast but dry and the scenery was beautiful.
I'm trying to get DH to get out and walk with me more
and explore some of the many wonderful parks and
conservation areas that we have here in southern
Ontario. I think that he enjoyed our walk today so
here's hoping we can do it again.

I think it's time I wrap this up and published it before
it gets too much longer. Besides, the turkey and other
leftovers that having been warming in the oven for the
past two hours are calling to me. It's time for dinner.

Hope you are all well and if you are fellow Canucks I
hope that you had a grand long weekend and Thanks
giving. Thanks for dropping by and slogging through
my little (!!) post here. Take care.

Cheers!