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!