In the early 70's until the early 80's I use to watch 

episodes of Doctor Who on our local Public TV

station.   Hosted by Canadian Sci-Fi author Judith

Merril we had episodes from the time of Jon Pertwee

onwards.   I remember some of the Pertwee years

and I watched some of Peter Davison too ... but the

episodes that I never missed featured the fourth Doctor

... MY Doctor .... Tom Baker.

When the newest incarnations of the Doctor began

with introduction of Christopher Eccleston I watched 

the premier episode but somehow wasn't as enchanted 

with his portrayal of the Doctor and did not continue

with the show.   I would probably have liked

David Tennant's Doctor a lot but never managed

to catch most of his episodes, nor those of his 

successor Matt Smith.

I did make a point to watch the episode during the Tennant 

years featuring the return to the series of my favourite Who 

companion Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen 

and found it to be quite an emotional reunion for me.

As a Buffy fan I was also delighted that the villain for

that episode was played by Anthony Stuart Head.  He

played "nasty" really well in that show.   Oh, and K9

featured in that episode as well.   I was in my happy 

place.

Well, the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who was 

celebrated last weekend with a special episode

which ran here Saturday afternoon on Space

channel.   DH and I made a point of watching

and we enjoyed it thoroughly.    DH had 

kept up with the new Doctor Who episodes

even though I hadn't so he was familiar with

the 10th and 11th Doctors and their histories.

But the part of the 50th anniversary special 

that had me bouncing up and down on the 

couch ... and in tears of joy... was at the 

very end when Matt Smith had an encounter

with an elderly gentleman with curly white 

hair and a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Of the surviving Doctors from the "old"

days the only one the creators chose to 

bring back was my Doctor ... Tom Baker.

Happy, happy, happy.

Then a friend provided me with this link

to a half hour long special made by Peter

Davison featuring the other three surviving

Doctors who were not included in the 50th

anniversary special and it is a wonderful,

affectionate send up of it all.   If you 

are a Who fan and haven't seen this yet

you must watch it!   It's chock full of 

cameos, inside jokes and fun adventure

with Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester

McCoy trying their darnedest to make

some sort of appearance in the special.

Enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m3kfy

What I've been reading lately.

A series that I first began reading

back in 2012 which was my first encounter

with author Jacqueline Carey. This was her very 

first book and it knocked my socks off.    

Epic fantasy at it's most lyrical, enchanting and

mesmerizing with an alternative Earth history 

written in incredible detail.   If you love

the stories of George R.R. Martin then you

might be interested in this very talented female

author's take on epic fantasy ... and Carey

publishes much more frequently then Martin.

I've reread books one and two in this series

and am well into book three right now.

Once of those series you don't want to end.

No stitching, no doodling and no scrap

booking going on right now.  I'm in Christmas

mode which means ticking off my "to do"

list for the season.   Just finished the overseas

letters and cards and will be starting the local

cards after I've finished this post and a short

break for lunch.   My tummy's growling

so I'll wish you a happy weekend and

head for the kitchen!

Cheers!

Christmas ... some of my favourite things ....

Since you've asked to see some of the

final results of our Christmas decorating

I'm quite happy to oblige.   

(Go ahead, twist my arm!!)

Well.   The holiday decorating is about

75 percent completed as of this posting

with the exception of the den where I

still have the small tree to decorate, plus

a bit of tweaking here and there where

needed.

Every year I get so excited to open up 

all the boxes and storage bins and start

pulling out the ornaments that I love so

much.   Our tree features ornaments 

from all over the place ... Hallmark 

and Michaels,  Winners and Simpsons

(which no longer exists) and Pier One

... to name a few.    

Here is the tree, all lit up and glowing

with lights and glitter and joy!!   One

thing that I really love when it comes

to choosing an ornament is sparkle!

If it sparkles it's mine!

I'm also a traditionalist when it comes

to Christmas.   My colours are red,

green and gold.    Well, most of the

time.

The odd purple ornament with gold

design is quite acceptable when it's

as beautiful as the one above.   And

when it has a reflector style centre to

catch the christmas lights and shine 

even more, well, I'm okay with that.

The room divider is a great place to go nuts dedicate to

Christmas decorations.   I strip it of the usual

stuff that is there for half the year and pack all

that away where ever I can find a spot.   With

fingers crossed that I'll be able to find it all again

in January.   Ahem.

Many of the crystaline pieces ... trees, sleigh and

the one Santa to be specific .... all light up which

makes it easier to see everything at night and makes

it all quite festive without trying to jury rig strings

of lights ... trying to hide the cords and find a 

way of plugging them in without having extension

cords covering the floor and going in every 

direction. 

I also use those little battery operated tea lights

for added light instead of real candles .... which

make me nervous.

The book case has some favourite ornaments

including my Rudolph pieces and my favourite

snowmen pieces.

I picked these guys up one winter season from a 

local drug store and they were on sale for a ridiculous

cheap price.   

I love these guys!!   This one has a place in the

back for tea lights ... and again I use the battery

operated kind.

Rudolph and friends.   These were Hallmark

ornaments from quite a few years ago.

In the kitchen I've decorated the hutch shelf with

my favourite angels and Santa.    

In the living room I put bows on each of the

lampshades.   Some of the bows I have made

myself ... such as this one.

Many of my bows were made for me by my

friend Tony.   He makes me one every year.

We have an agreement you see.   Each year

I send him a box of my Christmas baking,

including a batch of scones which are his

particular favourites.   And in return he sends

me a hand made bow.   

These bows I put out wherever I can find

a spot that will show them off to their best

advantage ... and wherever the cats can't

get their paws on them.

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

Decorating went well for the most part this year

with one or two exceptions that did delay us a bit.

Unfortunately our Christmas star for the top of the

tree conked out and in spite of our best

efforts to resuscitate it it was quite dead.   I've been

looking for a replacement but can't find anything

that appeals to me.    I'll keep looking but if I don't

find anything suitable I'm not going to worry about

it.

Then there were the fancy little hooks that we use 

to hang ornaments on the tree.   Much to our 

annoyance and dismay we could not find them 

anywhere!!!   I use to keep them in one of those 

plastic margarine containers but we couldn't find it 

this year.   

We opened all of the many, many (many)  boxes 

and dug through mounds of tissue paper and 

piles of Christmas lights, stuffed toys and whatnot ... 

without success.   Frustration was setting in. 

Precious time was wasting.  

Then I glanced at a foot stool where

small boxes of ornaments were already 

unpacked and waiting to be hung on the tree ... 

and remarked to my helper Darlene  (who was 

digging in yet another large box nearby) ... 

"If we can't find the margarine container of small hooks 

perhaps we'll have better luck looking in this little box 

marked SMALL HOOKS!!!"

A short break for egg nog was in order after that.

After a long, exhausting day of Christmas decorating

we were sorely in need of sustenance and relaxation 

(and in some cases liquid refreshment of the alcoholic 

variety)  so we headed off to the Copper Kettle pub 

in Glen Williams for a nice dinner with friends.

I had Steak and Guinness Pie for dinner, with

hand cut fries and steamed veggies and for

desert Chocolate Guinness cake.   Yum!!

Above is a photo of the usual suspects.   Me on the 

left .... Darlene third from the left .... DH standing

tall on the right behind everyone ... and Brenda

(seated in front) owner of the pub and dear friend 

... and our friends Pete and Terry. 

You should see Terry's tree.   Her tree makes mine

look like Charlie Brown's tree in comparison.  

See.

So, that's what I've been up to this week.

Next on the to do list is the overseas

letter and cards and then the regular

cards.   

Hope you're not bored to tears.

Cheers!!

This week I had Monday off for Remembrance Day

and after watching the memorial service from Ottawa

on TV I spent part of the afternoon packing up all of

the Fall decorations plus stowing away the rest of the

nick knacks that are usually out throughout most of the

year, all to make room for the Christmas decorations

that we're putting out this weekend.

Every year my friend Darlene comes for the weekend

that we consider the official beginning of the Christmas

season.    You see this is the weekend that Santa comes

to town.   He arrives in Georgetown tonight in a night

time parade and he arrives in Toronto tomorrow in the

109th annual Toronto Santa Claus parade.

We'll make busy like Santa's elves decorating the 

trees and the house while Christmas music plays

on the stereo and egg nog cools in the fridge.  DH's role

is to haul the boxes of decorations out of storage and

bring them upstairs for us.  He'll also brings the tree

up and sets it up for us.   Then he leaves us to get

to work.

It'll take Darlene and I all afternoon to decorate the

main tree and put most of the decorations around

the house.   On Sunday we'll be decorating the

small tree and putting the finishing touches all over.

Tonight we'll head to the pub for dinner and some

Christmas cheer.   

Summer memories.

We've had some fairly chilly weather at times this

week ... cold enough to force me to dig out my 

long johns and my warmer scarf and mitts.  I walk

a lot around town and getting from point A to point

B can be unpleasant when your legs are freezing.

It's times like that (Tuesday night -  walking home from

Loblaws - freezing) that inspires memories of the past 

summer and some of the fun things that we did ... in 

the warm weather.  Sigh. Such as when we went on a 

dinner cruise around Toronto Island and Toronto 

harbour in August.  The cruise was arranged by DH's 

work and we had a fabulous time.  The above picture 

is of the boat that we sailed on.

And here is DH and I on board the ship as it made

it's way around the Toronto Islands.   The cruise

ship left the dock around 6:30 and we got back to

our starting point at 10:30.   

This picture was taken at Crawford Lake

Conservation area ... also in August.

I am missing green, growing things

already.   But soon Christmas lights

and decorations will be popping up,

and some can even be seen in some store

front windows right now, and that will 

help a bit.

This is a short post this week because of

time constraints due to the start of all of the 

traditional Christmas decorating which 

will be followed by the traditional vacuuming 

of all of the Christmas glitter and dust coming off 

of the ornaments and the boxes that they've 

been stored in all year.   

Let the season begin!!!!

Cheers!

Do you find that although you've lived

in a place for a very long time, if not 

your entire life, you've rarely taken the

time to visit the beautiful places that may

exist within an hours drive from your 

front door step??   

DH and I have lived in our house for

22 years now but in all that time we

have never visited any of the 

beautiful conservation areas that

are within an hour's drive of us.

Until this summer.

In August we visited no fewer then

three conservation areas because I

wanted to explore the greenbelt of

the Niagara Escarpment which 

surrounds our region of Halton

Hills.   Walking the trails and

making a visual record with my

camera of the natural beauty that

we're so lucky to have on offer.

These two photos were taken at the Hilton

Falls conservation area which is a half

hours car drive from us.   My DH, our

friend Darlene and I packed up the car 

with picnic supplies and water and headed

out for a day of hiking and site seeing.

Hilton Falls conservation area has not only

the falls .... seen in the very first picture ....

but also a reservoir which can be glimpsed

in the second picture.   We're standing on 

top of the escarpment and that stream is

heading to a precipice from which it 

drops to the reservoir below.   

We walked for hours through the forest,

following trails and taking pictures.  Some

of the trails were easy to walk being level

and well maintained but we also followed

a portion of the Bruce Trail which required

some climbing skills and some care in how

you moved.  

This picture illustrates my point.

Another view of the reservoir from the Bruce

Trail.   

The only thing that marred this day was when

Darlene and I were walking through a picnic

area looking all around us and chatting and

not watching where we were putting our feet.

I managed to put one foot into a slight indentation

in the ground and got it caught there while the

rest of me kept going.

I ended up on hands and knees and wondering

how I got there.   I got up carefully and there

didn't seem to be any obvious damage except

to my dignity .... (waves at the picnickers who

watched my pratfall with interest) so we kept

on walking .... for another three hours.

Well, all was fine until we loaded up the car

to head for home and I sat down for the first

time since my "trip".  Within ten minutes my

left leg was stiffening up and swelling and,

well, it wasn't pleasant.   A trip to the 

emergency room for a check over was 

deemed prudent that evening but thankfully

there was not any serious harm.  Probably

shouldn't have kept hiking for three more

hours and the leg needed to rest for a few

days etc etc.   A few Ibuprofen for the

soreness and the swelling and things 

improved drastically.

No lasting damage.

Another project on the go at the moment in my

renewed enthusiasm for stitching.  LHN Snow

White stitched in red.    Not really much left

to do on this one but I'm sort of concentrating

my time and efforts on the Lizzie Kate project

this week.    

Received the Just Cross Stitch Halloween and

Christmas ornaments issues from Stitching

Bits and Bobs this week and have been 

happily going through them and picking

out favourites.   The Halloween issue is 

especially rich in fun stuff.

Another of my mandalas to show off.

And this design which uses patterns that are ment

for Henna drawn designs for hands, arms and

feet.  

And since one can't have too many hobbies ....

can one?? .... Here are the K&Co. Smash books that

I've been making this year.

These books can be used for so many things but

I'm using them as a combination of journal,

scrapbook and an introduction to scrapbooking.

Some of the pages.   

I've had so much fun working on these books and it's 

encouraged me to always take my camera with me 

and to take lots of pictures of any event or

occasion or happy day that we have had.

I've stuffed these books so much with all kinds

of stuff they don't lay flat any more.   These 

books come filled with fancy or quirky papers

but when those pages don't suit my taste I 

just stick my own choices over top and keep

going.

Collecting wise my scrapbooking supplies are 

giving my stitching supplies a run for their money

.... God help me. 

Ah well, you know what they say ...

The one who dies with the most stash wins!!!

We won't talk about the book stash.

Thank you.

Cheers!

The first weekend of November 2013 ... does

anyone know what happened to October???

It seems to have passed by in a flash which is

frustrating to me because it's my favourite 

month. The fact that  there are two major 

holidays in October probably has something 

to do with it.    Thanksgiving and 

Halloween.   

November came in like a lion with strong

winds and heavy rain although the temperatures

were quite mild, thank goodness.   There

was concern that Halloween would be 

spoiled by the weather and indeed it wasn't

the most pleasant of nights out but the 

heaviest rain and the strongest winds did not

occur until much later in the night so the

kids were able to get out and do their 

trick or treating without too much hardship.

Whether the parents who accompanied them

would agree to that observation or not I can't 

say.   Many of them stood on the sidewalk 

in front of our house huddled under an 

umbrella, sometimes clutching a cup of 

some sort of hot beverage and trying to

be patient as their offspring went from

door to door.   

We had about 50 kids come to our door

between 6:30 and 8:00 which is about

normal for us.    We handed out the

mini chocolate bars by the hand full

and I'm very proud of the fact that I

did not eat a single one (or multiples)

of those delicious morsels.   We had

lots left over because I tend to err on

the side of caution when it comes to

preparing for special occasions such

as this so on Friday morning the 

caldron went to work with DH and 

it returned home that night empty!!!!

Thank you for the kind words about

my zentangles Rowyn and Vonna.

I've been filling small sketch books

with my practice pages as well as 

 finished pages such as these here.

I do use a protractor .... is that the

right term? ... a compass?? ... for

the mandala designs since I cannot

draw a decent circle to save my life.

Here is a great site for finding zentangle

patterns and instructions on how to

make them. 

http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/zentangle

.

And needless to say I have a few (cough,

cough) books on the subjects too.   These

are some of my favourites.   I love the Designs

Originals publications.  

These three books are smallish in size but are

jam packed with instructions and ideas.  I refer

to them all the time. 

Just a warning .... these things are crazy addictive.

Once you start, you might not be able to stop.

You've been warned!

And since one cannot indulge in too many

hobbies here is another of my (our) favourites.

I began a Lizzie Kate Christmas design this

week and am enjoying it so much. 

Whenever I have some spare time I sit at my

desk stitching and listening to talk radio on

my computer.   I'm stitching this one in 

hand ... without use of any kind of frame ...

which is something that I haven't done for a

long time.   For these smaller projects at least

it works just fine.  I have to use a table magnifier

and an Ott-Lite as well to see properly.

This is being stitched on 32 count Lugana in 

Light Taupe ... which doesn't translate well

in either of these pictures.  

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

Toronto has been in a tizzy for the past

few days thanks to some unexpected and 

astonishing revelations about the city's

mayor Rob Ford.   Allegations of the mayor's 

drug and alcohol abuse, rumoured and hinted 

about for months, plus reports of a video 

showing the mayor posing with suspected 

drug dealers whilst smoking from a crack pipe

have been rampant for half the year but

the mayor has strenuously denied everything

and angrily heaped abuse and scorn at anyone 

(newspaper reporters) who claimed any of it 

was true.  

On Thursday Toronto's police chief 

announced that the alleged video had

been found in the deleted files of a 

computer and the police had a copy of

it.   Oops!

Cries for the mayor to step down and get

help for his problems are coming loudly

from all quarters but he is still denying

all of it and refusing to quit.   

So it's been an interesting time for sitting

and stitching and listening to talk radio.

Note:    I am not at all fond of the mayor

in any case.   Although he does seem to

have done some good work in the early

part of his term in office he is also - to me -

an obnoxious, overbearing bully who 

has been systematically alienating both

allies and opponents in his push to 

implement all his plans for the city and 

he is definitely not a suitable representative

of the city to the rest of Canada and the

world.

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

Time to get back to the stitching and the

talk radio.   Have a great week all.

Cheers!