Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!! I haven’t fell off the face of the earth, it just feels that way. I’ll post soon, but it’s not for today.

Having a very quiet Christmas here at home with Colin and Ella.

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Holidays 2020

 

Hi!  We’re back!  Did you notice we were gone?  We were very happy to discover last week that we could still go to our B&B/cottage for our annual Canada day holiday.  It was very last minute, but luckily I had already done the pre-holiday grocery shop.  And yes, I packed my air fryer -ha ha!  We often have trouble with the BBQ out there.  The air fryer does such a nice job (even on steak), so along it came.

Ella came out for the first day and a half.  She such a homebody (especially now), she’s also very lucky Grandma doesn’t mind driving 2 hours to get her and take her home.  As usual, Ella had a great time fishing with Daddy.  I hung out in the screened in gazebo, safe from the sun and the black/deer flies doing my knitting.  Even though she was only out for a day and a half, Ella caught 8 good sized small mouth bass!!

Not to be outdone, Daddy caught a nice pike with his first cast into the lake.  I lost track of Daddy’s bass/pike total after 15.  I caught 2 nice bass, but we didn’t have a camera handy.

Our traditional holiday selfie with my girl.  Another tradition for our holidays is really bad weather.  One year there was even a tornado warning!  This year it was hot and sunny the whole time.  The first evening we were there we did see this gorgeous rainbow.  There was rain somewhere, we were hoping it was at home but, no.

The rainbow was beautiful.  At one point it was a double and then the clouds moved some and it became a complete rainbow.

Before Grandma arrived, Carol took Ella out to the barn to meet the new additions.

Colin and I had a really nice time after Ella went home.  It was our first time apart in 108 days!  I think we are all (Ella included) starting to miss Ella’s weekends at Grandma’s.  For a treat, we ran into Killaloe to get lunch.  We shared a chicken fingers and fries and I got a Beaver Tail.  Just behind the Beaver Tails chip truck is a really nice park where the train station used to be.  The old bridge is still there:

There’s an old farmer saying here in Ontario.  They want the corn to be ‘knee high by the 1st of July’.  Even though we are really dry things are still looking good.

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Holidays, Finally

Not sure why it has taken so long to get our holiday pictures up on the blog.  The days fly by and I just don’t get around to it?  Oh well, that’s summer I guess.

We headed off to our usual cottage oasis for the Canada Day long weekend.  Ella has a hard time staying for the whole time, so Grandma came out and got her early.  She’s a funny girl.  She actually misses ‘home’.  It doesn’t matter that Daddy and I are with her, she wants to be home.  Oh well, it’s only 45 minutes from home and Grandma doesn’t mind coming out and ‘rescuing’ her girl.

We were the only ones staying that weekend.  That’s always best because if the other people have kids I always seem to get stuck watching them.  One year the mother just kind of left and didn’t come back for an hour!  Luckily I’m responsible and made sure they didn’t drown or get eaten by a bear.

Ella and Daddy hard at work on their castles.  This is the ‘Kingdom of the Spoon’ and Daddy’s using his trebuchet to attack Ella.

Ella’s castle had a moat and flood protection (we often get a big rain on our holiday ‘weekend’).

Here’s a couple of Ella’s large mouth bass.  She caught a total of 6, plus random perch.

Daddy’s trying to claim this one, but it’s Ella’s.

I think this was her first one.  She was off to a slow start (far too hot) so this was a happy sight.

Daddy caught 9 from the dock.  He also caught a bunch out in the boat and a couple of nice sized pike.  But he was out on his own, so there’s no photographic evidence.

I caught 6 nice large mouth bass too.

This was Ella’s last morning at the cottage.  Daddy went out in the boat and she didn’t feel like it.  So we hung out, snuggled, and talked in the shade shack.  I spent lots of time in there on holidays.  It was nice to be able to knit/read without being covered in sunscreen and bug spray.  There was a nice enough breeze that make it fairly comfortable too.  BTW I love my new phone (Samsung A8), it has voice activated picture taking.  That makes selfies so much easier.  It was very hard to push the button, hold the camera still, and hold the camera out as far as my little arms will reach.

Last weekend the girls went to Uncle Dennis’ cottage in Tory Hill.  He needed Grandma to come and watch Great Grandma while he went to a cottage association meeting.  It’s only 2.5 hours from home, so why not!

If you remember, Saturday was ridiculously hot.  Ella brought her bathing suit.  The lake is really deep, but it was so hot it felt wonderful.

My Grandma (Great Grandma) is really changed since Christmas.  We were lucky and she remembered everyone during our visit.  That was my biggest worry.  It’s a good thing I came along, because there’s no way my Mom would have gotten Grandma out of her chair by herself.

Great Grandma turns 89 on Sunday.

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Getting There…

The Christmas cookies are all done (as many as I’m doing this year anyway) and 3 of the tins are already delivered.  The kitchen is nearly put back in order (ran out of drying space).  I need to start wrapping this afternoon.  It looks like Mom’s sweater is not going to be finished on time (I hate doing sleeves).  Good thing she’s understanding.  I need to work out my cooking menus/schedule for the 24th and 25th.  I wish I had a bigger fridge.  Belinda and Stefan arrive on Sunday.

I thought I’d give you a tour around today…

Our tree just isn’t right until I find a nice strong branch for my Christmas house.  My best friend’s mom made it back in 1977 when we were 6 and had just met.   Hopefully, we’ll get to hang out when I’m back in Bowmanville during Christmas.

This is another one made by Charlynne’s mom, but for Belinda.  Yeah, I know, it should be on Belinda’s tree or Mom’s.  The first Christmas we were married I was feeling alone and missed seeing my sister’s ornaments on the tree. So Mom let me have a couple of these ones.  My sister’s not as sentimental as me, so it works out.

Dad gave us this one after Colin’s Mom died.  It’s an old tin ornament that once belonged to Ella’s great-great-Grandma Fletcher.

This is another one from Charlynne, but is rather special.  It’s made from the leftover candle stubs from our church in Bowmanville!  I thought that was really cool.

This is a new tradition I’ve started.  This is our ‘memory angel’.  I made her for Isobel.

The Advent tree continues to get more festive.

Our Little People nativity.  I think I will miss this once I get my knitted one finished (or started TBH).  Merry’s checking things out too.  What else has she and Faith been up to?

We caught them in the tree one morning.  Also checking out Ella’s stocking -maybe taking measurements?

This morning we found them nibbling on Ella’s gingerbread house.  Yesterday they were getting ready to use cookie cutters on the fruitcake!  Oh what mischief these elves get into when we’re asleep.

Ella’s funny, the older she gets the more shy she acts around Santa.  They had a good chat.  The mall lets you take your own pictures, which I appreciate.

This one is better, but I’m back on my darn inhalers, so it’s blurry  😦

Guess that’s about it.  Time to quit procrastinating and get back to work.  Hope your holiday preparations are going well.  Don’t forget to enjoy the last days of Advent.

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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas….

This is why farmers don’t make plans (Colin comes up with ideas, not plans).  Colin bought a ‘new to him’ cultivator and it was supposed to be delivered on Tuesday.  So we planned thought we’d go get our tree on Thursday, before the cold weather arrived on Friday.  We had decided to get our tree a little earlier this year.  The firs last so long and look so pretty, I hate to take them down after the Christmas holiday.  Some years our tree stays up well into January -even though it takes up valuable living room space.   Monday we still hadn’t had confirmation from the trucker so Colin called the salesman.  Well, it seems the trucker didn’t pick up the cultivator until last Friday.  There was no way it was getting to our house for Tuesday, ‘probably Thursday’.  So quick change of plans and we headed out for our tree on Tuesday.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day.  The temperature was perfect (-1C) , just a nice bit of snow on the ground, and picture perfect flakes falling down.

This is a picture from our first time at Cedar Hill Tree Farm, back in 2012.  Look how young Ella looks!

And here’s the picture from this year!  Sigh…

The scenic route to the tree field.

Future Christmas trees.

Apparently it was exhausting finding the perfect tree.  That’s Ella on the sled.

Though, she found energy for tubing.

She’s still moving in this one.  She got a great distance.

And the long hike back up the hill.

Back inside for a hot lunch.

Ella had to be patted-down for bunnies before we left.  The one bunny was adorable.  It would hop over and reach up to Ella, just like a cat!  I’ve never seen one want to be picked up and snuggled.

 

As usual, it’s hard to get the whole tree in the picture because my living room is so small.  The trunk has a bit of a dip which makes the tree look like it’s leaning towards the corner a bit.  It’s not too noticeable in person.  I think we need more lights.  I also wish they wouldn’t trim the trees so much.  They are getting a bit thick for my taste.

Thursday was St. Nicholas’ day and Merry decided that would be a good day to finally arrive.  She brought a bag of ‘gold’ too.  So far there hasn’t been too much mischief.

 

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Yarn Along/Crafting On -14 August 2018

Still too hot for much knitting.  I tried working on Mom’s socks but got bored, so I started another pair of socks for Mom.

It’s called brioche-stitch.  Does it ever make the knitting soft and squishy!  These are tube sock style because they won’t fit in Mom’s shoes.  They’ll be more ‘wear around the house and be cozy’ socks.  That’s all I’ve got for Yarn Along and Crafting On this week.

Saturday we had fun (well the girls anyway, Daddy was combining wheat).  My Grandma was up at my Uncle’s cottage so we ran over (only 2 hours away) for a visit.

Any guess what Ella did all day?

She caught two ‘giant’ small mouth bass.  Uncle Dennis went down and saved her from having to touch them.  Ella’s so funny, she will cut up worms and put them on the hook but won’t touch her fish.

Grandma and Uncle Dennis have some really friendly chipmunks.  They kept us amused all day.

One brief moment of quiet.  That’s the problem with Uncle Dennis’ lake.  There are so many cottages on the lake and everyone needs big boats and noisy ski doos there is rarely a moment of peace during the ‘season’.

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Holidays -2018

As expected, we  had a fabulous time on our annual Canada Day holiday.  It would have been nicer if it wasn’t the start of a ridiculous heat wave, but at least that made the lake nice and warm.

We dropped our stuff at the cottage and headed for the lake.

Ella started off the fish catching, with a nice large mouth bass.

Daddy was quick to catch up.  You can see where I spend my time, knitting or reading under our tent canopy.

Next day we headed to the lake bright and early, trying to get some fun in before the sun got too ridiculous.

Uh oh, Daddy’s on a roll with number 5.  The oppressive heat was really affecting the fishing and Ella couldn’t cast out quite far enough (to the cooler water).

Never fear, here’s number 2.

The bullfrogs were really noisy this year.  This fellow was lucky he was too big for bait.

Ella’s third fish came fast on the heels of number two.  Daddy was on the other dock so I was the net girl.  Reached in and pulled up a nice big bass, but…

IT WASN’T THE ONE ON ELLA’S LINE!!!  Yep, I caught my first bass of the holiday with just the net!

HERE’S Ella’s third bass.

Number 4 was a good size too, but somehow I missed most of it.  I love Ella’s smile!  She’s a funny girl, she’s ruthless when it comes to bait, but she still wants nothing to do with holding the fish.

Well, OK, I guess she gets that honestly.  I don’t like holding them either.

Daddy rounded off the evening with number 6.

Our hosts have a pair of peacocks (noisy, annoying things).  Every year they hatch out a few little ones.

It’s hard to get a good picture.  Mom wasn’t too impressed with us this close (they were in a feed box in the barn).  They sure are cute.

We found a surprise at the lake this morning…

A large pair of loons.  We don’t see too many loons around here.

Daddy’s off to a good start again.  We stopped counting after number 10.

Ella didn’t get any more fish today.  As you can see from this picture, I was trying to escape from the oppressive heat and sun, I was in the screen house and Ella’s wearing her towel for sun protection.  I know I’ve used ‘oppressive’ too many times in this post, but that’s just how terribly hot and sunny it was that weekend.  In fact, it was so crazy hot that we decided to stay ‘home’ and not go to the fire works in Killaloe.  After supper we put on some Harry Potter and just relaxed.  From the sounds of things, a lot of people decided it was just too hot to sit out in the sun waiting for the fireworks (you have to get there early to get a good seat).

We always have so much fun out in the hills of Brudenell.  It’s only 45 minutes from home (if you don’t take the scenic route) but it feels a world away.

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Not So Crafty

I didn’t do enough of anything to share with you guys this week for Crafting On.  So I thought I’d share pictures from our little field trip last week.

Colin has a bit of a lull right now.  No cropping to do and seed cleaning hasn’t started yet either.  So he suggested taking Ella to the Visitor’s Centre at Algonquin Park.

While at the park, Colin caught a picture of the elusive “phone booth” -ha ha -that’s a Colin joke for you since phone booths are nearly as rare as a big foot sighting.

See the big map behind Ella and the wolf?  Well you can actually find our farm on it!  It even shows the clump of trees around the house:

See the two clumps of trees and river “south” of the long lake?  That’s Snake River (lake is Muskrat) and we’re the clump of trees on the right side of the river.  The pink line is the Trans Canada Highway.

The view from the observation deck.  We didn’t see any moose.

Waiting for the video to start.

Some ladies vacationing MY way.

Here’s a picture for Auntie Belinda.

A little someone followed us home.

Another time we’ll have to go back and check out the Logging Museum.  It was getting hot and we were getting tired and the Logging Museum has a fair bit of walking to it (or did the last time I was there).

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Menu Plan Monday/Yarn Along/Crafting On -4 July 2017

Happy 4th of July to my American friends!

 

We had a great time at the ‘cottage’.  I love that the B&B is its own separate house.  It’s bigger than our house!  The weather wasn’t the greatest.  The first day was very wet.  That didn’t stop Ella and Daddy from fishing.  Luckily, there’s a screened in ‘shade shack’ (complete with ping-pong table).  I set up my tunes and my reading and had a great afternoon.

Lots more sunshine on Friday (though still had some rain).  Colin and Ella caught lots of bass.  Ella’s funny, she’ll cut up worms and such for bait, but she doesn’t want to hold her own fish yet.

Daddy almost landed a 2+ft pike.  It was just in front of Ella in this picture, but just as I clicked it jumped completely out of the water and spat out the hook.

This is the fairies’ creek that is usually just a little babbling brook.

Daddy did manage to land one pike -thanks to the great help from his ‘net girl’.

Lots of wildlife this year.  There were swarms of dragonflies.  There was a garter snake in the canoe with Daddy when he had to paddle out to get the line off the dead tree.  There was a dinner plate sized snapping turtle -maybe that’s Snappy who we found a few years ago?  Ella caught this little guy, this is Sheldon the painted turtle.

Something really cool, there were lots of tadpoles in the weeds along the shore.  They were in all stages of development.  Some barely had any legs starting right up to almost no tail left.

The fireworks were fabulous.  It really is amazing how a little village of 600 can put on such a show.

We didn’t want to go home.  Colin and I could stay there forever.  Ella gets homesick.  It’s funny how Ella misses home after only a few days, even when she’s with Colin and I.

Found a beautiful double rainbow.

What’s cooking this week?

Monday:

subs

spaghetti

Tuesday:

leftover subs

McDonald’s -Ella’s last day of swimming

Wednesday:

pizza (likely on the BBQ)

hamburgers

Thursday:

pizza

roast beef on the BBQ

Friday:

sandwiches

pork chops

Saturday:

leftover roast beef

Sunday:

??

Don’t forget to check out I’m an Organizing Junkie for more ideas.

A bunch of Ella’s new school books arrived while we were away.

I didn’t do too much knitting while we were away.  My elbow is still acting up (I may have to give in and see the RNP).   Some times it’s nice to have a whack of uninterrupted (except for fish pictures) time for reading.

“Book of Negroes” was really good.  We didn’t get a chance to watch the mini-series this year, though I like to read the book first.

Last weekend you’ll remember was A&S day.  I’ve been wanting to have an impressive project to take, but most times it’s just been knitting.  This time I got my act together and had some embroidery to take.  This is the ruffle for my new petticoat.

Sorry for the poor lighting.  Next time I’ll make sure to find some sunshine.

 

 

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Merry Christmas

 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!  May you all be happy and surrounded by the people you love.

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