September Memories 1

I can't believe I've only been home a few short days - fortunately I have many happy memories of a wonderful break - I'll let some of my pics say it all...

Morning

and Late Afternoon

Water everywhere

Visitors (dining on expensive crackers)

And locals with a sense of humor

Sigh...

What To Take, What To Take

Hubby and I are once again heading over the border to our favorite place - our Cottage!

But going there is always a challenge when it comes to something for me to do - especially since it looks like we may have a lot of rain while we are there...and I am not very good a sitting around doing "nothing" - my brain just won't shut off.

Do I bring new gluebooks to get started? And supplies for Mail Art (oops, I just spilled the beans with folks I am exchanging with).

How about that old quilt I rescued and am taking apart?

There is always the "little book swap" I am working on...

Crafty books are always a good thing.
A little quilt that I am "reworking" the embrodiery on..

Oh what the heck, I'll pack as much as hubby will allow (LOL). We are taking The Tank and putting her through her paces so should be fun. Hope you all have a wonderful week while I am away in Canada. I'll be checking in from the Village Lilbrary when I can. Cheers, Jewels

A Lovely Time !

It started with a sweet card and a CD by the coffee pot Friday morning before we left …

While we made our way south (so northern Michigan was quickly eliminated) I thought perhaps a weekend in Ann Arbor?
But nope, we went “international” after all and ended up at the Benmiller Inn in southern Ontario – about 4 hours from home. Good thing hubby had the passports in his coat pocket (sneaky fellow).
The main building at Benmiller is a converted wool mill over 100 years old. When we checked in I was informed I had a massage appointment for 9am the next morning (another surprise!). It was wonderful.
Back in the 1980s Benmiller was one of THE places to go for a weekend away (especially the Toronto crowd). However times change - Hubby did not know it had just come out of receivership. You certainly could tell it had suffered from neglect – but hopefully the new owners will provide some TLC to bring it back.
It does have some neat architectural features – this motif is every where – the original iron work came from a widow’s walk on a house in London, Ontario.
The weather was not the best – we did not see the sun until Sunday morning (when I took all these pictures) which really did not matter since I was having such a lovely break with hubby. Our building was right by the river that had powered the mill in the old days - the water rose substantially overnight because of all the rain. We were not in any danger of flooding but it was pretty incredible to see it rushing by.
We spent a wet but fun Saturday in Stratford, Ontario – known for its wonderful theater (and also as the hometown of Justin Bieber for those who care about that sort of thing LOL). While it was off season for seeing plays, there are lots of shops to go into and poke around – at our own pace.
This was THE find of the weekend – a solar powered Queen E (her hand waves) – how hysterical (yes – of all the things we could have brought back). We ate (too) well but did a lot of walking also (which helped to balance things out I like to think).
As for Miss Gwendoline – well her babysitter posted how much she LOVED her on Facebook – and offered to trade Gwen for one of her bigger dogs. Apparently she was a little angel all weekend (hmmmm) – we even had a phone pic sent to us of her and babysitter cuddling on the coach. So she had a great weekend to!
I had a marvelous time and was spoilt rotten. What a great guy – I’m willing to rent him out as a consultant to other hubbies (for a small fee of course). He sure made my weekend. LU sweetheart! Jewels ♥♥♥

(p.s. I never did get in the pool LOL)

Any Guesses?

A few weeks back hubby announced we were "leaving town" and to book off vacation for March 4th (this Friday). No hints on destination - just pack your bags. I did try some subtle digging ("Do you think they will have the same amount of snow as we have here?") but to no avail...

He did provide me a list of things to bring (how sweet of him) but still no clues.

Egads, whats that! The two most dreaded words in the English language (as far as I am concerned) - bathing suit! Don't call it swimwear 'cause that don't fool me none...My only suit is at the cottage so I was forced to buy another. And there is no way I could lose the winter weight in time to fit nicely in a bikini (LOL). Fortunately bathing suits are more cottage cheese friendly these days - you know what I mean - cover that stuff hanging off your butt (Hubby said I did not have any - funny guy - he obviously has not looked close enough lately, or wants something). This is not the one I purchased - mine is more "sporty". And thank goodness for online shopping - I only ventured into one store and quickly gave up (ugh, hate those 3 way mirrors). I can gag looking in the mirror in the privacy of my own home - good thing my first choice turned out to be just fine...
So any guesses? We leave Friday AM and come back some time Sunday and NO mention was made about passports (hmmmmm). We have a wonderful young lady to babysit Miss Gwendonline - this will be a first for us as well. I'll bring back pics. Looking forward to hearing what you think....Cheers, Jewels

Here We Go Again!

Happy New Year everyone! My only resolution this year is to figure out how to make 2011 the best year ever for myself and others. We have two significant milestones in our family this year (parents turning 80!) that we look forward to celebrating this summer. On the other end of the spectrum, we have two friends who have recently brought new babies into their lives – another reason to celebrate! Hubby and I have started our plans for special times throughout the year – coming up a Valentine Snowshoe Hike in February… I think I am off to a good start.
Meanwhile, we had a wonderful time over the holidays. Family gathered for a lovely Christmas and some cool gifts (more on that later). Then it was off to our “second residence” for a much needed break.
At the beginning of the week there was lots of snow on the ground – but fortunately not too much for us to travel through (unlike other parts of the world).
While it was cloudy for the most part we did have some have some nice days.
Very pretty sunsets - these are from two different evenings.
As you can see from the Icehouse – what a difference a week makes! Temperatures were in the low 40s by the time we left!

Even Miss Gwendoline had a good time - here she is "shakin the bacon" - funny girl.

And as you recall from our November trip - here is our "storage area" for the canoe (LOL)...
I also had time for “art” stuff – some additions to my glue books (I think the young lady is miffed about the size of the dog).

And also a couple of ATCs.
Now it is back to our regular schedule and catching up with email, blogs, etc. Look forward to sharing a wonderful 2011 with all of you! Here we go again...Jewels
P.S. I cannot believe I have now had over 10,000 friendly visits to my blog – time for a giveaway to celebrate. More to come!

Weekend Pics

Well I'm certainly behind on EVERYTHING! Hard to believe a week ago I had my feet up in front of a lovely wood fire enjoying a nice glass of wine (sigh). I love this pic taken in the village - all the ducks were frantically moving around (thinking we had food) but this one fella seems to be standing still - alone in a crowd.
The weather was not horrible - but not great either. Only one day with real sun.

These are early morning shots. You can kinda tell how windy and cold it was (nothing compared to some of our friends in Europe though).
The reflection in the harbour was wonderful.

This old shed used to contain all the equipment for the volunteer firefighters who lived on our road. It sits across the road from our place. Unfortunately there was a terrible fire in the village while we were there - the pub burnt down early one morning -very sad. The current owners had only just taken it over. Fortunately they escaped - but the building was pretty much destroyed and it was a local landmark...the good news is they do plan to rebuild.

In the village all the boats were pulled out of the water for the winter. The building up in the right hand corner - that's the village library I often talk about.

Well we will be back at Christmas - can't wait ( the canoe has now taken up residence in our living room for the rest of the winter as we do not have another building large enough to house it LOL). Cheers. Jewels