Friday, November 01, 2013


The first of November isn't too late for a fall update I hope.  The above shot was taken this week so you can see that the leaves are mostly gone from the trees. With a huge wind occurring when they were at their peak, the leaves came and were gone very quickly this year. Before the wind the weather was just perfect for getting out with my camera on several occasions. I did not get to spend my usual amount of time in the woods however. My orthopedic surgeon says I just have to call and say uncle and I am put on the urgent list for a hip replacement. I am not in a huge hurry yet but my hiking has been strictly curtailed. Here are a few shots from one outing.



 I had visitors for a couple of weeks and I really enjoyed that. An old friend and roommate came from Ontario for a week.  We had several outings to the beach but one in particular was on a windy cold day. Couldn't help but make you think of what was ahead. Her trip overlapped for about twenty minutes with my daughter and her two children.  It was great because my friend had never met the children. That next week was very busy and I was exhausted at the end of it but what a great week I had! The children are ages just over one and three in January and are just as they should be - perfect to a grandma.





The kittens are almost six months old now and were spayed this week.  Ruby, pictured below, aspirated a bit during her surgery so I have to keep listening to her breathing.  I hope she doesn't get pneumonia and she has had prophylactic antibiotics in that aim. 


 
I am enjoying the kittens very much but at the same time experiencing the end of my time with Bella.  In the summer she was not long for this world but seemed to rebound after the kittens came along.  She is still doing ok but you can tell she is not well.  She has the same symptoms that Kenz did.  She was on medication for a long time and it did not change her symptoms or length of life.  I suggested my kids say goodbye to Bella over a month ago but she is still here. I know that soon I will have to say my final goodbye.   

To me, cats of fifteen years are not as healthy as they used to be on a commercial food diet. Mama Kitty who is buried here was twenty three when she died and still looked good; better than Kenz and Bella. I don't think the cat foods are very healthy any more and may start feeding more of my own food to the cats. 

I have the usual changes; families keep growing and moving around.  I had a great niece born today,  and my son and his family are moving to the Seattle area. I am going to be babysitting my almost three year old granddaughter and who knows, maybe take a little trip before that. Busy, busy, busy.  

Art and work go on and on.  I love my work and my cre8ive time.  I am painting a desk for my younger grandchildren.  They can't read blogs yet so it is safe to write it here. I am trying to finish it before the kids arrive here to be babysat as their parents were to be returning with an empty vehicle so I have highjacked it for the desk.  I had no idea how I was going to get it to them so am now on a deadline after my great realization.  I am nearly finished the long side which has their names on it in crossword  form. Lots and lots to do yet. I love my work too so am having a happy time.  What can be better than kittens, grandchildren, feeling super cre8ive, and work that makes you happy to go to? I came up with a perfect answer immediately.  The answer is more work.  I need additional hours of paid work for life to be better. Other than that, I am privileged to be here and healthy.  Here's to feeling satisfied....!!!

Hope all is well with all who are reading.  Drop a comment and let me know.


Friday, August 09, 2013

Mid Summer Update

I have an excuse this time for my lack of posts.  I've been on vacation, had company for a week, and had an increase in hours at work. The summer has been flying by in other words and here it is 09 August.  It is a special day itself in that these two new kittens are three months old today. 

Here are Purrl and Ruby, sisters of Simon and Josie and daughters of Eekie. They are adorable and are getting along very well with Bella. Bella turned 15 last week and seems to have revived a bit.  I think she enjoys having the kittens around.  From the back, Ruby looks like a miniature Bella but their faces are a very different colour.  Bella's face is light grey tabby and look at Ruby's dark face.

The first stop on my vacation was to Nova Scotia to sit with my grandchildren while all three of my children competed in the Mud Hero event at Martock Ski Hill. My daughter is second from right in the women's contingent while the boys were in the shower, having finished beforehand.  I didn't get a 'full of mud' group shot of the team of ten, only ones when they were all dressed. Everyone did an amazing job as the course was tough, one leg being a run halfway up the ski hill then back down.  The temperature was 30 degrees and the mud obstacles were welcome everyone said, to mercifully cool them down.

Next I flew to Toronto with my son to spend a week at his home in the Kitchener/Waterloo area.  He had taken the week off and he, my daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, who are seven and nine, went adventuring but had to be home for the kid's soccer on four of the seven nights.  One of my best friends and my son's godmother drove up from Windsor for a few days vacation and we had a really great visit. We went to the Toronto Zoo during her visit and got to see the famed pandas that out government is renting from the Chinese government. One was sleeping indoors and one was sleeping outdoors and that is pretty much what everyone sees they say.

I spent a few days in Barrie, staying with an aunt and visiting with some very dear, long time friends.  I then moved on to Wasaga Beach to another aunt's house. Her husband was celebrating his 80th birthday and I was there to help get a celebration together.  It was a wonderful get-together and as always, at the perfect place, Wasaga Beach. Excuse the shot of Wasaga in winter but all my other shots are on another computer.  Summer or winter, Wasaga Beach, Ontario has a wonderful beach and always a beautiful sunset.



What a great vacation, eh? 

I'll leave it there as you do not want to hear about the gardening I've had to catch up on since I've returned or the lack of sleep I've had with a pair of new kittens in the house.  I am reveling in the rest of summer as it comes along, eating fresh vegetables and keeping my camera busy with the beautiful landscape of this island.
 

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Blossoms in May

 My daughter and her family visited over the May long weekend and what a wonderful and completely delightful weekend I had!  My favorite age for babies is 9 months and that happens to be the age of my grandson right now; and who doesn't love a girl who is almost two and a half.

We took a trip to the pick-your-own tulip field on Monday and we really enjoyed that. It was evident from the amount of cars in the parking lot and people in the fields that we had a chosen a popular outing for the holiday.


The prices were ten tulips for six dollars or as many as you could put in their standard bucket for twenty dollars.  I chose the twenty dollar option and we picked the most beautiful bucket of happiness that money could buy.

 It was hard to watch people having to choose their ten tulips. There are thousands of gorgeous blossoms in front of you and each one seemingly more beautiful than the next. Choosing only ten would be too difficult a job for me. 


 My granddaughter enjoyed herself immensely but never did get the idea of pulling the whole tulip out.  That is not a job made for tiny hands.  Hers flowers tended to be very short with only a two or three inch stem.


I had a wonderful time in the early evening arranging vases with the the gorgeous tulips we had picked in the afternoon.  On Sunday, the day before,  I had picked tulips and daffodils from my garden and had made five arrangements. You can imagine that every surface of my house is filled with blossoms.

It's funny you don't ever want your kids to grow up but once they do, and bring you home grandchildren, you are glad they did and that they turned out to be such great parents.  This post is for my wonderful, special blossom, my Petunia, my only daughter.  She has always been the sweetest blossom in my bouquet.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Glorious Day of Greening


It has been a spectacular but chilly day on PEI.  The sun has been shining all day and doing it's job but the cold north wind has kept the temperature down.  My hometown, on the mainland, three and a half hours away by car, was to have a high of 20 degrees.  We were expecting 6 - 8 here on the Island. 



We woke to a bit of green in our lawns after days of cool rain and cloudiness.  Now at the end of one day we have perfectly green carpets of grass, spun from pure sunlight, cool as the temperature was.  There was not a cloud in the sky. I can only think of a complete transformation of the lawns in a few hours one other time but that was witnessing rain after a drought. Everyone is surely thinking of their lawnmowers or golf games by the end of today.

My son and his girlfriend dropped by to help me with a stone wall that had to be rebuilt.  We got it done in minutes as I had everything laid out.  I needed help lifting the stones but knew just how they were going to fit. In a while I went to his house to bring him a tool I had been using that he needed. When I got to his house a beautiful, very friendly, grey kitty was waiting at the door and meowing loudly to be let in, rushing repeatedly to the door. Thing is, this was not my son's cat. Though this kitty was making it seem like it belonged here, it did not.


My son and I met in the back yard, kitty followed and acted like a long lost friend with my son too. We talked and interacted for about ten minutes then my son let his cat outside.  The cats immediately ran to each other and went into cat sniffing, nose to nose, mode. They seemed to like each other fine. He was going to check with all the neighbours to find where this cat belonged, so there are no worries.


I did heavy gardening work all day and am bone tired but not brain tired, if you know what I mean.  I probably should have had a bath for my overused muscles but needed to blog instead to sing out about this really great day that turned eastern PEI a glorious green; at last, spring.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

April Already

I have time for an update at long last.  I had dental surgery today and am supposed to take it easy. That is not easy for me but I will, at least for the afternoon. The lovely Bella is helping with the post.  I was away for the weekend and she was not at all pleased.  She has been sitting with me ever since.



Last update, I promised pictures of the grandchildren and am delivering fresh ones.  I visited them out of province for the  Easter holiday weekend.


This little guy is 7 months old already.  He has no teeth yet but refuses to eat blended food.  He wants carrot pieces instead of carrots his mommy blends for him. It seems that the mashed potatoes with Easter dinner were enjoyed though, as evidenced in the photo.



His sister is two now and still so much fun to be around.  The other day she was sitting in the swing.  Her dad was burning brush.  He walked by us carrying a load of branches and gave a tired sigh on his way past.  She asked him a couple of times what was wrong? He didn't answer so I said, "Daddy is a bit tired after carrying all the branches".  She looked up so concerned and said, "Do you think a banana would cheer up Daddy"?  My weekend was really great!

Skype is the most amazing invention for grandparents. I Skype with these children two or three times a week. I am not a stranger to them like my grandmother who lived away was to me when I was a kid.  I Skype with my other grandchildren a couple of times a month and it is so great to see them as they grow. When my grandmother came to visit every couple of years, we would be completely different sized children each time.

 Soon we will be out hunting for Mayflowers

I always like to share some cre8ive ideas and here are a couple. I found this sweet music video on Wimp.com, which I list on the side. I do not know the singer, Diane Birch, but absolutely love the video for her song Valentino. This product I found is so cool.  I plan to order some to fix several pairs of eyeglasses.  I am very hard on glassed.  I got a pair of prescription glasses last Thursday and lost them somewhere at my daughter's on the weekend.  She hasn't found them yet.  Please notice too that there is a new link on the side called A View from Eastern Kings to replace a link of a popular blog that ended and I had linked here.

Happy spring everyone.  Enjoy this lovely time of year.  Each day is a gift.