Chillin' with Patsy: Full Days, Escaping the Old Post, Mount Forest, Harriston Visits

On Tuesday, July 10^th, I was up early although I don’t know why. I didn’t get into bed until midnight but was awake and up at 6 am. I realized that Donna was still sound asleep so crept out of the bed and room. Not a ‘creature’ was stirring besides me at that time of the morning so I went out for a walk to the end of the lane.

The view out of the sitting room window at 6 am

Gayle and John’s property here at Cedarhaven is beautiful. The day was warm already and since I was at the end of the driveway anyway, I brought Gayle’s mail in from the box.

Cathy's wheels and Ptooties

You can see why they call this Periwinkle Lane

This trail leads to the opening where John parks their Montana

When I returned, Gayle and Audrey were out on the back deck. We’d had an overnight visitor. A nasty racoon climbed down from the upper deck and broke the chain on their hummingbird feeder and proceeded to leave his mark on the deck box. Disgusting!!

Gayle doesn't have a dog so this was even more
disgusting to her

Inside, we sat around, playing Scrabble, doing crosswords and enjoying our sisters’ comradery.

From half way out the lane looking back to the house

Gayle's clematis is thriving and beautiful

Their raft is free to roam in the pond

We are a lot alike but also very different in our likes and dislikes. Our mental and physical health is a huge topic and I pick up tidbits of information every year. I’m game to try some new things but still way behind a couple of my sisters on that wagon. At 9 we pulled the expanse of food out of the fridge and filled ourselves. We needed to eat enough to tide us over until dinner time.

I do eat healthier here but this is a lot of stuff
I don't buy at home so it is a treat

Wendy arrived around 10 and Wendy and I drove into Durham. We take turns driving and do have to take two vehicles. We got to Rockwood shortly after 11 and found Mom in her room. She, of course, was thrilled to have all 6 of her girls together. In no time our hour had passed and we walked her down to her lunch table. This is the hard part when there is more than one of us, leaving her but gradually we each took our leave and waved goodbye.

Mom and her girls

Mount Forest was our next stop where we poked around in a couple of shops, a consignment store, Stumbled Upon, which was a major hit with all of us walking out with a bag. An antique store just to browse mostly and then we loaded back into the vehicles and drove to Harriston. It was around 2 and we were all needing a little burst of energy so stopped in a very bright pink ice cream shop. The single cones were $2 + tx so we splurged.

The ongoing Scrabble game

At 3 we signed in at Escape The Old Post building next door. We had pre-booked this exciting adventure and were greeted with enthusiasm by Tony, Mike and Jacob, our Game Master. Once the rules of the ‘game’ were explained, we were left to our own devices for 90 minutes to solve the many clues. The purpose of the game is to work together and work towards ringing the Post Office bell in the clock tower. We didn’t get there, as a matter of fact, only reached 56% but we had a blast and will definitely go back to finish another year.

We left there with lots of chattering about how much fun we had and walked down the street to Harry Stone’s for supper. I ordered lasagna and it came with garlic toast and Caesar salad. Their bar menu was extensive but I had to change my order 3 times to find something they had. I finally settled on a Smirnoff Ice, something they finally had in stock. Other than that, the food was delicious and the price was awesome.

Beautiful old renovated building

Back at Gayle’s, we sat around, caught up on emails and messages and modelled our purchases from today. Wendy left for home around 10 and we all said goodnight and hit the sack. Donna and I were sharing the bed this year in the patio room. There was some confusion originally on who slept with who last year so to prove that Donna and I were right, I pulled up last year’s post. We try to switch it up each time to keep life interesting.

Jacob, our GameMaster was a sweet young man

That was our full day and with one more to go, you can be assured we will find more things to keep us occupied. I am enjoying the shopping, the conversations, the food and generally the whole experience. We will discuss the day’s plans in the morning.