A Morning of Shopping, Making New Friends, Afternoon of Oddities

The Ridge

Due to a late night, 11 pm or later, we slept in on Saturday, July 11^th until after 7. Looking out my window before I got up, I could see that there was no real urgency to get up. The fog was soupy and I wouldn’t be able to walk none too soon anyway. The sky looked rather ominous, not dark, but it looked like rain was hanging in the sidelines.

The upset from the wind storm last night
Nothing broken though!
We'll just leave the tent flat until we get some sun and can set it up to dry out
Last night in between the rain, I retrieved my geranium pot
and up-righted the table and chairs

We, slowly, rose and had our morning drinks together at the table while reading blogs. Our friends are actively making use of their days, their weather varying from ours in some cases. It is so nice to hear of the ‘traveling’ ones making it safely to their destinations and others enjoying the fruits of their garden labours.

It was a foggy, wet drive this morning

I love the critters in some pictures and the natural beauty of the wild and tame flowers in others, the latter nurtured by caring hands. Thanks for my viewing pleasure goes out to the photographers taking those photos! Adding colour to our world in any way we can is important, at least in my opinion. Let’s be bright! Let’s share the brilliance and the beauty created by nature or our very own hands! Our blogger and non-blogger friends and family do that for us.

So, I didn’t walk but after our coffee and tea, we got washed up and headed out to Hanover, 20 minutes away. With a stop first at Independent, we stocked up on Zero Coke at the only sale price we could find for it. We stopped at Rona and Cuenos searching for a small piece of vinyl flooring for Bill’s trailer and then to Pioneer for a fill up at a decent price of .93¢/litre for gas. At least, better than Durham at the moment.

There is something mysterious about a turbine hidden in the fog

Bill needed work boots, good ones and we’d hoped to find him some suitable shorts and/or work pants as well. Before leaving Hanover, we popped into Mark’s Work Wearhouse. I love their clothing, their ladies clothing when it is on sale but I wasn’t looking for me this time. Their selection for men’s shorts left a lot to be desired so we settled for a good price on his boots and even garden shoes for me. I’ve had a card from Explorer RV that gives us a 10% discount until the end of July. Bonus!

CSA approved and they will protect his ankles too

Bill drove the back way to Mount Forest, which is 20 minutes on the south side of Priceville, and we did some shopping at TSC. No shorts there, apparently everyone wears the same size as my hubby, but we found some work pants with the phone and utility pockets that he likes. We were back in Wellington County again so had to wear face masks in every store. Lastly, we went in to Home Hardware but didn’t luck out with flooring at any of our stops.

These little boots will do the trick on the hill
A nice gripping sole on them

We’d passed signs for a Garage Sale along Hwy #4 on our way and I told Bill that I wanted to stop on the way home. Not only for the sale but because it was one of the properties with a laneway that goes way back in and you can’t see the house. I was nosy too. On our return, the fog had clouded our vision and we were almost on top of the lane when he asked ‘Did you still want to stop?’ “Yes!” so he made the sharp turn. What a beautiful spot they have.

A good couple of meals here

Things happen for a reason. I poked around at their items and talk got around to Arizona. They go to Queen’s Creek, AZ for the winter and have been for 11 years. We were all tickled with the common connection and the conversation just went from there, "Have you been here? We'll add it to our list" etc. A usual stop at a garage sale is 10 minutes, tops. It was 30 minutes later when we gathered the things I found and said our goodbyes after exchanging cards and ‘see you agains!’

This wine rack is exactly what we need
And for $1, we couldn't make one,everything considered

Nancy and Larry are very nice people who own a house in AZ and are hoping to make the trek again this year, their 12^th. We will make a point to get together for a Happy Hour or two this summer and who knows? Maybe meet up in the winter too! Isn’t it nice to meet new friends? All because I’m a nosy thrift shopper. 😊 It was 1 o’clock and it was time for me to eat. I couldn’t get over the fact that I still wasn’t starving and I’d only had a tea with cream and coconut oil.

Before

So, I made bacon and eggs and we enjoyed a late lunch together. At the Independent store, I’d picked up a pack of pork ribs so cut and separated those, trying my darnedest to peel the membrane off the back. On some pieces, it worked well but on others, I had to just slit it across the bone before putting it into two freezer packs. Nice to have some in the freezer again.

After

And room to stack on top too
We need to go shopping for more wine!

After dishes, Bill suggested we go to the Hangar to cut the materials for 2 more plane wings so he could hang them in the trailer. The rest were done but these had ‘arms’ that could not be removed and so the material would need to be cut accordingly and then stitched around the edges. We did that and then I puttered around, deadheading the flowers from the rains. My geraniums, from under the tent, remained intact but appeared bruised so I cleaned them up and set them near the Suite. 

One more look from a distance at the cupboard above the fridge

I walked up the hill to check my garden and the rewards were waiting for me. Mr. Pumpkin looks like he is definitely trying to spring upwards, much to my surprise! 

the pumpkin plant is still hanging on

Hang in there! The lettuce was all dirt laden and didn’t look too healthy anyway so I broke some pieces off and tossed it over the fence. Hopefully, it will continue to grow. 

Tomato plants are flowering

The biggest surprise was when I took a close-up picture of a flowering tomato plant. I noticed an actual tomato on another plant! Wowsa! Now, I am excited. The peppers are also getting ready to flower. It seems we weren’t the only ones waiting for the rains. 

Peppers are beginning to flower as well

I came inside to wash my hands and started my post. It is an inside afternoon for sure and before I knew it, it was 5 pm. Where did the day go? I wiped down a wine rack that I got at the sale and climbed up on a chair to put it in the cupboard over the fridge. Fits perfectly and will hold more than 4 or 5 bottles of wine. For $1 that was a great find! I also bought a full length mirror for the Bunky and maybe Bill can mount it for me.

Our first tomato on the vine this summer

Bill came up from the Hangar around 5:30 and said he felt a bit ‘off’ so I made us each a cup of tea before supper. I think that did the trick as he felt better after that. I started frying a pound of ground beef with onions and mushrooms in Madame IP. While that was happening, I made up a batch of No yeast dinner rolls. They took 25 minutes so I put the spaghetti on hold until the rolls were 10 minutes to done.

another blooming daisy :)

We were eating spaghetti by 7, Bill had noodles and I had spaghetti squash with mine. We haven’t had this meal for a while and we enjoyed it, even the rolls. I couldn’t eat all of mine so kept half for another night. There is enough sauce left too so Bill can have a sloppy Joe at the same time. We cleaned up the dishes and didn’t need dessert. One thing about spaghetti, it fills us to the brim. The sky cleared out a bit before supper and the sun was shining through the windows.

Yum, yum, yum, this was delicious!

With the breeze between 13 – 20 mph, we talked about the change in temperature. A difference of 15 degrees! It felt great. Hopefully in the morning, it will be dry enough with some sun so I can hang our laundry out on the line. This was a low-key afternoon and that is good with a busy one ahead tomorrow. I hope you had a good one too!

Good night!

Thank you for stopping by!