Two Birds – One Stone, Landscaping Day, Evening Visitation

The Ridge

On Wednesday, Aug. 28^th I was up with the birds and Bill followed right away. I had sorted the laundry last night so took it with me at 6:30 when I went in to work First stop was at the bank to get some cash as we needed it for the machines. No, I don’t get our laundry done free. Some of you have asked if that is a perk of the job. Jamie hasn’t offered, honestly, likely hasn’t thought of it and if we can’t afford $7 or $10/week for laundry, we better go back to square one.

The sky across our land can be so pretty

These pictures were first thing in the morning as I was ready to leave for work

I’m lucky to be able to do both my cleaning and laundry at the same time. I loaded the washers and set to work. The machines were okay today but the floors needed attention. Yay! Our customers seem to be heeding the recycling signs – a bit. When both the laundry and cleaning were done, it was 7:45 and I loaded Ptooties and headed for home. This was turning into a gorgeous day with nearly clear skies and a few light fluffies dotting the blue.

Time to show you my bucket of flowers on the hill

Bill was in the Hangar and as soon as he saw me he hopped on the rider and cut the grass up on the hill where my clothesline is. He carried the heavy basket up to the stool so it was waiting for me when I finished my tea. 

Off he went to cut the front field. With the clothes hung, I decided to get my big girl pants on and cut my area of grass as well. It is nice that we’ve had enough rain to green it up and for it to grow. A week ago, we were just cutting tall weeds.

As I was cutting the grass, this guy was desperately
trying to get out of my way

I did some close cutting with my mower so Bill didn’t have to worry about certain areas with the whipper snipper. Then I moved down to the corral. Before I got too far, I hit a rock that didn’t even look that big and broke the end off the blade. Oh Blimey! I told Bill that I guess it was my turn to get a new blade. LOL So, I was finished, right good and proper, and removed the battery before sitting in the shade to cool down for a bit.

                                            GET READY FOR AN ADORABLE CRITTER

Before I sat in my chair, I noticed this little hitchhiker had beat me to it

He must have dropped off the tree as I was cutting grass

Some crawly things, I do not like but this?

I scooped him onto my sunglass lenses and carried him outside

I think he is very happy on the rock
Look at those eyes!!

At about 10:45 I started cooking bacon, thinking someone would be starving. He had moved to the back field and I thought he should be close to finishing. Not quite so I didn’t start the eggs right away. We both had bacon and eggs and I forced the last 3 mouthfuls down since I really wasn’t that hungry. There isn’t much more on MY plate today but I know Bill wants to trim all around the Ridge perimeter so I offered to do dishes so he could get at it whenever he was ready.

Cutting the peameal was easier when in a semi-frozen state

When I finished a b.p. coffee I pondered what to get up to next. First things first; with a possible threat of rain later today, I went out to check the clothes on the line. The wind has increased to 17 mph and the way the clothes were flinging around, it was obvious that they would be dry. Now the fun part, putting them away. Not! The peameal bacon that I took out of the freezer has thawed enough for me to slice it up so I took care of that and placed it in freezer bags.

This was a delicious supper for being so easy

I worked on the jigsaw puzzle in the Bunky until it was finished and came inside around 3:30. The air was changing and clouds were moving in. Darker, heavier clouds so they may be right about the rain coming our way. At 5, I started supper. I began frying some peameal, warmed the dressing and mushroom gravy plus toasted some rye bread. We have a visitation for Aunt Mary tonight from 6 to 8 so wanted to be ready for a decent arrival.

And the big cloud moved from west to east

And if you pay attention to the pond area below
you can see the cloud's progress

 Supper was good and we cleaned up dishes and ourselves soon after. It was around 6:30 by the time we made our way in to town. Visitations are not something you hang around long at normally. Meet, greet, give condolences, visit the departed and move on. Tops, it could be a 15-minute visit. Because we knew Aunt Mary and know Rob and Pat plus their family, we stayed for about an hour. It was quiet and nice to hang with them while looking at pictures on the video.

Almost a full sky covering

We were home before 8 and turned America’s Got Talent on. Looking out my window, I watched a humongous weather pattern moving to the east. Creeping the way it was, put me in mind of pulling a huge blanket over us and darkness fell quickly. The air was still and it was a mild 16C/62F so I’m not sure what to expect overnight. It has been a busy day for us here on the Ridge but a good one. I hope you have enjoyed yours as well.

Thank you for stopping by.

And the Sun and Warmth Returns, Visitation/Memorial in Stoney Creek

We wake up Wednesday, June 7^th to beautiful, gorgeous, brilliant, sunshine! I was dreaming again and it was one of those reoccurring ones. I always seem to dream about getting lost (direction-wise) or getting left somewhere not able to reach Bill. My deep-rooted fear perhaps?

Last night at The Ridge

I was up at 7:15 and opened all the blinds in the Suite. By the time I poured my tea, Clemson was up and went out for his morning business. Realizing how warm the sun was, even though it was only 10C in the shade, I turned the inverter on. I unplugged from electric and turned the portable panel to face east.

Clemson's get away gate

Bill slept until 8:30, my night owl, and was pleased to see the blue sky when he got up. As I finished reading blog posts I decided to try and learn a bit more about my camera. My sister, Audrey, tries to feed me valuable information. She refers me to various websites but it is still a lot of ‘tekky/camera’ speak and I’m lost before getting too far.

Depth of field, I get and now found the button, and ISO I know how to change, however changing the f-stop while in AV mode is beyond me. I’m still willing but unless it sinks in this brain, it is useless to me when outside taking pictures. LOL I don’t know how you camera guys do it.

Pretty little yellow flowers

Our pond weeds are almost reaching the surface

So, Bill finished his coffee and I pulled the plug on the gray water tank. It was full and needed to be drained before my shower. Our fresh water tank is below 50% so my sweetie is going to fill the bladder this morning. He will fill the small propane tank today so I can barbecue also while he is away. With the weather turning nice, I’m sure I’ll be doing that.

Full barbecue tank

Filling our fresh water tank

 He wants to make sure I have everything I need before he departs for a couple of days. My hero. I remember when we lived at the house in London, for the first few years I dreaded using the barbecue. I don’t know why, it was just always ‘Bill’s job”. Maybe I thought it would blow up or something. Who knows?  I’m happy to know how and to be comfortable with our Weber Q.

I've mentioned our corral a number of times
This is a view of it from the top
No horses, though

With all these jobs done, Bill hopped in the shower. Clemson and I walked down the lane to mail a letter. He needed to stretch his long legs before we left him alone for 7 hours. We have backups in case something were to happen, we know people who don’t live too far away who would come and get him.

This bumble bee was loving my geraniums

We left the Suite after a light breakfast and although the gps took us a different way than we’d originally thought, we arrived in Stoney Creek at the Funeral Home at 2:30. We travelled Hwy 10 for the most part until catching the 410, then the QEW and so on. We knew we’d come home a different way.

Through Priceville, then Flesherton

Pretty town of Shelburne

Some plates make me chuckle

 It was a nice little reunion for Bill and I, seeing many of his cousins and Aunt Ruthie. These are all relations on his Mom’s side of the family. So, Glen, Gary, Greg, Uncle Ray’s sons. Cheryl, Maryann, Heather, Donna Marie, Colleen. Gary’s son, Raymond and Constance. I think I’ve mentioned everyone we knew. We were sad to have just missed Peter and Kelly. Darn!

Orangeville

After the afternoon visitation ended, we were invited back to Uncle Ray’s house where Glen lives for a drink and something to eat before heading home. This was really nice, we were both hungry and the food was delicious. Thank you, Cheryl and MaryAnn.

These are awesome skyscrapers! 25 - 30 stories high

The Burlington Skyway

We left the house on Pottruff Rd. and took Queenston to the QEW. We couldn’t believe the traffic coming from the other direction! We were very glad to be heading north.

The QEW was packed coming the other way

 We crossed over the Burlington skyway and I captured a few pictures of Lake Ontario and even the CN Tower off in the distant haze.

A little intimidating! 

Beautiful wild flowers

Fergus

Newest Arthur water tower

When we saw the traffic advisory that there was a slow down AFTER Guelph Line, we were grateful to be turning off ONTO Guelph Line. This would take us home the route we wanted which included Hwy 6 through Fergus, Arthur, Varney and Durham.

Donald Brown Funeral Home

This was an absolutely gorgeous day and we enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine even though we were in a vehicle for most of it. We’re glad we took the time to go to the visitation since Uncle Ray did not wish to have a funeral. It was a nice quiet celebration with his closest family members.

We arrived home at 7:10, a much shorter time period than our drive out. 

Coming up the drive we noticed not one, not two but three female turtles off to the side digging nest holes. My goodness, we are overrun! I love it. 

One, two

Three, all in a  row

 Then when we got to our gravel parking site, one special greeter sitting there waiting for us. As we looked each other in the eye, I snapped this picture.

He/she is so cute!!

We didn’t need supper tonight since we ate just after 4 but Bill barbecued up 4 burgers. He will take two for his supper tomorrow night and leave two for me for Thursday and Friday night supper. We set about packing the rest of his stuff up so he will be able to leave for London by 6 am.

I hope you have had a great day. I have included last night’s stunning sunset at the beginning of my post as well as tonight’s gorgeous display below.

An early shot of tonight's portrait

And The Ridge says goodnight

Thank you for reading along. Your comments are always welcome.