Day Two – Thrift Shopping, Home Charcuterie, Dining Out, Birthday Girl

Terrasse-Vaudreuil

So, my second day, Tuesday, Aug. 22^nd started at 6am. Gayle and I shared the Queen’s Best Bed upstairs, Donna was in the double air mattress on the floor next door, Cathy was downstairs in the Captain’s Bed and our host slept in her Sauna room in a single bed. It is a small home yet lots of room for company! 😊

Looking out Audie's window,
the hummingbird is feasting away

A couple of the girls had saunas, we discussed some exercises and plans for the day. At 9:30 or so, we piled into Audrey’s car and she drove us into Ste. Anne de Bellevue. She volunteers at Nova thrift store so after walking along the water, we took in ‘our’ two donation bags and searched for treasures. I know I came out after only spending $4.50 (can you believe it?) on some googly eyes, an egg cup and a pair of blue jean shorts. I did good!

Audrey's home
Driving to Ste. Anne de Bellevue
Her street is a dead end at the water
Audrey's Uber 😃

We made out like bandits really and by 11:30 we were headed home with our tummies grumbling. I’d had a couple of tablespoons of yogourt before leaving home and was quite peckish. Audrey had outdone herself, following Gayle’s usual Charcuterie fare idea, and we ate until we were quite sated. Yum, everything we love. 

Pictures of our morning walkabout

Nova's Thrift Shop fun

Our lunch

After clean up, it was just a hang out kind of day. I started the Scrabble game and then we decided to try our luck at Bocce Ball. 😊

The game is on!

There were 5 of us but we made it work, switching off partners and teams. Bottom line, means that everyone won. After getting cleaned up, Audrey drove us to Vaudreuill-Dorion for supper. Patates de Persil was both an inside and outside restaurant so we sat under the self-made ‘awnings’ with a view of the water. Gayle and I ordered a Pina Colada, me thinking of my sweetie, and a chicken quesadilla w/fries.

Supper was delicious!

Oh my, it was too much food (the fries weren’t necessary but I didn’t want a salad) but the quesadilla was delicious. I brought one piece of the ‘pie’ home, as did Donna, Cathy and Audrey. 😊 We were back home around 7 and the evening was filled with a campfire. Such a beautiful evening for it.

Audrey took us on a short tour on the way back home
to the park and Terrasse Cafe.
It is run by volunteers, free to the public.

This has been another great day. I did chat with Bill back home earlier and he has been busy looking after Black Beauty, cutting grass and dumping our black tank. No doubt, Gibbs has been a big help. ♥

Beautiful evening.

I loved the painting on this
tower in Terrasse-Dorion

Happy Birthday, Audrey! My second oldest sister and the hostess of our week. I hope we are helping to make your birthday a special one. ♥

A lovely fire
Good night!

Thank you for the visit!

The Forest City, Visits, New Oven, Food and Sky Photos

The Ridge

On Friday, July 2^nd Bill and I were both off work for the day. All 3 of us were awake by 6 and loaded up for our drive to London. Gibbs knew something was happening with all the hustle and bustle and although he didn’t say, was happy he got to come along. 😁 That is just too long a day to leave a puppy at home. We took his bed, blanket, water, dish, poop bags and treats along so he would want for nothing.

This looks like "where are we going?" look

Bill and I made our drinks to go and Ptooties left the Ridge at 7:30am. We arrived in London by 10 and found Zubick’s Scrap Metal on Clarke Rd. I’d discovered last night that they have a drop off out front of their business where any and all things can be dropped, 24/7/365. Perfect, they can have our old microwave oven. We dropped it off and carried on north to visit our friend, Derrick next. He lost his wife, life partner, world in March and it rocked all of us who knew her. ☹

The sky started to clear 10 minutes after we left home

I like the backdrop here of the farm

I have to admit to a bit of uneasiness/nervousness over the drop in but knew we had to make a point of seeing how he was doing in person. We were pleased to see that he was in the garage just getting ready to meet his former business partner and good friend, Jeff, for a bike ride. He was happy to see us and took the time to sit out back on their deck for half hour. It is important for him to keep busy so we didn’t stay long.

A stop at Zorra Highland School for a piddle
and then he sat 😂

Baby steps is what he’s taking as he deals with his grief and his/our friends in London and his family are being ever-present in his life. Dinner invites, visits and the afore-mentioned bike rides across the city. We’re sad that we don’t live closer to do our part but in actuality, we are very happy not to be living in London aka The Forest City. The traffic, the long lights, the new developments etc. are more than we care to be a part of anymore. After our visit, we realized that he has a long way to go but we had a great talk and a couple of really good hugs.💗

I love the metal insects at Zubick's

From Derrick’s, we drove back across familiar streets, working our way to CanAm on the southwest corner. Gibbs was a hit with a few of the staff, Wendy especially enjoyed the little furball. She loves puppies. 😊 We got our new ‘warrantied’ oven into the car and drove to the Flying M to fuel up. The chores are almost done. Lastly, we drove east to Costco. Oh, my goodness! There were traffic lineups to get into the parking lot and then a long lineup to get into the store once we parked.

A '67 Mustang zoomed by

We’d decided that I would stay with Gibbs and Bill would take the list and do the shopping. That may sound odd, but he is much better and faster in this store than I am. He texted when he had a question but other than that, he was in and out in 40 minutes. Pretty awesome. With everything crossed off the list, we headed towards Dorchester for lunch. The A & W there is a good stopping point, just nicely out of the busy-ness of the city. It was 1:00 and we were hungry.

The Furrion Oven rides behind Gibbs

More interesting sky

I think it is cool to see the remaining drive-in still
in business
The Mustang is popular, well, not during Covid it is

Rolling under the wheels of the no-carb wagon, I ordered the Bacon Cheddar Uncle Burger combo again. At least the Root Beer was diet! The sky to the southeast was quickly turning blacker as the clouds rolled in – again. Have we not had enough rain? Back home, the forecast was for 99% precipitation today and at least here, in this part of southwestern Ontario, we’ve been blessed with some sunshine. I texted Kim that we were on our way.

Drive through A & W

As we drove to Ingersoll on the 401, the sky opened up for a bout of heavy rain. It didn’t last long and by the time we reached the Wilson’s home, it had stopped and the sun was back out again. They had asked us to stop in if we made it to London today and if we had time. 😊 It’s always nice to see them. Today was a bonus visit because we got to meet the ‘boys’. They talk a lot about their 3 grandsons so it was our pleasure to meet Seth (“7, I think”), Ethan (“11, Grade 6, I think”) and Aden (13) who had no doubt who he was and how old.  All handsome young people.

There goes the sky again
It was raining on the north side of the highway

Two minutes later, we all had it

We were home by 4:30 and unloaded the SUV. At least the groceries came inside. We were both very tired so the oven stayed in the vehicle for the night. Bill filled our fridge water jug and I separated the mini sausages into freezer packs. Gibbs was quite a good little boy today. It was a long time in the car for a pup but he fared well even through the driver changeover after Teviotddale. He was happy to be home and ran around without a leash while we took care of business.

Driving into Ingersoll

The Wilson's lovely home

Isn't this an interesting grain mill?
I don't know what else to call it

When traffic came to a stop on the way home,
we soon found out that the drivers were all
animal lovers 💕
He looks a little harried but he's safe

And the sky has cleared

I made a cup of tea and we agreed that we didn’t need supper. Just a Friday night snack with cheese to get us through the evening. Gibbs was tired out, not surprisingly, he had quite the busy day so after a run around outside, he crashed on the floor at our feet. 😊 This was a good day and is sure to be a quiet evening.

After a long, busy, enriching day,
Good night from the Ridge!

Thank you for your visit today. Your comments are always welcome.

Starting with a Walk, Sunny, Cloudy, Rainy, Cold, Pampering, Great Meal

The Ridge

It was 7 when we woke up on Thursday, May 7^th and we slowly made the motions towards getting up around 7:30. I could see that the sky was blue and there was no frost on B.B. windshield so I was encouraged enough to get dressed and go for a walk. When the winds are low, it makes all the difference in the world and our Canada flag and Sunflower wind sock were hardly moving when I looked out the window.

My morning walk

I didn’t have any early sightings of the new 'children' this morning but I noticed that mama robin had vacated her nest along my walk. Of course, I had to take a peek. I’m not sure whether to be sad but there was one loan blue egg sitting there. ☹ Where is she? I hope it isn’t a ‘still born’. 

I noticed something a way up ahead of me on the road so
when I zoomed in, it was a wild turkey

What a gorgeous walk! The air was certainly cold at 3C/38F but the sun very warm. There is a 40% chance of rain today so I’m glad to get a walk out of the way early.

As I was drinking my tea, I had big plans to rake the garden but within 15 minutes, after Bill left to get water, the sky had completely clouded over and we had a handful of rain drops. Um, change of plans. The clouds and sun played tag for another half hour and when Bill returned, I went out to talk to him. Water was spouting out the valve of the water bladder and he told me that the little cap had popped off-again.

Bill and I walked up on the hill so the view
on the left is from the south with the turbine on the right behind us

We’ve been using our old original 45-gallon water bladder for our water fill ups for 4 years now. Bill has had to patch it a few times and now, this morning, he did it one more time to see if we could get another couple of fills out of it. It worked today but now with the valve lost, I think he’ll get our new one out. We bought one a while ago in preparation for this one giving up the ‘ghost’. It doesn’t owe us a penny; we use it so much.

I had flip flopped again about working in the garden so he walked up with me. The wind has increased so instead of raking, we walked across to the ridge behind us on the other side of the farmer’s field. Our neighbor seems to frequent up there so we figured it was okay for us to also ‘trespass’. We wanted to see how far our pond extends for one thing and then just to see what was up there. It was a nice walk and then Bill remembered he had the water tank filling so we returned.

I see fields ready for planting
Bill, the flyer, sees 'these would be great flying fields!'

In the hopes to see our new family(s) I took a walk down the lane before coming inside the warm Suite. We think that Mother and Father have taken them to the far west side of the pond so we’ll have to be patient. Inside, I made myself a coffee and started my post. I emailed Mom’s bank advisor about the error on her investment. The rain has started lightly and it is an hour before noon. I need to decide what to get my hands on today, since it will be an inside one.

Looking to the east, it was interesting to see where our pond
ended up
On the right you can see a wee bit of water down there

I’d received some sample face products when we returned home from Reversol so this was a good time to use one of their face masks. It is the second one I’ve tried and my skin feels so nice afterwards. Today was no different. It is nice to pamper ourselves once in a while.  Then I sat with my book. This Amos Decker story is no different than Baldacci’s others, I have a hard time putting it down.

There's is my RC flyer now with our home in the distance

Around 2, Bill came in and the afternoon followed our usual protocol. NCIS reruns, a snooze happening in the chair beside me and after finishing a few chapters, I took a walk down the lane. The sun had returned and the sky was blue with the exception of very low lying white fluffy clouds on the horizon. It was still chilly out there, probably even chillier now that the winds were closer to 20 mph at times. The mailbox flag was up and I brought the local flyers back with me. Nothing exciting.

Lunch

Fighting for space in the sun on a small patch of grass

It was about 5 that I started to prepare supper. I had a sirloin tip beef roast thawing all afternoon so turned Madame IP on to Saute and browned all sides for about 5 minutes. Then I removed it, added a cup of water and a cut up onion. The trivet went on top of that and I placed the roast back in the pot with 4 potatoes. Because the roast is still partially frozen, I set the Manual button for 45 minutes. I’m never 100% sure how long as it depends on the size of the roast. This one is 3 lbs.

At one point this morning, blue sky to the west
rain on the north windows

Bill likes his corn so I will cook that and my portion of pepper squash in the microwave once Madame IP is on NR. We were eating by 6:30 and were both very impressed with the roast. Picked up at Costco at a very good price, we weren’t sure how good the cut would be. Supper was delicious, kind of like a Sunday night meal on a Thursday. Also, it was perfect for a cool day.

I thought I'd located the family but no babies here

After dishes, we each had some apple crisp and I added 35% cream to mine. Yum! With the skins left on these little Ridge apples, they turned dark, almost black. It doesn't affect the taste but it doesn't look great. Hmmm.

Building up steam

 Bill took a drive over to the Acreage at 7 to turn the water on. We thought we were done doing that but for the next 4 or 5 nights, the temperatures are once more dropping to below freezing and the possibility of snow. Hands in the air if you are as tired (SICK) of this weather as we are! Not much we can do about it but grumble and I know I’m doing my fair share of that. The day wasn’t terrible though, with glorious sun pouring in the windows from mid-afternoon through the evening. That’s great to see at least.

This was a good day and we’ll prepare for a drop in temperature tonight by adjusting our heaters. I hope you’ve enjoyed your day too.

Blue sky and low lying clouds on the horizon
That's it!
good night everyone!

Thank you for stopping in. Your comments are always welcome if you wish to leave one.

Thursday, Aug. 1st POTTERY DAY!!

Owen Sound, Ontario

The excitement of this day must have seeped into my sleeping hours because no sooner did I go to bed (at 12:30) and to sleep, I was awake an hour later and couldn’t drop off again for the longest time. I seemed wide awake and that seldom happens to me. I didn’t want to wake my bed partner up but tossed and turned for at least an hour.

And the budding artists are ready for class

Next thing I knew, it was approaching dawn and when I noticed Donna getting up, I got up too. It was 7 am. Our morning ritual was a little different because we weren’t eating brunch here at home. We had our morning brew and got cleaned up in our oldest clothes. Today, we were meeting Wendy at the Artist’s Co-op Workshop downtown Owen Sound. We were all signed up for a pottery class at 9:30 with Michelle.

Prep, the wheels, some finished products, and suggestions
from Michelle

This was a first-time experience for 4 of us and we were all so excited. We started on the wheel and each made 3 pieces. I was pleasingly surprised with our accomplishments and even though some were a little ‘wonky’ they came out quite good. 

We watched Michelle's instruction
and thought "No way!!"

But soon enough, I was making my own little dishes

And everyone got into it

Then we moved to the table to work on some hand-crafted pieces. This is where the real creations began. Michelle was very generous and allowed us the full 3 hours and as much clay for as many pieces as we wanted.

We moved to the table and made more pieces

This was a hoot! I loved the pottery class

We left a little dirtier at 12:30 than when we arrived and left our pieces with the Co-op to be fired and glazed. We are looking forward to picking them up in a couple of weeks. Wendy will pick them up for us. We cleaned up as best we could before touring a few stores close by. From there we took 2 cars to Wendy’s house in O.S. and got changed into clean clothes and oohed and aahed over the additions and changes to her home.

The old vault in the building
It used to be a bank

signatures dating back to the times

Great open space for jewellery, pottery,
printing classes

Audrey and I liked the coat hook

Dr. Cobbler's in Owen Sound was very cool!
Lots of Fascinator hats, shoes and bags of very elaborate tastes

For Bridgette - she'd love this store

Window shopping

Gayle and I cutting through a beautiful alley

Then we drove to Port Elgin for a late lunch. We were starving! The first place we’d planned on was closed so went across the street to the Queen’s Pub restaurant. 

They were not very busy but they were very slow in service. However, the food was very good and I ordered a Beef Cheesesteak with kettle fries. Oh my, it was delicious and I ate the whole thing!

Yummy!

Gayle ordered a Crepe Suzette to go and sat to eat it
while we finished up in the Salvation Army

We browsed a Vintage store and it was awesome!
Talk about bringing back memories!

We left there and toured some of the shops on the main street before saying goodbye to Wendy and Morgan. Then we headed back to Gayle’s and arrived home around 6 pm. We didn’t need supper but after I sat for a while with my laptop (sorry for the late postings, I’m too busy!!) and downloaded pictures for my blog. 

Aren't they adorable?
Wendy and mini Wendy - I mean, Morgan

I felt overwhelmed so when the girls started talking about playing a card game tonight, I was all in.

And a nice sparkling wine to celebrate the time together
on our last evening

We all agreed on a game called Golf and played 9 rounds before Gayle defeated the rest of us. It was a good lively game. We’ve had another great day. I hope yours has been just as good and that you are enjoying this wonderful summer weather.

Thank you for your visit today. Your comments mean a lot to me if you care to leave one.