LadyFest Begins, The Sculpture Forest

The Ridge/Wintergreen Retreat Resort

On Monday, Sept. 8th I was awake at 6:30 when Bill & Gibbs came back in from their first outing. Again, the chilly air had me happy to be under the covers even though Bill had turned the furnace on for a cycle or two or three. 😀

Good morning!
A lovely day for a drive.

We made our brew and Bill decided to head to Varney, 20 minutes down the road, to get a jack welded for the dump trailer. I washed my hair and finished packing up my food with the supervisor keeping an eye on my every move. 🐕

The ladies arrived, were Gibbs approved
and we were on our way.

My sisters were gathering at Donna's around 9:30 and driving to the Ridge for their ride. Let the week begin! When Bill returned, he removed a tire from the Suite and took it into Durham to Impact Tire. He did that with all 4 during the day. They cleaned the rims, reinstalled the tires with a sealant on the tire bead and put in new valve stems. 

Our first stop was for breakfast.

Around 10:30 Gerry brought Audrey, Gayle and Donna with their luggage and by the time we were done, Ptooties had no empty nooks. Gibbs greeted everyone, of course, and yet went inside like a good little boy when it was time for us to leave. 💞

Singhampton Sculpture Forest
Come along with us!

As we were making the turn onto the highway, we met Bill on his way home so the little guy wouldn't be alone for long. The weather seemed to be straightening itself out for us so we should have a good week. First stop was in Flesherton. 

This was a fascinating walk,
enjoying another couple's
inspiration.

My mistake, but what I thought was a restaurant was take out only at Highland Grounds. It's, simply put, a Coffee Store. Since we wanted to eat before going further on today's journey, we bought a leek and mushroom quiche to share with a coffee. It was cold, they don't reheat, but it was still good and filling.

From there I took the girls to Singhampton where Marion Bartlett's Sculpture Forest 'lives'. Holy cow! This 3 1/2 acre property is a free venue at their home. You walk through a trail (or two) at your own pace and we had a blast. Such creativity her and her husband have!

We left there after visiting their gift shop/museum and drove directly to Blue Mountain to our bnb. Yes, we were too early but at least saw the condos and got a feel for where we'd end up. Check in was not for a couple of hours. So, what else to do but go shopping!

We drove the few miles into Collingwood and visited a couple of thrift stores. I found a couple of useful pieces of metal that will work for displaying some of my quilling projects IF I follow through on the Harvest-fest. 😉 I'm getting closer to committing.

Word came through that our condo was ready so we returned at 4 and checked in. It is quite lovely, spacious and pleasantly laid out. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 with queen beds and 1 with 2 twin beds. I took a queen to myself and let the girls choose amongst themselves. 

Coming to the end,
time for some posing.

It is very quiet here which confirms that we are choosing a good time to come. We played an afternoon game of Scrabble (tadah, I won) and then drove a few minutes to Jozos Bar in Blue Mountains for supper. 

Before we left, we visited their
Museum of art pieces

It is not food fare that would be our first choice for dining but we still enjoyed our meals. I had a Beef Dip with fries and a cup of tea. We were all quite chilly and the hot drinks and meal sated us completely. 

Getting into a good family game.
Our condo from the outside.
It's quite comfortable.

Back home, winding down, Gayle and Audrey enjoyed a sauna while I worked on my blog and watched some tv with Donna. This was a great first day and wait until you see what we get into tomorrow!! 

Jozo's Bar
We were the only patrons
so no reservations required!
This is a ski town in the winter
and a hiking town in the warm weather.
Good night!

We did reach a pleasant 17C/64F this afternoon with mostly sunny skies. It could be a cool night but we'll be toasty. 

Thank you for stopping in!

Good Rains Overnight, LadyFest Begins! Humidity Lingers

The Ridge - Priceville and Cedar Haven - Chatsworth

I think it might have been excitement for the week with my sisters that had me awake at 4:30, then 5:30 and finally at 6 on Tuesday, July 30^th. It is crazy to think that it is here already, meaning the end of the month too. I’ve been looking forward to this time as we have a lot of laughs but when I finish putting everything together to take, it looks like I’m going for a month!

A nice little walk this morning

When you consider the outfits for 3 days and evenings out for dinner, that is one thing. Then, when you consider a cooler with my drinks, my camera bag and tripod to get a group picture and I’m also taking my Bullet and laptop. Oh, plus, I’m taking the bag of clothes that I’ve already started for the fall exchange. I may as well let my sisters have a poke through while they are together. Probably nothing there they’ll want but you never know.

The tracks through the wheat field

I got out for my walk this morning, under a cloud-filled sky. The temperature was 67F/20C so very nice. We had our morning brew together and read a few blogs. Bill went to the Hangar to tidy up a few things and when he came back up, he brought Ptooties over to the patio. He is such a sweetheart. Little things mean a lot to us, don’t they? I finished my tea and then hopped in the shower. Donna texted me that she would be leaving her place at 9 so I put the push on.

It was a bit misty out there

That was the time we’d planned on but all of a sudden it felt like I had a lot to do to get ready. I made Bill bacon and eggs because I doubt he’ll do that when I’m gone, and finished packing up. Gerry drove up and Donna loaded her bags into the bag of the SUV and we were off. I took the back route to catch Hwy #6 and we were the first to arrive. We knew where we were sleeping so carried out ‘stuff’ into the downstairs bedroom through the back patio door.

And a visiting family crossed our laneway on my return

And a couple of downy woodpeckers prefer the tree
rather than the suet

I was indoors with just my phone camera so not as nice
a capture as I wanted on short notice

Donna and I encountered a downed tree on our way
Good thing we could get by or we'd be out playing lumberjack

Doesn't Ptooties look happy under the gazebo?

Cathy and Audrey arrived next and the hugging began. This is something we all so look forward to. Gayle, being the host, we agreed a few years ago that she purchase the breakfast/lunch food and at the end of our time together, we will all pitch in towards the cost. 

Our spread and our hostess in the background
giving us the rules of the house (haha)
The recycle is here, the compost is here etc.

My plate

 This works well and she is very good at entertaining and knows what we all like. I would be terrible at this part! We had quite a spread of food, unusual things and low carb, keto, high fat keto things.

We ate, we chatted, we laughed, we ate, we drank and then after dishes we got cleaned up and hopped into Cathy’s GMC SUV. For 5 of us, it was the most comfortable ride. She drove us first to Value Village in Owen Sound where we spread out and easily killed a couple of hours. I did really well and was very particular with what I purchased. 

This is the challenging puzzle

 Next was just down the street and across the street to the Mission Store where prices are crazy cheap. I did well there too with only a 3-item purchase. Cathy isn’t keen on driving downtown Owen Sound so Gayle took over and weaved her way to the new Salvation Army location on the west side.

Our 3 vehicles, Cathy is the red one

This store wasn’t as appealing to me but I did find a very comfortable pair of leather loafers and some paints for my rock painting. A lot of mine are drying up so I can replace them. We contacted our youngest sister, Wendy, who had to work today, as it was 5 o’clock and we were getting ready for supper. A few ideas were tossed around and we settled on a homey restaurant where we’ve eaten a couple of years ago. We drove to Rockford and couldn’t have made a better choice.

I had a lovely Raspberry Ice

Yummy!

Lisa was our waitress and had us seated and laughing within minutes of our arrival. She was wonderful. We ordered drinks and then meals. Most of the group ordered liver and I debated but ended up going a different route and had the chicken quesadilla with sweet potato fries. Oh my, great choice! The liver looked good too but I was quite pleased with my meal and even brought some home for tomorrow.

And we enjoyed our first meal together

Back home, we did our usual ‘modelling of our purchases’, taking turns with a little flair. They went through the exchange clothes and I was happy that a few things were claimed. Yay! We had an on-going game of Scrabble and Audrey brought a challenging puzzle for us to try. The rest of the evening was relaxing and chatting and around 9:30 I touched base with Bill to say goodnight. We finished the game and the puzzle before calling it a night. It was 11:20!!

A wonderful day! Thank you for popping in. Stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings.