Calm Sunday, Inside and Outside, Cookies?

Paisley, ON

On Sunday, Dec. 6^th we had another sleep-in morning. It was almost 8 when I got up and got dressed. First thing was to sort laundry and put a load in before going for my walk. It was a calm day, mostly, although certain areas of the town had me covering my ears from the wind. It was only -2C/28F. I love the peacefulness of the morning though and although through the week it would have been busy at 8:30, on Sunday, Paisley is a sleepy town.

Here is the plaque that I went to take a picture of

Alternating directions from one walk day to the next, I headed to Mill Street. I wanted to get a picture of the plaque related to the Fisher Mill. I noticed it the other day when I went to the bank, I think. I can’t get over the various names of some of the businesses (past/present) here. My Heritage Walk map calls it The Woolen Mill. It is puzzling to say the least. Nevertheless, today I walked west to the trestle bridge but instead of crossing it today, I turned to the south and followed the trail along the edge of town.

There are still a few things I don't think I've shown you yet
This display is at the Mill across the River from the Canoe and Kayak rentals

I've shown you this bench along the Teeswater River before but thought I'd
offer it in a different 'light' today

Darn! I wish I’d thought to bring the 3 books we’ve finished for the little red barn book box. Next time, I’ll have to remember unless my b-i-l wants to read the J.A. Jance stories. I followed the trail and avoided the snowy patches. I wore my running shoes today, lighter weight for sure but still managed to keep my feet warm. The bits of snow were hard and more puddles were covered in a sheet of ice than the previous day.

I walked as far as the train bridge and cut up the lane to the left

But first, I had to take a picture of the river

Then onto the trail
See the red barn book box at the end?

 I managed to scoot along the back streets of Victoria and Alma and back up to Queen St., thus reaching my 2-mile mark. Back home, I swapped the load of clothes from washer to dryer and put the 2^nd load in before making my tea and heading upstairs. Bill had showered so was at the laptop all fresh, clean and shiny as a bright new penny. 😊 He’ll love that reference, I’m sure. When my tea was finished, I think that was when I had my own shower. Two sweet smelling shiny pennies!

You're walking on thin ice isn't just a catch phrase
Someone has walked on this thin ice in reality

We waited until the second load of laundry was almost finished and went down to start brunch. It was 11 but we had our bacon and eggs, knowing it would tie us over until supper. Well, perhaps a little snack in between. Upstairs, I delved into my book and Bill puttered around with his phone, then his radio and receiver for his RC planes.  Passing the time in a pleasant way for our afternoon. I would have liked to get back into the crafting in the garage but still need to get my stickers first.

Bill works on his radio and rc receiver in the light
from the window
We actually had sunshine for a while throughout the day

I went down around 3 to mix up a batch of dough for shortbread cookies. I don’t always have success but then I haven’t had a real oven for a while either. So, now that I do, I thought I’d give it a go. I found a good recipe on line, easy and with the ingredients I have on hand. I didn’t want to substitute anything so followed the instructions to a ‘t’. At 3:30, still following the recipe, I was supposed to make two dough balls, wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for 2 hours minimum. So, I did. 

Back to this morning's walk
Do you know what this is?

I texted Bill to see if he wanted anything before I came up and, at his request, made him a cup of tea. I poured the last 2" of my Forty Creek liquor into my glass with ice. Upstairs, I read and he carried on with his hobby stuff and the time passed slowly, which was nice. At 5:30 I went down to warm up our leftovers for supper and when I removed the dough from the fridge it was hard. You can imagine the expletives that came out of my mouth. Well, they didn’t make it out but they sure went through my head! That is a lot of ingredients I’ve used up and this darn well better work!! 

I turned towards home and left the beautiful mill
behind me

This must be where the Little People live
There were 13 of these covering special trees and bushes

This fat little black squirrel did NOT need any more treats!!

Another beautiful old home decorated simply
but beautifully

So, we had our supper and I can see ‘some’ very minor softening in the dough so will leave them wrapped but out on the counter and see what it is like tomorrow after work. The dough tastes good, of course I had to sample it, so sure don’t want to give up. Bill said (because he knows how upset I get) "Don't throw that dough out, I'll roll it for you if I have to". Ha ha 😂

Painted on the door of an old garage

Anyway, at 7 Bill went in to watch the first of two new Christmas movies tonight with W & S so I came up to our room. I decided to write my blog post and then maybe pop in one of my own movies rather than read. I think. 

My fajita wasn't as good the second night
The inards were good but the tortilla didn't reheat the best
Note to self: don't do that again

I’ll let you know tomorrow what I ended up doing. As you can tell, I’m undecided. I’m frustrated so I need to lose myself in something! 😊 This was another nice quiet day and I do believe my sweetie even got a blog of his own posted today. Yay!

Did you guess?
It's a FLOWER BED!!!! 😅

Dec. 6th, 2017
My sister, Donna, and Gerry visited us in Arizona
Here, at Laughlins Casino
2nd floor Car Museum

Good night!

Thank you for stopping by!

Different Direction, Four-footed, White-tailed Critters, Mom

The Ridge

I'll start off with a picture of last night's approaching storm

No point in making a ‘point’ of it because lately I have been having amazing sleeps. I don’t recall waking through the wee hours until around 5 am. Today, Sunday, July 21^st, was no different. My window beside me was open all night with the blind up for the most part. At first, I had the day shade down to block the little bit of rain spatters but at some point, I opened that to let more fresh air in.

Good morning pond

We were both up by 6:30 and Bill made his coffee while I went for my walk in shorts and a sleeveless top. It was 64F/18C and the sky was a delightful ‘sky’ blue, imagine that! When I arrived at the corner of B.C.Rd and N.Line I decided to change it up and turn right. I felt great and had just had an awesome find on the gravel road. This is my reflection time, so to speak, and I have conversations with the Powers that be, Daddy and Clemson.

I was asking for a bit of confirmation that our loved ones are where I believe they are, something to support my theory that they are ailment free and that Clemmy is running with other 4-legged friends, waiting for us. No sooner, did I voice this hope/prayer/wish and in the gravel in front of my path I found this stone. 

On a gravel road, this one little stone was for me
I took it as my own confirmation

Maybe it means nothing to you and you can pshaw it but to me – it made a difference. 😊

it has been a while since we've seen water puddles

Walking to the north instead of the south gave me another challenge with a few hills to go up. It also made me pull up my big girl pants and bravely walk past the country property with the gates wide open. 

I went the opposite direction this morning on my walk

I’d pretty much convinced myself that they no longer had the big welcoming dogs so took the chance. No dogs and I was able to walk on further to meet my mile marker before turning. At the top of the hill, there were 2, then 3 4-legged, white tail greeters. Not deer, bunnies.

And at the top of one of those hills was this guy
He was very brave too, as he watched me approach

This one sat for the longest time as I approached, not a noticeable twitch so I tried to record his actions knowing at any given time that he would hop across the road to escape me. I got really close, maybe 30’ before he moved. Then he sat on the other side watching me approach again. Eye contact and I tried to convince him that I was no danger. When he hopped into the bushes, I continued another few steps and turned for home.

                                 and in slow motion just for you

                                

What a glorious morning! The humidity was still high at 81% but I sure didn’t notice it. When I got back, I made my tea and read a few blogs and comments. Then when the sun hit the King chairs, I went out to enjoy it with a book. 

The farmer got the last of his hay cut
The corn in the lower left is really high already

This book is called Trick and Treat and it is written by Barry Groves and this is the excerpt on the back of the book and my own hand-written ‘testimonial’ in the front cover. When I’m in the mood to re-iterate my need to follow the paleo/keto lifestyle or to question the whole fear of sunlight the world has – I turn to Barry.

You know my love for the sun and my disbelief in sunscreens, so it’s going back to the basics for me. Following his research gives me peace again as I soak up the much-needed Vitamin D that our bodies crave, within reason, of course. Around 9, I came inside and got washed and mostly dressed to go visit Mom. Donna wanted to go today too while they were out at the Acreage (it is much closer for her) so I offered to go for 10 and leave when she arrives at 11. I want to see her before we go to London tomorrow.

Sitting at the Hangar

I puttered around and then took a lawn chair down to sit outside Bill’s Hangar. On his ‘front porch’ I could hear his music and we could chat if we wanted to. At one point he needed help with the tape measure and then soon enough it was 10 and time for me to scoot. I found Mom down the hall but it was the moment I have been dreading. She didn’t know me. I was vaguely familiar to her and she asked if I was one of her girls. When I said yes, that I was Pat, she said “I don’t have a Pat, do I?”

Needless to say, we always have good moments

Big girl pants came into play again and I smiled and teased her about forgetting me. We laughed then and I lost the connection as the conversation went wayward. I couldn’t follow who or what she was referring to so suggested we walk back to her room, which again she didn’t recognize until I pulled her umbrella quilt up over her bed. 

It was a challenge but we did laugh some and when she named one of us in a picture and smiled, I was rewarded. Sadly, I have to admit to being relieved when I looked up at 11 and Donna arrived.

this is a lovely picture of Mom

We took some pictures on our phones before I left and I left her in Donna’s capable hands. Talking to Donna later, in a text, she had a disturbing visit as well.  We won’t give up on you, Mom, instead we will just get stronger. Back home, Bill was working down in the Hangar and was pleased to show me that he had his shelf up. This meant he was able to remove his Dad’s train clock, train engine, model ship as well as his own model F150 from the Bunky and our bedroom.

a little blurry (again!) but a threesome

It meant that I was also free to do what I wanted in there. I made us pancakes, semi-keto ones but they were so filling that all I could eat was the bacon and one pancake. They are too heavy for me, I guess, as I felt draggy for the remainder of the day. After dishes, I changed into my bathing suit for some sunning on this lovely day. The pesky bees and flies seem to have disappeared, for now, so I stretched out on my lounger, reading and dozing.

Another clip of the bunny

I was in and out of the shade according to my body temperature. I’m getting into the John Sandford book that I’m reading more now. It took me a while to get hooked. It isn’t a Lee Child or James Patterson story. The afternoon went fairly quickly and I can’t say that I did much else other than read so when Bill came up from the Hangar at 4 for a snooze, I came inside too. Enough fresh air for the moment.

Inside, I poured myself the last of the Beer Margaritas that I’d mixed up. I’ll need to pick up some more vodka and beer before I can make some more. Supper was easy so at 5:45 I lit the Weber and started to warm up the meatloaf and veggies. Easy in small pot pie pans wrapped in foil. As I did things inside and outside today, I had it in my mind that tomorrow we are pulling out so I’d close this cupboard and secure it now, fold our little tables up and put the lounge chair and pad in the Bunky.

meatloaf and veggies

I’ll be working in the morning so the less we have to do to pack up, the nicer it will be although we won’t be in a rush. Supper and dishes were done by 6:30 which meant for a quiet evening. It is 75F/24C aka a perfect day/evening. I spent a lot of my day outdoors so may just hang inside tonight with my book. I noticed as we were finishing eating that a family of 5 geese flew in to our front pond. That makes us think that our ‘grandchildren’ must be flying!

And our families flew in so some of the babies are flying

This makes us both sad as it means that soon they’ll be leaving the Ridge. Bill suggested that I take pictures of them since we may not see them again. I took some from inside, my very favourite thing is always how they swim in a line, still. Then I went out, risking life and limb to the bugs up there by the bushes and watched them swim to the back corners of the pond area. They must have sensed my presence as they then huddled together until I left.

The lineage is what I love the most

Bill was checking keys for locking the sheds up when we leave and I finished my post. This was another wonderful day with much nicer temperatures. I’m sure you agree!

And today, I saw our first snapper in a very long time
good night!

Thank you for stopping in! Your comments are always appreciated.