Thoughts

I would say that almost too much has happened since I last posted! Summer and fall have come and gone. Christmas looms on the horizon and I have just finished the three tree lighting ceremonies at the long term care homes which means that the big day is just around the corner. In Mississauga though we need some snow for the season to be perfect. All around us snow is piling up in metre high banks and we have escaped winter's wrath. I do realize that I should be very careful about what I wish for!!

I recently adopted a refugee family from Afghanistan whom I met at the food bank - they walked out of the country with just the clothes on their backs and we have been busy getting pots, pans, mattresses, beds and cold weather clothes. I am eternally grateful for the wonderful generosity of my friends. From clothes to food to furniture, a T.V.!, a playstation, and lots and lots of food. Such blessings raining down!

I am almost ready for Christmas - very unusual for me. All the knitting is completed and I have (as I do every Christmas) scored one absolutely wonderful gift that will be completely unexpected by the giftee (ooh that is sooo much fun!) And I made one other gift that is just what the doctor ordered. Hard to believe another year has passed us all. One wonderful event - I reinvested the Kiva credits earned during the year and it totalled $775.00. It just keeps on turning over! So amazing and fabulous....

Cleaning

I know, I know, it is the scourge of every woman. Sooner or later, the dust, and in my case, blowing tumbleweeds of dog hair, threaten to overtake us. And every single time I answer the siren call of "It is time to clean OR ELSE, SELF" I am out of Comet and I mean every time. It's a little game I play. I buy lots of it, deposit it smartly in each bathroom and feel very content that life is as it should be. Then Dobby the house elf who lives everywhere in the house, decides to houseclean his digs and the other elves' digs and there goes my Comet.

The feeling AFTER the cleaning is done, however, is second to none in terms of peace of mind and joyousness. Truly everything is right with the world!

I have a very long fuse about the need to clean, but definitely a shorter length of time than when I was much younger. Then I only liked to clean before my mother came to visit or we had people over for dinner. That little game resulted in usually two full days of exhausting work and a general hatred for entertaining. There had to be a change in the modus operendi and now we clean on a semi regular basis. And yes, I mean we! My teenage boys actually help and it is a wonderful thing! Just like in the movies, my youngest jams EVERYTHING in the closet but the rest of the room looks clean. One opens that door at one's peril but that's o.k. I just don't open it, rather sigh happily as I go past the door. I am, in short, a housekeeper of the school of "out of sight" out of mind. Works really well for me! Why this particular pic with this post you ask? I Love, love, LOVE peonies and this little picture tells me that Martha Stewart has just whizzed through the house, cleaning as she went and left behind this little vignette to delight my eyes. Sigh.....just lovely!!!

Ruffly Scarf

It is finally finished! I lovingly knit the body of the scarf about six months ago, but it needed something. I was browsing on my beloved website Etsy and "eureka" it came to me...it needed some sort of edging. Room to room, root, root, root, looking for crochet hook - nada. So in the car I got and over to Michaels, procuring the required crochet hooks and, of course, several new balls of yarn! My sister gave me a wonderful book last Christmas, a crochet and knitting bible with every kind of stitch known to man and I just began to leaf through it looking for inspiration. A visit to YouTube resulted in a new kind of ruffle stitch, created by, of all people, a gentleman crocheter! And here is the result. The book showed me how to do a crocheted shell edging and I put his ruffle on top. Think I'll wear it with my jean jacket - can't wait!

A Lovely Indian Summer Day

This is what a lovely day is....chats with my best friend....a trip to Michaels which yielded a wonderful new book called Nicky Epstein's Signature Scarves (divine!)...sunshine and blue skies and WARM TEMPERATURES all day...knitting on the sleeve of my new baby sweater (just when I think I might be getting a touch better at 3 needles a dropped stitch will appear -BUT I am getting much better at retrieving them)...a dinner which almost made itself...and THEN a trip into Streetsville on the back of the ebike with Rob at the helm! We negotiated all kinds of left turns and tootled into town...stopped at the drugstore, the library and then he treated his Mom to a coffee at Timmy's and then home we came. And now it's so nice out that I am writing this from my adored back porch...All in all - a perfect day!!

Gadgets

I had occasion lately to darken the door of a kitchen gadget-type store. Never happens. But another bucket item will be making my FIRST PIE, (more about that in a later post), and...however I digress... I went in to get a pastry cutter implement and came out with the much looked for yellow lemon squeezer. This baby does it all with one squeeze, lemon juice out the sieve-like bottom and rind in the holder. Sublime! My other most favourite and household-loved item is the one button can opener. Just perch this baby atop the can, press the button and walk away. Around it goes and next thing you know, the lid has been neatly opened, no fuss, no muss. Sigh - you just gotta love neat gadgets.

Ebike

Just look at this picture - is this bike not the cutest thing EVER!!?? It is our family's ebike (purchased in Streetsville no less) and it is electric - just keep it charged up and away you can go at up to 30 kph. Today I got up my courage to ride it into town to do an errand and it took some courage I tell you! I have only ridden it around the neighborhood and certainly not near anything resembling a busy street, but today the sun was shining, I had an errand to do and off I went and came back alive. Think I'm going to get a reflector vest to wear with"Ebiking Granny" on the back so motorists will know just what they are dealing with out there!! Too much fun!!!

Gondola Rides

This summer I seem to have had such a variety of new experiences - and they have taken on the guise of bucket list items! The first such adventure encompassed two items - we visited the Rockies for the first time as a family AND while there, I got talked into a gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain and once up there I was treated to THE most spectacular and everchanging views of the mountains up close and personal. The ride up to the top was very scary, what with all that swinging around in the air, suspended by cables, but once up there - the view was breathtaking. Certainly a bucket list item...