Colours and Lee

Autumn this year is certainly providing a beautiful display of colours.   

The trees are finally starting to change into the reds, oranges and yellows of Autumn.   It seems to have been a long time before they started to show  but once they start there is no stopping them.  A beautiful time of the year, which is made even more colourful with the aurora of the northern lights.   I have seen amazing photo's of them.  

Another colour, white.  On the roof tops yesterday morning was frost.  The first frost of the season, which seems to be quite late this year.  It was cold overnight, but no frost in the area this morning, however, there will be more to come in the future.

On Wednesday this week I went to the  movies.  Wanted so much to see "Lee".  It is a true story and has distant connection to my family.  This is a brief story.

Elizabeth (Lee) Miller was a photo journalist during the second world war.  She lived in Paris met Roland Penrose in London, UK, married  him in 1947 and had a son,  While in London, she hired a nanny to care for her son,  Anthony.  She and Roland also had a home in Sussex, UK and lived there after the war.   During the time at the village house in Sussex, the nanny would take the child to cricket matches on the village green.  At Christmas time ringers and caroler's would visit all of the houses in the village.   One of my cousins would be playing cricket and also was a bell ringer.  He met the nanny on many of those occasions, they fell in love and were married.  

The movie showed Lee in France and Germany taking  photo's of the horror of the war.  The movie ended with the son finding all of Lee's photo's in the attic of the house in the village, apparently he never knew what his Mother did during the war as she never mentioned it.  I can understand why as some of the things she must have seen were terrible.   

Lee's husband Roland was a great artist, and the house in the village has been visited by many well know artists when Lee was alive, she died in 1977.  Roland passed away in 1984.

The house is now a gallery showing her photo's and Roland's art. 

Unfortunately, the nanny, my cousin by marriage is no longer alive, she would have enjoyed seeing the movie.

Apparently, when the movie was shown near the village, Anthony, Lee's son opened the first showing of the movie about his Mother.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

To all of my Canadian readers, have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Have a great day

Cheers.

Where did September go

 It is hard to believe this is the last day of September where has this month has gone.  

On Friday, some fellow quilters and I went to a quilt show and lunch, a nice day with friends.  Home just in time to prepare my contribution for the pot luck dinner where I live.   Delicious food as always.

Today is my eldest daughters birthday, and I went with some of her family on Saturday for a nice dinner to help her celebrate.   The restaurant served a large selection of dishes, the ever present burgers and pasta.   I decided to have meal loaf, it was the best I have ever had, served with fluffy mashed potatoes and seasonal veg and bourbon flavoured gravy.  It was a large plateful,  too much for one meal, so I will have my "doggy bag" heated up for dinner tonight.

Yesterday, I went to an "Art in the Park" display of all kinds of crafty items.  Nice to look at, however, nothing really struck my fancy, so no purchases.  The person I went with then invited me to dinner.

Today, is the start of eating healthier again.

We certainly know it is Autumn, as soon as September 21st arrived the weather changed overnight.  No hot humid days of sunshine anymore. Nice days of sun, however, it does not have the heat in it for early morning and the evening any more.  The sun arrives a lot later than it did and then leaves earlier, I do not like the early dark evenings. The leaves are starting to change colour,  and the wild flowers are looking as if their days are numbered.  Today, we have some sunshine, so an afternoon walk will be on my agenda for today.

Last week I had my final CAT scan on my skull to check the blood clot I had from my accident.   Today I received a reply from the scan and all is clear, which was certainly good news to read.  

Quilt meeting on Wednesday, and I have some items to put the finished touches on, so better finish this and get in the sewing room.

Have a great day

Cheers.

Doors Open

 This past weekend in a city close to where I live it had a "Doors Open" program, which is.    In the city, forty four different organizations, churches,  museums and numerous other buildings and parks, open their doors to allow people who do not normally go into these areas to enter free of charge to look at everything there and receive information which you may not know about.  

My date and I decided we would visit two of the places yesterday afternoon.  First on the list was The Flight Aviation Museum.  Members of the Canadian Air Force provided information about all of the equipment, uniforms, photos and planes from  WWll.  One room was updated with computers and radios used at the present time.  It was occupied by a man who was obviously in the Air Force and he was in front of a computer looking at the military planes which were currently in the air.   The information received from him was certainly very interesting.  With the click of the mouse, he showed us all of the planes in the air all over the world.   Each plane was colour coded to show the altitude at which it was flying, and he could tell us what kind of plane it was and from which country it came from.  Several countries had so many planes in their air space you could not see the map.  Certainly an eye opener.   Pleased with our decision to go there and see something new.

Our next stop was a one of the Muslim Mosques.  I know very little about a Mosques and the people who attend the Muslim prayer meetings, but learnt a lot in the two hours we were there.  Some things I found difficult to understand as to the why, what and where for about the answers to my questions,  but it certainly opened our minds.  We attended a prayer meeting in a beautiful large room,  visited the library which contained copies of the Quran and other religious books all designed with lovely scroll designs.   We were too late to partake of some refreshment and have my hand decorated with henna.   When we were ready to leave we were given a goodie bag which contained an English copy of the Quran, several small brochures and a chocolate bar.  Not sure if I will read any of the Quran or the other pieces of information.  but I certainly had some of the chocolate bar.   Did I enjoy the time there, of course, I now know so many things about the men and women who belong to Muslim religion.

To finish off the day, we had a nice BBQ.

Have a great day'

Cheers 

Last day of Summer

 I do not like to think of it being the first day of Autumn tomorrow, as it means it won't be long before the weather starts to change.  Don't get me wrong I do like the cooler days as they do not have the uncomfortable humidity in them, and there is still some nice bright sunshine.   Then there is the beautiful colours of the leaves on the trees.  During my walks I can tread on the crisp leaves and hear them crunch during each step.  

The wires between the poles on the side of the roads are full of starlings all getting ready for the flight to warmer temps during the Winter.  When they take flight it is quite amazing to watch, as they all seem to change direction at the same time.  Soon, if your lucky you might see the sky full of geese as they also fly far enough south to find food for the Winter months.

It is a bit too early in my opinion, however, in the stores the shelves are full of Thanksgiving and Halloween decorations and costumes.   Might even see some Christmas items, if you look close enough..

My neck brace has been off now for a month and I can move my neck and shoulders now with very little pain, which is felt mostly in the morning when I get up as it has been in one position all night.  By the afternoon I am OK, so much so I have been able to drive.  Such a great feeling to not rely on my two daughters to take me where I want to go.  They have been such a great help, don't think I could have got through the last three months without them.   I still am unable to smell anything, however, as I keep telling myself, if that is the only thing wrong with me now, I should consider myself lucky as I could be a lot worse health wise.  

Thursday was such a lovely day, and the weekly forecast indicated some cooler temps and rain will be coming next week, so I decided to take myself to the beach.  Not a seaside beach, but the lakeside beaches we have a just like the seaside.  The lakes are so big all you can see is water and waves, seagulls and sand.  Chair, umbrella, packed picnic dinner, book, and sunglasses and off I went.   It was a lovely day, my picnic went down nicely.  A walk on the pier and looking in the westerly direction it did not look as if the sunset was going to be one of those spectacular ones as there were not clouds.  I decided it was time to go.  On the way home I have to pass a very popular ice cream store, just my luck it was open and as no dessert had been eaten yet, an ice cream cone fit the bill.  One scoop of raspberry sherbet, so refreshing and tasted lovely.  Then on my way, arriving home happy that I was able to have such a lovely day.

The meeting for the quilting group is coming up soon and I need to get sewing to finish off some things for show and tell, and also give one of our members a table runner for her Christmas bazaar.  It is a good thing those showery days are for most days next week.  

Have a great day.

Cheers.

Where did the year go

 It has been a year since I moved into this apartment, I don't know where all that time went.  

A lot has change, new furniture, some not new but new to me, happy with it all so that is all that matters.  Met up with old friends and have met a lot of new ones, things could not be better.

As I have noted before, I left the man I lived with, however, we still go out for a "date", which is all I want to do with him at the present time.  Not expecting it to change any time soon.  As I cannot drive at the present time, he took me to visit my sister yesterday.  I had a great afternoon visit with her.

When we came to Canada I was 12 years old and my sister "B" was 10 years old.  Being a couple years older than her I remember a lot more things than she does.  While drinking our coffee and having a snack she asked me about the house we lived in in England, the only thing she could remember was going into the door. which led to the kitchen.  I was able to tell her all that I knew, which was quite a lot really.  The layout of furniture for the kitchen, living room/dining room.  Stairs going up to the three bedrooms, the airing cupboard.  Outside where the loo was in the garden/storage shed, the gooseberry. red and black current bushes.  Where we would go pick primroses, and gather blackberries.   It was a really nice afternoon reliving our childhood, lots of laughs.   

We left quite late in the afternoon, but managed to get to the inter city baseball game that we had been to many times before.  A hot dog, nacho chips with cheese and a drink while we watched the innings slip by.   We shared a container of ice cream for dessert, then put on our sweaters as it was cooling down somewhat during the sixth inning.  Our team was not doing very well, and it did not appear that the rest of the game was going to improve for them.  At the end of the eighth inning it had become considerably cooler, so we decided to leave.  Turned the heater on in the car to take the damp chill off our bones.

I had a good day.

Not much happening today, it is Labour day here, most people are not working, however, have heard some stores are open.  This evening here in the apartment building is Trivia night I will be going just to see how much I don't know.  It's always a nice couple of hours.

Tomorrow my eldest granddaughter  is coming over for aa visit.  Busy on Wednesday, at my quilt meeting.

Have a great day

Cheers

Autumn on the horizon

The days of August are all but finished, and it certainly feels as if summer is also coming to an end.  The cooler nights makes the day take more time to warm up.  Today, Friday we do have a lovely sunny day,  and even more in the coming days.  No more humidity to make the air heavy and feel uncomfortable.

This is a holiday weekend here, Labour day on Monday, then all the school children go back to school on Wednesday.   There was a report on the news last night, about shortening the summer holiday of July and August, to only one month.  It noted several reasons for this change, much too long to write here today.  Personally, I think it would be a great idea, however, there are others who may not agree.

For the past couple of days the weather has not been so hot and humid, so I have started walking again..  Yesterday, I did 2 1/2 kms in the evening, hoping to do the same today.  Those extra steps are certainly needed as for the past three months have not done too much to burn off those calories and it certainly shows up on the bathroom scales.  

This evening is happy hour in my apartment building, now that I am on the mend, I will attend and may even take a G and T with me.  Saturday, DD2 is taking me grocery shopping, and either Sunday or Monday may have a chance to visit my sister.  Then on Wednesday the quilting guild I belong to starts up the monthly meetings.  Then on Saturday, next weekend, I finally get my hair cut.  I look as if I have been dragged through the hedge backwards.

Have a great day

Cheers

Feeling as if I am alive

It has been a long, long haul for me this summer, however, I am finally feeling as if I am alive.  I have some energy.

Gradually exercising my neck and shoulders to make them strong again, so many muscles must have been immobile for so long, as even a different movement makes them scream a bit.   

Since I have been home not much housework has been done, not that I needed a lot,  but I like to keep on top of all the jobs on a regular basis.  On Tuesday, I decided it was bathroom clean day, top to bottom, cupboards and floor, needless to say, I might have over did it even though it took me most of the day.  I recovered and did some sewing yesterday.  I made the block required for out quilting guild as our meetings start up again next week.

On Monday, I took another Covid test and it was negative.  All through the time I had Covid, there was a terrible metal taste in my mouth, today, it is finally gone.  Now, if I could finally get rid of the occasional bouts of coughing,  all would be good in my world.  This coughing has improved considerably, so hope in a few more days it will be gone.

I keep telling myself, I am very fortunate to be here, getting better every day, even though there have been set backs during the past three months.  It is great to be alive.

Have a great day

Cheers.