Aunt Grumpy will have warm feet.....

....because Poppa picked some socks for her.  Aunt Grumpy can't see the pictures on her computer at work, so she always says to pick a pair for her.  She actually got to pick a pair while she was in Florida visiting.  But...her first pair that was mailed to her from Florida (before her visit) never arrived in her mailbox!  She has given strict instructions that this pair be held for her and she will pick them up next time she is visiting in our city.  Anyway, since I picked her last pair, I asked Poppa to pick this time - since he is her big brother.  He picked these for her...

...and I'm sure she will like them since he picked them for her! 

More Sox News

Aunt Muffy has chosen her socks.  She chose the ones I had picked for her!  I'm doing really well on that guessing game this time!  She picked the pretty blue stripes, and I know her favourite colour has always been blue.  They look like this....

..........I hope she likes them when they arrive - I think she will.  The posts will be short for a while, since I have some network issues, but I'll do the best I can.  Auntie Pauline is now picking her socks.  And...the sixth pair has been spoken for by Becky.   If anyone is interested in another sock giveaway, please let Taffy know.  If there is enough requests I will do another round...if not then I think Auntie Colleen wants all of them!

A Message from Auntie Colleen

"Look who Uncle Shaun found in our backyard this morning: The Easter Bunny! He was quite tired out from his delivery work the night before so he stayed still long enough for Shaun to get a good photo.

Happy Easter to All!"

Munchie Comes for a Visit

Much to my dismay, on the evening of the 17th (a week ago), I looked out the back door in the early evening and saw this............

..........yes it is!  Snow!  Yikes!  The bears had to get their winter coats out again!

Thankfully it had disappeared the next day.........because on Tuesday, Mommee brought Munchie and little Smiley for a visit.  This was lovely since it had been a long winter missing them.  Just before it was time to go to Aunt Peggy's for her supper, they arrived.  We went into town and when we returned home (bearing KFC), the three of them were playing happily in the toy room (parlour).

The ride from their new house is longer than the ride from their apartment, so they were all a little tired by the time we had eaten.  So...it wasn't too long after we had eaten, the little ones were packed off to bed for the night.  Little Smiley woke up for some nourishment a couple of times during the night, which disturbed Mommee  a little, but the rest of us slept soundly.  The next day was a busy one.  After breakfast, Poppa and Munchie had some play time.  Little Smiley was a little shy when he arrived, but on Wednesday he and I got re-acquainted.  It didn't take too long until he was used to Poppa and Nanna again and would spend time with either of us.  He isn't crawling yet, but does what Mommee calls "the slap and slide", he slaps his little hands out in front of him and then pushes with tiny feet and pulls himself ahead.  Soon he will figure out that it is easier if he gets up on his knees, but for now he is happy slapping and sliding.  When it was time to go to Aunt Peggy's on Wednesday, Munchie got all bundled up....

..........and climbed into Poppa's truck.....

 to go and see Great-Gramma Eileen.  Mommee and Little Smiley came with me to Aunt Peggy's.  We all met there later, and headed home for supper.  Munchie had a cookie for dessert.

And, once supper was cleaned up, it was once again time for the little people to get their jammies on...

...Munchie played with Poppa....and Little Smiley played with Mommee.........

...........and so to Thursday and time to go back to their house.  But it was OK, since we had plans to go to their house on Saturday!  See you soon boys!

Next Pair

Auntie Colleen has chosen her socks - she picked the pair that I thought she would - they are the first in the sock giveaway that are her beloved earth tones.  They look like this....

Now Aunt Muffy is choosing her pair............I'll let you know which ones she chooses!

Sox Giveaway Is Under Way!

What a running start!  Mommee called about her income tax, and picked socks while she was on the phone.  Here are the socks she picked.

Then I hung up the phone and checked the laptop and there was an e-mail from Gramma there already.  So I sent her off the pictures of the remaining five pairs of socks and early next morning, she responded with her choice.

Right now Auntie Colleen is making her selection.  I'll let you know as soon as she has done that.

Sox Giveaway Is Ready!

For anyone who is interested in another sock giveaway..........now is the time to let Taffy know.  Her e-mail address is taffy.robert@gmail.com and she is eagerly awaiting getting some mail there!  We are following the same procedure as before.  I know the weather is warming up - but you won't have to wait next fall - you'll have a brand new pair waiting!

Home At Last!

We arrived home in the early evening on Monday.  After we unloaded the car I put on a warm jacket and took a quick scout around outside where I was confronted with this....

...........yes - that's snow in our backyard!  SNOW!  Yuck!  I'm happy to report that it is gone now.  Poppa went out and moved some of it out to the sunnier part of the yard.  But, that day it was right there looking cold, so I tried to work up some enthusiasm when I found this little fellow...

....popping out in the flower bed at the side of the garage, and in the side yard I noticed...

...that the irises were also emerging into the sunlight.  These seemed like promising signs of spring being imminent.  And then I thought about spring in Florida which was already fully sprung.  The fruit trees were blooming...

....I'm not even sure what kind of fruit these trees will produce, but they looked beautiful!  I already showed you the orange blossoms which scented the air around the villa for days....

.........there were also these fabulous flowering trees........

.....there were a lot of these in the little city where we drove to the Post Office every week to mail our packages to our little boys......or those silly sock packages to the people back home.  Of course, there were the bougainvillea trees and bushes....

...these were absolutely gorgeous.  They were about ten feet high and just up the road from the villa.  Even the little hedge in front of the villa was bursting into bloom.

And, on one of our very last strolls around the neighbourhood, we saw these lovely trees.

We have been strolling past these little trees for years now, and didn't even know that they bloomed.  And, along that same route we noticed something else that made us smile.  For the past few years, when we have been visiting the villa, we have strolled the same route.  I think it has been five years now.  Every time we walked past the area in the picture above, we wondered why nobody replaced the little conical shaped trees - you can see on to the right of the flowering trees in that picture.  Well, imagine our surprise, when a couple of weeks after taking the picture above, we discovered this...

......see the conical shaped tree in the centre of the picture?  All those little trees that we thought were dead had come to life!  We were in Florida a couple of weeks longer and later than we had been previously, thus we had never seen these little trees come out in leaf!  Oh yes - I must tell you about a couple more things before I end this post.  Remember the photo of the trees that the landscape crews chop off every year?

Imagine our delight this year to see them sprouting branches.  We had wondered during all our previous visits just what these little trees would look like when they grew.  While they weren't in their full glory yet when we were leaving, they did give us a hint.

This is the one that we fondly call "ours" - it grows right by the garage at the villa - just look at the proliferation of little branches growing out of those chopped off branches.  Oh my!  I almost forgot to show you the........

...bottle brush tree.  This tree was about 12 feet tall and had a plethora of these unique flowers - and yes, they really do call it a bottle brush tree!  And then, there was the best flower of all.  Last year when the weather was so unusually chilly in Florida, the hibiscus bushes at the front of the villa had all but died.  We wondered if they would ever recover, even though the landscapers snipped them down quite dramatically.  They looked much better this year and were bushing out quite nicely into leafy branches.  We kept hoping they would have flowers before our company arrived in March, but it didn't happen.  However, just a couple of days before we were due to head north, we were ever so pleased to see this....

....little bloom peeking out from near the bottom of the bush.  Last, but not least, I found this amazing speciman growing along the edge of the sidewalk one day.....I guess reminding Poppa of some of his chores when he arrives home.

Yes, dandelions make an appearance everywhere, even in Florida!

So, perhaps now, you can understand why those little sprouts in our flower beds in Canada just didn't seem as exciting as they might have.  I have lots of other photos of plant life flourishing in Florida this year, but I'll save them for later.

Of special note!!!!  Sock Alert!!!!!  The sixth pair is finished and I will be posting the Sock Alert Blog later today!

To Visit Munchie

On Monday morning, we woke up bright and early to a lovely sunshiny day.  We went for breakfast at the restaurant next to the hotel, and drove past the falls one more time.  Although it was early, there were already sightseers out and about....

....and a few natives out for their early morning exercise....

....and although the sun was trying to shine, it was windy and chilly and misty as you can see.  So after that brief drive-by we headed to Munchie's house.  When we arrived in the driveway I took a few minutes to get my first look at their house in person.  The pictures don't really  do it justice - it is really cute and I was very pleased with their choice.  I phoned and asked to speak to Munchie.  We chatted for a couple of seconds and then I asked him if he could open the front door for Poppa.  I watched and saw that front door opening.  Munchie still had the phone in his little hand and when he shouted "POPPA" it almost took out my eardrum!

I didn't think he was ever going to let go of Poppa's neck, but eventually I got my hug too!  And, waiting inside was a really cute couple.  Remember the pictures of Little Smiley and Poppa that I posted for your consideration?  Well...now take a look at these two people!

Yep!  That's Mommee and Little Smiley!  The little guy has grown so much while we were away.  He is sitting up, running in the walker and has developed his own method of mobility which Mommee calls the slap and slide.  He smacks his little hands out in front of him and then slides up to them...so adorable!  After a visit, Poppa and Munchie decided to go and get us a treat for lunch.  Since it was drizzling out, Munchie put on his raincoat, Poppa got his jacket out of the car and away they went.

As you no doubt noticed, it was overcast, drizzly, windy and chilly now that we were really and truly in Canada.   And, typically, the visit was soon over.  Little Smiley went for a nap.  Poppa and Munchie read a couple of stories, Nanna and Munchie had a game of make-believe with Squeegie, Mommee had a shower (while we amused Munchie) and then it was time to go.  Poppa wanted to miss rush hour traffic in the big city - and even so there was a lot of traffic on that busy highway between their house and ours.  On the other hand, it was going to feel good to finally be home!

The Trip Home 2011

On our last day at the villa, we did the remaining laundry, re-made the bed, put away the towels, vacuumed up our footprints, and left.  Oh yes, one last thing before we headed north, Poppa swept the front walk and the driveway.

 

It had been very windy on Friday and there were little leaves and things all over the place - even some of the bark from the flower beds!  Once he was satisfied with everything, we got into the car and headed towards home.  It was a lovely day and the temperature was about 82F when we left.  The forecast had it going up to 94F before the day was done!  So, with our shorts on, the windows open and the sun shining we set out.  It was a lovely drive until we reached South Carolina.  The temperature was 27C and it was still sunny, when an alert came on the radio, announcing a tornado watch for south and central South Carolina.  We decided that since we were quite close to North Carolina, we would probably be out of range by the time it got there.  Oops!  Wrong conclusion!  We were almost to North Carolina when the sky turned black and it was just like driving in the middle of the night.  We kept going (and praying at the same time!), but soon it started to hail.  Poppa pulled off to the side of the road to keep the hail from hitting the car any harder - it was kinda scare-ey!  A lot of other cars pulled off too.  When the hail stopped we started moving again - hoping it was over.  Nope!  We drove through another dark-as-night storm, with heavy rain and dramatic lightening - but at least no hail!  It was rather early to call it a day, but there were still tornado warnings out, so we decided to stop for the night, just north of Charlotte, North Carolina.

We awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to hit the road again!  We had thought about stopping for a visit with Becky and Whitey, but decided that we had lost time already and just wanted to get home.  Also, due to the fact that there had been severe storms and they both work for the power company, we thought they might be busy at work.  Once again, we were sailing along in a beautiful day, with temperatures in the high 20'sC.  Before long however, we found ourselves at a standstill.  There was a road crew out paving (on a Sunday no less!) and the traffic was reduced to two lanes, which naturally slowed everyone down.  This long construction zone lost us about two hours!  Once we got past the paving, the traffic cleared up and spread out and all was good.  Across the border into Virginia and darned if we don't hit another traffic jam.  We assumed it was another construction zone, since there were signs out.  After about half an hour of stop and go, we reached the critical area and discovered that there had been a fatal accident.  Believe it or not, the temperature stayed around 27C all the way to Buffalo.  As soon as we got that close to Lake Erie, it dropped dramatically down to about 13F - Brrrr!  The windows were quickly closed!  So............we reached this place...

....about two and a half hours later than we had anticipated.  It was still beautiful - there was so much mist, and the water temperature was still so cold, there was ice and snow along the edges and heaped at the bottom.  I could get the best picture of this on the American side of the falls.....

...and even then it was hard to actually capture the ice and snow, since it was mostly obscured by the mist.  We checked into the Day's Inn on Victoria St. - which we found pleasant last year - and got the very same room!

Taffy thought it had been a long day and couldn't wait to get comfortable and watch TV!  Hee!  So, once again we retired for the night, with a plan to stop in and see Munchie the next day!

We're Home

Hi everyone!  We arrived home safely.  All is well.  There is hardly any snow left - thank goodness!  We have been quite busy getting back to normal.  I'll post details of our trip home soon.  We stopped in to see Munchie and Little Smiley along the way.   Here's Munchie wearing his silly socks - he seems to like them.

 Their new house is really nice and they seem to have settled in quite comfortably.  All the folks at home are doing fine and it was nice to see everyone again.  Good night!

Last Post From Florida in 2011

As you have already guessed from the title - this is our last day in Florida.  We will be on the road tomorrow morning.  The weather has been so glorious this year, it makes me sad to leave.  Poppa is sitting outside right now, reading his book with his bathing suit on.  I think the plan is to have a swim, go for an early supper, come back and swim some more, then load the suitcases into the car in preparation for the trip back up north.  Sigh!  We remembered to take our "letter" from Munchie off the fridge...

....I folded it carefully and packed it up for the fridge at home.  Poppa found a flower on the hibiscus bush at the front of the villa...the first one this year...

.........spring has sprung all over the place down here!  It is so beautiful and green everywhere.  Last week, Squeegie got all ready, grabbed his clubs...

...helped Poppa put the big clubs in the car....

...and they went for their last trip to the golf course.  While they were gone Taffy sat outside and read her book....

.....and as you can see, she was nearly at the end and got it finished before they returned.

I have five pairs of socks for the next Sock Giveaway and have started the last pair.  For those of you who are interested here is a sneak preview....

..of the five pairs in this group so far.  I should warn you - the last pair is very different, so don't get your mind all set on one of these in case you like the new ones better!  I will be in Canada before the next giveaway....so you can ruminate on these until then.  As soon as I finish that last pair I will post the opening - first come, first serve, as usual - so be prepared!

I will not be posting again until we arrive in Canada.  I just don't want to chance those unsecured networks in hotels along the way.  So........thanks for reading with Poppa, Squeegie, Taffy & I while we were in Florida - more in three or four days!  Hugs to all.

It Was HOT in Florida Today!

How hot was it you ask?  I'll tell you how hot it was.  Since we only have four days left, and we love the beach - Poppa and I decided to visit Siesta Key one more time.   After visiting Sizzlin' Grill for breakfast and stopping at the villa to drop off the bears (it was too hot in the car for their fur) we were all ready for another day at the beach.  We wore our bathing suits, since Poppa thought he would like to go in the Gulf for a swim - and I wanted the option of getting wet.  We stopped for gas and a bottle of Sprite Zero, and headed for the west coast of Florida.  There was quite a lot of traffic.  After driving for about an hour and 45 minutes, the beach was in our view!  The parking lot was jammed, so Poppa sat patiently and waited for another vehicle to leave, so we could pull into their spot.  With anticipation we hopped out of the car and decided to leave our shoes in the trunk, so we wouldn't have to carry them.  We were at the row in the parking lot that was furthest away from the beach, so we set off across the parking lot in our bare feet.  By the time we got to the beach I noticed that my feet were hurting.  Assuming it would be a temporary thing that would disappear when I stood in the water, we carried on.  As usual we strolled along in the surf for about an hour and a half.  During that time Poppa decided to take his plunge into the salty water.  The board on the lifeguard tower said the water temperature was 75F degrees.  It actually did feel quite nice - and he waded out far enough to swim - and then worked his way back to the shore - where I waited with some anxiety as the waves were quite pronounced - but he arrived safely.  Finally we decided it was time to get back to the car and head for home in time for supper.  My feet were really hurting by now so Poppa stooped to get a good look at them - and declared that they were blistered!  All we had done was walk across that hot pavement.  Furthermore, when we arrived back at the villa and I limped out to the pool for a swim - I discovered that Poppa also had blisters on his toes!  OK - definitely the pavement - AND - that's how hot it was in Florida today!

I didn't get any pictures - I didn't want to carry the camera in case I decided to get wet.  I did get splashed in the waves and was damp enough to sit on a plastic bag and a towel on the trip home - so it was good that I didn't bring that camera with me.  But, I can share a picture I received from Auntie Colleen!  This one rather lessened the negative impact of having to return to Canada!  I received it on March 21st.

I was quite pleased to read these words - "Our first shot of our first Robin of Spring."

Of course, I can also show you a picture I received from Mommee of our little grandsons!

Little Smiley is practicing to be a "big boy" and sit on Munchie's booster seat!

Daddee is already working on new house projects!

And, Munchie is dreaming of being an NHL star, while trying on Daddee's hockey helmet! 

It seemed to require an adjustment or two before it felt just right!

But he got it and asked if he could get some skates for Easter (which is looming immediately after our return to that colder climate!).  I'm pretty sure that Daddee suggested he wait until his birthday in October - since they are expecting milder weather soon!