News

Honestly, there will be a new post soon.  Unfortunately - there have been two deaths in Poppa's family recently - and we have been busy.  Last Thursday, May 24th Poppa's Aunt Rita was laid to rest after a short illness.  She had been experiencing the symptoms of Alzheimer's for the last several years.  The Friday before she died she had a wonderful day with all her immediate family - remembering all of them and reminiscing about happy times.  At 12:30am on May 25th, Cousin Denis received a call that another of Poppa's cousins had been taken to the hospital.  This is the cousin in Toronto whom Poppa has been visiting regularly for many years, and along with Liz and Denis, making sure that George was well looked after.  We were saddened to learn of George's death on Saturday, May 26th.  George's funeral service will be held on Wednesday afternoon, May 30th.  As you might imagine - this has kept us very busy.  Poppa is finalizing the funeral arrangements here in our city, as that is where George spent most of his life.

After all that sadness  - here is a cheery and cute picture to finish since I am off to work shortly....

.......... yes - Munchie still has blue eyes!

New Blog Post....

...........coming soon!  Life has been kinda busy..... and right now I'm heading off to work....... more later!

Spring

Spring has definitely arrived in our area - at last!  Taffy has....

... finally unpacked her shorts and put them on in order to enjoy the warm weather.  We are seeing....

... flowers on the bleeding hearts. If I lean out over the fence, I can see....

.... lily of the valley just about ready to bloom - soon their aroma will fill the air when we walk down the side of the garage. Yesterday before I left for work.....

.... I attached some leaves to Auntie Colleen's tea toque... seriously wouldn't this make a great toque if I added a few flowers and a big poofie one on the top?  I know - a change of topic - but looking at the leaves on the lily of the valley made me think about the tea toque.  Meanwhile......

..... there is actually a small bud on my peonies!  I love spring..... hey ..... wait a minute...........

.... what is Poppa doing now?  Good heavens!  Cement?  What next?  Anyway..... this morning on our way for breakfast....

..... we knew for sure it was spring when we saw this puppy with his head out the car window - enoying the lovely, mild weather!  And further down the road....

......... we spotted these trees in bloom and putting on a lovely display!  Oh yes - speaking of this morning and flowers.... this morning before we went for breakfast, I started planning the layout for....

... Auntie Colleen's tea toque - which is beginning to look more like a tea cozy with her teapot inside.  When we arrived home I snapped a shot of Poppa's house........

.... as you can see...all the treees are out in leaf - but we don't have our flowers out yet - maybe next weekend!  A couple more things.......

.......... I got the first side of Auntie Colleen's tea toque done.......now for Side Two.......Hee!  And..........

.... remember the night Munchie called to tell us about his big surprise - this picture is your clue!

Good Morning!

     It's been a few days since my last post - so I'll try to get up-to-date.    I went back to work - part-time only - starting last Wednesday & Thursday.  I will be helping Kev-Inn, since he is helping the boss with some things that are backed up.  It was quite fun and felt natural.  I was off on Friday to take Aunt Peggy for an appointment and go for a vist to see Gramma Grace, along with Auntie Colleen.  Aunt Peggy sailed through a small, out-patient surgical procedure to remove a lesion from her temple.   Poppa went with us to make sure that she was OK walking on her own afterward - but she was fine!  So we dropped her off for a nap and proceeded to Auntie Colleen's to pick her up.  Then Poppa dropped us off to visit with Gramma Grace while he went to her house to mow the lawn.  Gramma Grace seemed to be doing well and we had a nice visit.  When Poppa was finished with the grass, he popped in and stayed for a while visiting with her too.  Then it was over to drop Auntie Colleen off and keep going to get Aunt Peggy's supper ready (for me) and visit Great-Gramma (for Poppa).
     Sunday was Mother's Day - so after church and breakfast we stopped at Aunt Peggy's again - to check and see how she was doing (just fine!) and give her a card.  Then on to Great-Gramma's....

.... where the lighting isn't very good - but the subjects were perfect for this picture.  Gramma-Grace was feeling quite chipper and was happily knitting when we arrived.  We had a really nice visit and after a while left to move on to see Gramma Grace.  We were chatting for a while, when Poppa looked out the window and said.....

..... here comes Aunt Marcia!  So we got to have a chat with her too!  When we left she was still there - we hadn't seen her in a long time and enjoyed the opportunity to catch up.  I really should take the bigger camera for these shots - the lighting in this one is not ideal either!
   This morning, Poppa loaded some things into his big, red truck......

..... made a stop at the donut store for his morning coffee....

......... he wanted me to take this picture so you could see the chrome he bought in Florida, securely in place over the wheel wells.  Yes Poppa - it is a beautiful truck!  Anyway, after coffe, he headed down to Munchie's house.  Last fall he helped Daddy prepare a spot for a small vegetable garden, so now he's off to add some peat moss and plant some seeds!  Hopefully Mommy will get some pictures and send them to me so we can see the progress!
    Meanwhile Daddy has another project going on at Munchie's house.....

........... he has taken the awning off the front of the house in preparation of refurbishing the verandah.  The cement is crumbling and he wants to make it more attractive.  I have no idea what the end product will look like, but I'll keep you as informed as I can.  Curtie found a wandering but friendly cat.....

.... and he thought it would make a nice playmate for Blitzen - but Mommy explained the cat lived down the street and had to go home.  Meanwhile.....

.... I have started plotting the layout for Auntie Colleen's tea cozy, and as I was doing this I realized that.....

... I hadn't made any leaves for accenting around the edges..........so I've started making some....and I'd better get knitting because time is limited these days!  Which reminds me, starting next week I am going to work each day for four hours in the morning.  This will mean that Poppa won't need to get up so early to drive me in to work, he seldom needs the car in the mornings - so I will just drive myself and come home around lunchtime.  Now - back to the knitting kneedles!

More Flowers

Here is the second set of flowers ready for Auntie Colleen's tea cozy.....

... you probably guessed that the first set was a posy of daffodils. This set is a cluster of water lillies.... I know they don't go together at all, but they are so pretty and could really be any large flower!  When these were finished I made some......

... clematis.  Aren't they pretty with their spiky petals? I am having so much fun with this.... but pretty soon I'd better make the actual cozy so I have something to attach all these flowers onto.  Here is the group photo.....

...... along with the book that served as my inspiration for these particular flowers.  It is Knitted Flowers by Susie Johns.  There are 20 different flowers in this book - all knitted - and I am so happy to have it!  I have made several more flowers since then, but more on that later.  In the meantime, I have also squeezed a little reading.....

.....this is the third book in this series - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire preceded this one.  They are all good, but I am enjoying this one most of all.  Stieg Larsson has passed away - so this is the end of his books - and I am glad I have been able to read them.  Auntie Colleen is waiting for this one - and since I left Florida and started knitting flowers - it seems to be taking a long time to get to the end of this one.  Be patient Auntie Colleen - I am almost finished now!

News Flash!

      This is what knitted flowers look like.........

...... when they become a work in progress.  This is the very first batch of flowers I made for Auntie Colleen's tea cozy - which may take a little longer than I anticipated because......

    It is with mixed emotions that I am giving this report!  Yesterday I received a call from my former workplace asking if I would like to work part-time for a while.  With extra dollars for spending in Florida flashing through my mind I said "Yes!".  Now I am up bright and early, having a shower and preparing to head back to "the office".  There will be less time for blogging, knitting and walking to the donut shop - but I am actually looking forward to it as well.  I'm not sure at this point what hours or days I will be working - I will find out today what is required of me and decide from that point, after discussion with the boss, of course.
    On Sunday, Poppa and Squeegie went outside and shortly afterward I heard a noise at the front of the house.....

......... and when I went to investigate I realized that they were cutting the grass - the first time in 2012!  Poppa has already cut the grass and cleaned up the large flower beds at Gramma Grace's house - I've got pictures, but they are on the other camera and I haven't downloaded any pictures from it yet, since getting my laptopback.
     Speaking of the laptop - I apparently lost all the stuff I had on it previously.  The computer doctors installed a new, larger hard drive - that seems to work fine and is quite speedy - but they gave it a different name - and therefore the backup discs will not restore!  This is quite bothersome, but will give me something to work on in my spare time!  Unfortunately I have lost a lot of pictures that are now irretrievable - which is - well - the pits!
    Now - about that first batch of flowers.....

.......... this is what they look like when they have been assembled.  More later..........

Hurray!

     About 8:00pm today I got that all-important phone call!  My laptop is ready to pickup.  Unfortunately - at that time - Poppa had taken the car and gone to town to visit Home Depot and pick up some stuff he needed for a project he is working on - so I will have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up!  Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon sometime I will be able to post some pictures of those flowers I am making for Auntie Colleen's tea cozy.  Munchie called tonight to tell us about some important progress he had made with a project of his own - he is such a delight!
     Yesterday I received this delightful picture of a pro surfer in Hawaii.....

.......... you aren't going to believe me when I tell you the identity of this fine, young surfer!  When I say young - I'm not kidding!  This is Cousin Scott who just turned 8 in February!  Aunt Tricia and Uncle Andrew, along with Ian and Scott are vacationing in Hawaii and discovered that Scott had a natural talent for surfing.  I have heard that Scott - who was born in Bermuda, and has since moved to Canada - now wants to move to Hawaii, so he can go surfing more often!  Hang ten Scott!!!!

La-la-la Life Goes On

First, I'm happy to report that Great-Gramma is out of the hospital and feeling much better.  Second, my laptop is giving the repair crew a rough time and is still not ready to come home from the computer hospital.  Hopefully, they will get it sorted out and it will be home on Monday!  I sure do miss it!  If they can't fix it I will load pictures on this old computer so you can see the flowers for Auntie Colleen's tea cozy!  I have made a lot of them - and I am having so much fun!

Problems

A few problems...... nothing serious.  Great-Gramma (Poppa's Mom) is in the hospital.  She has a couple of infections which were quite bad, so she was taken to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.  As of last evening when Poppa went to visit - she was feeling quite a bit better and she expected to go home today.  I'll keep you updated as the news filters in.

Secondly, my laptop hard drive crashed and burned yesterday while Dr. Phil was on!  We took it to the repair shop after supper and I am awaiting a call to let me know when it is ready.  Fortunately I had just run backups on May 1st - so I will only lose a couple of days worth of stuff.  The good news is that the new hard drive will be larger than the original - more room for storage of pictures for the blog!  Hee!  I am using my 10 year-old Dell desktop which is rather slow sometimes, but keeps on clicking along - thank goodness.  I'm going to hold off posting pictures for a day or so - in the hopes that the laptop will be returned soon.... since it is easier to have all the pictures in one place!  In the meantime, I am still knitting flowers for Auntie Colleen's potential tea cozy.  I haven't picked a base colour yet for the cacophony of flowers - I'll have to hunt through my stash and see what I can find!

Second Cozy

Aunt Peggy wanted a tea cozy suitable for everyday use - one she didn't have to save for company.  So.....

.... I got this one done.........it's kinda plain isn't it?  I did catch Poppa relaxing with his.....

... funky new slippers on.  They kinda match his chair and he says they keep his feet nice and warm.  And yes...........

... I did make that little tea cozy a bit prettier!  I added a ruffle on the botton and then....

.... I added four little roses on the top.  Now it is pretty and practical - I hope!  Consequently, Auntie Colleen has requested a tea cozy for her LARGE teapot - the one she uses for company and she wants flowers on it - so I have started knitting flowers again........!