The Floor

Eventually...........

........... we got past the Mickey Mouse hydro pole, where the traffic was lined up to get out of Disney (remember that from my last post?)...........

........... and we got to a place where we saw something besides brake lights on the vehicles in front of us.... during March Break the traffic is horrendous in Florida - we don't even go any place if we can avoid it!  The next day Poppa went back to that new house some friends of ours bought.....

.... he carefully pulled off some sticky tape that was on the floor - for some reason which we cannot quite figure out....

................ he took a look around to decide where to start, and began spraying some cleaning solution on the most soiled areas.  Once....

.......... he had found a comfortable place for Squeegie (the supervisor) to sit, he got right down to business with his mop and bucket.....

........... Squeegie supervised, and.........

........... took a look around when it was finished to check for remaining scuzzy spots.....

.......... and when he pronounced it satisfactory, Poppa took a few more minutes to mop the entrance ledge.....

......... and I bet you've already guessed what I was doing during this endeavour!  So here....

....... is another pair of socks, Ref. S16-16.

Only A Couple of Weeks.....

.......... and then we'll be on our way north again.  They have had some wintery weather up there lately - I hope it clears up before we  arrive in that vicinity!  Meanwhile, we are enjoying the wonderful Florida weather down here!  We stopped over at Denis and Liz's place....

...... so Poppa could give the little bushes he planted some water, as we had been having a dry spell.  While he was there...........

.... he checked the sprinklers...........

..... while I admired the spring flowers opening on the shrubs.  On the trip home.......

........... I was trying to get some more pictures of the interesting buildings we see when we travel, but the traffic is so thick during March break that it was almost impossible!  At about this point, Poppa decided it might be quicker to take the main highway....

.......... oops!  Maybe not such a good idea!  The line of traffic you see on the right hand side is waiting to merge with the traffic we are currently stopped in.  We are on the main highway and that line of the right is coming OUT of Disney World.  There was equally long line heading the other direction going IN to Disney!  Just the right time of day - or wrong time of day, depending on where you were heading!

I took this picture so you could see the price of gas was $1.79 US/gallon.  It has jumped up since then to $1.99/gallon - which caused our Cdn dollar to gain some, but it has since dropped again - sigh!  So, on a happier note.....

........... Taffy wore her new blouse again, but this time paired it up with white shorts and some new blue and flowered ear bows that she bought at the flea market for an extremely reasonable price.  And.....

.......... I am still knitting and reading (if you look at the bottom right of the picture you can see my book and my sun visor).  Which means.............

....... here is another pair of finished socks.  These are made from Regia Cotton - which is different from the wool socks I usually knit, but I thought I would give it a try since I liked the muted colours!  The reference is S19-16 for this pair.

From A High Point

Remember Auntie Pauline's comdo way up high in the big city?  She has the most wonder ful view with windows along both sides of her unit and a balcony overlooking one side as well.  Recently she sent me some wonderful pictures she took ............

 This is the view of  a building across the street - I believe it is a large grocery store.  As you can see, thee is a large crane pulling up alongside the building.

It stops there and begins to unfold the crane extensions as she watches!  So, she stays there with her camera....

.... as it continues to unfold, while she wonders exactly what is happening.

When the arm of the crane is fully extended, it becomes clear that it is not doing anything to her building, but rather the building across the street - which means she can still see what is happening!

She isn't sure what they did, but Poppa is guessing it was repairs to the heating system in that large building.  Ignoring that - look at the view!  I love her condo, for various reasons, but the view certainly contributes!

 The arm is angled in the other direction!

 All the way to the top of this high rise building next door to Auntie Pauline's building.  I'm sure glad I'm not the person who has to work up there!

Now, the crane comes down and....

.......... begins to fold up in preparation for leaving!  What a fantastic series of shots from a fantastic position to watch!  Thank you Auntie Pauline - and keep enjoying that view for us!  Of course,  Taffy wants to continue her fashion show..........

......in this layered suntop with white shorts and purple ear bows to highlight the purple on the top layer of the top.  Needless to say it was a lovely hot day when she was wearing this.  Under her careful supervision....

............ I managed to finish these socks, Ref. S18-16.

More Fashion

The day we made that trip to the Florida mall, Taffy chose a couple of outfits to spend her Christmas money on, and she wanted to show you......

......... this new top.  As you can see (if you look closely), she is wearing her bright pink shorts with it, and bright pink ear ribbons to highlight the pink in the top.  Why is she laying down?  Well, she was relaxing and.......

........... watching the View.  What was I doing?  Well, I wasn't reading this time....

....... I was knitting until I stopped to take some pictures.  And Poppa??  Well, some friends of ours recently bought a new house near us, and he went over to sweep out the garage for them.  I didn't go, so I didn't get any pictures.

Another Happy Birthday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!!!  As luck would have it (the luck of the Irish?) today is also....

.... Taffy's birthday!  Oops!  I thought I was getting a picture, but she couldn't wait to dig into her birthday bag to find out what we bought for her.  It sure didn't take her long to get the stuff out.....

....... and drape it over the pillow so I could get a picture to show all our readers!  She has decided that you, our readers!, should get to see her wearing them, which led to the decision for her to do a fashion show for you.  So, for the next few days you'll get to see what she is wearing each day.  She wanted to start with today.....

........ so here she is with a stylish ruffled suntop paired with colour co-ordinated bright pink shorts and matching ear fluffs!  On another note, I have a small confession to make.  Sometimes....

............. I sit outside - and I'm not knitting!  Can you believe it?  But I have a really good reason!  David - the owner of our villa - read a James Patterson book featuring Alex Cross, which I had left here (since Poppa & I had both finished it).  It appears that he got hooked on Alex Cross.....

.... when we arrived this year, he made sure that I noticed, he had purchased every book in the Alex Cross series - including the very latest one - and had left them in a basket (which I think Allison bought to store her yarn in!) so that I could read any of them I wished.  So I made up a list of the Alex Cross novels in the correct sequence....

...... and started reading..... I had read the first one, and the second one, but I re-read them so I could remember what had happened - it didn't take long though since I could skim through parts of them.  I am currently reading the ninth book in the series.  They are great books for reading while on vacation.  There are no complicated details to remember, and only enough characters to keep the book interesting - not so many that you can't remember who everybody is, and an intriguing and interesting and fast-paced plot - so you don't want to put them down once you start.  I still love Lee Child novels featuring Jack Reacher - but they are a little deeper.  These are great - as I said - for a holiday in Florida.  The tricky part is that I still have eleven left to read - and I've read only two of them - and our time is now down to less than a month - so I'm going to run out of time!  However, David has promised he will make sure they are available next year so I can continue!  Hurray - thanks David!

Another Birthday!

This birthday deserves a post of its very own.  How many people do you know who are over 100 years old?  I only know one, and here is this very special person.....

.......... my Aunt Peggy who turned 101 on March 14th!  Behind her are two people who have been her friends for a long time.  Gail Hayhurst who is the daughter of a long-time friend of Aunt Peggy's who used to come to Florida with her many years ago!  The other lady is Robbie Sallows.  Robbie is a friend of Aunt Peggy's who worked with her at a local community established to provide challenged adults a friendly neighbourhood environment.  They have remained friends over the years.  Robbie has helped Aunt Peggy in numerous ways over the years and become a good friend of ours too.  There were lots of other people there that day, including relatives, and my sister, Aunt Cecile sent me this picture.  Happy Birthday and Congratulations to Aunt Peggy!

Whassup?

When we arrived in Florida the weather was very hot and very sunny.  But the day we moved into the villa for the winter, it cooled down dramatically and....

........... Taffy was wearing this outfit (Star Wars was playing at the local theatre - no we didn't see it, but she is a fan).  Squeegie, likewise....

... was wearing an outfit that looked as though we were still in Canada!  But, now.....

............. Taffy is in her sundress and Squeegie.....

........... got a brand new outfit to wear in the hot weather!  Poppa has .......

.... done a few chores over at Denis' and Liz's place........ and me...........

....... I made another "special order" pair of socks.  These are for Aunt Jeannie.  She has a lot of trouble with her knees and finds it difficult to bend them enough to get her handmade socks on.  But, we discovered that it is much easier if they are a little bigger than the regular socks.  So, I made these for her.  I hope she likes them and finds them comfie and warm.

Our Little Boys and Other Stuff

Back home in Canada, our little boys are getting more and more grown up.  Recently, at their school....

....  the Grade Two class came to visit the Senior Kindergarten class to help the little ones read.  I was quite pleased to see that Munchie got paired up with his little brother, Curtie; and here they are.  Munchie is the one in red and Curtie is in navy-blue.  How adorable!

And, as you probably knew I would, I quit knitting long enough to see exactly what Poppa was doing out in the lanai.

Have you figured it out yet?  He's washing something in the bucket...........

.......... I got a closer look, and then, suddenly I knew what he was doing..........

......... just look at all those sparkly clean golf clubs lined up to dry!  He hasn't got any golfing in yet because he has had a sore foot - but maybe it is starting to feel better now!

While I was taking the pics of Poppa I noticed how pretty the yard looked next door to us.  I took the picture through the screen, so it isn't clear - but isn't it nice?  Once I had taken this picture, I sat back down....

......... and did some more knitting!