The Yellow Sweater

Before we left for Florida in December of 2016, Aunt Peggy asked me if I could make her two sweaters while I was in Florida.  Of course, I readily agreed.  Once we were settled in, I bought some nice yellow yarn and started the sweater. But, before I got it finished, I received the news of her illness, which was followed by our trip to Canada and arrival just in time to say Good-bye.  When we got back to Florida I didn't really feel like working on it at all.  Eventually, however, I finished up and put it away to bring home with me.  So, when we arrived back home in April, I pressed it and got it ready.

It looked like this.  After thinking long and hard about what I should do with it, I decided to give it to a wonderful lady named Delores, who lives at the Atrium, where Aunt Peggy lived for the last 4 years of her life.  Delores donates a lot her time helping other residents there, who are unable to perform some of the everyday things, that most of us take for granted.  She even helps out the staff in the dining room.  Thus, she often did nice things for Aunt Peggy, who often mentioned to me that she would like to give Delores something nice to say "Thank you".   I delivered it about two weeks ago and every time I see Delores, she says "thank you" to me.  She tells me it fits perfectly.  I am so glad!

It's Clean!

When Poppa got all that cleaning done at the villa in Florida............

....... it was time for a visit with the Preece family before we left for Canada!  As you can see, Allison shares my passion!  We had a great time sitting knitting and chatting.  Bob was doing his usual thing - any electronic!  This time he has a computer, but he has the most amazing camera too - which he took with him on his frequent visits to the amusement parks!

Somehow... Poppa still found some chores to do!

A few days later Joe and Claire arrived, and....

........ they brought Oliver - commonly known as Ollie - who has changed dramatically since last time I saw him when he was still and infant.  He is so cute...........

.......... and he loves his Grandma a lot..................but.............

.......... I think Grandpa became his favourite, when Ollie got to enjoy the spa - he absolutely loved it!  Poppa and Grandpa did get to go golfing a couple of times too, which made both of them smile, though not quite such a huge smile as Ollie in this picture!

Finally

Poppa and I are feeling better after working our way through a vicious cold that lasted for approximately a month.  Poppa is golfing again and there will be new posts starting again soon!  Thank you for  your patience!

Behind Again!

Hello from Canada!  Yes - we are back home.... but I've got some catching up to do!  We've been really busy and we both got nasty colds with even nastier coughs - and haven't been performing at our best!  Obviously, it even affected my blogging!  So.....back in Florida..........

.... Taffy and Squeegie were hanging out in the palm tree at the front of the house, just enjoying the nice Florida weather, while....

.......... Poppa was doing some of the same, in between....

.... replacing the batteries in the smoke detectors, and....

.... finishing up the light fixtures, including....

......... the light fixtures in the lanai.....

........ and the lawn furniture.  After a while.....

...... it got too hot outside, so he came back in and wiped down the kitchen cupboards, while.....

......... I freshened up the paint on two of Liz's garden critters,

....... Squeegie ate Poppa's dessert and drank his tea!

I finished these and called them Silly Browns.  Yep - I'm working on using up odds and ends of skeins again.  I dropped all the brown bits into a plastic baggie, then got Poppa to grab randomly from the bag, and that is the colour I used until it ran out, then he grabbed another one - the picture shows you the results!  I also,

....started packing up some of our stuff in anticipation of the drive home, which was becoming more imminent with each passing hour!  Back at home........

.... Aunt Muffy had another visitor.  They played some games at the kitchen table....

...... took a break so Mommy could get a photograph for me!  This is Munchie and Muffy!

And He Cleaned.....

...... that beautiful master bath from top to bottom.......

........ the furniture and the blinds and the light fixture in the dining room.....

......... all the horizontal surfaces in the front entrance...

......... even the entire office.........

....... he did the blinds and the furniture in the great room.....

...... and in the third bathroom.......

...... he even did the laundry room, including that spot that I always miss (because I can't see the dust up there!), the top of the cupboards!

He wandered around the house, cleaning all the door frames and baseboards........ whew!  It made me so tired watching him....

....... that I sat down and made some more socks!  Can you tell that they are made from odds and ends of yarn from other socks???  Oh yes.....

....... a cat cartoon for all you knitters and yarn lovers out there.  Do you recognize the brand name of the yarn label????

Lucy!!!!

May I present....

..........Lieutenant Lucy of the US Navy!  She makes quite a statement with her pink sneakers to put a feminine touch to her naval uniform.  This is Curtie's new bear.  He wanted a girl bear, but he also fell in love with the navy uniform - and Lucy is the outcome!  Isn't she cute???  Shortly after.....

..... our excursion to the Build-A-Bear store, Mommy was chatting with Daddy about when they would arrive back home.....

........... Munchie helped the bears finish their colouring projects....

....... there was one more pool adventure, and soon....

........ our little boys were boarding an airplane, and after a fantastic vacation in Florida....

........ they slept on the plane until it landed back in Canada.  Sweet dreams little guys!  Meantime, back in Florida, things returned to normal....

.......... and Poppa started his cleaning in preparation of our own departure from the sunny south back to the frozen north.  David and Allison will arrive tomorrow in the late afternoon and after a couple of days visiting with them, we will head north too.

Then There Was the Day....

....... when I spotted......

......... Poppa and the boys headed up the road to.........

...... the community clubhouse where there is this large pool for use of residents in the development (that's us for about 3 month/year!) where David\s new house is located.  That's not the clubhouse you see, just a cabana which can be rented for the day should you desire.  There is even a poolside bar (not a swim-up).

But, the boys were more interested in playing in the pool than any of that other stuff....

........ Munchie went floating by demonstrating his relatively new ability to do the back-float......

......... then he celebrated the fact that he swam all the way across the pool (which he proceeded to do several times!).  Curtie also.......

.... checked out the splash pool and posed nicely..........

.......... while his older brother floated somewhere down the lazy river.  They spent a couple of days playing there and they came home.....

........ ready to relax for a while with Mommy as I made supper, and....

.... the bears were all busy colouring Mickey Mouse related pictures...

......... then Mommy and Poppa did the dishes, and pretty soon....

.... they were once again snuggled with Poppa, having some quiet time before bed.  Of course, this visit precluded quite a bit of knitting.....

........ just look at all this un-knit yarn!  But....

......... I did get some knitting done.