It is that time of year again – our clocks fall back and the fun begins
Hope all of you who like to participate have that candy already   Elmer bought a big box of chocolate treats for those who knock on our door this Tuesday night.

While going through all my Halloween graphics, I came across a few that brought back so many memories

Here are the Halloween Bears and accompanying soft books I made for each of our children who had families then. I know they are still going strong so many years later.

 Taken 16 years ago – Angela’s babies in their costumes, when they came to show them off and collect their candy from us. My how they have grown – the little one holding Shannon is the one who has just announced his engagement Our little Ming was so very much a part of their lives then. Sometimes it still feels strange he is not with us any more.

Here they are a few years later.

I am so hoping to get a pic of Jamie now with her witchy/Queen dress We were able to get it done on time, leaving her and sister to complete any other decorations she wanted to put on it, and I am so curious to see the final result.

As for me – yesterday I had my eyes tested – has been two years since it was done last, and when it came to not being able to see the eye of my needle, I knew it was past time to get new glasses. Next week Friday they should be ready!
Next week Wednesday I go to the dentist to get my final teeth (at least that is what he said) Folks I am both excited and terrified of this. I just hope my worst fears are not realized and I will be pleasantly surprized. After all, whatever the outcome, they are what I have to live with from then on.

Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!

Quite a bit has been happening since I last came in and wrote.

Second Grandson Brandon became engaged to his sweetheart. Such happy and exciting news.  Congratulations to you both.

Our weather has finaly turned into true fall – rain and much cooler weather. Elmer is such a darling and brought in those plants from the patio that do not like to be out now. He made a great place down in my ceramic room for their winter/Spring home. The cactus I brought into the livingroom, and placed back in their places for the next many months till Summer. My pride and joy – the big one, started to blossom immediately

Hopefully the other two will do so soon too, as I would love to see what color one is and the other has only flowered once so far.

Angela and I have still been helping Sheilagh out getting her place ready for the Winter and Spring. She had a lot of preparation to do, big old cedar? bushes to pull out and refix the bed they had taken over. Now all ready, we had to find the right plants to fill it. She received a whole bunch of Iris and others from SIL, I had a few to contribute too, and of course we spent a few days at our favorite Greenhouse Nursery looking for those special sales and plants
This week was their final clearance before closing for the winter, everything half price, between the three of us we spent a small fortune    My car trunk was just loaded with it all. First stop was at Sheilagh to unload her buys and help to plant as many as we could before our time ran out. Got about 2/3rds done, so will have to see what we can do to finish up later on in the week when time and no rain can coincide.
Then I dropped off and unloaded Angela and her goodies, before rushing home to get ready for GD Jamie.

I also treated myself to a few goodies of course – found some small perennial red and blue Salvia which I have wanted for some time – 2 for the price of one was good   They also had a whole table loaded with gorgeous small potted flowering Gerbera daisies – working out to $1.00 each when buying two. Who could resist. The only hard thing was to choose which ones you wanted and just how many as they have to go somewhere!

Here is what I bought in the end and planted in the pot for my coffee table. Now if I can just keep them going till next Summer or longer! 

Jamie has a project she wanted me to work on with her – she brought over my old wedding dress (or what is left of it LOL) and we are converting it now to a witch/queen/whatever costume. I am so surprised so much of it still survives as it has done so many things in the past, and had ended up as a playdress for the girls. The lace disintegrated years ago, so only the underdress still is fairly intact. Had to make it fit her a bit better, as it no longer has a full top, and shorten it considerably - I have to add some kind of sleeve and shoulder straps to keep it up. We did most of the alterations yesterday, and tomorrow hopefully with her here, I can complete it and the additional vampire type cloak she wants to go with it.
I was tickled to start this. Jamie and I had to both learn how to get my new machine up and running – bought it last year and had never plugged it in yet. Now that I have broken the ice, and found where I put some of my sewing equipment, just maybe I can get myself in gear and do more LOL (still have not found some of it – will have to do some major sorting and cleaning out my sewing room I guess, as it was becoming a storage room from lack of use)

Life does takes some different turns for me. After so many years lost in the computer, these last few months have been a huge turnaround for me. My time here on the computer, for the most part, is first thing in the morning. It has become very limited as off I go to do other. It is not usual for me to do anything constructive later on in the day (I am working on this later afternoon surprise!) and turn it off entirely around 8p.m. in the evening after a short stint at last minute mail checking and a jigsaw puzzle on line.

The sun is still shining for us! I have just come in from the garden. Yesterday was over at Daughter Sheilagh, where Angela, MIL Vi and I all got together to help work on her shaded area. Looking good! her fron is all done for now, bulb planting for all three of us in the last couple of weeks, so now all of us are looking forward to seeing the spring and what comes up. Our favorite Green house Nurseries has had some great sales as they are starting to clear out for the Winter, and the three of us have spent hours browsing through everything and spending way too much. Angela and I have also spent hours surfing looking for plants for particular area and checking what they need and how to take care of them. Oh my I could have an estate for a yard so I could grow everything that is out there Some bueatiful and some very different, like a tree Hydrangea or tree Wisteria (red flowers)  There was an awesome three colored flowered Crab Apple we just Ahhed over. Just about every time I open my mail Angela has sent me another delightful garden link to look at (bad as I get lost then for quite some time!) Seems we are living in a very narrow zone time here which allows us to grow plant anywhere from a high zone 5 to an 8 – gives us a lot of selections and I truly wonder why some of the plants out there are not considered able to grow here as they fall well within these zones. Oh well, you can see where my mind has been lately!

Yesterday I had what they assured me was my second to last time – more fittings and molds taken. Supposedly my permanent ones will be ready in the beginning of November – I will be so pleased it when it is over and just hope they are something I can live with, as that is what I have to do for the rest of my life. Implants are not something you can just take out again and change. They also say I will at long last be able to eat properly again when they are in. 6 months of avoiding so many foods and hating when I do eat gets a bit tiresome, so I hope they are right. Just wish my body had let go of some of the weight I carry after all this next to starvation diet I have been on. But it does not work that way. Now Elmer – eats like a horse and he is just dropping the wieght. Scary actually as he is now down to a little over 140 lbs from 170 but is very healthy thank goodness, and we do not know why. (I think his body is reacting to my eating and vise versa LOL)

I guess I am also long overdue sharing the latest photo album of all the flowers in my garden taken this Summer

Summer 2006 – Flowers around my Garden
http://www.care2.com/c2c/photos/view/449078385/Summer_Fowers_in_my_Garden/

Hope all Canadians had a great Thanksgiving last weekend – Angela invited Elmer and I over for a truly scrumptious dinner with the family.

 Some of our dishes

Angela with Daughter Shannon and son Brandon getting desert

Son John and Dad Elmer (seem to be having a serious discussion here LOL) A lull after all the food we ate

Today the sun is shining once again – how lovely to go outside!
Elmer was so happy he could not wait any more to see just what our Potato harvest was going to be like

This was just the first row!! We have 3 1/2 short rows altogether.

This last week I also had a wonderful surprise – I bought and planted 5 new Iris last year, and while they did not bloom this spring they are looking very healthy. Imagine seing one of them send out a bloom shoot and flower! And it was not the color I expected either!

Just huge and beautiful!

We also had another surprise harvest – these tomatoe plants grew on the edge of our Veg garden – we did not plant them, but Elmer decided to see what, if anything, they would produce – look what he brought in yesterday (and there quite a few more than these)

Long ago I posted a pic of my neighbors cleaning some bricks and promised I would show what they used them for. It was quite the production, and they ended up making a whole lot more and tinting them red. Took them a while but now their project is  completed

I am still helping Angela with her flower beddings – yesterday I picked up the two girls(Angela and Sheilagh) and went to our favorite Greenhouse Nursery. I have now signed up for their weekly specials e-news letter, and this week if I printed it out I would receive a 15L bag of good potting soil with my purchases. I just love freebies!! And we each got one! The girls had a bonanza in their purchases (I should have had my camera with me) They had a whole lot of Mums – large pots in full bloom – that for some reason were not as pretty as their others, and were selling them off for $1.00 each, instead of the $10.00 the others were. Between them we took home 10 pots. What we had truly gone for were the spring bulbs, and they did get some great buys on those too. Very satisfying trip altogether – Next week I will be helping them to get everything into the ground, weather permitting.

Last week I also had another trip to the dentist – this time it was for another session of molds – 5 months and counting! I just wish it was over, but have no idea when he will call me in next or what the process will be. While I do not have a fraction of the problems I had the the earlier temps, these are not fun either, and I hope the permanents will be nothing like them.

Here are the two planters I have been helping my daughter to fill with plants. Just built since she and Hubby came back in august from their vacation. some of the plants are from my garden, but she and I had a great time checking out my favorite greenhouse nursery, and spent a small fortune there

Both of us were so excited to find a very new to BC plant there – first time introduced, these are Luna Hibiscus plants that will survive our winters ( supposed to survive down to -23C/10F) and we can now plant right into our garden and not have to pot and bring indoors over the winter. If you look closely wou will see hers in the top pic back corner, proudly showing it’s very first blossom – two days later my one opened a flower too

This is Angela’s

This is my one

A closer look at the flower.

Oh my! I cannot believe it has been so long since I wrote anything in here – thank you all of you who have not given up on me.

First – I am virus clean! It took a while before I tracked down that one that did not seem to go away – it was hooked somehow into one of the photo programs I had downloaded and have not used in a couple of years (thank goodness I would hate to know what would have happened if I had activated it) It took over a week of constantly running my virus cleaner before I thought to look at one of the links it had in the summary, and it told me it was untouchable and where it was. All I had to do was uninstall that program. I can always re-install if I ever decide to work with it again.

Shortly after my last entry, Angela and John came home – she found she was having major problems too now with her mail. Quite an interesting week there trying to figure out what was going on as it was not a virus. I think I spent days on Skype with her going through all the various links and whatever trying to track it down. Eventually she called Shaw, and was told to change her mail server address in the main window. He also told her how to help me do the same – that was another long time on Skype but we now both have what hopefully is the right one for Incredimail to work efficiently.

The week before last, Sheilagh and family came home for the week – kept me quite busy
First – there were two birthday parties, sunday for one GDaughter,  where both Elmer and I went in the evening for her celebration and cake, and Monday for Sheilagh’s middle daughter. For this one I joined them for a day luncheon and great company. She also invited me to join her and MIL, SIL and family for a day at our annual PNE fair. Took me a couple of days to recuperate and unstiffen but I loved every minute of my time there with them all.

PNE 2006
http://www.care2.com/c2c/photos/view/449078385/Pacific_National_Exhibition_2006/

Now they are back in Allison, and once again I am taking care of Sid. have also been spending a lot of time over at Angela’s just enjoying our beautiful sunny days and relaxing. Thursday Angela and I went aross the line/border to pick up her daughter who had stayed an extra couple of weeks with my neice. That was an all day thing, as we left early, spent an hour just waiting to get through the border, did some errands in Sumas and then got treated to a great fish and chips luncheon once we crossed back into BC, before getting them home.

Hope everyone has a great and safe Labor Day weekend.

These are the new flowers in the one container of Cannas – A surprise as it was not exactly the color or type that was on the ticket.

Here is a full view of the pot – the first flower is red! Seems I have a mixed bunch in this pot. All very delicate compared to the big orange one in the other pot.

Today starts the beginning of our Annual air show once again. There was more noise all week as the planes came in from the rest of the world than there has been so far. The airport is just a couple of miles from us and they fly directly overhead, guess tomorrow will be the big day. This year the cloud cover has been quite heavy and the temperatures not that warm at all. Most years this is one of the hottest weeks with clear blue skies, so I do not know if this is considered good or bad for those that turn up watch the show.
Talking of planes – that scare they had in England is something else. I just cannot get around the idea that people would even want to do things like that to so many other innocent strangers. And this is the time my daughter and son are returning by plane from Calif. At least they are not that worried about flying, just the hassle there is going to be to get on that plane with all the searches etc for security. Time consuming! but it does help to keep the passengers calmer than other.

I really could have done with her home this last week, as she is so good with computers. My one just crashed to all intents. What a week trying to get it to work again. Somewhere I am getting a bad virus. As fast as it get cleaned out it comes back again! I know there has to be a point that it stems from, but where? What have I downloaded recently that has it hidden, the anti-virus does not seem to find that starting point, just keeps catching it as it rears itself now. Which seems to be several times a day. One thing it has done is blocked (or corrupted) my mail completely. I had to buy a bigger RAM as I needed a different virus program than Norton, which just could not handle this one, so installed the one from my server – a huge program that requires a lot of RAM, but a very good one. Amazing what I have learned so far trying to fix all the bugs it did to the computer, as nothing was working there for a while except for my IM   Thank goodness for that – I had Angela on daily talking to me and telling me different ways to fix some of those problems. Now she says to wait till she is home and then she can work with the mail and see if we can fix that. I can do that!

Another week gone by! My time has been taken up a fair amount with taking care of Shadow and Sid Shadow has finaly decided he will keep me busy for as long as he can – quite a change from the previous week I checked in with him, when he would just go out for a quickie then hide in the bedroom and ignore me. Such a funny little pup. This time I found his leash, so I guess that did the trick, as we now go for a short walk around the imediate neighborhood, and he just loves that!

Meanwhile Angela has been making full use of that lap top and Skype – every chance she has to get online we connect and talk with the micrphone. This weekend though they have gone to a Bow and Arrow Shoot/camp with my brother so no internet for her. The whole family are there so this is quite the Summer trip and I know they are having a lot of fun. George has been working hard to ensure this, making sure he has enough arrows and small bows so even his Grandchildren can participate in the events. For once I also know I am going to able to see some photos of it when Angela gets back – she is so good at taking pics AND sharing them LOL. I am very happy that John and Angela decided to fly – their car broke down while on the road there (thank goodness they had not gone that far yet) and they had to come back. It was quite a traumatic last minute decision for them. I took them into the airport – up at 4 am to do so as they had to be there by 7am and it is a good drive from us. I do not think I truly slept that night, just in case I missed the alarm  

This weekend our Anual Agrifair is on. Elmer decided we should take advantage of it and go. I was a bit worried, as he has been having a terrible time all week walking and in pain with what we figured had to be sciatica. Lots of ice packs in the small of his back seems to have done the trick and he said he felt so much better. When we arrived he realized he had forgotten his camera. And asd for me, I had hardly started to take a few pics when my battery went out. Changed it to the other one – nothing! I had forgotten to recharge that one too. Bless him – no problem he said, and off he went back home to get his one. I had a great time using it LOL and clicked away to my hearts content when he arrived back with it.

 This is ME
At an African Import stand. The lady who owned said I fit right in and took this for me.

here is the album with the rest of the photos (34 altogether)

Agrifair 2006
http://www.care2.com/c2c/photos/view/449078385/Agrifair_Aug__2006/

This has been quite the week for us. The girls and their families came hame for a few days, before everyone took off again for longer vacations. Angela and John have had to delay till tomorrow, when I will be taking them to the airport. Their car broke down on their way home from Allison Lake, and it looks like it will be having a major fix it job when they come home again. This took us all back as I know how much they had been looking forward to spending time with the family in Calif., with so many plans already in place for them. Lots of pros and cons discussed with the final decision to just go ahead and book last minute flights for them. The valley is going to feel very empty for me for the next couple of weeks till at least some of the family members come back. Seems so strange Elmer and I are not going anywhere this summer – but life has come to this point for us, he is no longer interested in going anywhere too far from home, and I am quite happy to let him be.
I have been going through some weird feelings about all of this – and feeling just how fragile life is, especailly as we reach up in age. This last week I have been emotionaly involved with a long time cyber friend of mine, as her husband had been going downhill. He passed over yesterday. It has been a hard time for her, and he did not go easy. So I have done my share of crying for her pain. I know he is finaly at peace now. But this also does make me think of my own life – I would be devastated too if I have to be in her position, and it is not that far fetched. It does bring home that I am now in the older generation, and our days are numbered.
Have you come across the story of The Dash? It was brought up once again, how the tombstone reads birth and death dates with the dash between. This represents all of our life and how we have filled it. Quite a thought provoking piece.

This is a link to it – takes a while to load, but a beautiful presentation

http://www.thedashmovie.com/

 Sunflowers in our Veg. Garden, a gift from the birds.  May we all fill our lives with beauty like this.

Remember the Tropical plants I posted – my  Canna openned it’s first flower the other day. This was the mysery, bi-colored leaf one that had no tag. It was such a gift to get up in the morning and see this one. I love it! What a beautiful color it turned out to be

Our lives are so quiet most of the time, small things highlight our days and give us so much pleasure. Another gift of nature was a little visitor. This has had to have been someone’s pet at one time.  While Elmer and I were on the patio enjoying the breeze, look who  popped over and sat on our railings – this little budgie was so cute, and kept coming back. Was quite happy to have it’s photo taken and did not mind us getting up to get the camera.

The heat wave seems to have dissipated finaly. It was so hot during those days I had quite the time trying to keep my patio plants from dying from lack of water. They too are one of my joys, and brighten up my world. Here is a pic I took of it from our driveway

I also had another gift yesterday. I have this bracelet that I do believe I talked about way back that keeps disappearing on me. Once again I thought I had lost it about 3 weeks ago. We looked just everywhere, and I even asked if it might have possibly fallen off at my daughter’s house. Well, as I sat on the toilet I noticed something on the floor besides my left foot – there it was! It constantly amazes me when I find it again in such unusual places where it would have been seen at any time and just no-one had ever seen it till then. My right arm just feels so happy to have it back where it belongs once more.

 My adventuresome Sterling bracelt is back with it’s gold companion!