In one sense it's gone by in a flash and in another it feels like we've always been together. Happy Anniversary John.
Here's a couple of pictures from then & now.
Taken by friends of ours that came over on Tuesday (actually he was John's Best Man).
We've definitely changed a bit haven't we? I've given up on the contacts and there's a lot more white/gray hair now - and we won't talk about weight. :)
It's been an absolutley glorious weekend here. Sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. And the temps well just look at what our indoor/outdoor thermometer was reading yesterday afternoon.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to get out there yesterday to experience it but I sure had all the windows open in the kitchen while I prepared Thanksgiving dinner. Thankfully I got some of the things made the day before (like my Cranberry Orange Relish which needs to sit for 24 hours). But yesterday was still a full day of food prep.
Which included tearing the bread apart for the dressing. Looks like there's going to be a lot of green bin stuff going out this week (that's what we put our food scraps in unless we put them in the composters but with the raccoons we've using the bins instead). Oh yes the raccoons - more about them in another post.
We took a break at lunch time and decided to have the Gazpacho I'd made the day before for lunch instead of at dinner (good thing as I don't know how I would have been able to eat another thing). Finally at 7:00 everything was ready and we sat down for our Thanksgiving dinner (one day early).
Hmmm, I should have policed that plate better before I took that picture what with that stray carrot. :) We ended up not having the Apple Walnut Bundt cake I'd made the day before but that will most definitely be served tonight.
I think I must have used every pot/pan in the house because I hardly knew where to start with the cleanup afterwards - all I can say is I'm thankful I have an operating dishwasher. :)
Today we're just taking it easy - not! J's been busy with the garden cleanup as that only gets picked up every 2 weeks and this is the week for it, while I continued the cleanup from yesterday. But today we're getting the chance to enjoy the fantastic weather and are now headed out for a drive in the 'Stang. Probably the last top-down ride this year.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in Canada but in our family we've always celebrated it on Sunday so that's why I'm technically one day early with my greeting.
We have so much to be thankful for this year. Most importantly family and friends but most especially the health of our newest great niece, Miss K. She turned 6 months this past week and has now officially quadrupled her birth weight and weighed in at 12 pounds 11 ounces at her 6 month checkup on Friday.
Photo thanks to her Mummy's FB page.
We're also thankful for the chance to see her cousins - our great nephew, P-man, & great niece, Miss M, this past summer. Living in separate cities really makes it hard to see them.
Photo thanks to my niece's (their Mummy) FB page.
We've had the opportunity to visit with my sister and her husband this past summer and next month to visit with J's brother and his wife all of whom live at great distances from us (one in Halifax and one in Las Vegas - yes real people do live there).
This past Tuesday would have been my parents wedding anniversary and it brought back memories of a very special one which then led me to one of the family’s favourite memories of Dad.
My sister and I weren’t old enough to do anything special for our parent’s 25th wedding anniversary (we didn’t come along till they’d already been married 13 and 17 years) so when their 35th came along we decided to do something special for them. It would work out perfectly with it falling on a Friday to have a party for them so we decided to have a surprise party and invite both old and new neighbours – in those days you actually knew your neighbours and socialized a great deal with them (not like now where you’re lucky if you know their names). I forget how it came about but one of our neighbours that we were really close to offered their recreation room for the party as it would be kind of hard to surprise them with one at home. Everything went smoothly leading up to it and we talked Dad into taking Mum out for a really nice dinner that day. Just before they left, we told Dad that we’d like him to bring Mum down to Rennie’s when they got back and told him what time so he definitely knew something was up but not what but Mum was totally surprised.
Unbeknownst to my sister and I the neighbours had taken up a collection to get something special for them. In fact they got them 2 things – a beautiful mirror (which I now have) for their dining room and a new barbecue to replace Dad’s old one that was on it’s last legs. It was quite the barbecue for those days. I’ve looked all over for a picture of it – we have loads in the family home movies but I haven’t figured out yet how to get a picture off of them. I did come across this picture from when one of my Aunts and some cousins were over where you can just barely see some of it on the far left.
Well Dad decided that this barbecue was going to last and not burn out like the previous one had. He babied that thing something fierce and came up with a plan to save the bottom of it from burning out which was what had happened to the old one. What you ask was his plan? Well it involved a hibachi. I forget where it came from. Did we already have it or did he go out and buy it specially for his plan? I think though that we already had it. The plan was to light the charcoal in the hibachi and then when they were ready to carefully pick them up one by one with his tongs and carry each one over to the new barbecue to be placed in it’s pristine bottom.
Well guess what – it worked that barbecue lasted from then (1968) to when he finally moved out of the house in 1996. We’d all (family, neighbours, who ever was over) laugh every time he did it. He was so famous for doing it that at his funeral, people would laugh and talk about Dad and his 2 barbecues.
If you've enjoyed reading my story I hope you'll enjoy some other stories from those who participate in Sian's Storytelling Sunday the first Sunday of every month. You'll find this month's stories here.
I mentioned in my last post that after the parade we headed up (not quite as bad as the hill from the harbour) to the Public Gardens that had been so damaged by Hurricane Juan.
We came in one of the back entrances, saving the new gates at the Main Entrance for later.
A peek through the tree at the fountain for those who served in the Boer War or as the fountain says the South African Campaign 1899-1902 (the Gardens date from 1867 - the same year Canada was created so there is a lot of old monuments etc. in it).
It was such a warm day out that walking through the Gardens was a really nice respite. Soon though the 4 of us started feeling a wee bit hungry and JEM & T were trying to think of an outdoor patio near by when we noticed the balcony of the Victory Arms of the Lord Nelson Hotel just across the street from the Gardens. We lucked out and found a table & 4 chairs - it's a pretty small balcony. It was nice out there and a slight breeze picked up which made it even nicer while we ate our lunches.
After lunch we headed back to the Gardens this time walking on the opposite diagonal through it back to the house.
Some definite Juan damage
From here it was a short walk back to the house where we headed upstairs to pack and then out to enjoy the day on the front porch followed by the deck when it came time for T to barbecue the salmon. Dinner was really nice out on the deck and we stayed out there listening to the fireworks going off down in the harbour.
A week ago Friday was our last full day in Halifax and it just happened to be Canada Day - the 144th anniversary of Confederation. I think there is nothing quite like Canada Day in Halifax. It's certainly different from where we live.
Days before we had decided we were going to watch the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo Canada Day parade. It was supposed to start at 10:30 but we didn't leave the house till just before it started so we quickly decided we'd walk down to where it would finish by the Halifax Metro Centre. We would have liked to have had some time to attend the tattoo but we just ran out of time as it only started on the 1st. On the way there we walked through the Commons where they were setting up for the Mawio'mi International Pow Wow.
We walked past the Citadel and thought should we go up there and watch from there but thought instead we'd continue walking downhill instead of climbing that hill. :) Lots of people decided it was a great place to watch from them so long as you had something to sit on.
We missed the beginning of the parade unfortunately thanks to me - I just couldn't walk as fast as the rest of them. I told them to go ahead and I'd catch up to them but they wouldn't have any of that. I had to laugh as we neared the corner and some man in a car that was stopped because of the parade got out and said to his wife "we're going to be here awhile we may as well watch it". We got to the corner where the parade turned down to the Scotia Centre entrance just as the German Bicycle Team got there.
The mast at the Citadel
Town Clock on Citadel Hill
My favourite part of a parade & J's too for that matter - the Pipe & Drums.
A view down to the harbour - walking down is great, it's the coming back up again that's not. :)
Once the parade was over we decided to head over to the Halifax Public Gardens. They'd had a lot of damage in Hurricane Juan and some trees that were pretty old had not survived or been severely damaged plus the main gates had been replaced because of it too and we hadn't been through since then. We slowly trudged our way uphill (trudging is definitely the way to describe it) J managed to take some pictures of other sites to do with the military history of the city. I'll leave that for another post as this one is long enough. :)
But before I end this one - how's this for a Canada Day picture, Miss K all decked out in her red and white Canada Day outfit? We didn't get to see them as they were flying off to surprise my niece with a holiday weekend visit. Photo courtesy of her Mum.
I bet you thought I dropped off the edge of the earth. Nope! Just been busy and had limited computer time for other than classwork and organization (more about that later).
June is my sister & my birthday month with me first and her 6 days later. It's a very special one this year for me - the government now officially sees me as old (in other words I now qualify for Old Age Pension, lol) and as it's a special one I've been celebrating for almost a week now.
The celebrating started out with some Veuve Cliquot (sp?) champagne in the late afternoon followed by a wonderful dinner made by J (barbequed of course). Lobster tails and filet mignon - absolutely yummy and mouth watering. (Sorry no pictures) Of course when J barbeques I end up having to do the veg/salad prep. :) So the caesar salad and cole slaw were my part of the dinner. After dinner we headed next door where the annual street party was being held. That was actually the first time in the 25 years we've lived here that we went to one - probably because it was right next door this time of course not being golfers is also a good reason but this year you didn't need to be a golfer to go. I always thought it was a bit much having a so-called street party that was only for those who went to the golf but what do I know. :)
Sunday was a day off from celebrating - stuff needed doing in both the house and the gardens plus I needed to catch up on my photography class. The past 2 weeks we've been working on manual settings and I'm definitely needing more practice but here is one shot where I think I got it. I was working on blurring out the background so I'm happy with that but just realized the flower needs to be more centred. Hmmm, that will be difficult to do now as the peonies seem to be on their way out.
Another thing that was optional was to take a picture of a colour that symbolized an emotion to you. I decided on yellow as that makes me think of happiness. Ok, no flowers at this time of year that are yellow - what to do. Then I remembered I have a yellow beach bag and thought it would be the perfect thing. But what a lame picture - a beach bag hanging on a fence post. :)
See I told you it was lame - I need to come up with something more creative than that plus the yellow isn't quite right - the bag is more a really bright yellow. Heck anything would be more creative so I haven't posted this on the class gallery. :)
The big day arrived on Monday and it was a wonderful day - Mother Nature even co-operated. I remember growing up my Mum used to plan picnic birthday parties for me out in the yard and every year it would rain. It got to be a running joke. But it didn't this year, it almost did but decided to wait till nighttime. :) J has been wanting me to go with him to pick out something for my birthday - he knows what but wants me to choose so we're going to do that on the weekend. The evening ended up with lots of calls from my family on the east coast - can't wait to see them (especially little Miss K) later this month.
I've spent a lot of the week working on my photography class stuff and trying to get all my digital supplies organized so that I know whose stuff I'm using and can give proper credit when I share. That seems to be taking forever. I had no idea I had so much digi stuff - a lot of it as "freebies" from taking digi courses. Right now I'm only up to the J's. :) Tuesday and Wednesday though I did take time out to visit with my 2 best friends. My friend from work days and I have a little tradition that when it's one of our birthdays we go out for lunch - so that was Tuesday and it was really nice even if our favourite restaurant has closed down. My friend from high school days (everyone should have at least one of them) and I met up on Wednesday and had a great time talking about upcoming vacations and would you believe going over my school yearbook from the year we graduated (40+ years ago). It was amazing both who we remembered and who we didn't. :)
