done with digging

Late this afternoon I was taking advantage of a good day and went out to turn over the little vegetable patch. As I dug I realised how I hated it. All my life I have pretended that I loved working in the earth, but I really hated it. It is just that I do it well and that I love the results. I left the spade in the ground and came in. I suppose that if it doesn't freeze up I shall get the job done, but then I won't be here next year to do anything with it anyways.

red, white and blue

Red, white and blue, and some green. I took this at the hospital yesterday. I was doing the pastoral visiting. Many people there ask me what the day is like outside. So to be out in a day like yesterday is something to be treasured.

spider

Hallowe'en is approaching and some interesting things are found in the woods around these parts. I took a break on a lovely sunny afternoon after a hard overnight frost and went in search of the latest geocache, which was placed just last week. It was lovely in the woods and my GPS receiver took me on a new walk. Finally somewhat off the trail I came on this stump with this creature - the cache! If I laugh in the middle of the woods and no one hears me - have I made a sound? Well, I heard me. The cache was in the hollow body.

Cousin Cynthia's trousseau

A package arrived in the post from a first cousin-once-removed in Australia whom I had not seen in 49 years. The detailed description on the custom declaration read "small jacket made by your grandmother - with love -". The value read "sentimental". In England in 1939 Cynthia had married an RAF pilot and my grandmother had sewn her trousseau. Only the silk bed jacket remained. I shall find a silk padded hanger and it shall hang in my bedroom - this heart gift from the past.

the old railway

It was a lovely, cool, sunny day and I walked along an old railway line. The tracks had been pulled up. I came across sleepers that had been thrown down the embankment. Soon, considering our carbon footprint we shall be needing trains again. I wonder what they will be like in their next incarnation. Will the old corridors be used again? What will transportation be like "down the road"?

worst restaurant in the north

We keep coming here, but it only encourages the th eowner . It's the local hangout and the only convenient place to meet and move the tables together and spend time. Still it's the worst restaurant around and I'm sure that it would never pass the health inspector. Like many restaurants up here it's Chinese, of a sort. The grease drips out of the egg rolls and the bok choy tastes like fish, old fish.

Cynthia's cat

Cynthia gave this cat to me as a birthday present some months ago. Now it sits on a borrowed coffee table, by a borrowed sofa beside the planter, which was also a gift. But when I see the cat, I think of friends, and what could be better than friends!

fetching the red rat

I'm at the computer. I'm a captive playmate. Miss Johnson has a piece of red rabbit fur. She jumps up on the desk and dumps it on the keyboard. I toss it down the hall. She fetches it and jumps up on the keyboard. I toss it down the hall, and so on and on and on. And I thought that only dogs played fatch.

card party

They gather in the church basement for sandwiches, sweets and coffee and then comes the cards. They play Crazy Eights - no score keeping, just a lot of laughter. This was the first card party of the season. It was just the thing on a wet and cold fall day.

Miss Johnston

Miss Johnston is sitting where she shouldn't, but she is a cat who does not take no for an answer. With her is the pumpkin that the Brownies made and gave to me and the last flowers from the garden before the frost. If I am at the computer she is usually helping me. Right now I am trying to keep her off the keyboard. And now she is taking pencils out of the can. Perhaps the best thing is that I can never get too serious when she is around.

zinnia

We had a snowfall - over 10 centimeters and it lasted a couple of days, but we didn't have a frost. (There will probably be one tonight. ) So some late annuals emerged out of the snow untouched. Here is this bright zinnia that survived the storm. It gives me hope. If it can weather a snow storm and still stand unscathed, then I can, too. I went out late today and picked the remaining flowers so I can enjoy their last few days in the house.

gas pump

Would you purchase petrol from a pump in this condition? This was the best one in the row. It at least had its lower front panel on. The other didn't, and there was one more with a garbage bag over it. I had no idea what the dial read. It was unreadable. This is at Watershed, the one stop between Sudbury and Timmins. Inspectors don't often come by here. It's a long, lonely road through the bush. There were no moose and no bears on the road, so it was all clear back to Timmins where the cats greeted me and all the telephone messages and emails called out to me to attend to things - and they'll all wait until tomorrow. Well, not the cats, of course I tended to them immediately.

snow

Overnight the first snow arrived. Of course I have not put on my snow tyres as of yet. Of course I have a four hour drive (in good weather) along a road with no shoulder and with only one place of human habitation on the way - the Watershed Restaurant - a must stop to detank and retank with a cup of coffee. So I shall set off today and return tomorrow, God willing and weather permitting. The thing about roads up here that run through the bush, they run through large animal territory. The last time I took this road there were three moose - and moose do not have any road smarts at all.

Ontario votes

This was my polling station at the local school. Sadly, for the kids, they don't have a holiday like we used to have when we were kids and the school was used. Election Day was always a day off. I'll sit up late, drink vodka and wait for the returns. The polls shut in about three quarters of an hour. This year they threw in a referendum about electoral reform, but at 60% nothing will probably change at all.

first facial

So now this is obviously a stock photo of a facial. It is difficult to take a picture of yourself having a facial, besides I am a little older than this model with her wrinkle-free face. I went and had my first facial - expensive, but my face feels wonderful. I am reinventing the new me, and the new me looks after herself.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, turnips, carrots, squash, potatoes, corn, buns, wine, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, chocolate cake, maple cupcakes, coffee and liqueur - the Canadian version of a harvest supper. I visited with this family this evening - sharing lives and celebrating.

worldwide communion

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada. I arrived at this church today prepared to celebrate communion and found the communion table (altar) covered with vegetables and in the middle was a loaf of bread, but there was nothing for communion. At first I thought that even though this was World Wide Communion Sunday I would just carry on, but the loaf of bread silently accused me, so before the sermon I asked if there was any juice in the kitchen - whatever - and someone went and found a jug of lemonade. Then I asked for a tumbler and asked a ten year old boy to assist me and we celebrated. The photo was taken following the service. I don't know why or how the communiction fouled up. This appears to be a disaster prone church - whatever. God is still present desite our goof ups.

Matachewan

We drove south this afternoon to explore and geocache around Matachewan - the village in the picture. It was wet and this being hunting season we wore seasonal attire - bright orange - so we wouldn't be mistaken for moose. All along the road in to this rather remore little place there was evidence of prospecting, claims and drilling - so gold fever is everywhere. We, on the other hand found three caches and were rather proud of ourselves - a day spent playing in the wet woods.

forget-me-nots

I was walking past an alder grove in the boreal forest when I came upon these flowers. They must have escaped and settled in the wet ground where the alders thrive. What a delightful surprise! I am used to forget-me-nots in the spring and they do escape and get on with it on their own. But here in the north I found them in the fall. I remembered gardens that I had left, Monteal West, Narrow Gate, Pierrefonds, but if they can thrive elsewhere then I know that I can too.

Nguyen Thi Song

I've just loaned a little money to this lady to enable her to expand her waste recycling business in Vietnam. I spent some time in Vietnam, so it was fun to make my first micro credit loan to a place I remember so well. I have always imbraced the micro credit concept; lending small amounts of money to small businesses in the developing world. Now through the internet you can actually see to whom you are lending the money. Ms. Song plans to expand her factory that produces jute bags and plastic beads from recycled material. So I wish her well. I went through kiva.org.

my door

I've always liked hanging seasonal stuff from my door. This happy scarecrow is hanging there now. My partner (exe now, I suppose) knew I liked this stuff and she gave him to me several years ago. So even when you try to bring closure, there is always stuff, velcro stuff. They come with unwanted memories and trip you up when you unsuspectingly come across them.

the red hat society

This past weekend a church in Matheson celebrated it's 100th anniversary. On the Saturday they had a roast beef supper. The Red Hat Society came in spades, all decked out. Now my mother had something to say about what kind of women wore hats after five o'clock, but these gals looked too old to be in that profession. Then we went on to a concert, a really lovely concert, and it would have been nice to have seen it without having to move, because these "ladies" trooped in and sat down without removing their hats - and what kind of ignorant woman wears her hat in a theatre! There, I've had my rant.