Off and away!

A busy day yesterday, Wednesday the 7th October.  All the usual tidying and cleaning, but over a longer period than usual since K and D came up to collect us during the afternoon, instead of the usual 13.00 same-day as the flight arrangement.

I found the thyme seeds, and the mixed wildflower seeds and planted those out.  I planted the peonies around the fosse septique.

WE all went for a belated birthday supper for Ali at Papa Luigi's in St Sauveur - good fun, good food, happy occasion.

A really late start today; brunch at noon plus.

And now at the airport, waiting for that supper at Moe's and the flight home.

Wonderful trip, Thanks as always to Karen and Denis.

Gathering up the loose ends

Monday, 5th October.  To St Jovite - just me - to get the exhaust sorted (done!) and to do various commissions.  Very frustrating morning; left at 09.10, not home until 14.00.

Hmm.  Needed a sit-down after that, at which point, this guy pottered past the living-room window! 

No excuses, back to work. 




One of my commissions had been to buy garden soil from BMR in St J.  This then needed digging in to the top layer of the hen-run soil, to use as a seed-bed for all those seed collected from Ann's - and elsewhere (like Hollyhock seeds from the lock-house at Burritts Rapids ;-)  )

The idea is also to seed the area around the fire-pit with Thyme, and the meadow with some more wild-flower seeds.  Only problem is, I can't find either of those.

Early evening we pottered down (or puttered - we went on the quad) to  Yves for a very cheerful natter.  He seems nearer to his surgery but has had to head off to buy a positive pressure ventilator to deal with his sleep apnoea.  He's been told that he can't do the snow-clearing this year, but he has already arranged for a replacement - the former baker from the village.

Very, very tired, I headed off mid-evening and woke at 07.30, today, Tuesday the 6th October. 
And this is Ali with her Birthday Present!  It's a new, porcelain sink for the basement, fully plumbed in (by yours truly) and with its own, purpose made plinth (ditto).

Never let it be said that I don't treat my wife!


And just to prove it, we went in to the village at lunch-time for - Poutine!  (Ye God's, such indulgence!)















Later in the afternoon, the ex-Baker turned Deneigeur arrived with the contract - and bill!  But we agreed the areas to clear and the times of our likely return - and things will be fine.

Some scything of the meadow, some more stick-picking, Skype with G, J and L (complete with glasses :-)  ) and a finger-food supper.

Must get a grip now, lots to do before we leave tomorrow :-(  .

Fall Supper

Saturday, 3rd October.  The shut-down continues; it was good to be out an about, even though I was only re-installing the supports for the screen-room roof.

Ali was busy making a Boodle's Orange Fool - the family signature dessert inherited from her mother - in preparation for the Casserole (Fall) Supper at Grace Church, Arundel, the Anglican church where we have begun to worship every week.

It was an early start to supper - at 5.30!  Many ladies had made really interesting dishes - I had the "tasting menu" with one spoonful of each.  The Baked Beans and the Meat-balls stood out!

We sat and ate with Peter and Greg (the Girl - as she signs herself) Trepanier / Davis.  They are from Ottawa but have a very small (apparently) cottage on a lake near Tremblant.  They are lovely; we did enjoy their company.  And with Bevin and Coryn; he was a PE teacher - although his degree was History and Economics - and she was a nurse.  And all along they've also been farmers on his family farm.  They met when he was boat-man for a summer camp and she had to call on him to take her to her patients.  They corresponded (Montreal to Boston) for two years, flying in turn every six weeks to see each other - 49 years ago.  That must have been quite a commitment.

We arrived home at about 10.00 and left again this morning, Sunday, 4th October, just shy of 12 hours later - to go to church!  Nick Pang preached and led worship - his text, bravely and helpfully tackled - was Jesus' teaching on divorce!  Coffee is a leisurely affair after service with home-made cakes and chat a-plenty.

Grace Church is a lovely community to worship in.  I just hope that we can sort it out for me to be some degree of help there in the coming years.









And then home to Waterseal the deck - just enough product! - and to trim the outer doors top and bottom - they really are too tight; or they were!

Fall's familiar pass-times

Well, it's coming at last.  Thursday the 1st of October and the leaves are finally beginning to change.  There's a snap in the air; the first frost, rapidly chased by the brilliant sun in the butterfly-wing sky.  Fall has come.

And with it, Fall-chores, and Fall-clothes, too!

Clearing the  trail from fallen timber; filling the wood-store right to the roof; burning the brush in one great conflagration - all those summer suns, rushing upwards back the the blue, blue sky.


























And all the time, this beautiful place, gently glowing its memories into our minds and onto the silver screen.






















Such a huge construction for such a little thing - a fence for the oak-tree of yesterday  and tomorrow.












And in the evening - after Ali had Skyped her Book-Club meeting back in Bristol, we took on the stern garstrake.  You have no idea how long I have agonised about this and now it's done!  The second one followed.  I shan't really get much more of this done this summer, but I have plans  to be able to canvas it after all this winter!

Ali doesn't want me to restore another; apparently she wouldn't mind if I built one from new, but this repairing is too much faffing about (she says).  Hmmmmmm.





Friday, 2nd October.  Another beautiful day.  Time spent on list-making!  And tasks ticked off!


I changed over the kitchen fly-screens to windows for the winter, finding in the process that the door-frame had cracked.  So I glued and screwed that!  Thanks, in part, to a timely reminder from a blog reader (there aren't many of you!) I finished sealing the screen room panels.

Ali had Log-Washed (aka Hog-Washed) the back wall yesterday; today she added a coat of clear sealant to the whole wall.  Hard work and non-too-warm either.

I transplanted little trees from all around the place into the old drive-way, to help re-establish the woodland there.  Ali came to join me to sit and admire, and this chap turned up too!  Bold as brass!


And I trimmed (savaged actually) the Sumacs outside the house, tidied the border and let some light in.  The quad was invaluable in taking the debris to the tip in the wood.  On the way back, four deer crossed behind me.  Common comment here is, if you meet wildlife in the wood, keep the quad motor running and they'll not be concerned.  Seems to work, too.

Curry for supper!