It Was Splendiferous!

What a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! Whoever decided that it would be this weekend in October certainly hit the mark here in Southern Ontario. It was sunny and warm (for here at this time of year). The changing leaves seemed to be at their peak or so close to it that we won't quibble. Yes, the colour was splendiferous!

Although the main roads from here to Riverwood would certainly be considered relatively rural and relatively lightly trafficked, we still opted to take the even more rural back route. It's slower with more twists and turns, but it's pretty relaxing and very scenic in places. The tress are usually close to the road, but we also pass a number of lakes and obtain a number of views from the higher spots in the uplands through which we travel.

One misses so many photo-ops while on the road. Even though we could have stopped a lot and did stop some, one simply can't keep doing that if one is ever going to reach his destination. Some spots aren't conducive, and one doesn't always have all of the time in the world at one's disposal. (We need a pronoun other than "one." I feel so darned formal when I use it.) Here is one stop that I made on the half of the journey closer to here than there: seemingly of a former church now become a community hall, the John Thomson Hall on Snow Station Road to be exact.



We had stopped here, just outside of Digby, I think, to take a picture of a lake. I took this shot as well to represent a typical view of the road on that day. We are on the rocky and forested Canadian Shield here (as we were for most of the trip).



We took yet another detour from Bancroft to Riverwood along Lower Faraday Road. I had to stop one more time to snap this shot. Because there is a sharp turn in the road ahead, we appear to be hemmed in by a wall of trees, and the cottage and shed add to the rusticity of the scene.



Those are three pics of our journey. Cuppa has posted others, and both of us may post additional photos in the course of the next few days.

The Proud Milk Monitor

Was that what it was called, milk monitor? I think so, and that's the title in my mind.

Once upon a time, when young AC was in elementary school, a family could opt to have their children be supplied with a pint of milk per day, about halfway through the morning. It was delivered to the school [fittingly] in pint-sized, glass bottles and then put into portable wooden crate: one per class. Each week it would be some lucky student's turn to collect the milk box and transport it back to the classroom. I seem to remember getting my fair share of such opportunities.

While I can't recall for absolute certain if I carried the box differently at first, I do remember feeling quite the adept young fellow by carrying it slung against my hip with only one hand on the box. Yes, I was quite proud of myself, and, fortunately, pride did not go before a fall.

I'm not sure in what year I began to perform this chore or when it stopped. May it possibly have continued from about grade three to seven (which was when elementary school finished in Montreal in those days)? In my mind, however, I am in grade five and in Miss McDonald's class, the lovable Miss McDonald.

Family Poses

Yes, I'm in the country but pre-published this for Sunday (gotta love that relatively recent feature). I've recently gotten back to processing some wedding photos. These are pre-wedding shots of our side of the family.

Foto Friday

I don't normally take the fiddle over there to Nikki Dee's, but since it was already at the door the other day ...



Actually, once she got used to me playing grinding and screeching on it a bit, and once she discovered that she wasn't going to get her turn, she pretty well let me be. In my books, that constitutes an minor miracle.

We're off to the cottage/camp/cabin (take your pick depending on where you're from, but it's cottage to us) this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with the inlaws. The weather forecast is good, and the colour should still be pretty wonderful too. That's four whole days off the Nikki Dee detail; as much as I adore her, I greatly anticipate to the respite.

I don't think it's a holiday in the USA or other parts, but being in a more northerly clime, we have our TG much earlier here than down there in the tropical USA.

In My Shoes

I don't mind helping the kid try my shoes on for size.

But I'm not up to helping her walk a mile in them. A step or two was quite enough.

I Can't Seem to Stay Young

See that You Staying Young book on the floor beside me? I was trying to do some exercises from it: exercises that are supposed to take about ten minutes to do.

I think it took me 45 minutes.

I don't think I finished.

I can't imagine why.

Aw Shucks!

I had an Aw Shucks! moment yesterday in the midst of opening up various bills. There was an envelope from Plan Canada. We sponsor a child in Guatemala through this organization, formerly known as Foster Parents Plan. So I expected it to be from the organization itself, but instead it was a colouring done by our little sponsored daughter, Nathaly Rosmeri.



This is the second message we've received in the year or so since we decided to sponsor Nathaly. The first was a note from her mother, but this was done by the child herself, and is certainly an Aw Shucks! kind of thing to stick on our fridge. Nathaly Rosmeri just turned four and lives with her mother and two brothers and no father, apparently.

We've sponsored her for over a year now, but for a long time I had felt guilty for not adopting a child. I think it started when I heard an African orphan choir when our own daughter was little. I was moved, but there wasn't much extra cash lying around, so I resisted. Nevertheless, I should have found the money somehow.

But when a year or so ago, someone from Plan Canada knocked on my door and invited me to participate, I could no longer, in good conscience, refrain from reaching out in this way. And so I pledged to send a little bit off every month to assist a kid who could sure use a helping hand: less than the cost of the moderately sized turkey that we consumed for our early Thanksgiving yesterday.

This is my little sponsoree (although spellchecker informs me that's not a word) possibly before she turned three. Warms the caukles of my heart, she does.