There and Back Again

Cuppa and I surprised ourselves a little bit yesterday. We drove to the cottage to pick up stuff that we couldn't fit in the car after our extended-family vacation in August because the vehicle was too full of people. We went with our options open: return on the same day; stay overnight; or spend the weekend there. In our heads, option two, overnighting, was what we most expected to do. But with the weather being cold and windy, and comfortable beds at home awaiting, we hit the road home as soon as we loaded up Harriet the Chariot.

It was a good day for a drive, however. For most of the way, both coming and going, there was sun which lit up the tamaracks rather gloriously. And despite the fact that all of the other leaves had fallen, the oaks were still adamant about holding onto their bronze beauties. The drive home was especially pretty as the lowering sun cast the just the right angle of light.

On the way there, however, we saw a first — or two first, rather. We drove the extremely rural backroads, and at one point, I exclaimed to Cuppa that there was a fox trotting across the road up ahead. As we drew nearer, we saw that it was larger and darker and concluded that it was a wolf. Lightning struck a second time a little bit later. This time we got a closer look and decided that this was a coyote.

I suppose we could have been wrong both times, and they could have been regular run-of-the-mill dogs, but, given the backwoodsiness of the geography, neither of us really believe that. Both of these sightings are extremely rare; in fact, having never seen either before, it seems almost miraculously serendipitous as well as synchronous to witness both.

This morning, however, nature's other shoe dropped as we awoke to the season's first snowfall. Yes, it snowed overnight: so lightly that it could only be seen on bare rooftops and not the ground. Nevertheless, it was snow. Sigh: it could be a long winter.

Another Round

Since I have been posting from the vaults, please permit me another round. For all I know, I have posted some of these previously, but since they were more or less ready to go, and I'm in a bit of a rush, here they are. I really just want to post something today because I won't likely be able to for several days. They are all from 1976 0r 1977 as near as I can determine and are presented in possible sequential order.



↑↑ Thesha with our dog. Other than Susie, we've been a cat family. Thesha was reading in our sunporch, which had to be closed off in the cold weather. The couch in the background was a wedding gift from my parents seven or eight years before the picture was taken.

↓↓ Thesha with her grandmother, apparently near Mom's in May of 1976.




↑↑ My dad, the girls' grampa, possibly also taken on grandma's birthday weekend.

↓↓ Grandma reading Thesha a story. I think that same book is on the shelf behind me right now. Sometimes, I read it to Nikki Dee.




↑↑ We went to Centre Island in Toronto with some relatives. Thesha was quite intent on her driving.

↓↓ A horseback ride on that same day. Her cousin is on the next horse.

Another Oldie from the Vaults ...

... or The Floor rather

We had a split-second power outage last night, which fried my surge protector. As I was unplugging it this morning, I found this slide on the floor, so I decided to scan it on the spot. It's of Thesha with my mother in 1973 at Centennial Park in Sarnia when she was about a half year old. It always stops me short to realize that mom was younger then than I am now. And she seemed so old at the time.

They Can Drive You Crazy

As I've posted before, taking pictures of my grandchildren can be frustrating. I can't get her to acknowledge the camera, and I can't take a candid of him because he has to react to it each and every time.

Yesterday, I just wanted a simple picture of him intently watching a dvd on my computer as he munched his lunch. You see, he is so disinterested in eating these days, that I find it easiest to distract him with a video or Sesame Street on tv.

I wanted to show how he put cheerios (in this case — you can see them on the tray in the second picture) into his mouth, hardly realizing what he was doing because he was so intent he was on the program. Needless to say, the pictures prove that he chose to play to the camera rather than staying glued to the video.

Kids! They get you every time.

From Ye Olde Photo Album

Last week I posted pictures of Nikki Dee wearing dresses that her mother had worn. Cuppa is posting more information about their history today. She asked me to scan some old family photos for her post, and having made the effort to do the legwork, I'm also going to make use of those pictures today. But I'll try not to duplicate too much.



In the mid-seventies, I tried briefly tried my hand at developing my own film and photos. I didn't keep at it very long because I didn't have a proper darkroom and found it impossible to keep the chemicals at their proper temperature in our cold basement. However, above and below are two my efforts. I had a good model. In both pictures I experimented with dodging as I was projecting the negative onto the photo paper in an effort to eliminate the busy wallpaper background. Nikki Dee was in that dress last week, and those pictures are on Cuppa's blog this morning.



I think the next one was done at Sears; if not, it was taken as part of a church booklet. She must have been a bit younger than Nikki Dee is because the dress fit her better.



A family portrait from the very early eighties when AC still had hair.. This time Althegal is in the same white dress. Note: I still wear a goatee but I wore a fullish beard most of the time for over thirty years. Although I never thought to go full-beard again, I have lately been playing with the idea of growing it in. My hair isn't very gray, but beards turn sooner, and I am wondering what mine is like now.

In case you don't go to Cuppa's blog I will say that the white dress was smocked by my mother and the orange one by Cuppa's mother. I don't suppose they were even thinking about great grandchildren back then; I know that I certainly wasn't thinking of grandchildren, and I certainly wouldn't have thought of getting out those dresses if Cuppa hadn't.

A Forgotten Template

I forgot I had this template from days of yore. Perhaps it should have remained forgotten. But I won't leave it up long. Promise.

More Battening

Our preparations for winter continue. After already making the garage mostly ready to receive the car two weekends ago, last week we had the furnace inspected to make sure it was also ready for the the abuse that it's about to receive.

We've already had one light frost, and since there's another in the forecast for tomorrow night, it was also time to put the garden to bed on the weekend. We cut down the remains of many plants and emptied the hanging baskets. A few plants remain in flower — some mums and some geraniums — so we've let them be for now at least.

The grass has been cut and edged for the final time. If it needs to be done again, it will have to wait until spring because the lawnmower has been put out of the way on a high shelf. Otherwise, we could barely get around the the car when we need to park it in the garage. Amazingly, my back survived the lifting.

In other news, I was inspired to cook a new dish yesterday — a zucchini toss with penne, red peppers and asiago cheese. I shouldn't have. Really, I shouldn't have. It tasted awful and the semi melted cheese, which was required to be mixed with the rest of the ingredients, was a horror to clean up. The recipe should have come with a warning: "Tastes awful and makes a mess." How such a recipe could have escaped the kitchens of Canadian Living to be published in one of their cookbooks is beyond me.

I guess we're ready for Old Man Winter and Jack Frost to come a'callin, but we await with empty stomachs thanks to that horrid dish.