But these days some of our neighbours go all out!
These GIANT Halloween skeleton.
And this very tall ghost!
Guaranteed to frighten anyone, on Halloween!
For the last four years of her life, she lived in a nursing home just around the corner from us.
It was easy to drop in and see her.
Grandma" would always be happy to see us - BUT after about five minutes, she'd thank us for coming and excuse herself, saying that she had this activity or that to go to - sing along, exercise class, bingo, scrabble, worship service, Bible study... Whatever the activity, she loved to participate!
Here are some pictures of her with some of her grandkids. She always enjoyed seeing them!
Her love of life - and keeping busy with activities - stayed with her till the end!
I was always happy to hear her say: This is a good place to be if you need help!
I gave my grandkids an early taste of the Halloween treats...
Maybe we'll come to your house on Halloween, they said...
(I guess that means they like chips - like Terry does. I'm more partial to chocolate, myself.)
Terry and I planned to head out for a "day trip" yesterday - but rain modified our plans.
Glad we have beautiful trees in our neighbourhood, too!
I still hope we'll get out for a day trip - before all this beauty disappears. But it's a short season.
A few days ago, I went to a junior hockey game with my son and grandkids. I had a really good time. Glad they invited me to come along.
I guess it was an exciting game... I have a hard time following the drama of goals scored and penalties given. I've even been known to get mixed up about which team is which.
For me, there's more drama - and fun - in little kids trying to score on an empty net (at intermission)...
And watching the zamboni miss a spot...
I usually enjoy singing along with the organ music - but there wasn't much of that. I missed singing "Who let the dogs out..." whenever the opposing team misses a shot on goal and "YMCA" - just to get us all swinging our arms
My granddaughter was also hoping they'd play "Cotton-eyed Joe" - a sign for everyone to get up and dance.
She did have fun going up and down the bouncy slide at intermission...
And eating popcorn.
I soaked in the ambiance, thankful for the dad - sitting behind me - who pointed out finer points of the game to his young son and explained the blue line rules, saying that blue lines de-marked each team's "house."
I'd never buy a ticket and go to a game on my own - but next time there's a spare one in a family pack, I hope I'm invited. Maybe they'll sing YMCA - or Cotton-eyed Joe - again!
What you don't want to run into on a narrow country road when you're rushing to babysit your grandkids!
It looked like grain was being transferred from one vehicle to another. Corn maybe? I don't think they grow much wheat in this part of Canada.
Terry and I sat there marvelling at the size of these vehicles. And we only had to wait about 5 minutes before they let us through.
"Traffic jam" - on a country road!
The backyard hedge is always a challenge! Vines of various kinds get entangled in the hedge all summer long... It takes us a long time to find them and cut them out.
There's a great sense of satisfaction when this chore is done! But unfortunately it has to be done EVERY YEAR!!
My goal is simply to improve...
I'd like to make thinner pots - though I enjoy carving designs into thick ones as well.
To get better at the basic shapes - a cylinder and a bowl. I may even try to add lids to my repertoire!
I find clay to be a peaceful - if muddy - past time, especially when things are going well.
Saw this online...!!
There were days when that might have been true... in my working years.
But life is hardly boring now. And if it is, I have no one to blame but myself.
I'm so THANKFUL that I still have health and strength and energy to do what I want to do. No sitting around.
But if I ever feel frustrated or bored, I make a list of things I'd like to do... (sometime)... and before I know it, it tweaks something I can do right now!
The views (on Google map's street view) beside the water are beautiful! Below is the satellite image of the terrain ... Lots of forests.
My goal is to finish this almost-300-kilometre walk by Christmas. (These virtual walks definitely have me walking more!)
All three of my adult kids have shoes and clothes at our house, so they always have a change of clothing, should the need arise.
This old pair of running shoes would come in handy, one of my sons thought, as he headed out to watch a soccer game in the rain.
But to his chagrin, between the parking lot and the soccer field, they started falling apart. Both soles fell off as plastic/rubber started to disintegrate! He found tape to keep the first sole on, but when the second one went too, he gave up!
He was lucky to get home with dry feet!!
I don't think we've ever had shoes fall apart quite like this before.
After I posted a picture of the crocheted handbag that I saw in the mall recently, my cousin sent me this picture of a wedding dress made of crocheted doilies
A beautiful idea! I wonder if the creative hands that made the doilies were still around to see this product of their handiwork...
I'm sure they would have been delighted ... and honoured!
A few days ago I took the four amaryllis plants that I've been watering outdoors all summer, knocked most of the dirt off them, trimmed the long roots that had grown - and wrapped them in paper to dry them and give them a sense of darkness.
I didn't want to leave them in a shed, in case some animal decided to move in with them!
Now they're resting in the house for 8 weeks... the dormant stage.Hopefully when I check them mid December, they'll have begun growing green shoots. And hopefully, a few weeks after that, they'll each have a magnificent flower - to cheer us when the weather outdoors is bleak, white and cold.
Gardeners always live in hope!
I don't know how many squirrels - and chipmunks - live in our yard, but there are quite a few. We usually just see them "bouncing" by. (They run in leaps and bounds.)
Occasionally the squirrels hunker down on our porch, like here - to stay out of the rain.
But more often, they sit on our porch to eat a nut they found elsewhere... And they always leave a mess!
(Which is why they annoy Terry - who hates a mess!)
I noticed this crocheted handbag in an upscale store at the mall where I do many of my daily walking steps.
It would be fun to make!
(I'm saving these photos for inspiration!)
One of my favourite neighbourhood landmarks will soon be gone.
A Dairy Queen stand that is only open from spring break to Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (first weekend in October) will not be reopening next spring. It has been sold to a developer who plans to tear it down.
For me personally, it's a sad reminder nothing stays the same forever.
An early memory reminds me that it was already here when we moved into the neighbourhood 40 years ago. We moved into our house in winter - though I can't remember if the exact date was December 31, 1981 or January 1, 1982.
The following June, our daughter turned 2. On her birthday, Terry was at work - but I wanted to do something special to celebrate. So - 8 months pregnant but feeling VERY energetic - I plopped her in the stroller and walked (almost a mile) to Dairy Queen - where I treated her to a birthday cone.
Heading back, I started to feel tired... Suddenly my body just stopped. I couldn't take another step. What to do?! I sat down in the grassy ditch, hoping to regain my strength. But my daughter, wondering why her mother had stopped, tried to get out of the stroller.
Panic! (There were no cell phones back then.) What to do?! I must have prayed!
A moment later, a neighbour drove by - then stopped.
Can I give you a ride? she asked. I was SOOO THANKFUL!!
I never come this way, she told me as she drove me home. But I felt an urge to do it today!
I'm SOOO glad you did!
Lesson learned: Never trust your pregnant body, even if it's bursting with energy. It may suddenly CRASH!
I remember a friend once commenting that when you love your car, you want to dress it up.
(He was talking about racing stripes, which must have been popular at the time.)
I thought of his comment a few days ago when I saw this car with false eyelashes!...
I wonder how the eyelashes will handle our inevitable snow!
I wasn't planning to get a shingles shot... What was the worst that could happen?! I remember my dad's shingles experience. It didn't seem that bad.
Look, he said, showing me his back. It was completely covered with a rash.
It's very itchy, he added. Then he put his shirt back on and nothing more was said.
It can't be that bad, I surmised. He's living life as normal and he's not complaining.
That was 40 years ago...
In recent years, I started hearing more about a shingles vaccine that doctors were advising older people get. Remembering my dad's rash, before shingles vaccines existed, I concluded that I could handle a little itchiness, so I didn't think I'd bother getting the shot.
But Terry, who is immunocompromised (he has chronic lymphatic leukaemia) was advised by his doctor to get immunized for shingles. Terry encouraged me to get the shot too.
So recently, even though I didn't think I needed it, we both had our first shots - with second shots to follow in a few months.
BUT THEN, I got an email from my brother, informing me that he currently has shingles, describing how AWFUL his case is. This is how he described it:
(So glad I did!)
When my daughter gave me this rattlesnake, plant, she told me that it spreads its leaves out during the day and folds them upright at night. And that's true... But it doesn't happen EXACTLY the way I expected.
So I'm puzzled! It's almost 6 am in the photo above and still dark outdoors, as one can see through the window. Sunrise is still an hour and a quarter away...
But when I walk into dark room and turn on the light, I notice that the plant is already spreading its leaves! Why?! It's still dark out.
Conversely. 12 hours later, at 6 pm, it's still light outside, but the leaves are already starting to move upright and close...
If sunlight - or darkness - don't cause the leaves to move, then what does?! It must be some inner biological clock! Fascinating!
Benjamin Franklin had it right when he wrote, in 1783, that "There never was a good war or a bad peace."
His reasons hold true today, so I have included them in three screen grabs - from his letter, as found online.
