Afghan - Done!

I started to knit this variegated afghan a month or two ago.

The yarn is stretchy, so I decided to make it a little smaller than I had originally planned. Now it's done!











Then, a few days ago, I happened to see the same yarn in a different - brighter - color! So I've begun another one! I plan to make it a different shape - longer and narrower. The colors remind me of a weather map showing temperatures around the world!

(I can already hear Terry say: What are you going to do with all the afghans?!)

Walking... and Talking

When my kids were younger, if I asked: What did you do at school today? 
They'd invariably shrug and answer: Nothing.

But if we went for a walk, all kinds of stories would come bubbling out! (I soon concluded that the only way to discover what was happening in my children's world was to take walks with them!) I often wondered why that was...

Recently I read something that reminded me of those evening walks...

While walking Spain's 800 kilometer Camino de Santiago with hundreds of others, Jane Christmas often found herself walking with different people. In her book about it she comments: "Walking releases two things: endorphins and conversation. It is exercise and therapy rolled into one. Words, thoughts, and ideas bubble up from the depth of your soul. There is something about walking and talking side by side that makes conversations more candid than they would be face-to-face. What you have to say isn't influenced by your walking partner's facial reaction."

I never considered the aspect of facial reactions - but walking definitely does churn up thoughts and ideas!

Brockville Rib Fest 2014

Last Saturday saw us heading to Brockville, about an hour away, to again enjoy their annual "Rib Fest."

 

A fund-raiser for the Boys and Girls Club, it is popular with locals and people (like us) who come from afar.

Held in Hardy Park, located on the St. Lawrence River, it is a hub of activity.












We headed straight for the ribs...













... and barbecued corn on the cob.

 















Then we walked around. There was a lot to see.












First we watched an arm-wrestling competition.













Clubs as far away from Quebec participated! (Is arm wrestling an Olympic sport yet??!)












There was a petting zoo.

And, of course, there was the waterfront.









 

There was lots of activity in the water: boats, kids swimming.











We always enjoy Brockville in summer!

And for Blisters...

If I picture in my mind my childhood bathroom medicine cabinet, I see a small shelf of basics: aspirin, iodine, band-aids and Vaseline. There was no collection of creams like those I have managed to collect.

When my children were small, I stopped buying aspirin. The doctor recommended different pain killers. Once I no longer changed diapers, I stopped buying petroleum jelly (Vaseline)...

Why?! The name says it all! Who wants to rub a petroleum product on their skin?!

My mother, however, continued to use Vaseline on her hands and feet.

In the book I recently read on the 800-kilometer Camino de Santiago walk, not surprisingly, there was talk of blisters and other foot problems as people, unaccustomed to so much walking, aimed to complete 20 kilometers a day.

Early in the walk, after getting blisters like everyone else, the author was told by an experienced Camino walker to use Vaseline as a foot cream to avoid blisters.

Amazingly, it worked! No more blisters erupted!

Interesting!

Now I have gone out and bought... some Vaseline, too! You never know when it might come in handy!

Demolition!

Our neighborhood (called City View or St. Clair Gardens) is about a kilometer and a half (or approximately a mile) square. A residential area bounded on two sides by busy commercial areas, it is a convenient place to live. When the neighborhood was first established, it was a subdivision outside the city limits known for its large lots and lovely gardens.

When we first moved here, there were two business in our neighborhood - family businesses that were offshoots of farms that had been here before the houses were built. One was a corner store (then called Monuk's) and the other, Brown's Better Flowers. When we first moved here in the early 1980s, the Monuk family still ran the store, but it later changed hands several times before a fire (started in a refrigeration unit) destroyed the building. It sat burnt-out and empty for several years. Eventually a house was built on the foundation. The store we knew had been a house with a store front attached.

The second business in our neighborhood, the flower shop with a greenhouse attached, was also run by the original Brown family when we first moved here. After a number of years, it became too much for the elderly siblings to manage, so they sold the business. It continued as a flower shop for many years.

The original flower shop has been in disrepair for several years. There were plans to turn it into a small Romanian Orthodox church - but they have now decided to simply tear it down and start building from scratch. (Probably a wise move.)










Last week, a few neighbors watched as the walls came tumbling down.












It will be missed - by those who remember it for what it was... and by the animals that now call it home. (There is a hole in the roof made by a squirrel or raccoon.) I'm sure there will be a lot of scurrying when the walls come down! I wonder where they'll move to next?!! (I'm glad I don't live next door!)

The Power of Suggestion

My youngest son, when he was four or five, loved to watch Bugs Bunny on TV. Whenever the cartoon came on, he would rush into the kitchen and ask for a carrot. Then he'd sit there watching Bugs and his antics - happily munching the carrot. (In fact, it came to the point that whenever I wanted him to eat a healthy snack, I'd turn on the cartoon!)

Was it the sight of Bugs, carrot in hand, that brought on his sudden carrot craving? I suspect it was!

I've had a similar experience the past few weeks. Reading Jane Christmas's book about her misadventures on a four-week 800-kilometer walk in Spain doing the Camino de Santiago, I have been transported there - in imagination! As I read the detailed struggles of her daily 20 (or more) kilometer walk, I've suddenly had the urge to walk several miles a day, too. If they can do it, perhaps I can, too!

I hope this walking urge keeps up! If not, I'll have re-read the book - or find another about a long-distance trek. Apparently the power of suggestions works on me, too!

Happiest Squirrels on the Block

Sitting in my mother's garden, I kept noticing squirrels with peanuts.













Residents keep feeding them!













No wonder they're there!














They're the best fed squirrels in the block!