CLOSING UP...ALMOST

When you see the cottage sparkling clean...it's time for closing up. Mary and I went through the cottage and bunkies, putting everything away, sorting through stuff and giving thorough washings of everything!

We only have the kitchen to do when we go back next week. Well Bob and Mary are coming, we are leaving for the cottage tomorrow.

There have been storms which knocked out the power for 72 hours, so I don't know how the food stuffs we left will have survived....thankfully we
have brought a lot home.

Each year we must remove our docks which
extend out onto the lake about 50 ft or more.
It's always been a monstrous job for the men to
do. We've put them at Helen's beach for the past 8 years or so, but this year we floated them to a secluded spot on the lake.

The guys found it so much easier and with Mary being the director of operations, that is, her job was just to watch the floating docks to make sure all was straight and that she could say "stop" when everything was in place, she went on the little expedition to the far side of the lake.

Bob felt like King Tut floating down the river for a while there...


In the little bay where the docks are stored the gang came upon a loon's nest. The photo shows the homemade nest made by a cottager out of pvc pipes, with a mesh nest and debris put on the top.

These nests are located a bit off shore, keeping the loons safe from predators. I'd honestly never seen one so it was very interesting to note the way it had been placed.

Then my sweetie said that there was one located close to us too! It's tucked into a small cove on our island...I do think it will be moved though as I find our end of the lake a bit rough for nesting loons. But having said that, now that I shall be agile next year, I will be able to monitor the nests and let you know if there are indeed babies in the nests.

We also saw a beaver dam on the far side of our island tucked into a secluded area although no sign of the beaver...this guy doesn't know he's supposed to live is more shallow waters. Jerry said it was about 40 ft deep where it was. Quite the ambitious little guy. This is the same beaver that has been trying to eat his way through a 40 ft oak on Helen and Derek's cottage property.. each time they come back to the cottage they see signs that he's been there working away (like a beaver) I couldn't resist that.

So next week is our last for the season...I've got my quilting boxes etc down in the basement ready for sorting. All appointments have been made for the hip surgery on the 25th October.
I don't know anyone who is more looking forward to having this done.

I dream of walking normal through Ikea no less....those of us in Canada know the commercial that says "Start the Car!" as a woman runs through Ikea not believing the prices...well that's my dream....just going through there at a good clip.

Tomorrow, the 26th is my birthday...I'm having a glass of wine to cheer me and then Karen who just had a birthday on the 24th. I know so many people that I share my day with....lots of toasts and thanks once again.

FAVOURITE THINGS FRIDAY

I was reading the blog "Quilting in my Pyjamas"
which I do too don't you? Anyway she has this
thing that she does on Fridays...


It doesn't have to be serious, which hers is as serious as she can possibly be, which is always funny anyway, but here's my first thing.

Sunrise! I love sunrises at the cottage. It's a quiet time of the day, the lake is usually quite calm, the colours are always different depending on the season, and my little hummers are always starving at this time of the day.

This is when I hear loons, more often hearing than seeing because this lake has so many echos
that carry for miles.

I often take my coffee, sit on the deck and admire nature around us and count my blessings
that we found this magical place ten years ago.

This is my first Favourite Friday posting.

A BEAR OR A RACCOON, YOU BE THE JUDGE!

Last night around midnight we awoke to the worst noise of the night ever at the cottage.

There was crashing of our garbage bins, which needless to say awoke us from a sound night's sleep.

We jumped out of bed....well as much as two people who hobble can, to see what the devil was out there!

In the ten years we have been here, never and I mean never have the coons been able to open the garbage bins which are a Rubbermaid that I no longer can find.

The bins have a lock top and no raccoon has ever been able to figure out how to open them.

Well, last night three were destroyed along
with smashed tops and dragged about 200 ft
up the hill behind the cottage.

We didn't see a critter at all, we only saw one bin moved and broken at this time. Then I suppose an hour or so later as we had brought in one bin which only had some paper in it, and thought that was it, we were awaken once more.

Again this banging of bins, which was the bin with the tins and glass which makes an awful noise anyway, out we go to see that now only the bin with the glass and tin is left!

How could a raccoon carry three bins with garbage up over the septic bed and up a hill I ask you? I think it was a bear which would be in transit as we
don't have enough food to sustain bears on the island except of course garbage now and then. So the bears would move island to island then to land for the winter season in any event.

Now, as you know I still have my little hummers around, so for the first time ever, there was a destroyed feeder hanging about 10 ft off the steps usually which was broken and a tooth or claw mark on the feeder part!

In the middle of the night, the second time around the dog got out and headed up the hill. Of course being a Westie he doesn't come when called and we shouted loud enough to wake the dead! " You little......get back here!" Finally, we got the leash out and started up the hill with a flashlight, the leash, following all the garbage and finally the stupid dog sees the leash and thinks he's going for a walk so he comes running to the leash! Holy s...., we started laughing at the two of us, in slippers jackets, flashlights, and a dog with a wagging tail....

Today, my sweetie is building a bomb proof shelter for the garbage. Whether it was a bear or raccoon, we will be secure from any more invasions. I'll take a photo when it's done, but not today, it's a secret project.


NB> the photos are web shots, not the actual invadors!

IT'S LIKE BEING PREGNANT!

Do you remember being nine months pregnant and getting an incredible burst of energy?

Well this happened to me today! I'm telling you I can't get over it and I'm still in the mode as I write this!

This fabulous loon with a young appeared close to our dock this weekend. Helen saw it eating a fish! At first she wondered what it had in it's mouth, then realized that it had just come up from fishing off her dock.

I had the telephoto handy and managed to get
a few shots of this magnificent creature!


We had a new roof put on our "little" bunkie. it was a huge mess when the roofers took the old shingles off the roof and there was so much little bits of tar and hemlock needles that came through the ceiling that my sweetie and Bob, (who is really anal when it comes to cleaning) took everything out of the bunkie, vacuumed, washed and put everything back to make it look like it is ready for guests!

Our season is winding down so I don't think anyone will actually come to use it again this year
so we will probably start putting umbrellas, chairs
lifejackets and anything else in it for the winter
storage.





This morning, after having coffee I started cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, the fridge, and the big green cupboard in the family room to put it all in order.

You know me, I'm so in need of a new hip and I hobble around now that I'm only about nine weeks till surgery, so where I got this energy is beyond me!

The kitchen is super clean, the cupboards all tidied, even dinner was prepped as I was doing
all my kitchen stuff.

Still on the move, I cut out and sewed two, yep count em two of the above bags, only used beige straps, then cut out a pair of pyjamas bottoms and sewed those suckers up too!

My sewing area is now a bit lighter and I'm feeling good about my day. I took the dog for a short walk to the neighbours as he just needs to go a bit to feel he's been away...stupid dog, it took me about 7 minutes total, there and back.

We had actually planned to go for a boat ride this afternoon but the wind came up, the docks are rolling once again and we are expecting thunder and lightning and the rain that follows.

My sweetie thinks we should prepare to have a wood fire soon as it's going to get cooler quite quickly, but still the humming birds are here, two of them today at the feeders.

I've managed to get more done today than I have all this summer...where did that come from?

WONKY STAR QUILT AND TEENY TINY BEARS

When Helen gets creative, she really gets her mojo working. She decided to start using up scraps that she has had for ever in her box of goodies.

So here is the back first, of her wonky Ohio Star little quilt she created. See how precise her star is...it's why she perseveres with me..she thinks I can do this stuff!

The back of the quilt is as lovely as the front. I love the colours she used to make the back as interesting as the front.






You know me, I have a hard time downloading is sequence, so here is her amazing little Wonky Ohio Star quilt which measures about 36" square. There is off white in the squares as she tea dyed the white to give interest to the quilt....yeah she did.


I'm going to try to make a wonky Ohio Star quilt soon. I just love this.



When Helen goes to visit her mother who still lives independently at 90 yrs old. What a woman. She taught Helen at an early age to do small stitches, small fiddly things, teeny tiny stitches....so Helen makes these little bears!

They are hand stitched, stuffed and you can see the size of them in Andrea's hand. Now Andrea is her mother's daughter, but never will she attempt this stuff! We let Helen
have her fun. Honestly I couldn't see where she stitched this together!


We've had another storm come through, which I shall post tomorrow because a tree came so close to destroying the roof of Helen's cottage last night that the men went to see what the racket was about.

All is safe as the tree hit another before it landed on the roof without any damage except for shaking the cottage and all that were in it.

A recommendation for ladies that like to sew is "Valentino, the Last Emperor" which the ladies viewed last night. Talk about sewing! All his dresses are sewn by hand and this was a docu drama on his life and the workings of the designer...totally for women who sew!

COTTAGE HISTORY AND QUILTING

Remember the "new" neighbours? Well this is the
last bouquet of the summer. The flowers lasted
over two weeks because I knew that Kent would
not be back for the month of September




.
All summer long he brought flowers for me. I know that it's fall now as the glads are done, the kids are back in school, the lake is quiet, it's raining, it's getting a bit chilly at night, so it's a sign that the end of the season is near.





I actually finished piecing the nine patch that I started in July, but don't have backing for it as yet, so I decided to work on the Eleanor Burns quilt,"flying into spring" which is now flying into fall..

.

Someone posted a "slow poke quilter" and I would
have won a prize for being such a slow poke this
past summer. I do think it was the weather!




.I've got all the stippling done on the quilt, but do think that the flowers need to be tacked down. Helen is coming to have a boo at it today to give me some idea of what to do.


.
The geese will just be outlined inside the borders as they need achoring too.
.
The basting which was done by a quilt shop in Orillia was just amazing and made my work so much easier. I don't think I could have put this
together otherwise.

.
I was talking to one of my blogging friends this past week and noted that we came to the cottage in 2000 with a boat load of our stuff thinking that we would never again need to load up the car and that all the hard work was done!
.
The following year you see on the photo that we really needed more "stuff". We looked like the Beverhill Billies (aka the Clampetts) and people were taking photos of the barge as they'd never seen the barge filled like that!
.
Well we needed the sunroom, and my sweetie figured that if we were paying for the barge we
may as well load it up!
.
The barge had all the lumber for building the sunroom. We hired people to unload it all and withing a week the foundations were done for the addition of the sunroom
.
This is what was accomplished on the first day!
It was the middle of May when this was all started and by the end of August, the room was enclosed with the windows!

.
That September we had such a storm which was the result of the winds from a hurricane that for
the life of me I can't remember, but it was a
night of terror for us here at the cottage.

.

The windows are weatherwalls which are built to withstand winds of about 65 mph, and we here well over that on that night.
.
There was minor damage to the boats, branches were down but the windows withstood the winds!
.
As Earl went through the areas last week I was reminded of that storm and our life as it began here at the cottage.

So, I've posted a few of our photos here for you
to see the changes.
.
The "Great Room" as it was aptly named by our daughter Kelly is still the place where we all gather for events, and my little quilting studio in the summer is in one corner of the fabulous room that was built by my sweetie.



ps...can someone tell me how I remove this
extra photo?
Thank you Karen....it works...it's gone!

BACK TO BLOGGING

Lots has been happening to everyone on the eastern side of North America and the lovely islands in the Caribbean.

This is a photo I borrowed from the BVI Beacon FB page. If you go to the Beacon on line, they have a FB page with all the devestation that hit the Virgin Islands.

No lives were lost, thankfully, and most damage is able to be repaired, except for trees that took the brunt of the force winds.

My mother would weep at her beautiful little
piece of paradise if she saw the terrible tole it
took on the little village of Cane Garden Bay
where she spent 35 years of her life.

Hopefully, no worse hits the North Carolina
coast. Earl is a terrible storm, and we here
in Ontario will only get the rains and some
winds



My grandchildren who compete in Canoe/Kayak
Sprint racing have come home with meddles.


Grandson has one gold, one silver and two bronze in canoeing. He was very proud of his accomplishments in Regina. This is his first year of really working hard at training and competing as a Midget.

His sister did very well also, with five, yep count them five gold medals, and one silver in kayaking at the Canadian Championships.


I couldn't get them to put them on and display them,
as they are quite humbled by the whole experience.


But as a proud Nana, I'm posting the medals.

I've been busy with company here at the cottage, then home for a few days while above noted granddaughter had her final treatment for the tumor. The doctor was very friendly this time....after having a superior athlete in his presence....(grins here) and was quite animated when we all talked about her being back to see him when she feels it again. Funny about him...I was ready to confront him again but he was as sweet as pie this time. Also everything went so smooth that we were out of there in about 2 hours..

September, my time of year, as it's my birthday month, it's the time of year that I feel a renewal of life. This year, I'm getting a new hip....Hip, Hip, Hip...etc, can hardly wait.

This is also the beginning of the end of life at the cottage, kids are back at school, people start closing their cottages, fewer and fewer lights on at night. We also get fewer visitors, so maybe, just maybe I can get the quilt finished before I head home.

FUN AT THE LAKE!

This is my daughter! She brings the grandkids

for my summer fun.

.

Every time they arrive, there is a flurry of the

most amazing activities that happen upon

arrival .

This past weekend was no exception. First thing that happened withing minutes of arrival was three crazy teens jumping into the water and crashing around the water.

Then the water skiing happened before we could even think of eating!

Kelly and I just take photos of all the activities

and some that can't be explained as the kids

just have fun here!

There was a shampooing with enviroment proper shampoo that produced sculpted hair dos.

Then they decided to decorate their bodies with the shampoo suds.

.

I tell you they were laughing so hard. The one in the middle of the two grandkids is practically one of the family as Aleesha has been here many times and is also an excellent water skier which guarantees her acceptance.

.

The highlight of any weekend at the cottage is triple or quads of skiers going around the island.

Well as you can see the boat is chugging a bit to get the three of the kids up. We will be using a larger motor next year for sure as Jeremy is growing like a weed.


Jeremy is a wild skier and he wanted to go doubles with his sister who refused,"cause you are crazy" and Aleesha said "no way"....so we
looked next door and Jeremy said "What about
Erin!, she skies!"

.
So we shouted over, and she was suckered into
skiing with Jeremy! Not only that she didn't know he was a wild and crazy guy, but it was her first time on doubles and the whole experience was the longest ski of her life!

.

She was such a sport, and the girls figured she was light enough for triples with them the next day, but the waves on the lake were huge so it didn't happen!

.

Next year Erin will once again be picked to do
triples as she is light and also unsuspecting of the
ulterior motives of our gang!

I'm coming up to my 300th blog...I can't believe I have so much to say...a million little things in the brain and out the thoughts come!

I'm happy to say the Helen has picked up the "spring" quilt...aka bloody quilt...which she will return to the cottage this weekend. Now I'll have to quilt!

I'm sewing the nine patch which I better get a move on as the end of August is near, the Eastern Star was visible for the first time to me last night over the south east. It's that time of year for thinking of reducing the food stuffs here at the cottage...and starting to take home the sewing stuff that I haven't used this summer.

What happens to us? Why when I think of sewing all the time, the area is a great place and still I don't sew quilts? Yesterday, I cut an old white towel into dishcloths, and zigzaged all eight pieces. Then, I decided to do the nine patches.

Nanci

ANOTHER LITTLE COTTAGE STUDIO!

My friend Helen has a lovely spot to do her
cottage quilting.

.

She uses her dining area, with her little sewing
table similar to mine which has her machine
even with the table.

When the little table is taken back to her city home, she collapses it, puts it into a carry all which has wheels.

It was purchased in the US last winter. Helen is like me in that she likes to sew with the machine even with the table. It makes for less stress on the shoulders and the back when quilting.

We who move around and machine quilt too must improvise our little spots. Karen (Karen Quilts) has been travelling for the past month or so and has her fabrics cut and sorted for camping for two months. A lot of planning goes on for those of us who have the addiction.

Did I tell you of the visits of the couple of cottagers who came to see the quilts after reading my little article by Helen? Well they arrived by boat, going down wind so the driver decided at the last moment that it was a bad idea, just as the other person was reaching for the dock, the driver backed up....the reaching person ended up reaching for water....too funny! She saved two pairs of glasses, her one shoe, having left the other in the boat, and only her cheerfulness let us know that we could roar with laughter.

The driver of the boat had a hard time docking since she was laughing so hard! I just carried a large towel for our visitor!

We had a lovely time looking at quilts, but what surprised me was that they didn't quilt at all!

I'm still having dowloading trouble, so the awesome photos of the weekend with the kids will keep for now.

It is so windy on the lake that only the very needy and brave are venturing out! Huge gusts are rocking our docks to the point that it really isn't safe to even go on them. The sun is shining though, so I'm not too troubled by the winds.
Nanci

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED!

Did you wonder what happened to my regular blogs? Well, first I had an atrial fibrillation attack which knocked me out for a couple of days, then while resting with the computer on my lap, I dropped it when the dogs scared the dickens out of me chasing a bird that got into the cottage.



Needless to say, lots of problems with the computer, but with a new hard drive, at 40 mgbites I'm running on full throttle once again!



I think that as I'm writing this post that I'm still having a problem downloading photos, but that may be the blogger site too.



This weekend my daughter is bringing up the kids who ski! We can't wait! There will be doubles and tripples on the lake, which is today very calm , so I'm off to the dock to have my coffee.



You know that as I was driving back from the city there are signs of fall all over the place! My sweetie said not to say a word...but the signs are there for all of us as the trees and the flowers in my garden are starting to dry while the black
eyed susans are in full bloom. They are the last of the perennials that bloom for me.

.

The hummingbirds are very busy with the bee balm still which makes me happy to see. In about two weeks, the hummers will be gone...imagine.

.

The quilt top is one of Helen's little creations! She has made more quilts than me this summer!

I can't believe it! I also took a photo of her little cottage studio which I shall post soon.

.

What did I ever do without a computer? When it crashed, I lost all emails, all photos, all recipes that I had saved. Now most of the photos are on disks, but it was a lesson learned...back up all documents in the future.
.

Have a great weekend...I'm happy to be back

POT LUCK SUPPER

When we were talking about the pot luck supper on our island, the Cottage Guy and Gal, who have had lots of experience with pot lucks, advised that Cottage Gal should write it up.






The invite which went out to about 60 people, said to bring your "best dish" which did not include potato chips, aka Canada...chips.



Well no one brought chips.

This is Cottage Guy and Gal picking the winner of the best cottage hat

A funny story about her hat...she thought that the former owners had left the "tacky" hat for the cottage.
Well it turns out that we found this hat on the highway
on a rainy day about nine years ago, and gave it to the
granddaughter of the former owners. Cottage Gal now
wears it with pride even though it says "Elva" inside of the brim.





This is the trophy! It was given to us by Tony the mechanic from the marina who said it was usually worn by someone who goofed up in the shop....Bev who won for wearing an umbrella hat was a great sport to pose and many people were thankful not to have won!










I tell you, when my sweetie was thinking of what was going to happen for the first annual pot luck, the expectations were unknown as no one on the island had ever done one before...










So, here is part of the food buffet set out! I tell you I don't know what everyone will do to top this feast for next year!







There were dishes of salmon, trout, awesome chicken
which was a two day marinating, pork roast thinly sliced
and so yummy. The lasagna, salads, just finished off the meal!




The deserts were few....something to note for next year.



Anyway, this blog is for my island friends who will look at the blog today.


Now, Helen, whose daughter Andrea bought these hats at a charity auction a couple of years ago let those of
us who "rate" wear these hats!





The one of a kind hats were designed by some British millinary(?} designers. Andrea thought she'd have to pay a fortune for them...but got a great deal!





So, the proud guy there belongs to Helen who also was part of the planning of the whole event. Mary, my dear friend and Bob helped immensely.





I'm planning on wearing the pink hat to a wedding next year....





So, thanks for coming, thanks for the food, and thanks for all who contributed to the event!

MY LITTLE COTTAGE STUDIO

I'm always reading of quilting studios! Well at the cottage this is mine! I've packed everything except batting into those four little suitcase and try to keep this corner tidy....ha!

Some days it looks like a tornado has been through it, other days there is some semblance of order.

I am forever going through the cases and tidying, sorting and just plain trying to remember what is in what.

Next year, I am hoping for a little chest to just throw
everything in, but the suitcases which are now hard
to find in goodwill etc have been around for years.

I used to have the gold one full of jewelry when the
grandkids were little. Eventually the jewelry
dwindled down to a few pieces and the kids grew up.

I had one full to the brim with lego that I picked up
here and there. Many pieces were borrowed of
course and now all those pieces are in a plastic
bin, the suitcase being valuable for fabrics only.

The grandkids were a bit disappointed when I moved all the craft stuffs, the drawing papers from one of them. The rule was you used the top for the table...it has many marks of drawings that blue one.

Oh well, life moves on.

The little quilt that you see is one done by the daughter of a friend who has a blog called Craft Addictions, which for some reason I had trouble getting it up on my roll. Try...http://www.tuscanydesign.net/craftbook and hopefully you will see Claire's lovely craft stuffs, and a few quilts. She has some cute craft ideas on the blog for those of us who might want to make some gifts.

I love this quilt....It's simple, it's cute and Claire says I inspired her to blog! What a girl!

It's a rainy day here although the weather is supposed to be great for the pot luck day. I'm going to rest up and sew the nine patches together....I hope. My girlfriend Cathy who was visiting from Florida has left after visiting for the past four days. We shared over 30 yrs of memories....once again!

IT'S SUMMER DON'T YOU KNOW?

It's summer! I'm enjoying it for the first time in it seems
years. Last year we had so much rain, no hot days, no
humidity! This year we have hot days, humid days and
some rains! Everything here is lush.


Last year, I had one hummingbird...this year there are two new babies that are eating us out of house and home!

They are finally able to land on the feeders without missing their footings, or landing and tipping over! I have had a few laughs at the young.

I finished this little quilt from all left over little squares that I cut and bagged in the winter. I practiced with the walking foot in anticipation of receiving the "spring quilt" back from the basting lady in Orillia.

I tell you, I am so challenged when it comes to directions. If it says "open here" I'm good, but trying to put the Janome walking foot into operation was a challenge! It took me ages of frustrating reading, trying and reading once again over and over to realize the "lift up" was the instruction that I was missing.

It works like a dream! I was sweating by the time I finished clipping the foot in! I'm getting Helen to direct me so that I don't age in the process of learning how to read directions!

This next week will be a busy one, we are having a pot luck supper at the cottage this coming Saturday. I just thought it would be great to have people come the the "First Annual Long Island Pot Luck Supper" at our cottage. All things going well, we will think of another for next year.

The cottage girl (formerly known as the new neighbour) designed an amazing invite for us to deliver, and the cottage guy (formerly you know who) printed them off. Great work and nice colours too.

So, we await the result.

I'm going to try and put the nine patch quilt top together this week. I'm thinking of so many things that I must be careful not to mix up any of the rows. So numbering as you know is tres (french for very) important. I'm off to do that today as Mary and Bob won't have a bed otherwise. The top is still in pieces there.

The girls from next door are off to camp for three weeks, the grandkids of Helen's who are here on and off are mostly off this week as their Jack plays lacrosse so we are without kids to have fun with....I guess the dog will just have to entertain me, but it's not the same!

PAN AMERICAN GAMES...

Well our grandson has made the team to go to the
Pan American Games in October, in Mexico City!

Now do you think I've been able to do anything but cry with joy? He's just an amazing kid who has such a talent and at 15 he will be the youngest member of the Canadian team!

Enough said of how proud we are. I just wanted to share this with my blogging "family". We are all so close that we do weddings, graduations, baptisms, or whatever else tickles our fancy.

Another great kid this summer is the grandson of my "private" teacher who is playing lacrosse for the provincial team here in Ontario....don't you think that family is proud too?

Don't you all have something to cheer about this summer? Be it just a little bit of news or big event stuff, we are always happy to know a bit about our lives in our journals.

The granddaughter has had her second radiation treatment on her tumor and is responding well. A bit stiff but she is back training and coaching too. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the third time will not be required.

Back at the lake, there appears to have been some pretty big storms around and some of the plants took a bit of a beating, though still standing.

I finished a little quilt today which is sort of a crib quilt and I'll be sending it off to the granddaughter of a friend who had a "miracle" baby girl...see all kinds of good stuff happening this week!

I'm putting the nine patch together starting tomorrow. It'll be as you saw in the last post...looks better now that I do see it after almost a week. I'm putting a six inch sashing around it all and using white on the backside too. White is might!

Then, I'm going to work on using my walking foot on the Janome. I gotta tell you though, I sure have a hard time following directions! It took me a half hour of putting the stupid thing together! I know how it works now, so bring on the spring quilt! I'm ready!

THE WINDS AT THE COTTAGE!

Returning home from the cottage on a Sunday afternoon is something we don't often do. Since the weather wasn't going to be ideal for a Monday return, we decided to do the drive on Sunday. Lots and lots of traffic, but still with the back roads that we know, we made it home in two and a half hours even with a couple of short stops. We were quite happy.

This is who we found munching grass in our back yard. I think he actually lives next door where they have lots of flowers and no dog. Our "stupid westie" didn't see the rabbit for about 3 minutes, till the little guy decided to high tail (no pun indended) it out of the yard!

What is with the weather? Is there tropical storms somewhere that we haven't heard of? In Canada, we will
get the remainders of some storms from the south, but not at
this time of year!

On Saturday, the wind was such that only the brave left the safety of their cottages. Now we are a large lake, deep too, so when the wind comes up there is rough waters. It's hard to take a photo to show the roughness in photos, but let me tell you....it was rough!

The neighbours, (no more new from now on) have lots of water toys, one of which is this trampoline tube...It was so rough that it's anchors couldn't hold it and the tube was dragged against the rocks at our cottage!

Not a fun time for the neighbours as this is a new tube this year and they don't come cheap I am told.

So after a lot of looking and trying to figure how to save it from being bashed and destroyed on the rocks, it was decided that the tube would be released from the anchors, a long rope
would then be attached, the tube would be pushed to our dock which would protect it due to the currents on the lake.

So, the cottage guy got into the water to release the anchor when the wind caught the tube and it looked like it was going to take off, so the cottage girl, jumped in to help. Not the most flattering photo of our cottage girl, what with the wet hair and all, but the two of them managed to release the said anchors!

Of course, just then Bob jumped in the water to help which was good as the wind was making it hard to manage the tube due to the winds!

Between the three of them, along with my sweetie getting an extra long rope on the tube, they managed to secure the tube to our floating dock.

It rocked and rolled over about a half dozen times at our dock
until the winds finally died down.

I didn't realize until this third shot appeared on the blog where the cottage guy was, I thought he was on the outside of the tube. They must have been tired after this effort. It took about a half hour to secure!

I tell you, I'm glad I've got the camera at hand at all times, as so much happens in an instant!

We are having a pot luck supper in a couple of weeks to get people on the islands together to share stories, get aquainted and of course have great foods! I'm sure that this tube story will be one of them since we delivered the invites later in the evening when the winds were somewhat calmer we were asked about the flying tube off the end of our dock!


My sweetie laughed about it as he said that this past couple
of weeks, we've not had a dull moment due to the wind conditions!


As you might have known, we've had Bob and Mary up to the cottage for the past week. I didn't get too much done in the sewing area, however, I did manage to finish putting the patches together.

This top is from a jelly roll that I've added white to just make it more of a summer quilt. It currently...not this final word...measures about 60" square.

I'm not sure I like it being matchy matchy as I look at it and am thinking about putting a white squared sashing in the top.

Do you understand what I mean? I'm not convinced that adding the border sashings will make me happy. I like symetry, just not this much I think.

It's been left on Mary's bed in her bunkie so that I can think on it when I return.

I tell you that life is so interesting these days! We are awaiting results to see if our grandson has made a national team for the Pan Am Games, or even on the team to train for Junior Worlds in Canoeing, his sister, our darling girl who kayaks is having her second operation for the tumor thing, she is also getting prepared for university, and I, note I am last here, am awaiting a date for the hip replacement in September!

Thanks to all who asked for the lovely article that Helen wrote about me! I am truly humbled, and for those who know me it takes a lot to humble me! Stop laughing....this did it!

I am still following Karen on her travels throughout the country as she and Mike are posting fabulous photos! Each year Karen, ie Karen Quilts on the blog roll does a great travel blog of the back country of the United States. Thanks so much as I do feel I am there with them....have a boo!