Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow
for ages, not hurt anyone. -Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (30 Jun
1911-2004)
Up at just after 6:00 am as I slept very soundly and no kittens agitating for an early breakfast. Found a small feather beside the door to the living room so wondered about this. Sure enough, when I poked my head into the Rumpus Room the rug, between the round table and the cupboards was almost completely covered with feathers! Upon closer examination I discerned the bird's corpse, disemboweled, and in two parts, closer to the couch. Headed into the garage for a pair of disposable gloves and gathered up the torn carcass, putting it in a small bag and then into the garbage. Duke, of course, was keen to bat the remains around so I had to act quickly.
Once I was back I took out the vacuum hose and then hoovered the rug and surrounding area. I decided I'd wait until Lady Dar was up until I did the same to the rug in front of the fireplace as it had quite a few feathers, although no body parts, on it. However, as I was bringing the hose into the kitchen she started to berate me for my early morning fastidiousness! She as quite apologetic when I explained the reason for the activity so I decided to finish off the business at hand. There were a number of telltale feathers beside my bureau so I don't know if the huntress, [We assume it was Bengal Etta who caught the poor bird as she has done this a number of times before!], brought the kill into the bedroom as a present or if the feathers simply clung to her, or Duke's, coat, deposited there on their rounds.
Other than that, a simply gorgeous morning, the front garden lush with all the rain over the last few days. As Lady Dar is off to Winnipeg, on Monday, I will be the Constant Gardener for the following eleven days. Radishes are providing us with daily salad fixings and we are pleased as punch with how they taste. Didn't need to buy any at the Farmers' Market yesterday as we will be self-sufficient for next few weeks, I think. Same goes for zucchini, both yellow and green. Had both on Friday evening and they were simply delish! Even starting to pick a few small tomatoes so cannot complain in the least!
Waited for Chloë and Gaelen to arrive to collect VW winter tires for Lady Dar's bug, trade-in for Scrap-It program associated with eKona, sold to a woman in Vernon. They will mule them there as they are off to spend night with mutual school chum, Katie, and her family. Once I'd loaded them I started on my shouldares. Lady Dar was off to Osoyoos for a wedding at 3:00 pm and then she popped in to Spirit Ridge to see Clan Sutherland before heading home.
She stopped at a wonderful Mexican food truck, just outside Oliver, for some delish take-away and we enjoyed this for dinner. Had planned to watch Bosch, as mentioned, but some glitch made it impossible to enjoy. Seemed like streaming would stop and start, so we changed to a recorded episode of Call the Midwife, but problem persisted. Very, very annoying, as you can well imagine. Finally gave up and went to bed to read!
Up at just after 6:00 am as I slept very soundly and no kittens agitating for an early breakfast. Found a small feather beside the door to the living room so wondered about this. Sure enough, when I poked my head into the Rumpus Room the rug, between the round table and the cupboards was almost completely covered with feathers! Upon closer examination I discerned the bird's corpse, disemboweled, and in two parts, closer to the couch. Headed into the garage for a pair of disposable gloves and gathered up the torn carcass, putting it in a small bag and then into the garbage. Duke, of course, was keen to bat the remains around so I had to act quickly.
Once I was back I took out the vacuum hose and then hoovered the rug and surrounding area. I decided I'd wait until Lady Dar was up until I did the same to the rug in front of the fireplace as it had quite a few feathers, although no body parts, on it. However, as I was bringing the hose into the kitchen she started to berate me for my early morning fastidiousness! She as quite apologetic when I explained the reason for the activity so I decided to finish off the business at hand. There were a number of telltale feathers beside my bureau so I don't know if the huntress, [We assume it was Bengal Etta who caught the poor bird as she has done this a number of times before!], brought the kill into the bedroom as a present or if the feathers simply clung to her, or Duke's, coat, deposited there on their rounds.
Other than that, a simply gorgeous morning, the front garden lush with all the rain over the last few days. As Lady Dar is off to Winnipeg, on Monday, I will be the Constant Gardener for the following eleven days. Radishes are providing us with daily salad fixings and we are pleased as punch with how they taste. Didn't need to buy any at the Farmers' Market yesterday as we will be self-sufficient for next few weeks, I think. Same goes for zucchini, both yellow and green. Had both on Friday evening and they were simply delish! Even starting to pick a few small tomatoes so cannot complain in the least!
Waited for Chloë and Gaelen to arrive to collect VW winter tires for Lady Dar's bug, trade-in for Scrap-It program associated with eKona, sold to a woman in Vernon. They will mule them there as they are off to spend night with mutual school chum, Katie, and her family. Once I'd loaded them I started on my shouldares. Lady Dar was off to Osoyoos for a wedding at 3:00 pm and then she popped in to Spirit Ridge to see Clan Sutherland before heading home.
She stopped at a wonderful Mexican food truck, just outside Oliver, for some delish take-away and we enjoyed this for dinner. Had planned to watch Bosch, as mentioned, but some glitch made it impossible to enjoy. Seemed like streaming would stop and start, so we changed to a recorded episode of Call the Midwife, but problem persisted. Very, very annoying, as you can well imagine. Finally gave up and went to bed to read!
Hi Summertime and the Bidding is Easy Kids! Had a grand evening this past Monday so many thanks to The Sisterhood for the lovely wine and nibblage! Lady Dar will be winging her way to The Peg, tomorrow, holiday Monday, and I suggest we play at Burns again, unless someone else would like to host. We can play Canada Day rules, (as opposed to Chicago), which stipulate that after each successful bid one lights a firecracker! I propose anytime between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm as start time. Let me know what you think and I'll plan accordingly. Thanks and Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics: The Bidding Babes! Lady Di sampling cider, [instead of playing online bridge!], at the Farmers' Market, along with Red Wing Goil, this Saturday! PS: O Susannah is here for the rest of the summer now, with a change in holiday plans, so although we are disappointed, for her, that her travel plans won't unfold, we are more than delighted that she will be around the bridge table. I can't play tomorrow. Working all day and having grand children for supper, fireworks and a sleep over, Dame Judith Count me in, Susan Hi Patrick. I can play Monday. Dianne
Hi Patrick, We are finishing our barge and bike tour in Holland - what a beautiful country it is. When you are riding through a country side all surrounding looks like a fairytale. We are doing about 50 km a day with usually strong head winds, so pretty good workout. Lucky for us we both have e-bikes, so we can move relatively fast having enough time for the sightseeing. But there is so much to see I wish we could have more time in a day. Holland is a road biking heaven. But you have to be very careful during rush hour in a city because everyone is on a bike and they ride like crazy at times. Tomorrow we are leaving this land of water going to Poland for the second part of our journey. So here it is, a few pictures of the places we have seen so far. Michaelo!
Hi Ski! Pleased to hear you made it home, lavender and apple slices intact! How were your sandwiches? Did you sell them and buy hootch with profits? Thanks for the grand visit. Enjoyed it immensely and only sorry it was so short. Lovely to meet Cherry Woman. Had a grand time at Farmers' Market on yesterday. You need to plan next visit to take this in. Hello to The Great Ronaldo. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you both. Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Patrizio: Sandwiches were delicious. I was so glad I had them as well as the radishes and the apple, very considerate and thoughtful of you. My trip home was uneventful, all flights on time, slept most of the flights and splurged on a Starbucks coffee, delicious.
Arriving home, my friend, Shelley, picked me up and we went to the mall and the traffic was incredible. I have never experienced it before, but I rarely go to the mall. It was Grading Day and Maritimers are crazy about Grading Day. I think it is a ridiculous to treat the day like Christmas. I think it stems back to families feeling so proud that their child was getting an education that when he/she graded it was a big deal. I think an ice cream with a single scoop is just fine! ☺️ We then went to a cafe that has recently opened by vegan/rawfood friends and had a delicious quinoa salad , veggie pate sandwich with sauerkraut and a bean soup.
We then went grocery shopping and I finally made it home 3 hours later, lol. Ron called and said we were invited to a party an hour drive away for me, but it was a Department of Medicine catered dinner with all the wine you could drink if you were so inclined, so how could I refuse. The house is on Bras d'or lake and it is gorgeous. It belongs to a nephrologist and he and if wife have just finished building the house. It looks out onto the lake with a pool in front. The kitchen was the standard gorgeous granite counters with walnut or mahogany type cupboards - I liked it but I prefer your kitchen. I really liked all the people at the party so it was lovely to catch up. I didn't feel any jet lag, so that was good.
Saturday I planted seeds all day, cleaned up the yard and went and got my plants. I will have to send you some pictures of the arrangements, they are beautiful. I have them done by a lady who used to have a nursery. She has a greenhouse so the planter are full and beautiful at the start of the summer instead of waiting until August for them to fill out.
Today it poured but we rode our bikes to a community breakfast and visited with all the country folks. I then came home, hot tubed, (an neighbour came over yesterday to fix the hot tub) and then proceeded to clean the house for the rest of the day. It was so full of dog hair and dust! Dinao came by tonight with her new boyfriend en-route to the Newfoundland ferry. We had a lovely shrimp curry dinner and I made a great apple crisp.
Now I am off to bed, but I thought I had better send you a quick synopsis of my return home. This is unusual for me to write so much, pardon my grammar and spelling. Good night, thanks again for having me and I hope I can do it again real soon, Love Rhoda
Pics: The Bidding Babes! Lady Di sampling cider, [instead of playing online bridge!], at the Farmers' Market, along with Red Wing Goil, this Saturday! PS: O Susannah is here for the rest of the summer now, with a change in holiday plans, so although we are disappointed, for her, that her travel plans won't unfold, we are more than delighted that she will be around the bridge table. I can't play tomorrow. Working all day and having grand children for supper, fireworks and a sleep over, Dame Judith Count me in, Susan Hi Patrick. I can play Monday. Dianne
Hi Patrick, We are finishing our barge and bike tour in Holland - what a beautiful country it is. When you are riding through a country side all surrounding looks like a fairytale. We are doing about 50 km a day with usually strong head winds, so pretty good workout. Lucky for us we both have e-bikes, so we can move relatively fast having enough time for the sightseeing. But there is so much to see I wish we could have more time in a day. Holland is a road biking heaven. But you have to be very careful during rush hour in a city because everyone is on a bike and they ride like crazy at times. Tomorrow we are leaving this land of water going to Poland for the second part of our journey. So here it is, a few pictures of the places we have seen so far. Michaelo!
Hi Ski! Pleased to hear you made it home, lavender and apple slices intact! How were your sandwiches? Did you sell them and buy hootch with profits? Thanks for the grand visit. Enjoyed it immensely and only sorry it was so short. Lovely to meet Cherry Woman. Had a grand time at Farmers' Market on yesterday. You need to plan next visit to take this in. Hello to The Great Ronaldo. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you both. Stay well. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Patrizio: Sandwiches were delicious. I was so glad I had them as well as the radishes and the apple, very considerate and thoughtful of you. My trip home was uneventful, all flights on time, slept most of the flights and splurged on a Starbucks coffee, delicious.
Arriving home, my friend, Shelley, picked me up and we went to the mall and the traffic was incredible. I have never experienced it before, but I rarely go to the mall. It was Grading Day and Maritimers are crazy about Grading Day. I think it is a ridiculous to treat the day like Christmas. I think it stems back to families feeling so proud that their child was getting an education that when he/she graded it was a big deal. I think an ice cream with a single scoop is just fine! ☺️ We then went to a cafe that has recently opened by vegan/rawfood friends and had a delicious quinoa salad , veggie pate sandwich with sauerkraut and a bean soup.
We then went grocery shopping and I finally made it home 3 hours later, lol. Ron called and said we were invited to a party an hour drive away for me, but it was a Department of Medicine catered dinner with all the wine you could drink if you were so inclined, so how could I refuse. The house is on Bras d'or lake and it is gorgeous. It belongs to a nephrologist and he and if wife have just finished building the house. It looks out onto the lake with a pool in front. The kitchen was the standard gorgeous granite counters with walnut or mahogany type cupboards - I liked it but I prefer your kitchen. I really liked all the people at the party so it was lovely to catch up. I didn't feel any jet lag, so that was good.
Saturday I planted seeds all day, cleaned up the yard and went and got my plants. I will have to send you some pictures of the arrangements, they are beautiful. I have them done by a lady who used to have a nursery. She has a greenhouse so the planter are full and beautiful at the start of the summer instead of waiting until August for them to fill out.
Today it poured but we rode our bikes to a community breakfast and visited with all the country folks. I then came home, hot tubed, (an neighbour came over yesterday to fix the hot tub) and then proceeded to clean the house for the rest of the day. It was so full of dog hair and dust! Dinao came by tonight with her new boyfriend en-route to the Newfoundland ferry. We had a lovely shrimp curry dinner and I made a great apple crisp.
Now I am off to bed, but I thought I had better send you a quick synopsis of my return home. This is unusual for me to write so much, pardon my grammar and spelling. Good night, thanks again for having me and I hope I can do it again real soon, Love Rhoda
Hello Famiglia Dronkers! Trust all goes well in Calgary and Arlo is keeping you both busy! Grand time with plenty of visitors, bridge, Dream, PAG Dinner and Farmers' Market since you've been gone. On another matter, hootch related, Kevin Ritcey, august and revered President of SOWTS, has six bottles of whiskey at the Kensington Wine Market, paid in full and ready for pickup, for SOWTS inventory. It turns out that another member has four as well. [His mule suffered a torn achilles so planned trip had to be postponed!], so I was wondering, on behalf of SOWTS, and crippled mule, if you might be able to swing by Kennsington and transport said bottles, [basically a case of wine, more or less, in terms of size], back to Summerland and someone could collect malt, [Unopened!] at your place, unless you will be in Penticton, at some point, after you are back. Not a big deal if you are unable to do this but if so, it would certainly be much appreciated by all involved. If you are able to help out please let Kevin know and he'll provide details so that Kennsington knows you are legit mules and not just some freeloaders from Summerlandia!
Once I've loaded them I'll start on my shouldares. Fondestos to Lady Dar to you both, just off to Osoyoos for a wedding at 3:00 pm. Afterwards she will pop in to Spirit Ridge to see Clan Sutherland, there for a week or so, before heading home. Plan to be finished my shoulder exercises before she is back so that we can enjoy dinner together and view a couple more episodes of Bosch. Thanks again, and Cheers, Patrizzio "Mule Middleman"!
Pics: Dream this past Wednesday with Over the Moon, fab, fab husband/wife duo, from Longview, Alberta, where Ian Tyson is their rancher neighbour! They covered one of his songs and did so remarkably, remarkably movingly! PAG Auction/Dinner: Margaret Holm, [wife of Richard Cannings, our MP], with Lady Dar's successful bid! "Cousin" Michelle Dunn! Famiglia Tennant, of Terravista, Senka, Bob, their son Oliver and fianceé, Megan, both up from Vancouver; Ret, [first on left], and Dorothy Tinning, [third on left], at next table. As you both know, Dorothy is in hiking group, and she asked me to take a snap. FM: Wild Bill, just retired, on Friday, after 37 years, I believe at PenHi! Owner of Farmersdotter Organics, producers of garlic scape salt which Pam, Corinne's sister in Winnipeg, ordered. Lady Dar had to buy two more to replace ones Rhoda, visitor from Cape Breton, took to take back home! Avi, owner/designer of Natural Wool Knits. Using the pattern of the mixed greys, Avi will knit the vest similar to one on display. Lady Dar just happened to mention that this is what she wanted for a birthday present! Those Durstons! Jake; Bees from Cawston, community where Durston Honey Farm, [in Dauphin, Manitoba], bees over-winter! You can take the bees out of Manitoba but you can't take Manitoba out of the bees, or something like that!
