More Leaves...

Well that's the last of the leaves! Well most of them anyway. The last lot in the back garden were raked up, some burnt and some dumped in the woods. All we need now is a huge wind to blow them all back out again!! There are still quite a few in the front garden, but they aren't too bad and it's quite wet out there, so we'll see how inclined we feel next weekend to finish them off.
We did have a lot of wind and rain last night and we lost power for a few hours, but as we were in bed savouring the extra hour, we were oblivious and woke to a flashing alarm clock.
The past week was more or less the same as every week. Cubs went on a hike at Laurie Park on Wednesday, Matthew & Emma were off school on Friday and then it was Apple Day on Saturday, which is basically gifting apples to the community to thank them for the support they have given 2nd Wellington over the past year. It seems a bit of a cheek to carry around a donation can at the same time, but it's amazing how generous people are. Incidentally we raised $1000 at the bottle drive last week.
Matthew was at a friends house for a sleepover on Friday night and Emma had her friend Emily to stay over, so we lost one child but gained one!
Matthew was invited to a birthday party on Saturday evening at Pirates Cove in Dartmouth. Actually Emma was invited too but she didn't want to go for some reason. Saved us a present I suppose! Anyway, Pirates Cove is within the Dartmouth Sportsplex and luckily for us (or unluckily actually) the annual Christmas Craft Fair was on in the arena. I was really impressed. It was a great fair with loads of lovely things to buy. We were quite restrained and bought a bottle of Oishi sauce (for stir frying - fat free!) and a Christmas Welcome sign. I took a photo in case you wondering....All the rage here, and very reasonably priced.
Today as I said we finished the leaves in the back, Matthew & Emma went Ice skating and we had Roast Pork for dinner! I also carved a couple of pumpkins for the Cub Halloween Party tomorrow (apparently I'm in charge of pumpkin putting) and made pumpkin soup. There seems to be a bit of an obsession with Pumpkin. You can even get Pumpkin Spiced Latte coffee! Sobeys Pumpkin and Walnut scones are pretty delicious though...
And that just about wraps up another week. Halloween this coming week....

Leaves....

Millions of them....of course I should've known - they were all on the ground when I viewed the house last November! However, there they all were just lying there waiting to be mulched or raked or burnt or all three! Well the idea was to use the mower on it's mulch setting and collect the leaves, empty them into the compost bins (we have two) and hey presto a nice batch of leafmold for the planting next spring. In theory it sounded good. In practice it was a ludicrous idea. I had to stop and empty the grass collector every dozen steps. It then took approximately three loads to fill each compost bin and the garden looked like it had hardly been touched!! So it was then back to the good old-fashioned grass rake and plastic bags. Garden refuse bags here are orange, and a by-product is that the full bags make a nice 'pikey' halloween decoration. Emma had great fun painting pumpkin style faces on them with a thick black marker. So after a couple of hours raking and only half the back garden done we called it a day. We'll do the rest next weekend and we may burn them!
So what else happened last week. Well Deborah had a busy week - it was the last week of her Business Seminars, she did three Welcome Wagon visits, a Pilates class on Tuesday evening, a Business Breakfast Club Open Evening on Wednesday evening, a Black Bear presentation at the school on Thursday (basically what to do if you run into one) and then off into Halifax Saturday morning with Emma for a workshop on self esteem for girls.
Matthew had Basketball on Wednesday evening which meant he missed the first 45 minutes of Cubs. Time was again spent on earning their computer badge. It was funny as a couple of the cubs thought that I'd ask them a couple of questions on last week's work and hey presto they'd get a badge. I don't think so! So another talk was followed by a task sheet for them to take home and complete and once done, they'll get their badge. I'm putting the emphasis on EARNing their badge. I get the distinct impression that some are handed out with not really any effort at all! No point in that.
Thursday night was Toastmasters of course, except this time we held it at Smitty's restaurant as it was our annual awards evening. A good night and quite an early one - I was home by 10pm!
Emma went to a classmate's sleepover/birthday party on Friday evening. She was supposed to stay the night, and we told her 10pm was the cut off. If she hadn't called by then she'd have to stay. So needless to say, the phone goes at 11.15pm. "Can you come and get me, I want to come home." Well what can you say? You can't say, tough luck! What would the girls parents think!! Anyway, I picked her up and she happily climbed into her own bed. I was up late that evening anyway as I was uploading the new Toastmasters club website. I have finally finished it and got it uploaded and it is now live - check out the link to the right and let me know what you think.
Saturday was a really busy day. Matthew had been promised that he could go round to Spencer's (in the temporary rental) as Emma was off to the workshop with Deborah. However, a last minute change at Cubs and they organised a Bottle Drive! They need to raise extra funds and this is a good money spinner apparently. Anyway, we couldn't let Spencer down, so I dropped Matthew off and went along and helped. Basically it's knocking on people's doors asking if they have any recyclable bottles they'd like to donate to the Scout Group. All recyclable bottles and cartons here have a deposit on them. So for a dozen beer bottles you'll get $1.20 back. Some other containers are 5c and others are 10c. Anyway, it didn't help that they organised this the day after recycling day for the garbage. However, we still managed to collect 2 car loads on our route and there was a lot of bottles when we returned to the meeting place. They can raise in the region of $1000. I'll let you know how much in the next blog as the figures will be in mid-week.
So I managed to escape that around midday and I then had to go downtown to take part in the Division D Humorous Speech competition for Toastmasters. This was a pretty nerve-wracking experience - about 75 people in attendance. It was held in the penthouse suite of an Old Folks home with great views over the harbour! The views didn't help though, and while I didn't do too badly, I wasn't a match for the seasoned Toastmasters! There was an air of inevitability about the result! It was however an excellent experience and it makes you 'step out of the box' of familiarity which is a good thing.
I was home around 5.30, and we were then collected at 6.15 by Leo & Jeanette to head back downtown to go to a friends 40th birthday party. Her husband had booked a Sky Box for an Ice Hockey game - The Halifax Mooseheads versus the St John's Fog Devils. Sky boxes are private enclosures located really high up around the Halifax Metro Centre Arena. The view is absolutely superb. There is your own private bar and you can order snacks etc to create your own tailor made event. It was a great evening, and the match was good too. A little slow in the first period. It picked up a bit when St Johns scored and it was 2-2 when Halifax scored a winner with 6 seconds to go. The place erupted - it was excellent!
After the game, we all went back to their house for drinks and snacks and we got home after midnight. Cole (Spencer's older brother) babysat and in fact stayed the night - the thought of the double bed in the basement to himself was more appealing than a futon back at the flat! Spencer stayed for a sleepover as well, so all in all a successful (if busy) Saturday!
Sunday was spent (apart from the leaf raking) taking Matthew & Emma to their Ice Skating lesson and Deborah had a Welcome Wagon visit in the morning.
So it is now Monday evening as I write this, and the smell of a Chrismas Cake baking is wafting enticingly through the house.
Sorry about the lack of pictures - I'll try harder next week!

Sad Day....

It's a sad day today. This is the day Leo & Jeanette next door finally move out making way for the new people. They are moving into a flat temporarily and consequently they have stored a lot of bits in our basement as well as other friends houses and garages! The new house is looking very smart and they hope to be in it at the beginning of December. Matthew was a bit subdued yesterday - I think he's really going to miss Spencer. I know they aren't moving far (to a new house about a mile away) but he's no longer next door and the fact remains they will not see as much of each other has they have. Emma was at a party yesterday as well to which Matthew wasn't invited, so I think he felt a little left out. Anyway, he was invited to a friends house and they asked if he wanted to stay for a sleepover. This cheered him up no end! All was well until we got a call at 10pm last night asking if we could come and get Matthew because his friend had started throwing up! They think it was a reaction to the injections they had at school on Friday. Luckily Matthew & Emma only needed one of them as they were up to date. Unless that's what's been causing Emma's attitude.....
So how did our week go....Deborah spent three more days on her business introduction course and is learning a lot and getting some good contacts. We'll be sorting out her new website soon. I'm also thinking of setting up a sideline fixing computers for people in their homes. Just thinking of a catchy name...one excellent suggestion is It'sJustaPC (thanks Pat) so I may go with that. Anyway, Deborah is also getting some good information for me as well.
We had the usual run of clubs and activities. I started the cubs on their Computer Badge on Wednesday. Could be interesting this week as Matthew also has Basketball on Wednesday, so he'll be late for Cubs. He seems to be taking quite an interest in it, so I hope he shows a bit more action than soccer...
Halloween is approaching fast and is taking on a fervour akin to that of Christmas. Houses decorated, shops awash with costumes, pumpkins and general halloween tat. One upside is the amount of gourds there are in the farm shops. We have bought a lovely collection of odd looking ones that now look great on the kitchen table. So attractive in fact I have included a photo for you!
Not sure how many Trick or Treaters we are going to get, but I suspect it will be a lot! Best we get a huge supply of 'treats'.
Today (Sunday) was Matthew & Emma's first Ice Skating lesson at the Sackville Sports Stadium. They did okay considering it was their first lesson. All Matthew wanted to do was speed skate. He might be better concentrating and learning how to stop and turn! They seemed a bit advanced for their group so we'll have to wait and see if they get moved.
We went over to Withrows Farm Market this morning to pick up a meat order. All the pork in the shops comes rind free - therefore you can't get crackling! Anyway Withrows will basically do meat anyway you want it so we ordered a side loin of pork with rind on. We ended up with two 3lb joints for roasting, and about 30 chops - all for $42. In fact we had chops for supper this evening and very good they were too! The rest has gone in the freezer for future consumption. While there we also picked up some bones for the dog. The one in the pick is a nice big smoked one. Bella was desperate to get it off the deck - to bury it no doubt - but was kept contained thanks to the gate that Tim built in the spring.
Then after supper we had a fire in the garden and toasted Marshmallows. It had been such a beautiful day and was such a gorgeous evening it seemed a shame to spend it inside! I've also included a photo of one of the maples in our garden - the colours are fantastic - actually the picture doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea!
And that about sums up another week. Have a good one!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada which means a day off today for me! Hence the reason the blog is a day late! We have had the most amazing weekend of weather. It was 21 degrees today! But let me rewind to the beginning of the week and fill you in on all our comings and goings.
Deborah has been doing a series of Business Orientation Seminars. They happen every Monday, Wenesday & Friday for three weeks and are run by the Immigration office. It gives an excellent insight into doing business the Canadian way. Look out for the resurrection of VIP Cakes! She's also doing the Welcome Wagon stuff for Waverley/Fall River.
As usual it's been a busy week. Cubs this week was on Tuesday evening - a joint meet with the scouts to pick up litter along our designated section of the Highway 2. It's a scheme called adopt a highway and we're lucky enough to have a section of the highway leading from the Wellington Firehall where we meet, towards Enfield. It wasn't too bad, and we never had the repetition of the thong that was found in the spring! However, we found a disgraceful number of Tim Hortons cups....
So I had Wednesday off, but this was spent writing a speech for the Toastmasters meeting on Thursday. It was the club Humorous Speech Contest, and foolishly I said I would take part. As it happens only two members did enter, but to make matters worse, I won! Trouble is this meant I had to drive out to Hubbards on Saturday morning to represent the club in the Area contest. I came second! What happens now is the first and second placed competitors go on to the District competition which is on October 21st in Halifax. I'm not sure I can make this as I'm supposed to be away for the weekend with the Cub leaders learning First Aid and about the equipment. I'll have to see what I can arrange.
Friday night was spent polishing the speech for the Saturday morning, Saturday dawned bright and warm and the drive to Hubbards was glorious. The speech contest was held in a Restaurant right on the seafront - absolutely stunning views.
I then got home around 1pm and we drove out to The Flag Shop in Dartmouth to buy a large Italian Flag. We were hosting the Monthly Newcomers Pot Luck supper and it was on an Italian theme. I also made an excellent Arrabiata sauce and various Italian dishes were brought for us all to sample. It was a very successful evening and I think people enjoyed themselves!
Sunday again dawned bright and warm and we decided to take a drive out to Mount Uniacke which was having a Fall Fun Day with Hot Dogs. Pumpkin Decorating, Apple Bobbing and Fiddle music. We had a lovely walk along the lake there and we even took Bella with us. Even better - she didn't throw up in the car! We took the long way home and stopped off at Withrows farm market where we bought Apples, veggies, Matthew & Emma had an ice cream, and we also ordered a loin of pork with the rind on. It's very difficult to get pork with the rind on - it's always removed and thrown away. Therefore you don't get the crackling! This butcher though will do whatever you want and he'll butcher it with the skin and give us a load of chops and a couple of roasts - all for around $40 - bargain!. Should be ready to pick up in a week. He also does excellent sausages...
When we got home I got the lawnmower out and mowed the front lawn for possibly the last time this season? I put the grassbox on this time to collect all the leaves that are dropping with a vengeance now! As you can see from the photo, the leaves are really turning. I did the front and left the back for today. Probably a mistake as it was soooo warm! However, before I did the back lawn we decided to dismantle the trampoline and put it into storage in the basement. It was a bugger to take apart I have to say - the side rods which act as the springs were really difficult to get out! I did it eventually, but I'm sure to have a blister tomorrow. The back lawn was then finished (with a trip to the local gas station to get more gas (petrol) as I ran out. It did an excellent job of collecting the leaves though. I'll probably use the mower to collect the leaves as it mulches them nicely. We can then make leafmold for the spring.
It was a bit of a wildlife week this week. A black bear was spotted walking along Brook Street (our street leads off Brook) and it spent some time in someone's garden. Then when we were out for our drive on Sunday we saw a porcupine at the side of the road having a root around for grubs in the verge. We stopped, but it did a runner before we could take it's photo. However, we DID get a photo of the raccoon that appeared on our deck this evening. Apologies for the quality, but it was dark and I didn't want to scare it off. Bella was already barking at it! It just sat there and looked at her! It was feeding off the sunflower seeds I had scattered on the deck rail for the blue-jays. Our local squirel also likes the sunflower seeds. This way we thought it would stop them trying to get into the bird feeder. It was fascinating though - it seemed totally unfazed by the barking dog and us stood there watching!
So as it was Thanksgiving, we had Turkey of course, with Roast potatoes, parsnips, squash and green beans. Followed by Apple Pie and Ice Cream. Delicious. We then all retired to the media room in the basement where we watched a movie (The Wild) and then the kids went to bed.
And finally something really scary happened Friday - we received our first Christmas Card. Can you believe it? I can't....

A Leather Woggle!

Well I am now the proud recipient of a hand made leather woggle. Of course I had to earn it, but more of that later....
This has been a majorly busy week. Monday evening was the only one where I didn't have anything planned. Of course I was at work all day, Deborah had her first solo Welcome Wagon visit, which went well. The previous incumbent was a little disorganised, so she is busy redoing the information and gifts. It was a nice evening when I got home, and I managed to get a photo of Matthew and Emma with their sunflowers, which they planted earlier in the summer. Matthew's are the half on the left, with Emma's on the right. Matthew has the tallest one as you can see, but Emma had the biggest flower head. Amazing considering the small seeds they grew from. It looks like we might catch the tail end of Hurricane Isaac next week, so I hope they don't get too battered. At least we have a photo of them!
Tuesday, of course, Emma has Fiddle lessons and then in the evening I had my first part of the Cub Leader training. Officially called WoodBadge 1 Training. It took place in Halifax at the United Bethany Church hall between 7 and 10pm. Basically an evening of lectures and group exercises. The bombshell came at the end of the night though. I had been told that part of the camp was an overnight stay at Camp Lone Cloud. However, it turns out that it is a TWO night stay. Luckily I had managed to recruit the father of one of Matthew's friends and so I wasn't having to experience all this alone. They gave us a list of 'equipment' we had to bring to camp. Oh joy. Anyway the evening lasted until 10.30pm so I was shattered by the time I got home.
Wednesday evening is Cub night of course. We had decided the week before to take advantage of the still light evenings and do a hike along the Shubenacadie canal. There is a lock system along this canal and it used to be used to transport goods between Halifax and Truro and the Minas Basin. I hadn't realised this, so I learnt something that night! It was a good hike. We do have one 'youth' who is a bit of a handful. He's just come up from Beavers so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and hoping we can instill some discipline in him. Well it will be that or a clip round the ear! (joke!). However Matthew and Riley (Matthew's friend who's father I roped in) also played up a little. As a consequence I threatened to hold Matthew's hand on the hike, and half way round actually did that - tightly! He did settle down, but needless to say he was read the riot act on the way home in the car. I'm hoping they are thinking they can get away with murder as we are the leaders, but we've got news for them. When I got home, I had to start thinking of what I had to take on the camp. It seemed a little excessive to me, but hey, who was I to argue. While we were at Cubs, Deborah was at a Pampered Chef party - upmarket kitchen equipment basically, sold via home representatives. They have some nice stuff and she didn't spend much so that was a result!
On Thursday,Matthew and Emma had a 'Terry Fox' walk in aid of Cancer Research. In case you don't know, Terry Fox was a young Canadian who lost a leg to cancer. He then started to walk across Canada to raise awareness and money for Cancer research. Sadly, he only made it as far as Thunder Bay in Ontario where they found the cancer had spread to his lungs. He developed complications and died. It caught the imagination of Canadians however and since then millions of dollars have been raised in his name for this cause.
Thursday night of course was Toastmasters which was a good meeting, and we had an exec meeting afterwards to hear the results of a group analysis that had been performed on us. One of our members has started his own company doing what's called Predictive Index. It's a way of matching employees with jobs that best fulfill their character and personality. The members of the executive had it done first individually and then this was amalgamated to create an overall group picture. The results were very interesting, but the meeting dragged on a bit - I needed to get home to pack! We were then dragged (kicking and screaming) to the pub to be bought a drink for allowing ourselves to be analysed! How could I refuse. Anyway, as I mentioned the results of the whole exercise were fascinating, and we got to keep a copy of our individual picture. I might show it to my boss to improve my chances of a pay rise!!!
Then before I knew it Friday had arrived and it was time to set off for camp. Scott was picking me up at 5.40pm to be at the boat ramp by 6pm - Camp Lone Cloud is on an island....We got there, dumped our bags and were then bombarded with 3 hours of lectures (with no break). By 10pm I was all lectured out and was so grateful for the coffee and snacks! As it happens the coffee was a huge mistake...now when I say camp, I don't mean we were sleeping under canvas. Well some were - scout leaders and Venture Scout leaders. Beaver and Cub leaders had cabins. As it happens, a very new cabin with bunks. Bunks without mattresses or any form of springing - basically wooden boards. Very hard wooden boards. I'm not sure if I didn't sleep because of the caffeine from the aforementioned coffee, or the most uncomfortable sleeping arrangements ever encountered. Either way, by the time we got a 'wake-up' call (or should I say, 'get out of bed' call), I had not slept a wink. Saturday was going to be a long day.
And indeed it was. One of the bonuses was the fact that we didn't have to bother about food. They had got a cook in to prepare meals and generally look after all the catering side of things. The food was very good. Pancakes/scones/bacon for breakfast. Soup & Sandwich for lunch and so on. While on Friday we were lectured as a combined group, Saturday saw us breaking off into our respective areas. Colony for Beaver leaders, Pack for Cub leaders, Troop for Scout leaders and Company for Ventures. It was an excellent day. We learnt how to start a meeting, close a meeting, organise, deal with issues, all the elements you need to include in a meeting and so on. We even planned and executed a cub meeting. We learnt a lot that day! We were also informed early in the day that we had to think of a song, a skit and a yell to present at that evening's campfire. Sadly we had no time during the day apart from a 15 minute gap right before the campfire! We managed to come up with something though and I think they went down well. I ended up leading all three elements though which was not supposed to be the case - especially the singing/chant!
Anyway, I slept slightly better Saturday night, woke up cold at 6am which wasn't ideal. I had decided to use my sleeping bag liner as an extra pillow. Mistake. So it was Sunday. A nice breakfast was followed by a day of doing outdoor skills. We learnt how to build a fire, we boiled water in a tin can, learnt how to make firelighters (wax and tumble dryer lint), learnt all about shelters, put up a tent blindfolded - that was fun - and even made up and cooked Tin Foil dinners on the campfire. Mine was little overdone, but delicious all the same. We were shown how to cook bacon & eggs in a paper bag (yes really), how to cook a cake in a cardboard box oven, cook a muffin in a hollowed out grapefruit and even make ice cream in a zip-lock bag. All fascinating stuff and some things we will try and carry out with Cubs this year. A lot was learnt and despite my misgivings, it was a fun weekend. Except the sleeping part....At the end of your course, you are presented with your leather woggle. This is in recognition of you completing this course. I have a lot of admiration for the men and women who commit a massive amount of time on scouting duties/training/meetings etc. All the trainers on the course are also pack/colony/troop leaders in their own right. They have also volunteered to do training. It was a privilege to be part of that whole experience and consequently I am very proud of my woggle! I'll be able to put it to use at the Investiture on November 6th. This is when I get to wear the necker and officially become a leader at 2nd Wellington Wolf Cubs.
I had a fantastic shower when I got home, but this is nothing compared to the mother of all sleeps I'm going to have tonight!
Matthew & Emma were off school on Friday as well with a Teacher development day - yes they have them here too and call them in-service days, and then Deborah was out scrapbooking on saturday. A friend had both Matthew & Emma for the day so they also had a good day. All the halloween tat is stacked up in the shops ready for the 31st...
As for the pictures, well sunflowers gets pride of place obviously! The top camping photo is the cabin, then me having just lit the fire and boiled lakewater (yes it was cold, hence the hat) and finally, me getting presented with my woggle. A good week don't you think? Now i'm off to my very well earned bed.