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!