Monster Monday is Temporarily on Hold Due to the Cat

for the last four weeks we’ve been cat sitting

When my neighbour went into the hospital I volunteered to look after the cat in her home. My husband is allergic to cats or so we thought so for the first two weeks I went into my neighbour’s house twice a day to give the cat clean water and food and spend some time with him. When the weather got nicer I started letting him out for a few minutes every day. One day he came over to our porch where Kevin was sitting and they immediately bonded. Now the cat comes over every day and visits anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. We always feed him from his home and at night he sleeps there as well.

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Remarkably, Kevin’s allergies are pretty mild when the cat is around. Some days when he’s with us he’s very demanding of our attention and it interferes with Kevin’s ability to draw on his iPad. One day last week, he posted this drawing.

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This week Kevin’s time has been so devoted to the cat that instead of a monster he came up with this drawing instead. We apologize to the fans of Monster Monday but they will return in the near future.

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Happy Father’s Day at the Cheltenham Badlands

a sunny warm day

When our daughter invited us to join her and her wife at the Cheltenham Badlands, I thought we were driving there to look, take a few photos and then drive over to Spirit Tree for lunch. When we arrived at the parking lot we discovered that they were hiking on the Bruce Trail and were about 30 minutes away from us. They suggested that we get on the trail and walk towards them. Luckily I had on walking shoes but my pants were way too warm. Nonetheless we made the short hike, met them and then hiked back toward the Badlands.

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After a short walk back to the car we drove to the Spirit Tree Estate Cidery. We found a shady area under a tent and ordered cider and wood oven baked pizza.

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Sunday Trees – June 18, 2023

still standing

This lovely old birch has long lost it’s foliage and most of it’s branches but the trunk is firmly planted into the sand.

Thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees https://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2023/06/18/sunday-trees-487/

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My Happy Place

yesterday I went north to open my cottage

With the help of my dear friend, Liz, I drove to the cottage to open it up for the season. I always dread the first visit because it is often a lot of work. This year, however, the cottage was very clean. There was very little evidence of mice. They hadn’t run over the dishes or gotten into the cupboards.

We raked the leaves off the deck and the pathways, set up the BBQ, filled the water barrel, made the beds and put away the clean linens, blankets and pillows that I had brought home last fall to clean. When most of the work had been done we made dinner and took a walk on the beach.

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This morning we woke up early and Liz actually went swimming. June is very early to be diving into Georgian Bay but Liz did it and actually swam for about 10 minutes. She went for a second swim later in the day. We went for another walk along the beach but this time we walked to both ends and took lots of photos.

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Our first meal at the cottage
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Heading down to the beach for a swim
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She did actually go under and swim
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I on the other hand, paced up and down the beach to make sure she was okay
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This is as much as I could handle…it was very cold
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It was difficult to leave because the cottage truly is my happy place and the day was perfect. I can now go back up knowing that everything is in place and most of the hard work is don

At 5:30 we caught the ferry to go home. I wanted to be home for Father’s Day so that our daughter, daughter-in-law and I could take Kevin out to celebrate this special day. As the ferry headed for the other side I noticed that it took a turn and was headed west instead of south. We soon discovered that we were in pursuit of a disabled boat with three passengers. When we reached them they climbed on board but before that one of them fell into the water. Thankfully he was all right. Then the crew tried to tie the disable boat to the ferry. After some trying moments they succeeded and we headed back to the island to drop off the exhausted boaters. Eventually we were headed back to the mainland and arrived about 40 minutes later than expected. Being a Saturday night the rest of the trip home was quick and uneventful.

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Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge – Nostalgia

thanks to Sue W and GC for hosting weekly prompts https://weeklyprompts.com/2023/06/14/weekly-prompts-wednesday-challenge-nostalgia-2/

As I get older I become more and more nostalgic. All kinds of things remind me of my past. Baking bread at the inn reminds me of our first trip to San Francisco where I first tasted sourdough white bread and my box of buttons reminds me of my mom and her button box. I even created a series of paintings called Needle and Thread that brought back memories of my childhood.

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