The Rockies

road trip to Banff

The morning started off cool and rainy. My brother-in-law lent us his old pickup truck which he affectionately calls Lucille, and we drove through the foothills of Alberta towards the Rocky Mountains.

As we got closer to Banff we started to see some of the mountains through the clouds but it wasn’t until we returned later that evening that we realized how much of the scenery had been obscured by the clouds. We were in awe.

As we approached Banff:

Throughout the day the weather constantly changed but towards late afternoon the sun started to peak though the clouds.

Not wanting to drive back to Calgary in the dark we left Banff around 7:00. This is when we realized how much of the Rockies we didn’t see in the morning.

Away on Vacation

….Will try to post but can’t make any promises

Last Thursday Kevin and I boarded a plane for Calgary, Alberta. We’re here visiting family and friends. My baby sister and her husband moved here right after they were married almost 40 years ago and I’ve only been here once to visit them. They’ve been back home many times. It was time….

A Perfect Weekend to Lay a New Floor at the Cottage

it pretty much rained the entire weekend

For years I’ve wanted to put down a nice light coloured vinyl floor in the cottage. When the flooring went on sale I quickly snatched it up and started to put it down by myself a couple of weeks ago. I bought a very small amount to see how easily it would come together and decided that with a little bit of help it was a doable project. So, last week after coming back from the cottage I returned to the store and bought 10 more boxes.

After two solid days of work we managed to lay down all the flooring we had. It was hard work but very rewarding. I’m still recuperating two days later.

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Our daughter who lives out east calls these Storm Chips…perfect snack on a rainy day
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The other good thing that happened this weekend is that we purged a lot of items that were on an old handmade open cupboard that was meant to be temporary (kept it for over 30 years) and we cleaned out the old storage bins under the counters. We made room in the antique oak cupboard and filled it with some of the dishes from the old cupboard. The remaining items went into the new storage boxes for now. We took the old shelf outside. It looks so much better.

Monster Monday – Two for the Price of One

seeing as how I missed last week’s Monster Monday I’m going to show you last week’s and this week’s in one post

Even if I haven’t been posting my husband continues to draw and paint and I have two very different monsters to share with you. They are both done on Procreate on an iPad. I think both monsters are sick and tired of this smoky air from the wildfires up north.

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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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A Trip to the Aberfoyle Antique Market

48 years ago we bought each other a framed Coca-Cola mirror as a wedding gift to ourselves

The Aberfoyle Market holds many found memories for us. Over the years we have shared this wonderful place with our children and now our grandchildren. On our most recent trip we found some very interesting and fun artefacts. This time we just browsed through the antiques but we also had some very interesting conversations with some of the vendors.

The Aberfoyle Antique Market is located about one hour west of Toronto and is just down the road from the city of Guelph.

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RDP Tuesday – Indefatiguable

….thanks to the Ragtag community for hosting RDP Tuesday https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2023/05/23/rdp-tuesday-indefatigable/

There are days when I feel like the Energizer Bunny. I can keep going and going but I do eventually crash ….for days after. Kids and animals never seem to get tired or at least that’s what they want us to think. I also have two marathon runners in the family. My husband ran marathons in his 20s and 30s and years later our oldest daughter started running marathons. She gets better with every race. They also never seem to tire during a race.

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Olive could play all day but we know that she can overdo it
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Winnie is constantly on the move
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…and so is her younger cousin
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….but eventually they both crash
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These young athletes never seem to tire either