Samhain.

Before Halloween was associated with Christianity—the eve of All Hallows', or All Saint’s Day—the ancient Celts celebrated the eve of Samhain, the death night of the old year. Druids (priests) lit huge bonfires, while people dressed as demons and witches paraded noisily through the streets to frighten off the roving souls believed to be seeking new homes for the new year.


Tonight is a night for remembering those friends and relatives who have passed on. Among other things we will bury apples for the souls going through this night and set a place at the table in honor of our loved ones who have passed.

Every year at this time we put out bread and milk for the fairies so they will treat us well during the coming year.

Tonight is a night not only of remembering but of fun, good friends, good food and wine.

My Pumpkin's Rotting!

I have people coming for dinner tomorrow night, looking forward to baked stuffed pumpkin and MY PUMPKIN'S ROTTING!!!!!!! Frantic calls went out to the stores around and they're all sold out. I guess this is where ingenuity has to take over.

The car's engine is about ready to drop out so we can't drive it anymore. However, we are buying another but we're waiting to get it to a garage for an inspection certificate. The problem is that we don't know when we can get an appointment for this as the garages are overloaded with people getting their snow tires on. Why.........

Because it snowed all day a few days ago and everyone is in panic mode. Mind you it melted as soon as it hit the ground but never the less, it's a sign of what's right around the corner.

Then, on Tuesday, I decided to put a colour in my hair to give me a lift. A light ash blonde. The picture on the cover looked to be the same colour as my hair so I put it in. It turned out almost black....sob...

On the up side, it looks like we will finally get a bit of sun today. Himself and I are so excited that we've been talking about all the things we can do outside. All work!

Sunrise.

Shades of Autumn

A brush of snow overnight put me in panic mode. I was out early bringing garden ornaments to the larger greenhouse for the winter. I didn't get it all done, there are still clay pots to be put away and half a dozen or so ornaments left out. I'm hoping for a few sunny days this coming week to finish up. It's been wet and dreary. Makes one want to curl up by the wood stove with a good book.

Freya is doing well but not out of the woods yet. Still a little wobbly but certainly a lot better than at the start.

Not many birds around these days but the ones that are, are making good use of the suet blocks. It's been very cold at night and guess they are filling up on the fatty foods to keep warm. A couple of Jays, Chick a dees and Woodpeckers, that's the lot this past while.

I've decorated a bit for autumn and Hallowe'en. Took a few pictures of some of the leaves as well. Other than that, not much doing on at the moment.





The ground is pretty well covered with leaves.


By the stream.


Now a bit of fun stuff.

Gate on deck.


Kitchen.




And last....I got a lovely brass bowl at the Goodwill.

Mostly Ducks.

Freya has had a marked improvement over night. It looks like the medication is doing a good job of it. She's walking around although a bit wobbly but no where near how she was yesterday. And eating well I might add. The vet said that one of the pills might make her eat and drink more than normal and I think she was right.

The weather is still overcast and wet. I'm so looking forward to a few sunny days to get more of the garden put to bed for the winter.

Some more pictures I took at the park in the city. As we got out of the car in the parking lot, a woman pulled in and parked. When the ducks and pigeons saw her they all went running towards her. I expect that they must recognize her as a person who brings food.

Back Home Again.

I arrived back home by lunchtime on Sunday and am finally getting back to normal. Lots of leaves have fallen since leaving and it looks very much like autumn now. There was snow along the road on parts of the highway but fortunately none here. I enjoyed my stay at Laurie's and have been missing her cats. They were great companions. I didn't get out to do much while there as I was in too much pain with the hip but it's all better now thankfully. It's a funny thing that, it comes and goes but not too often. It's muscular so says the doctor.

We had only two days of sun during the two weeks and near the end of my stay my father and I went to Bowring Park to take a few pictures. While it was sunny, it was bitterly cold and we hadn't gotten far beyond the entrance of the park when we had to give it all up and return to the car. Along with the chill, it was very windy, I was frozen and my father was shivering.

On to this morning....I noticed that Freya had her head bent to one side and she was staggering when trying to walk. I phoned the vet as I knew it was an ear infection exactly like the one she had months ago. I got an appointment right away so we took off for Gander. She is now on three types of medication so hopefully she will be feeling better soon.

So, on to some of the pictures that I took in the park. I have lots of pictures of the ducks but will save those until tomorrow.

First off, I saw this bush there. It had clusters of black berries about the size of chick peas. I wonder if any of you know what it is as I picked some of the berries in the hope of growing one from the seed.

The berries....


My father.


Taking pictures of some ducks in the duck pond.



Duck Pond.




Signs of Autumn.




The River.


Swans.

My Week so Far!

I'm still laid up! Although the hip is a little better today, yesterday before Laurie left for her flight she had to put my socks on for me. I took a pain killer and muscle relaxant that was prescribed for me the last time I had this. They tend to knock me out so I slept on and off most of the day. Went to bed at 8:00 pm and went out like a light. I feel pretty useless though as about all I can do is scuff around. I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be a fair bit better.

There are tractors and trucks in front of the house and a huge hole in the street. The must be doing something with the water main. I've noticed that the men do a lot of standing around the hole looking down into it. lol.

I've made a mess of the phones. Laurie has this system that shows who is calling and takes messages. Shows how far behind the times I am as I've done something wrong and now I can't phone out but people can phone in. I just get a beep, beep sound and no dial tone. Hopefully she will call today and I'll be able to get it fixed. Obviously this "holiday" is not going too well thus far.

My charges.

Angus
Sagwa.
"I'm going to tear the carpet up while mom's gone."




Sagwa and Skipper.



Willow.

I've arrived in St. John's

Here I am in the city sitting at my daughters computer trying to use this pen thing she has instead of the mouse that I'm use to. Anyway, I came in yesterday instead of today as planned. Friends phoned Friday saying they were going to St. John's on Saturday and did I want to come along. I did! It was a good trip and the wet weather cleared as we neared the city. We did see a male moose on the highway and the driver slowed down and blew his horn which made the moose head for the side of the road and off into the woods.

It seems that when I'm away from home it never rains but it pours. Himself got in touch saying that this morning the gate appeared to be kicked in and was off the hinge at one point. Not only that but one of the plant containers, quite a large one and a large garden vase were knocked over. He walked down the road and saw a friends garbage box beaten up and garbage scattered all over the place. And, between our house and the friends there was a live trap for bears set up. So hear we are back to the bear problem once again. Apparently the friends cats were acting very scared last night and so were ours. This could be a problem until they go into hibernation around the end of November.

I've brought the camera with me but if I can't figure out how to use it on this computer, there will be no photos until I get back. We'll see how I make out.

So that's about it for now. Laurie is packing her suitcases at the moment getting ready to catch the 7:00 am flight. I've hurt my hip once again. I think it's probably from going up and down the stairs so much since I arrived. She has a three story house and I'm just not use to so many steps up and down.