Last Blog

I think this will be my last blog on this site. I really enjoyed blogging on Yahoo 360* and when everyone left that, I did mostly lose interest. I don't find this site as user friendly and there are few who read or comment on what I write so I think the time has come to move on.

Pretty much everyone on here is on Face Book and it has a "Notes" section that is much the same as a blogging site so I think I will use that to communicate for a while at least.

Hope we can still keep in touch.

Autumn 2009

Autumn colour in Southern Ontario doesn't get much better than this and this tree is located right outside my front door. We have, in my opinion, the loveliest tree on the block. The fall colours have been a bit muted this year but little rivals the Canadian maple tree for spectacular hues of orange, red, yellow and brown.

The pumpkin producers have been complaining that there might not be enough pumpkins to go around for Hallowe'en. Apparently our cool, wet summer made for a poor harvest. You couldn't prove it by us though. I took this picture this morning at our local grocery store and the display was easily twice as big when I walked by on Friday. Somehow I don't think we are going to run out.

The big controversy this month has been about the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1 (also known as the swine ) flu shot. The strain of both is supposed to be mild this year and I guess that's why some people are not getting either. I would ask you to think again about this if you have decided not to get either.

My husband and I managed to pick up a flu bug when we were away for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. We probably had the 24 hour variety but we were sick enough and the lack of energy lasted for over a week after the flu symptoms went away. I am not so much concerned about me, although I don't want to get sick, but I am concerned about the people I come in contact with. I might escape with a mild does of the flu but it might be fatal for someone else.

I believe that the more people get both flu shots, the less people will end up in the hospital or just miserably sick at home. If you're afraid of needles, take a deep breath and close your eyes. The prick is hardly worth worrying about. And, an added bonus is that they're FREE!

Food for thought . . . 

Autumn

I call this the last rose of summer although it really is an aster and and I took this picture in October. It is unusual because most autumn flowers tend to be purple or orange or yellow. We've had this in our front yard for several years now. It is very hardy and has green leaves all summer and these lovely red flowers in the fall. A nice splash of colour.

The leaves in S. Ontario have started to change although around here only about 30 % of the leaves are turning from green on any given tree.

We are going to take a short holiday and drive to eastern Ontario for a few days. We are hoping to take some pictures of the lovely fall colours although the weather doesn't look too promising at the moment. There is a lot of rain in the forecast. Ah well . . . there are always malls to explore.  

It is going to be very cool so I have decided to give in and take my winter coat although I really resent wearing it before November. Needs must, I suppose!

Well, fall is certainly here. Today is very cool and the strong wind has the bite of winter in it. There is always something a bit sad about fall in Canada, I think, at least for me. I love the fall flowers. The top two pictures are two of four types of asters that are blooming at the moment. Then there is one of three butterfly bushes. One is the same purple and the other is pink. They do seem to attract at least one butterfly, so I am pleased about that.  The cosmos in the background of the fourth picture are almost 6 feet tall. I guess that's the difference when you grow things from seed. The nursery-grown plants are only about a foot tall at best. The sedum is a very hardy plant and the two I have come up faithfully year after year with no fuss.

The sadness comes in because the rest of the garden is dying. We have harvested most of the vegetables and the fruits are finished. In fact, the garden looks a bit tired.

It doesn't help that the daylight hours are fewer and fewer and I really don't like getting up when it is still dark. When I put the light on early in the morning, it is a real shock to my system.

So, it is time to put away all my summer clothes and get out the heavier, warmer outfits. That's not such a bad thing as I like a lot of my winter outfits and my summer ones will have a rest until they are needed again hopefully in April or May at the latest.

The good thing is that even though many plants are hibernating for the winter, I know that next spring they will be back - or at least many of them -  and their colours will be a welcome sight after the white and grey winter.

Ted Kennedy's funeral is on television right now but I can't watch it. This has been such a sad year with so many deaths that I thought I would just write about him from a Canadian perspective.

I have always thought of the Kennedy brothers as being part of my generation but actually they were more my mother's generation. Ted was the youngest brother and was only 36 when Robert, his last surviving brother was killed. The Kennedys had and have wealth beyond the dreams of most of the rest of us. After Robert's murder, it would have been quite understandable for Ted to take that wealth and live behind barred gates in seclusion for the rest of his life. He could have become very self-indulgent like Howard Hughes or Michael Jackson. For a time, he did live a very wild life-style but soon found out that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered.

Perhaps because of his three children and his innumerable nieces and nephews, he decided that drinking to excess and womanizing was not the best example to set so he really settled down to make a positive impact on his generation.

He was called the "liberal lion" by some and, even when the far right held power in the US, he was not afraid to push for reform in the areas of women's rights and policies to help the poor. This did not make him very popular with some but I felt he was courageous and determined to make life better for those who had little or no influence to speak for themselves.

Ted Kennedy was surely a flawed hero. No-one who lived through the 1960s will ever forget the tragedy of Chappaquiddick and the death of a beautiful young woman. I feel this is the main reason that he would never have become president of the US. Nonetheless, instead of becoming bitter, he turned to a different path of trying to make life better for those who face more challenges than he did.

From a Canadian point of view, this man was larger than life: larger than his wealth and power and the world is poorer without him.

Food for thought . . .

Musings on a Summer Day

These images are in reverse order. I cannot figure out how to put them right so you'll have to pretend. They do tell the story of our adventure the last couple of weeks.

Many of you know our daughter, Jennifer, and the red car shows what happened when she was hit by a dump truck. God was gracious to her and she managed to escape with just a few bruises - no concussion, no broken bones, no open cuts. I am very thankful to two young Chinese women who stopped when they saw the accident and called me twice on their cell phone to let me know what was going on. They are truly good Samaritans.

The car is a total write-off. It was a very faithful member of our family for 15 years. Jennifer had it for about a year but before that, it was Dad's. Our Toyota dealer was able to find her a low mileage (24,000 km - about 10,000 miles), two year-old  Yaris that you see in the top picture. It is a standard which is what J. wanted and very well looked after. Hopefully it will serve her well for 10 or more years.

Dad has to have minor surgery on one of his toes on Thursday. I have to drive him to his former doctor in Newmarket since this has happened before with another toe and he feels very comfortable with him. On Friday, he has to go to the dentist. He broke off a piece of one of his front teeth. Our summer has been one exciting round of medical appointments. I am glad, however, that this kind of care is readily available to us.

There were a couple of interesting articles in today's paper. One was about a small town about 2 1/2 hours drive away from us called Smith Falls. Smith Falls is near Ottawa but was more famous for its Hershey factory. We used to go there two or three times a year to stock up on their very fresh chocolate products. Even though the factory made a profit and had been there for 46 years, the main office in the States decided they could make more money elsewhere so they moved this operation to Mexico and the States.  Smith Falls is a lovely little town so I hope it can survive this blow.

The other article concerned our army. Now, Canada has a VERY small army and with the war in Afghanistan, we are pretty much stretched to the limit. We have small numbers of soldiers serving elsewhere as well in a peacekeeping role but with the Olympics in British Columbia in 2010 and the G8 conference of world leaders in Ontario in the summer of 2010, the government is afraid that our army will be too small to handle everything. Instead of training new soldiers and thus supplying employment during this recession, it has decided to send civilians and retired soldiers to take on some of the less dangerous jobs the army is doing now. Not my idea of a great solution but they didn't ask me.

Well, I guess that's enough for now.

A Moment Away

This week we were again reminded that at any moment we are just a breath away from eternity.

This is how Jennifer's car looked after being whacked by a dump truck. There are so many "what if's" that go through my mind. If the truck had hit the driver's side of the car, Jennifer would probably have been killed. This is a very old car - 15 years old and had no airbags. The good thing is that the older cars are generally well-built and that saved Jennifer from much worse injury.

She had no broken bones, no cuts, no chipped teeth. She has a lot of bruises and stiffness and a very sore neck but no concussion.

As I said before, this crisis reminds us that at any second we can be catapulted into eternity. How prepared are we?

Am I, are you ready to meet our Maker?