MERRY CHRISTMAS

The Meeting of Cats

Caught this in the back yard this morning. The pictures were taken from inside through a screen, but you'll get the story line!

 This is my hill!

 Hey, where are you going?

 Are you talking to me?

 Lets settle this here and now.

 You have something to say to me?

 I'll just be on my way....

....down over the hill!

Hockey, Pizza and Cake

 Isaac #20

 Doing drills

 Experimenting with the camera

 Getting some pointers from the coach

 Sasha just does his own thing at Isaac's practise.

Celebrating Sasha's 3rd Birthday

Paul and I went out to Pete's yesterday to see Isaac at a hockey practise. After, they played a short 10 min. hockey game and Isaac got a score. There were 3 teams practising and at the end, one team member from each team was presented with a Seadog Jersey....Isaac was "the chosen one". All in all it was a great practise.

We then returned to the house for pizza and cake. Sasha turned 3 on Friday.

12-13 weeks old

As I am sure most of you know, Emma and Jeremy are expecting. 

This is the their 1st ultrasound at 12-13 weeks.(this was 2 weeks ago)

There will be another at 18-20 weeks and then they hope to find out if it is a boy or girl.

Busy Afternoon

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Mid afternoon, on the back deck, in full sun, it was 26 degrees.

We accomplished alot, as you can see in the above picture,

we put out markers for the snow plows this winter.

It prevents them from pushing "rock infested" snow up onto the lawn.

We also managed to get the christmas lights up......

certainly beats putting them up in the freezing cold.

Before supper we washed both vehicles;

probably the last time till spring (other than touchless washes this winter).

It was a great day, if only we could have more before winter sets in :-)

Remenbrance Day 2010

The above pictures were taken back in 1986 when Paul and I were in Holland.

The third picture are of 3 soldiers from the North Shore regiment in New Brunswick.

Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange:

"Vimy Ridge"


by Tyler Levine from Toronto, ON Nov 6, 10

Recently my fiancee Lynsay and I went on a vacation to France and took the opportunity to visit the beaches of Normandy. Our destination was the city of Dieppe and the Canadian World War Two Cemetery. Neither Lynsay nor I lost any family there, in fact between the two of us, only Lyndsay’s grandfathers Owen and Thomas had fought and lived through World War Two. We’re pretty fortunate and we know it, which is part of why we felt compelled to visit the cemetery that day.

We drove into the seaside town and towards the water, expecting the scene of the great military landing to be the logical location for the burial ground. And, sure enough, as we reached the sea and parked the car and walked up to the rock filled beaches, in only a few minutes of walking around, we spotted a Canadian Flag. A lump formed in my throat. “Here we are,” I announced. Unfortunately, what we had found was a seaside Casino with an international set of flags. Where is this world famous cemetery, we thought?

Dieppe is a factory town and most of the people are pretty intimidating for an English speaking couple from downtown Toronto to approach. But, in our best and admittedly rusty Canadian French we inquired about the whereabouts of the cemetery, “ou est le cimetiere des Canadians?” Much to our dismay, none of the locals seemed to know, pointing away from the water and saying something about a nearby town.

Back in the car, we drove around Dieppe for over two hours, growing increasingly more frustrated with each dead end.

Finally, in the middle of a round-about, we spotted a small green sign which pointed us in the right direction. The signs lead us out of the actual city of Dieppe into a farming community some miles away. And there, in amongst roaming fields filled with thick, fragrant Poppies, lay a small cemetery with a simple stone arch entrance. We parked at the end of dead end country road and walked inside the cemetery.

We were there alone, in front of row upon row of rectangular ivory white monuments – each perfectly straight as the men had once stood in formation. The grass was trimmed no more than a few hours ago, and the grounds smelled of moist greenery. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. At each grave there was a flower, laid with military precision and yet the decoration was so sublime and fair, you’d think the invisible groundskeeper had spent time in art school.

As we examined each gravestone, Lynsay remarked about the large number of the deceased hailing from her hometown of Hamilton, that most of the men were really just boys and that most of the deaths took place over a three day period. There must be a thousand young men buried here.

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of a woman yelling in French and honking her car horn. I walked to the entrance to find a rugged, middle-aged local woman waving something in her hand.

As it happens, I must have been so excited to finally find the cemetery, that when I exited my car I had dropped, in the middle of the road, my brown leather dossier containing both of our passports and all of our money for our trip – about eight hundred euros. The French woman was honking her horn so she could return my case.

As the woman made a hasty retreat to her beat up, twenty year old Peugeot, I called out, “thank you, thank you, Merci.” She shook her head, look at me in the eye – and then at the graveyard and said “Non, non, merci.” She was pointing at me.

It took me a moment to realize what she was trying to say.

After she left, I examined the dossier and saw that the case had been opened, but not a penny or passport was missing. She had in fact seen that we were Canadian and although I’m sure that money could have solved a whole bunch of her problems, she felt compelled to return it.

So, as we discovered, the people of Dieppe haven’t forgotten what some very brave Canadians did, so long ago – they just chose simple gestures of kindness to express their gratitude.

2010 Pumpkins

  Jeremy's Pumpkin

Emma's Pumpkin

We were having trouble with our internet service, so I am late posting pictures.

We had 29 treaters on Sunday, down from 40 last year.

It was a cold wet evening.

First Snowfall of the Year

Yesterday, Paul and I spent the day putting things away for the winter....deck furniture, last of the garden stuff, water hose (before the water freezes in it :-), covered the pool filter, hauled out the snowblower and tucked it in the garage. We also mowed the lawn for the last time and put the mowers to bed for the winter. As the afternoon wore on it got colder and by supper time we had a few snowflakes.

Then we woke to a snow covered ground this morning.

Last hint of summer.

Happy Halloween from Over the Hill

BEWARE- Fox Sighting

This morning when I stepped out on to the back deck, I was being watched by a fox in the back yard.

He quickly ran off, but for me, this is the first time I've seen one this close to the house.

With this in mind, I was thinking that there may be fewer cats wandering freely in the neighbourhood.

Grover's cute but no match for the "Old Spice" guy!!!!

Short People.........

 On Sunday, Brenna and I went shopping for new sneakers for her. She was trying them out around the house, and even though she is already taller than I, she was even taller (and I took my shoes off).

Brenna with Opa and Oma

Wishes From our Home to Yours

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

Thanksgiving 2010

 Apple Crumble, Lemon pie and Pumpkin pie

 Stuffing made from scratch....with Mom's help.

 Sasha and Isaac playing with their DSi's.

  Pre-supper conversation.

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad arrived yesterday as well as Brenna.

Emma and Jeremy joined us today as well as Peter and family.

We had a great visit.