Pre Christmas photos

Just a few photos taken in the last week or so.
One, before the recent snowfalls, of the new skating rink in the Dundas Driving Park.
After the recent snow one picture of the baseball park players' bench, one of the early break up of the storm and one of snow on our back deck.

More Thanksgiving photos

See earlier post for the first set of Thanksgiving photos. In this post the first photo is Ruth and Shayla disseminating Milkweed seeds, then Ryan in front of three or four beautiful maples, three is enroute home from the walk and four is just before Thanksgiving dinner.
The blogger requires low resolution photos - creating those files reduces the intensity of the colors so they appear a bit muted on the blog. Envision slightly more intense colours, especially the reds, than you see on your computer screen.

Thanksgiving, 2008

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend! Shared with Ann, Pat, Shayla and Ryan and Vic and Babs and Sheila Harms.

The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm all weekend so as much time as possible was spent outside walking, canoeing, kayaking, reading, snoozing, talking, catching up on dictations; and inside, eating, playing crokinole, taking swimming officiating exams, more snoozing, etc.

No one went in swimming on purpose though there were a couple of involuntary partial immersions.

The foliage colors were quite spectacular this year - hard to remember from one year to the next, but this one definitely seems to be one of the best.

A few photos give a glimpse of the colour around Patterson Point this year.

R

More cabin changes

These are not great photos but I am posting them just to give some views of our new room and the placement of the new east window in the cabin.
The first picture is looking into the new room from the kitchen and the second is similar but includes the bathroom.
The third is looking toward the kitchen from the north end of our room.
The fourth is the new east window in the second floor of the main cabin.
Fifth is a photo of part of the front of the new shed.

Quiet time

Shayla stayed with us for a few days after Ann and Ryan left - this is the first time we have had the opportunity to be with her on her own. It was fun for us and I hope for Shayla. She did lots of crafts with Ruth, helped with meals and she helped me with projects like putting a preservative on the cedar siding on the gazebo. We went for walks, played lots of games, Shayla and I went canoeing one day and Ruth and Shayla went to Perth together and Shayla got Ruth into the water!
Shayla is now back home and things are quiet until Rick and Joanne get here the Tuesday after Labour Day.
Not many photos but there is one to document Ruth's swim and one of Shalya in her water colours "lesson". A Great Blue Heron flew into the bay and "perched" on a rock while we were eating dinner in the gazebo and that same evening there was a unique red sunset in a virtually cloudless sky.

Games and crafts

Click on any photo to see a larger image.

Michael, Ann, Shayla and Ryan were here for a few days (too few) last week and over the weekend (joined by Pat for two days). We were lucky to have great weather the whole time they were here, so there were walks, swimming (Shayla and I swam to Gull Rock, accompanied by Ann in the canoe and Ann swam back so the tired young and old could ride), canoeing, kayaking, catching fish, games, crafts, lots of photos and the annual shared "surprise" birthday party for Shayla, Amber and me.
Too many photos to show on the blog, but here are pics of crocinole on the deck and sculpting in the gazebo.

Dinner and games in the gazebo

When Vic and Babs were here we had our first full dinner in the gazebo on a beautiful but very cool August evening - the photos show the jackets required.

We have had several dinners there now including Rick and Ron along with Ann, Shayla and Ryan and Ruth and me. We haven't worked out the best arrangements for dinner for more than 4 or 5, but that will happen.

Since Ann and the kids arrived we have had two evenings of after dinner games.

The first two photos are a bit blurry as they were taken through the screen.

The next is a photo of the game players in the gazebo (not that clear) with the evening sun shining on the gazebo and the last is taken inside as the game goes on.

New West Window in the old cabin.

Rick and Ron came yesterday to do some additional work including installing another new window in the "lower cabin" on the west side. As can be seen from the photos it is a long narrow window set low in the wall. It gives a very nice view of the lake from different areas of the room, including while lying in bed!

As is the habit this year, we had a very heavy and long rain this morning so they were not able to install the other windows as they had planned. That will have to be done in September when they return.

The photos show the holes from old window and new from outside and inside, Rick getting ready to put siding on and the last shows the completed new window in place with new siding highlighted by the setting sun.

Visit with our grand daughter, Candra.

Last week we had a wonderful two day visit with Candra Marr, our grand daughter from New Westminster. We were very happy and fortunate that she came to spend two days with us during her short vacation, though, for us, the visit was too short.

Candra is the first to stay in our new sleeping cabin!

Ruth met her for the first time and they found several areas of common interest.

The weather was excellent so we were able to do a bit of kayaking and swimming and had good food and lots of interesting conversation - it was great getting to know her better. The time went much too quickly, but we have talked about another visit next summer, hopefully a bit longer.

Unfortunately, my camera settings got changed so only a couple of pictures of Candra are salvageable.

The young deer in the last photo suddenly appeared across the bay while we were sitting at the dock.

Candra took several pictures so hopefully she will share them when she has time so that I can post a few more pictures of her visit on the blog.

Sleeping cabin - complete!

Rick and Ron left yesterday having essentially finished the sleeping cabin! sided around the new window in the main cabin, put in the laminate floor and took several loads of debris to the dump. They will be back soon to finish putting in the other windows in the main cabin.
Today I took another load to the dump and put a bunch of material in the garage so the area is now free of debris! and one of the photos is taken late in the day after all of the trash had been removed.
Today I also painted the inside window which was given to us by Bob and Darlene, brought the trunk, storage cabinet, green fold out sofa and the bed frame into the sleeping cabin so the inside is beginning to shape up for occupancy.
The first person to sleep there will be our grand-daughter, Candra, who arrives Monday August 4. She will leave on the 6th and Vic and Babs arrive on August 8.
Well, I had some luck with the night photo of the gazebo so I made one of the sleeping cabin with the lights on.
Tomorrow Ruth will arrive- the beginning of our approximately six weeks here.
I will keep a blog record of the rest of the summer.

Gazebo glow

A beautiful day and a long work day for Rick and Ron. Again, lots of fiddly non showy stuff - electricity almost complete in the sleeping cabin including lights mounted, inside wall between room and sun porch covered in cedar siding, major site clean up.
Took a couple of pictures of the gazebo late this evening and have included two on this post. One is from part way up the hill to the sleeping cabin and the other is from the deck.

Cabin and gazebo - final stages

Two long work days for the guys - not a lot of flashy stuff but a lot of finishing things accomplished. Siding on sleeping cabin completed, new steel door in sleeping cabin, more windows installed, inside door between sleeping cabin room and sun porch in place, walkway and railing completed, electricity to gazebo, screen door and lights installed - I'm sure I have missed something.
Rich and Ron are on their own, Andy was unable to come so in order to get the essentials done they are working long hours.
The gazebo is essentially complete - it is amazing at night with the lights casting a golden glow - and mosquito free! We had drinks there after dark and it was great.
Tomorrow if all goes well we should have electricity in the sleeping cabin, motion lights up, and the flooring in place.
The photos, in reverse order, are the gazebo with screen door in place, the north side of the sleeping cabin with siding completed, outside steel door in place and completed walkway and railing and the gazebo at dusk with the lights one (doesn't do justice to the real appearance).

Last work day for a week or so

Rick and Andy will leave today after another very full day. They are working hard to get things looking in shape for Ruth's arrival this afternoon (that is July 18th).

Finished siding on the front of the sleeping cabin, cedar covering on posts in the sun porch, some "precision" curved cedar covering on the front and back rafters of the gazebo and a lot of other small things, including repair and new screen on the ancient and deteriorating screen door to the old cabin as well as site cleanup.

The pictures include the sleeping cabin with cedar siding on the front including the gable, the gazebo from the hill (with makeshift plywood door - proper screen door to come soon), Ruth reading in the "bug free" gazebo and the guys intensely involved in the last big job of the day before dinner.

Old and new cabins

Lots accomplished again today - ridge cap on the sleeping cabin, windows installed and sealed, lots of siding, screen door installed (temporarily, as the final installation has to wait until the new outer door arrives). The underground electrical conduit and wire from power source to the sleeping cabin and wiring to the motion light is now in place.
Screening on the gazebo is now complete and a makeshift door installed on the gazebo until the screen door arrives.
Three windows have been removed from the old cabin and moved to the sleeping cabin and one new large window has been installed in the south wall upper story bedroom. What a change!
Not a lot of interesting photos so have just posted three; the first is the new window in the second story bedroom of the old cabin; second is the front of the sleeping cabin before the cedar siding and the next after the cedar siding.