Aussies came and went

My Aussie friends, Jennifer and Kevin have come and gone.  This was their third visit with us.  Where did their week with us go?  It came and went so quickly.  With my bummed up shoulder, I couldn't do very much and needed everyone's help to prepare meals and clean up.

This visit, they arrived to colour.  Glorious colour.  Jennifer loves autumn and it was so nice to have them see our colour. 

Jennifer and I did get out to a quilt show at a church in Sturgeon Falls.  This was the first for me to see quilts in a church and I quite enjoyed it.  More photos were taken, but these were my favourites.  Love that TATW quilt!

This chevron quilt caught my eye.  On the placard, it was mentioned that the pattern came from Fons and Porter and I found it in my magazine collection a few nights later.  Eureka!  I may be starting a new quilt ....

Jennifer was busy buying a leaf potholder an chatting with the ladies.  We signed a guest book and I do believe she was the farthest away attending the show.

Monday nights there is a ukulele group that meets at a local music store.  Jennifer attended last time she was here and made arrangements to meet with the group again.   She was in 7th heaven to be able to play again.  Eight weeks is a long time away from playing a musical instrument.

On our way to the music store, we drove along the lake shore and caught this interesting cloud formation.  Photos were taken and once home, DH (who is a meteorologist) was able to explain what was going on with that funny cloud formation.  

When Jennifer and Kevin arrived, we exchanged goodie bags.  Jennifer knows how much I love bags, so what a wonderful addition to my collection!

Inside the bag was this gorgeous wall hanging.  Perfect to be hung with my autumn quilts.

At first, I thought the flowers were drawn on ..... nope, embroidered with one strand of embroidery floss.  So lovely!  I'm still admiring her machine quilting.

While Jennifer and Kevin were here, the BEARS came back.  This time three bears in our neighbours back patio.  They went after the bird feeders and destroyed one.  They came during the night and I woke up to a bang.  Did I investigate?  Not a chance was I going to go outside to find out what the noise was.  Still, after that bang, I could not go back to sleep.   The next afternoon, DH came inside with a story to share with us and explain what the bang was that I heard.  That was just a tad too close for comfort.  Bear scat has been found between our house and our neighbours and in different places on the street.  Much too close!

Our friends said that they would love to see a bear in person, but at the same time, they didn't want to see a bear as that would be too scary.  I agree!

We didn't do as much this time around.  We are all getting older and just sitting around the fireplace and enjoying our visitors was a good thing.  They said this would be their last visit to Canada.  Still, they said that last visit and they came back again this year.  Safe travels, my friends, safe travels.

Last Friday, I and two other siblings buried my brother's ashes.  It took a while to get everything arranged, but he was finally laid to rest with our parents.  Rest in peace .... Micheal Beauregard .... rest in peace ...

A few days later, we had snow.  A couple days of snow.  Overnight, we had rain and it is all gone now .... but it will be back .... that we know for sure.

While our visitors were here, a new EPP project was started and there will be more on that later.  Another EPP project ...... yippee-ki-yay!

Have a happy stitching day!

Linking to: http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/ and http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Aussie visitors

Our Aussie visitors have come and gone for another visit.  What a great time we had!  It didn't seem that it has been 3 years since their last visit with us.  We just picked up where we left off and talked away for hours.

Besides talking, we did a few outings to give them a taste of North Bay and the Great White North.  The weather was beautiful this time and there still was colour in the trees.

We did a haunted walk.  That was interesting.  Even I learned a few things about North Bay and I grew up here.

Jennifer wanted to attend a ukulele session at our local music store (Music City) and that was arranged.  A few emails and viola, she was in.  She was most welcomed and she got to have her fix after being away from her uke for quite a number of weeks now.  There were almost 30 people attending the session of singing and playing the ukulele.  A grand evening indeed!  The leader of the group is hoping that DH and I come back and join the club.  I'm not musically gifted, so not sure about that.

DH and I took them for a drive out to our cottage.  We put them to work helping us do the final closing for this year.  They learned a few things about what is necessary for closing the cottage for winter.  Standing on our front porch, we see Kevin; that is me with my back turned towards the camera and there is Jennifer in the rear.  Our cottage is simple.  No electricity, no running water.  Simple and a great place to go for relaxation.  Now, when I write about quilting at the cottage, she will know what I'm talking about and can visualize being there.

Here we are standing beside our now straightened shed.  It was badly leaning and we just had to do something before it finally tumbled to the ground.  It was greatly admired.  It took quite a number of weeks of hard work by my DH and brother to get it sound and straight.   All the buildings you see belong to our family property that is shared between three siblings.

On the way back from the cottage, we stopped at a lookout beside the highway to admire Lake Nipissing.  It was a beautiful day.

 Here is DH checking out the bear-proof garbage bins.  Even he had trouble getting the lid to open.

A few days were spent just sitting in the living room with ipads and lap tops and soaking up the sunshine streaming through the windows.  Jennifer amused herself with just a wee sample of my quilting books.

This little fella kept us amused with his gathering of peanuts that we tossed out the kitchen patio door.  This was the first time they saw a chipmunk.

A show and tell of all my quilt tops was presented.  No photos were taken, but I should have because they were all over my studio afterwards and what a mess it was.  :o)  Jennifer has seen those tops on my blog, but it just is not the same as seeing them in person.

A few outings to restaurants, local stores and a quilt store rounded off their visit.

They presented me with a huge package of goodies.  I'm still drooling over my pressies.  Thank you so much Jennifer and Kevin.  I do hope your visit with us was enjoyable and safe travels for the rest of your time here in Canada.

It is on my bucket list to make a trip to Australia.  So, we shall see ....

Have a great day!

Aussie visit

We had such a lovely visit with our Australian friends, Jennifer and Kevin.  They stayed with us for seven days of fun, laughter, talking, eating, drinking, etc.  It was our goal to have them experience our lifestyle here in the near north part of Ontario and to do things that they have never done before.

Be forewarned .... this post has a lot of photos!  We spaced out our activities during their visit with some down time so that we weren't tired out.  When looking at the photos, no, we didn't do all of this in one day.  :o)

Our kitchen table was the gathering place for many meals and hours spent with the four of us having heaps of fun.   Here, Jennifer and Kevin are raising their glass of cheer.

Jennifer and I exchanged gifts and this is what she gave to me.  See that bit of ribbon at the top .... that was Miss Ashes and Miss Hank's gift and what fun they had playing with it.  Thank you, Jennifer, for my lovely gifts!

After our first supper, we all bravely climbed the hill in our backyard to take in the city view and the sunset.  That was the last day of sun (during their visit) that we had before Hurricane Sandy came ashore.  We were OK as North Bay was far inland; but we did get rain and some wind.

A city tour brought us to the shores of Lake Nipissing where Jennifer had to dip her hands into the cool water.  That is me in the middle.

We went to a local church bazaar where we bought some local crafts and pastries and tried our luck at a penny sale (with no luck).

We drove to Sturgeon Falls one afternoon and pulled into a look-out to have a better view of Lake Nipissing.

 We did a corn maze at Leisure Farms in Sturgeon Falls.  It was amazing to do!  :o)

Anyone for some TV Bingo?  Our local TV station has two nights where we can play bingo and it was just luck that Jennifer and Kevin were here for one of those nights.  Was anyone lucky?

Yes!  Jennifer won $75.00.  Later that night, a member of Lion's Club dropped off her cheque and graciously posed for photos.

Since North Bay is so close to the province of Quebec .... well, we just had to go there for a drive.  Jennifer got to practise her French that she learned in school when she was a wee tot.  We bought some French liqueur that has maple syrup in it and stayed for coffee and cake at a local restaurant in Temiskaming, Quebec.

It was raining, but we took a little walk along the Ottawa River which separates the province of Ontario and Quebec.

Lunch one day at Average Joe's restaurant on Trout Lake in North Bay was lovely.  It was their treat to hubby and I.

Since Jennifer and Kevin have never done Halloween before, we purchased some pumpkins when we were at Leisure Farms.  Here, we are all taking turns carving the pumpkin.

It rained Halloween night and we didn't have many kiddies come to the door.  We all took turns at shelling out.

My sister and niece dropped by later in the evening to bring us dessert and stay for a visit.

Every day, Kevin would sit at our kitchen table and look out our patio door to see if he would be lucky to spot a bear or a deer.  On their last day here, we were just finishing eating dessert when Kevin spotted a deer.  We were so thrilled to see the deer (three in total).   If they had left earlier in the day, they would have missed this sighting.

And, if they had just stayed just one more day ... they would have woken up to snow on the ground, this morning!

Jennifer and Kevin ... you are more than welcome to come back and visit us any time!

A few of you are probably wondering how we first met?  It was back in 2009 when there was a bad bush fire in Australia and I had made some quilts blocks and a quilt top for donation to the victims of that fire.  Emails went back and forth and we met up in Toronto (we were living there at the time) in 2009 when Jennifer and Kevin were visiting their son and the rest is history.

Have a great day!