Well, yesterday I was able to watch the SNOW through my sparkly windows. Gardening season is over here for sure! My fingernails and cuticles will be the winners! We have gotten through all the Thanksgiving/birthdays/ Hallowe'en stuff and now we're thinking Christmas. I am trying to convince my family that the whole shopping for great big gifts should be a thing of the past, and smaller thoughtful gifts should be the rule. I have requested bird seed , peanuts and sunflower seeds without the shells so I don't have a big mess to clean up. DH wants a beaded seat for the truck and both kids are getting a small cheque towards something they want. Adrian wants everything, but will get really good quality stuff that is likely not going to be electronic. We're thinking maybe a microscope, X-Box headphones (good ones) and some books. Maybe a model kit or some such thing. We are also givng a case of catfood and a few bags of dried liver treats to our local animal shelter, which gets no outside funding at all and is one of only two no-kill shelters in Ontario.

I am sitting as a supervisor in an old house for the Perth Annual Christmas House Tour, which I do every year, so today I get to visit and learn about the house I am sitting in. Adrian is turning into a history buff and would like to do the whole tour. I will take him with me today and if he behaves he can do the tour next year.

Nasty colds are almost gone, with DH suffering the most. However, the basement reno is almost done. A few paint touch-ups and I can start putting stuff back where it belongs, thank goodness. I hate it when things are messy and untidy and cluttered and I can do nothing about it. I am only putting the things that I want to have in the appropriate rooms, and the rest, well, some stuff will just have to go. Monday will be the start! We will be done for Christmas!

Cheers,

Julie

The garden is put away here as well. DONE! Thank goodness! These days I can read for book club and knit for the grandkids. I am working on a small sweater for baby Forrest, in a deep blue. Maybe I'll make a hat to go with it. I have other knits planned for Leo and Ivy as well. No toys from me this year...and no ideas yet for DH. We will likely stay at home and enjoy the quiet!

Here's a scarf I made for the season-
{{gwi:185924}}

Julie, I sat as a supervisor one year with a friend. The house was OK, but I'm not good just sitting around for 3-4 hours usually. Good for you. I hope Adrian loves the tour too!

I hope everyone is well and enjoying the start of party season!
'bug

gb - the colors in the scarf are beautiful!

Julie - I'll bet there're some beautiful old houses in your area. Will you be able to post a picture of the house you'll be supervising?

Randy is out planting some mums at the moment. A lady in the neighbourhood who has just sold their house brought three divisions of her hardy mums for me earlier today. Two are deep pink double ones and one is a peachy sigle one. A few years ago another neighbour gave me some of her hardy white ones (which turn pink as they age). They are amazingly vigorous and beautiful. They're mostly spawled on the ground at the moment but still making a big puddle of color. I do cut them back every few weeks or so until early July but they still make a rangy - but dense - clump. They're great plants so I'm happy to have some more in different colors.

I submitted the final assignment for the course this morning, so the course is finished now. I guess I'd better start Christmas stuff now! We need to make the plum pudding this week.

YAY! The end of the course!
Yes, time for Christmas activity I guess. Must be super challenging from a wheelchair! I think it will be a quiet Christmas for us.

Phoebe is enjoying a new haircut, but that first day she usually is embarrassed until we praise her a thousand times or so! She just loves running in the snow though.

We have a celebration at Mount Nemo on Friday, a dinner to attend next Saturday, DH's students here on the 3rd, a trip to a conference in Bobcaygeon on the 8th, book club on the 10th... Doesn't actually seem so calm somehow! ;)

I use a squeegie Julie, so my workflow is about 3 minutes per window. This is not the time of year for window cleaning here, the rainy season is upon us. I did do my slider though-like to be able to see the back garden and it is often the recipient of rain drops.

Love that scarf 'bug. Great combo !

DD and I went to see DS's play this afternoon; he is Rolf in 'Sound of Music' at a regional theater in Berkeley.It was a fun day for us all. Raking leaves is ongoing. I did a 5 day weekend over this holiday--I have several weeks of vaca time unused but we have an employee who is retiring next week and my work load will expand as a result. I decided to get while the gettin was good.

All for now..

Kathy in Napa

At the fracture clinic today they put the 'porthole' thingy into the cast and showed us how to insert the probe to run the Ultrasound Bone Stimulation session - you do it yourself at home for 20 minutes a day. We did the first session this afternoon. The vibrations in the bones feel funny - like putting your hand on a hive of bees!

Looking at the 'porthole':
{{gwi:185925}}

With the session running:
{{gwi:185926}}

OYYYY...what fun Woody!

DD needed antibiotics over a period of time (dog attack!) and she could not use her hands. They gave her a 'fanny pack' for the intravenous drip. She was teaching at the time and it was a pain, but I was impressed with how well out-patient systems function these days! Good luck to you!

Sorry you have suffered this, but I am pleased that so much help is available. And I love your couch!

Cheers,

Julie.

Julie - we like that loveseat too! It's in the office across from the desk and is the hang-out place for the dogs when I'm on the computer (hence the towel covering the seat cushions....) It's also my favorite reading spot - but it's going to be a while before I'm in any shape to sit on it again! The loveseat has been re-covered a few times since we got it - it belonged to the downstairs neighbours in the house where we had an apartment when we moved to Toronto in 1980. They retired to their cottage a few years later and sold the contents of their apartment. We bought several things from them, including our china cabinet and that loveseat.

Some quick knits...

A neck piece
{{gwi:185927}}

Baby socks
{{gwi:185928}}

For any Idylls not on Facebook, you should know that
Deanne has been taken to the hospital with a minor stroke. Doctors have identified some small blood clots in her brain, and she is also having some heart issues. All of these appear to be minor and she will be hospitalized for observation for three or four days.

Cheers,

Julie

Oh dear....! Pass on my best wishes to them please Julie.

Thank you so much for letting us know Julie!

Deanne gets out of 'jail' tomorrow , she sure is chomping at the bit ! We FB'ers have been trying diligently to keep her entertained,and even Wendy has come to spend time with us! We created a private group on FB and have really ramped up the activity there this week.

Here in Norcal it has been raining steadily since Tuesday, what a swamp I have here at the moment.I wish I'd planted my bulbs last weekend, but it was just too busy, plus I had guests. I figure I need two straight weeks of no rain to be able to plant. I have one shelf in my fridge that is full to the brim with tulips and alliums..need to free up that space !

All for now..

Kathy in Napa

Hard to keep an active woman confined!
Maybe I should make by blog more humorous for her! At least we live in the computer age and can keep in touch with those we love and entertain ourselves quite well.
You'll see the kitties soon Deanne!

'Tis the season for bad health I think! Randy's father has deteriorated a lot this past week. And Liam (Border Collie)'s 'mummy' has been diagnosed with ALS. That's a very traumatic diagnosis to be facing. When she first started having problems this summer, ALS was the initial diagnosis, then further testing suggested something less dire. But she has continued to deteriorate and is now having problems with swallowing and speaking, so ALS is back in the picture as the diagnosis. It sure makes a broken leg seem a minor inconvenience!

How terribly sad... Yes, I'd prefer a broken leg, but we don't get choices do we!

I've broken down and signed up for Facebook this morning! Randy signed up last week so I figured it was time to 'get with the program' :-) How do I find the Idylls?

Randy's father seemed to plateau last week, but is declining again this week. His sister (who had been living with their father for the last year or so) is now also in the hospital! What she initially thought was a bout of food poisoning is now under investigation as possible pancreas problems or gallstones hiding somewhere that is not showing on the scans. PLUS blood tests said that she might be Type 1 diabetic! So she was put in the hospital for a 5-day observation period with no food and initially no liquids other than through IV, although I gather she's now allowed some liquids. She's not a 'happy camper'! It never rains but it pours, and all that...

#@$&%!! Facebook! This is as clear as mud! I'm already considering deleting my account. I cannot figure how how to update/correct/overwrite education and employment details that I initially put in only on a summary level. I've followed the Edit process in the Help info - it adds new info but doesn't change what was already there. AARRGH! I knew this was not a good idea....!

I just deleted my Facebook account!

Oh Woody...so sorry you had so much trouble. One of the reasons I've refused to sign up was due to their rules that allow them to hold on to your personal information for as long as they want and it is so very difficult to delete all your information off their website. It's too bad, since you would like to join the Idylls over there.

I'm sorry to hear about Randy's Dad and now his sister. It would be so much easier to deal with one crisis at a time, but it rarely works out that way. Hang in there. Progress can sometimes come in inches. Hope next week will be a better week for everyone.

Nope, I'm not even tempted Woody. You just confirmed it.
I'm having problems with Skype texting (the only way to deal with friends in Haiti.) I hate this helplessness.
DS now tells me he must abandon Firefox and it will be going down the tubes soon and I'll need a new means of communicating. Oh swell....

Some pictures to liven things up....

This is what dog-walking looks like these days...:
{{gwi:185929}}
That will come to an end for me once we get snow!

Misty was looking very saucy today (note the tongue!)
{{gwi:185930}}
I think the tongue might have been a comment on Cole getting a bit too cozy with 'her' daddy :-) This picture was from another day, but the scene was the same today - can you find Cole...?
{{gwi:185931}}

Cole started out sleeping in his crate at night; once we trusted him loose in the house on his own, he decided his bed was a chair in the living room - but what he really wanted was to join Misty and us on the bed! We started letting him on the bed for cuddles after he and Misty went out for morning bathroom duties around 6:00 a.m.. Two night ago he popped up on the bed at bedtime and settled down quietly, so we let him stay.... Misty sleeps at the bottom of the bed but Cole is a cuddler and likes to 'spoon' with us. Very bad training discipline to let him take up so much territory, but he is adorable :-) He doesn't hassle Misty and, while she's a bit miffed I think, she's not making any objections (she normally snapped at any dog trying to share the bed at night...) We try to make sure she gets lots of attention too and she seems to have accepted Cole as an OK addition to the family.

Randy's father died this afternoon. When his mother died a couple of years ago it wasn't too sad as she had Alzheimer's, so it was a relief that her suffering with that dreadful condition was over. But his father still was very much 'on the ball', active and full of joie de vivre. So, much sadness here tonight....

Oh Woody, I'm sorry. My condolences to you and Randy. Even if someone is sick, we are never really ready to say Goodbye.

Oh Randy...and Susan! I'm so sorry things conspired to prevent you both from saying goodbye.
I hope the puppies are good comfort.

(((Randy and Woody)))Best wishes for you to proceed through this tough time as well as possible. Even though those in our age group expect these things to occur, it makes it no easier when it does.

I had seen your post about creating a FB account Woody, and then becoming frustrated. Just FYI, many folks create accounts with little or no personal info--this is what I did as I was interested only in inter-reacting with my immediate family and the Idylls.My info basically has nothing but my name.

Nice to see you as always PM !

I admire Cole ! A very handsome fellow ...

Kathy in Napa

Woody, Kathy let us know over on FB about Randy's dad and I wanted to offer my condolences to you both. It's a hard thing losing a parent no matter what our age. My thoughts are with you.

I've barely skimmed this Idyll thread but see that you've broken your leg and gotten a new pet. So sorry about the leg, I hope it's healing well and quickly, I know you don't like to be slowed down like that. Your dog is beautiful! I was raised with poodles, my parents bred them and my dad still has a black standard poodle named Georgette, Georgie for short. They are great dogs, so intelligent and I like how neat they are, no shedding or drooling.

It would be just great to have those of you that remain here over on FB. I think I have even less of my personal info there than Kathy does. GW seems very "antique" to me, so much harder to keep up and even share photos here. But to each their own :)

As for me, no exciting news and that's a good thing I think. Bella will be 8 soon and we're past the baby stage, our youngest, Julia, is two. They're all communicating well now and are so much fun. I have a blast with them all. I'm known as "gramcracker" thanks to Bella and Lisa (Saucy) came up with the name gramkids in one of her comments to me recently so that's what we're known as on FB now. :) Since I have more spare time these days, I've been having fun decorating for Christmas by doing quite a bit of crafting. I don't know if any of you are familiar with the website Pinterest but I've found lots of ideas there that have kept me busy and having a great time. My Christmas shopping is done, now I just need to talk Brad into doing my wrapping for me since I don't like doing that so much. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas (and it would be just great to see you guys pop up on FB in the new year, we have a lot of fun over there).

Laura (Eden)

Came by to send a hug to Woody and Randy. I'm so sorry to hear about Randy's Dad..and my goodness, your leg Woody! It looks like you've got an excellent care crew looking after you ;) Randy must be meeting himself coming and going with his sister in the hospital as well. Seems like when it rains, it pours :(
FB can seem to be pretty complicated at first, but as Kathy said, you don't have to put in any more information than you wish. Should you decide to give it another whirl, we'll all "friend" you and you'll be a pro in no time ;)
Bug, it is so good to "see" you knitting for the little ones! You do such lovely work!
I think we're just about ready for Christmas. This is the first year we've had a tree up for a few years, and I am thoroughly enjoying getting in the spirit of things.
We're closing in on the end of what I've dubbed "The Remodel from Hell", and thank goodness for that. I'm glad we did it, and the house is much more suited to us being able to "ripen" (I refuse to say get older, lol) here. We survived the summer's drought with a better crop than we had dared to hope, but it was tense times on the farm there for a while.
I believe that on New Year's Eve, I'm going to have a toast to a "No Drama Year in 2013". I think we're due.
Oh, my-they've changed the way we post pictures here? Let's see if I can figure it out, lol! With any luck, a picture of Jude will show up. He's growing like a weed-he'll be 3 in February, and being a Grandma is all I ever thought it would be and then some.
Happy Holiday Hugs to one and all!
Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: The remodel

Another long-lost idyller checking in here after Kathy's message.

Susan, I'm so sorry to hear about Randy's dad, and your broken leg! My condolences to both of you. On a happier note, Cole does look adorable!

Happy holidays to all! I do hope that you might reconsider joining us on Facebook.

Marlene

Thank all for the kind thoughts. Randy's father was a wonderful man - very kind and loving and family-focused. Ada (Randy's mother) died in May last year after several years in a nursing home due to Alzheimer's. Bill visited her every day to help feed her and keep her company. He had cared for her at home long after the doctors thought she should be in LTC. We did not expect that he would live long after Ada died (shortly after their 60th wedding anniversary). He was 88 when he died. He will be much missed in the family.

It'll be awhile I think before I'd be tempted to try Facebook again :-) I found it a a very cluttered site - not well organized for ease of navigation/understanding how to find things!

Cole is adorable and very clever - but a bit wicked too! He's food-obsessed (I swear he's half retreiver!) Yesterday we were at a Chistmas event for the volunteers at Dog Guides. Randy had a bag in his coat pocket with the dog treats used as training rewards there. We went for our usual morning walkies this morning and then had breakfast when we returned. Randy had just hung his jacket over a chair in the dining room when we got home. After breakfast he noticed the treat bag from his jacket pocket was on the floor - empty!

Woody and Randy, I saw Kathy's note on FB and wanted to send you a note. I'm thinking of you both today. So sorry to hear about Randy's father. It is hard when we lose a parent, hope you are both holding up as well as can be expected. Also sorry to hear that you broke your leg. That's no fun, but I can see your indomitable spirit is still intact! Cute new addition to the family! I bet he has added some spice to the household. Interaction between two dogs can be interesting to watch!

I'm still working at the greenhouse in the office. I help her with marketing, social media, photos, and she lets me pick out some plants for the upcoming season. Pretty excited about 2013. So far everything I have recommended has sold out, so that's good. We put together some aeriums with Tillandsias and they are selling well, along with all the coleus I picked and succulents too.

Hope you have a peaceful holiday!

Drema

Bump..I don't understand hoe Julies furniture thread got up-top..there is no recent post.Maybe there was a blatant advertising post and it already got deep-sixed ?

Glad you pushed it down the stack in any case.

Another sleepless night at the farm... so I came here to check out what's new! ;)

Why are you sleepless gb....?

Nothing much new here. At the fracture clinic yesterday, there was callus showing on the break - but not enough to support moving from the full-leg cast to a below-the-knee one. Hopefully it'll be solid enough by the 31st (next fracture clinic appointment) so I can get into the next cast. My knee is starting to hurt and I'm afraid that bending it could become a problem if I stay in this cast too much longer!

Randy is busy with estate executor stuff now.

Woody, Ric helped me to try Facebook...so I shared that story there and forgot to tell you!
Got a phone call from Birmingham hospital at 3:15 am where DS was being checked out and stitched together. He was with friends thank goodness. All will be OK, but no one seems able to detect the cause of a bad fall in the bathroom of said friends except for passing out and his glasses cutting him up etc...

I agree with you about FB. The interface is so bad! The gang is helpful though, but I hate diving into something that I can't make sense of first!

Pity Randy's job. I went through that with Mom and it was so difficult for me. (involved US medical system, banking and other horrors.)

Today I'm working on a sweater for Leo. I finished a poncho for Ivy and am at an awkward stage of a sweater for Forrest..because of poor instructions. I'll get help on that tomorrow from my knitting friend.

Hi Woody, Just checking in. Such a gray day here. Happy to get some rain though. Sorry you aren't able to move up to the next cast yet. I wonder if you are doing that special treatment for it? Was it laser or ultrasound?

Glad Randy is staying busy, but estate executor stuff... no fun. Hope he is hanging in there. Are you both planning on doing anything for the holidays?

Hi Kathy, nice to see you too! Nice to see all the familiar faces here for the moment. Thanks for all the Facebook information. I didn't realize they allow you to register with just a name for info. That's probably a good thing.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

gb - that all sounds worrisome about your DS! I hope it turns out to be a minor problem. Re the estate - hopefully Randy will have an easier time of it that you did! His father had discussed it all with him and tried, as much as possible, to have things in order for ease of gathering the assets in to the estate. Sorting out the condo at long distance will be the hardest thing - although his sister is still living there and will help with that. She might be interested it buying it for herself.

PM - yes, I'm using the ultrasound bone treatment (see link below - that's what I'm using). This medical journal article:

http://bme.sunysb.edu/people/faculty/docs/crubin/2001-jbjs-ultrasound.pdf

was what convinced me to go ahead with it.

Randy's brother and family will be here for Christmas dinner this year. Reveillon dinner is at their place, but I can't go because of the wheelchair - they might bring everything here or we might just decide to cancel for this year - we're not sure yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: ultrasound bone healing treatment

Thanks for that link Woody. I'm surprised that it has such a high rate of effectiveness. That is reassuring.

I also hope Randy has an easier time of it with the estate planning. My Mom had a business running when I had to sort out her estate, that had to be closed and a commercial property sold among other things. A two year period of my life I try to forget. A relief when it is finished for sure, and I found that it distracted me from dealing with my grief until it was all over and then had a delayed effect. You get through it.

What is Reveillon Dinner? We have our three kids here as usual on Christmas and they will be doing all the cooking, which they enjoy.

PM - Reveillon dinner is Christmas Eve dinner - a tradition in Quebec - SIL is Quabecoise :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Reveillon

Lovely tradition Woody, I enjoyed reading about it ...

My DD will be coming with Aiden on Friday and we will have a small family celebration for a few days..we have an agenda that includes local Christmas light viewing, Chinese food, watching White Christmas, presents of course (though they are modest this year) and our all day hors d'oeuvres buffet , which is a tradition in our family.

'bug has mastered posting on FB, including photos , and she is being effusively welcomed by all.

All for now..

Kathy in Napa

My @#$&% computer has died - again! I'm on Randy's old one this morning.... So, a new item just got added to the Christmas shopping list! I think I'm going to get a laptop so I'll be more mibile with it - I don't fit under the desk in this cast :-( Hopefully that's a shorterm problem, but it's a good reminder that a more mobile option is probably a better option in general!

I backed up files not too long ago - but forgot to back up the addressbook and favorites list again - *sigh*....

If gb has defected to FB, I guess that's the deathknell for here....

Oh woody, try FB again. It really does take some getting used to; and I am technically hopeless. But I am managing there - and it is nice to see the Idylls, although apparently there are quite a few that were Idylls before I was and I don't know them well, and there are lots not there either.

Are you getting stormed in today? Lots of the white stuff here, no school buses, so the kids are thrilled - not school for two weeks now!

Christmas odds and ends at home will be taken care of today, last minute wrapping, tidying up the basement rooms for company and all that.

I think you will like a laptop. We bought one for Adrian so it could be used in the living room or family room instead of the office and we could kind of keep tabs on what he is doing.

I hope your leg heals soon; it must be a huge nuisance.

Best wishes to you and randy. I am sorry that your holiday is overshadowed by the death of Randy's father. It is nice that you have such good memories of him.

If this site closes down, let's try to keep in touch by e-mail!

Cheers,

Julie

Julie - it's been very mild here with rain off and on over the past few days. Not a bit of snow in sight... We haven't even had frost this week.

I was playing around on Randy's laptop yesterday on his Facebook account, trying to figure it out. Anybody I tried to look up (not Idylls...) I couldn't find! So it doesn't appear that useful for me re finding long lost friends - and if I've got along without them for the past many years, I think I can survive without them now :-)

I couldn't find gb or other Idylls either - I think someone mentioned here that they have some sort of private group....? So how would I find them even if I decided to rejoin? It apparently takes 2 weeks for a cancelled account to get cancelled, so I think I'd need to let that clear out before trying again if I did decide to try again. Playing around on Randy's certainly didn't improve my opinion of how the site is organized/laid out!

Hi Woody!
It was no picnic getting on to Facebook and it is a disgusting process. They are so deceitful about how they operate and constantly try to lure you to doing more & more! Anyway, it took me a very frustrating week to survive the process...with DH's help. I pretty much stick with the private group. I needed help from several people to get to the point I could even reply. Everyone assisted kindly and patiently...but what a pain. Not a friendly process at all. I'm not interested in finding "old friends" I spend more than enough time on the Idyll group alone!

It was beautiful out just before dinner time. Phoebe loves the snow... I hope the curly one at your house enjoys the white stuff. That would make for some cute black & white photos Randy!

I hope we can get out tomorrow because we still have lots of errands. We're trying to make up a set of photos for the family room wall as a gift to ourselves..

Looks like DH will have a sabbatical starting in May, but will teach this January-April.
'bug

Hi Woody! Hope you had a nice Christmas. I thought I would stop in over here again and say hi. If you want to try Facebook, you could probably make up a different email acct just for FB. Then, where it says find friends, you can type in any one of our email addresses, and we will pop up. If you find one of us, then all of us will quickly become your friends. We get a note saying something like gardenbug became friends with so and so... we can click the link and friend you. So you really only have to set up the account and find one person. Hope that works for you.
Drema

Hi Drema! Christmas was a quiet, but pleasant, family time here. I hope you had a good Christmas too.

We got 8" of snow overnight last night - Randy has been out snowblowing and shovelling for the last two hours!

I may try FB again. I do have multiple e-mail address accounts already set up and I could use one of those - although that means you wouldn't recognize the e-mail address if that matters in the 'friend' thing. One complication though is that my computer died the week before Christmas so I lost all my e-mail addresses! I had backed up files not too long before - but forgot to back up the addressbook. I'm using Randy's old computer at the moment - I'll have to look to see if there are any Idyll e-mail addresses on the adressbook on it. I need to go out and buy a now computer (probably a laptop) but that's not going to happen until the snow melts off enough to make things acessible out there!

Woody, sent you an email. Now I wonder if you or randy got it.
hmmm.
Let me know. 'bug

gb - I got your message and replied to it just now. This computer is set up to receive messages from all our different e-mail addresses.

Hi Woody!!

I received your request:) Yay!! You can go and click on my friends or anyone else's to see who they are friends with. If you recognize any names, just click on it and you will get a friend request box. I sent you suggestions of everyone who I know from Gardenweb. There might be a couple you don't recognize, but you will get to know them from their posts:)

Drema