Morning Glory Graces

I've been marveling for weeks about the view from our back yard. I've mentioned that our back yard faces our church parking lot, which is a good thing. But I may not have noted that a chain-link fence separates us. I'm not really fond of chain-link fences, but I knew we would not be doing any landscaping projects to enhance our view this year, so I didn't let it concern me. We are so thankful to the Lord for all the blessings of this move. One day, shortly after moving in, we noticed some vines growing up the fence. The next day they had grown about a foot. And so it has gone, until nearly the entire 10-ft. fence is covered with Martin's favorite flower--Morning Glories! We give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! Sorry about the awkward layout, but I wanted to show before and after pics and the view through the fence that we still love.

Downsizing

You hear about downsizing. Well this is what it looks like when going from almost 3,000 sq. ft. to a 12x6x6 ft. U-Haul, a Ford 150 truck, and a Saturn station wagon. It all fit in a 10x10 storage in Canada. It was much cheaper to give away or sell a lot of our old stuff than move it. And we had the joy of finding just the right homes for most of our stuff and blessing others who could use it. Don't worry, we kept all the important stuff, and we have accumulated the additional things we needed to furnish our 1,000 sq. ft. retirement cottage. We still haven't spent what moving costs would have been and we've enjoyed finding just the right pieces here and there. I'll post some pictures of the inside of our dear little home soon. Martin did a great job organizing everything to go through customs at the border.

Early morning on the lake

This is a short, quiet video of an early morning canoe ride on the lake. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Canoeing

Wow! Four new blog entries in one evening! It must be the corn! Last week, we drove up north of Parry Sound to Martin's nephew Gerry's lake side property. We got to see his three neat young adult kids and a couple of their friends. Mart's sis Willie and husband Tony drove their R.V. up for the week. We stayed for three wonderful, invigorating days and nights. Lake Shawanaga is clean, clear, and just the right temp for refreshing swims, which we did several times a day. A highlight of our time there was canoeing. Serene, magical, canoe rides. Silently we glided along the smooth water with only the dip and drip of our paddles in the blue water. We saw a beaver lodge, a blue heron lift in flight quite close to us, and dozens of water lilies. It was hard to narrow the experience down to two pics.

Matching cousins

This blog is for Claire & Emily in California & Jillian in Oklahoma. What fun to have matching swim suits, even when not planned. Thanks to Target. You all look fabulous! Claire, who turned 5 in May, was wondering when her teeth would begin falling out. Well, cousin Jillian turned 6 in May, and she's in the midst of tooth transition. Good luck, girls.

Follow up on the "Fort"

I never got around to posting a pic of the Fort after it was finished. Barry & Tammy chose the colors and Alecs & Brookie painted the wooden outdoor pieces we gave them from the Timber house. The slide was a bonus from Graystone as well. Everyone pitched in to make this dream come true. Good job everyone. One of my dreams was to enjoy an early morning coffee with my brother on the porch of the Fort. This was taken the day before we left for Canada. Thank you Lord for Howard & Maria and their special family!

Ontario Corn Season

We happen to live in the best sweet corn growing region of all Canada. Southern Ontario not only grows sweet succulent mouth-watering corn on the cob, but it is the top grower of popping corn as well. But we'll wait for Fall to enjoy that salty buttery treat. Fresh, as in picked daily, corn is available at many road-side stands right now. It's cheap, delicious, and so-o-o-o good for you! Especially if you eat it my favorite way. Don't be shocked, but it only needs to be steamed for about 5 min. and then eaten naked (the corn, not me!). No butter, no salt, just fresh sweet corn. Local, seasonal, natural. We will enjoy it while we can. Also in abundance now, tomatoes! . . .peaches are coming on the scene, new potatoes. I really wanted to write about our blueberry picking experience with my sister-in-law Peetra, but I forgot the camera that day.