Tuesday September 15, 2009 - A Very Busy Day

The day started out sunny but quickly changed to cloud until sunset. We then had quite a nice sunset but we were on the road so any photos I took were from the truck.

It started out today that we had dentist appointments. Since we were going into town we decided to go to the chiropractor too. As we were driving in Gordon said he had something growing on the side of his face where the dermatologist had taken off a basal cell cancer in June so wanted to stop there and also wanted to get an appointment with our family doctor.

So we stopped first at the dermatologist who took him right away and froze the small growth off. In the meantime I went down to the doctor and got an appointment for 6:15 p.m. (they're in the same building), then off to the chiropractor where we each got a treatment. We had about 1 1/2 hours till our dentist appointment so we decided to go to the Ornamental Gardens.

Lots of pretty gardens, this is a garden of mostly grasses


Flower gardens







Even though some of the plants were past their prime it was still beautiful!

I had packed a lunch for us so we ate that on the way to the dentist's office. I had a check up and didn't find anything wrong. Gordon had never been to my dentist before so he had x-rays and a cleaning as well as a check up and it looks like we're fine.

From there we had a couple of hours to kill so I stopped at the bank, picked up a couple of items at the grocery, then we went to Andrew Hayden Park and took some more photos. There were a lot of critters there today.

Chipmunk

Black squirrel

Keeley Falls

Red squirrel


Gray squirrel with a broken tail

GBH (Great Blue Heron)

Close-up

Groundhog

Off to the doctor, we both had an appointment. We were scheduled for September 25th but they had a cancellation so she took me today too. We have a few tests to do (that we don't have to study for, thank goodness)!

We got home around 7:15 p.m. Here is the sunset that we saw on the way home.

Monday September 14, 2009 - Staying at Home

Another beautiful morning! I walked on the farm road this morning to avoid traffic. I saw horses, geese, a wild turkey and several partridge as well as another couple out for a walk.

Wild turkey

A couple of the horses

Canada Geese

A farm scene


Sun spot on corn


Most of the morning I spent on the internet and chatting with Dee on Yahoo Messenger. I spent some time outside my lawn chair but after lunch decided I was tired so I crashed and had a long nap. It's been quite a few days since I got an afternoon nap and I think I was missing it.

Dave (owner of campground) leveling out new gravel on one of the sites

Our very big yard

I had planned to go out and get the new plates (sticker) for the truck today but just didn't get around to it. Luckily we have till the end of September to get it done.

Sunday September 13, 2009- Birthday Celebrations

I had another nice long walk this morning. Today was a day of clouds and sun but at least we didn't get the rain that was predicted. It was also cooler today.

Scene from my morning walk


We headed in to Ottawa late morning and arrived at my sister's house around 11:30 a.m. We were being fed lunch to celebrate both our birthdays, mine on the 9th and Gordon's on the 16th. Nick and Becky arrived around 12:45 p.m. and lunch was served. I haven't had scalloped potatoes in ages and they were good! Gordon got a baked potato as the scalloped ones were made with regular flour but he also got baked beans. We had barbecued pork chops and green beans and for dessert we had raspberry fluff. A very delicious meal.

Jasper, the family dog

We both also got presents. I got a fancy t-shirt (photo below) and two gift cards for Swiss Chalet, Montanas, Kelseys or Milestones. We'll be able to eat out some before we leave! My birthday has now officially extended over about 3 weeks. I guess I can let it go now!

Gordon got two casual shirts, one a golf shirt and one a soccer shirt, so he's all set too!

Thanks to everyone for the gifts!

After one short stop to pick up some lunch meat we arrived home around 4 p.m.

Lots of clouds on the way home

Saturday September 12, 2009 - Spiders and Webs

Each day's weather just keeps getting better and better. We had bright blue sunny skies today with a light breeze and a high of 23C (74F).

Yesterday morning on my walk I saw hundreds of spider webs but I didn't have my camera so today in Dee's honour I took my camera and got her several photos of spiders and their webs. Dee and Jim have just sold their condo and are moving this weekend to an apartment in preparation for fulltiming in the next few months. She's always wanted a photo of a spider in it's web so now she has some to choose from!

For others who don't especially like spiders, I've made the photos small although all you have to do to enlarge is click on them.

I walked a ways on the rail trail this morning, sat outside and read, did some cleaning and that about covers my day!

Rail Trail

Friday September 11, 2009-Around the Park

September has been a beautiful month so far, no rain to speak of and sunny, bright days with a little breeze and no humidity. I'll take it!

When I first walked out the door this morning, I could smell a skunk. Oh, oh, better be careful. When I got out to the road, there was the skunk but he wasn't going to be any threat to me as a car had already gotten him and boy did he smell!

I went for an extra long walk along the Appleton Side Road. I walked further than I've ever gone before on this road.

After breakfast I went in to Carleton Place and got some groceries. We have some trim that has come loose so I also needed some finishing nails. I stopped at the local Bytown Lumber but they only had huge boxes of nails. I told him I only needed 12 so he reached into one of the boxes, took them out and gave them to me. No charge! You sure don't see that much any more.

After getting home and unpacking the groceries, I made my lunch and sat outside enjoying the day having lunch and reading. I walked around the park a bit and took some photos, talked with Dave, the campground owner for a while and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

Views from my lawnchair


Our site is along the campground road but we have a huge yard on the playing field

The beach

Fall is coming!

Cosmos

Office and rec hall

Roses


Other than a short trip in to Kanata (western Ottawa suburb) to pick up a new Mac Operating System for Gordon, we stayed at home all day.

To read Gordon's blog, click here.

September 10, 2009-Moved to Tranquil Acres-Home Base

It was another bright sunny morning for our packing up and leaving Lindsay and returning to our home base near Ottawa, Ontario.

Our trip was uneventful, just the way we like it. We left at 10 a.m., traveled through seven construction areas and arrived at Tranquil Acres just east of Carleton Place at 2 p.m. After schmoozing with Dave for about 45 minutes and picking our spot (we chose one that we've never had before) we got set up. We'll be here for a month attending to medical and dental appointments, seeing family and getting ready to head south for the winter.

This site runs along the side of the playing field. It's not used at this time of year so it gives us a huge yard.

Our site


View from our back window




I'm glad to be back but only for a little while. It's good to be back in our favourite campground in the Ottawa area again.

090909-Who's 61?

What an absolutely beautiful morning it was for my birthday, bright, sunny 16C (60F) with a light breeze! I had a nice walk and there were lots of blue jays out to greet me. So, here I am, another year older and hopefully, wiser.

After breakfast I sat outside and read for a bit and took some photos. We also put away all the outside stuff that we wouldn't need today in preparation for tomorrow's travel back to Ottawa. I took some more photos around the park.

Damselfly on a leaf and a close up of the damselfly



We left early this afternoon for the cottage. Betty was making dinner for my birthday. We thought maybe since it was such a nice day that we might go for a boat ride but when we got there we found out that Garth was sick so we didn't see much of him although he did get up to barbecue the steaks.

On the way to the cottage I took this photo of the changing leaves. Lots of trees are looking more and more like Fall here.



Betty, Gordon and I did go for a nice walk and took a few photos. We saw this beautiful Monarch butterfly.



It was a great meal and a nice way to spend our last night in Lindsay.

The two older sisters

My birthday butter tart!

My sister from Ottawa tracked me down at the cottage to wish me a Happy Birthday also.

Thanks to all the people who sent me birthday wishes via my blog comments, Facebook & email. I really appreciate it!