Happy Anniversary Margie & John!

Gordon took this photo in England when we were there iin 2000 and then made art out of it. (This is the art.) We had a large print of this hanging above our sofa when we had the house. It's one of my favourites.

Happy 28th Anniversary to my sister, Margie and her husband, John!

It poured rain during the night last night and woke up to cloudy skies and humidity. The humidity got worse during the day but we did have some sunny breaks late in the afternoon.

We’ve been at Ottawa Municipal for 12 days and we had to go and dump the tanks today. By the time we disconnected, hooked up, dumped, returned to the site and got everything set up again, it took 2 hours but the good news is, we’ll probably only have to do it once more while we’re here.

The rest of the day was taken up with sitting outside and reading. While I was doing this, Gordon was working on his new website or photographs. We went for a walk in the campground and he took some photos of the wild flowers so he would have a 'photo of the day' for his pbase site.

I did talk to my older sister for a while today. She will be coming to Ottawa this weekend for a few days.

Not much else happening today!

Another Really Beautiful Day!

It was really beautiful this morning when I went out for my walk. The sun was shining and there was a breeze, my kind of day!

Gordon went to his friend, Leroy’s this morning to use his wifi to upload his files from his old website to his new one. It would have taken forever with our satellite internet.

I only have 1½ books left to read from the run to the library earlier this week so thought I would go to the library today and return the ones I had read and pick up some more as 1½ probably won’t last me through the weekend. I went to the library in Kanata this time. I’d never been there before in recent memory anyway. Before the city consolidated it wasn’t affiliated with the Nepean Library that I belonged to. Now all the libraries in Ottawa are part of the Ottawa Public Library. The Kanata Library is smaller and doesn’t have as many books but I managed to come home with quite a few.

After that I stopped at WalMart and Loblaws with a final stop at Food Basics on my way back to the RV.

When I got back I sat outside and read. It was quite warm this morning. I wasn’t getting much breeze sitting under the awning but that changed this afternoon. There was a beautiful breeze so I sat there for about 1 ½ hrs.

Today, my stepdaughter, Michelle sent us some new photos. The photo above shows Grace with a very proud look on her face holding her little brother, Luke and sister, Faith also obviously excited about the whole thing.

As the evening unfolds, it's becoming cloudy. I've heard we are supposed to get some rain tonight.

An Afternoon of Shopping

Today was a fairly quiet day. We had some sunshine, some cloud and a little bit of rain.

This morning we went to our financial advisor’s office to sign some papers. This afternoon I went out to Carlingwood and Hazeldean Malls to do some shopping. When I got back to the RV I sat outside with Bib for a while and finished another book.

Gordon now has email set up through his new website so anyone who right now emails me on smerrf@newsguy.com should change my email address to sandra@gordonwolford.com. Both email addresses will work for as long as we keep up with newsguy but just in case we don’t, please make the changes. My Yahoo email address remains the same – smerrikin@yahoo.ca.

As you can see from the photo above, we have little animals in the park that like to knock over the garbage cans. On my walks in the morning I usually see at least two that are on their side.

New Website

Last night after dinner we drove over to Andrew Hayden Park to take some photos. Our resident groundhog was out with one of his offspring. A man and his son came by and gave the groundhog some carrots and bread. They were so cute sitting there eating their carrots. Photo above.

There was also some sort of sports car event at the park although not very large. There was a Morgan, an MG, an XKE and an Austin Healey, also pictured above.

As of this morning, Gordon’s new website is being created at http://gordonwolford.com/. His other website will remain where it is on Newguy but won’t be updated from now on so change your bookmarks! I didn’t realize that it would be done that quickly!

This morning I was still tired so after walks and breakfast, I had a nap while watching TV. A big waste of a sunny day! Then I noticed that we had tracked in a lot of stuff so I vacuumed and wiped up the floors. I finally convinced Gordon to put the mat outside the door so we wouldn’t be tracking so much gravel and dirt in. We haven’t used it all winter and it needed to be dried out.

This afternoon I sat outside and read for a couple of hours. The sun came and went and it was a bit cool if the sun wasn’t out. The dog was driving me crazy today, when he was out he wanted to go in and when he was in he wanted to go out. I know he’s bored and what he really wants to do is hit the road!

Tonight was TV as usual!

A Visit to My Former Office

Today I got ready and headed out to visit the folks where I used to work at BreconRidge. It was great to see the people again. I didn’t see everyone I would have liked to see so that will have to happen another time. As it was, I was there for 3 ½ hours. Definitely some nostalgia. I’m not completely over the not working thing. I stopped at WalMart and Food Basics on my way home to pick up a few items.

When I came back, I signed us up for a week at Ottawa Municipal Campground in September as Gordon has some tests and a doctor’s appointment. This is a very convenient campground to the west end of the city even if it is more expensive than Rideau Heights and so more convenient to most of our medical practitioners. There is not as much traffic here as at Rideau Heights. I also like it as there are more places to walk and its prettier.

I sat outside and read a bit when I got home but that’s about it for my day. I took today’s photo when sitting outside as I had a comment at the office today about our site looking like it was remote. Here you can see we have a neighbour that arrived today.

Gordon used the time to process some photos taken during the winter and to research setting up his own domain again and setting up payment options so that he can sell his photos. He’s had a lot of requests but has only sold ones in Canada where people could direct deposit. He has also run out of space on newsguy for his webpage so it will be moving sometime in the next few weeks to his own domain. Will let you know the URL when it’s happening.

Another Trip to the Dentist

Cloudy again when I got up this morning. I had a dentist appointment to fix a tooth that had lost a filling so got that overwith. She didn’t give me any freezing and said it wouldn’t hurt and it didn’t. This dentist has really come through for me several times!

After that I wanted to go to Dollarama so thought the one in Kanata would be my best bet. NOT! The parking lot was nearly full and any spots available would not fit a 1 ton truck! So, I came home. I guess Carlingwood will have to be it for Dollarama until they get the one opened on Merivale Road.

Bib and I sat outside as it was starting to turn quite nice this afternoon. I read and Bib just looked around and sniffed. Then had a nap and did some surfing.

Photo today is the view from my lawnchair.

Slow Sunday

Another cloudy day but no rain since last night. It was really cold when we walked this morning though. Felt like winter with the wind. I actually slept till 8:00 a.m. today. The girls must have tired me out yesterday! Today was the only day until Wednesday that I could get the laundry done so got that together and was done by around noon. It’s more expensive here to do laundry than anywhere we’ve been - $2.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry.

After lunch I was really tired so lay down to read and fell asleep for a couple of hours. The sun came out late in the day. Sure is nice to see it.

Photo today is of Bib relaxing on the couch.

Visits - Emergency & Old Friends

More rain again last night until early this morning but again it wasn’t raining when I got up so we were able to get our walks without getting soaked.

By the way, here’s the link to photos of Nick’s graduation on Gordon’s pbase site:
http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/nicks_graduation.

Here’s the link to Danica’s band concert photos also on Gordon’s pbase site:
http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/danicas_band_concert

When I got up Gordon said that his lip was red and swollen and he had been told if that happened to go to Emergency so we got ready and went back to the General and got there for 8:30 a.m. Lucky for us we got there when we did as no one was there and it started to fill up after we checked in. He was given a prescription for antibiotics and we were out of there by 9:10 a.m. We stopped at Bayshore to fill the prescription and had a coffee while waiting for it to be filled.

We got home around 10:30 a.m. and I proceeded to get ready for my afternoon with the girls.

This afternoon I met my friends, Nancy and Sandy at Nancy’s place in Stittsville. We had a good chat and a few laughs and I got home about 6:30 p.m. Both Sandy and Nancy are still part of the workforce so we can only get together on the weekend. It’s interesting to hear them talk about their trials and tribulations at work and it’s always great to hear Sandy’s stories. She has a way of telling stories that’s a real hoot.

After dinner, I think both of us fell asleep watching TV so enough of that, time for bed!

Rain, Lots and Lots of Rain!

Danica, taken last night at her High School Band Concert

Yuk! I woke up to rain on the roof this morning but luckily when I got up to walk Bib it had stopped so I got Bib’s walk and my walk without getting wet however the ground is very muddy! It’s impossible to keep the RV clean!

This morning Gordon had his appointment at the Ottawa General Hospital to get the growth on the inside of his lip removed. I went along for moral support. It required one stitch and he has to go back on June 23^rd to have it looked at and stitches removed if they haven’t dissolved by then. He actually broke down this evening and took a Tylenol #3 so it must hurt!

After lunch, I went over to Bayshore to do some errands and then to Food Basics in Kanata to pick up some groceries. I came back, unloaded and put groceries away, read a bit, and did some internet surfing.

It’s been pouring rain since shortly after I got home this afternoon. I took Bib out for a walk around 8:00 p.m. and he got soaked!

Graduation, Dinner and Concert Band

Nick and Becky after Nick's graduation ceremonies

This morning was mostly cloudy but we did see a few hints of sun. We had to pick up our nephew, Nick and his fiancée, Becky at 12:30 p.m. so other than checking out some things on the internet and getting showered and prettied up, we didn’t do much. I did sit outside with Bib for a while and read while waiting for my hair to dry. It started to get almost cold when I was sitting out as there was a good strong breeze.

We picked Nick and Becky up at 12:30 for Nick's graduation from Algonquin College as a paramedic and headed for Scotiabank Place (formerly the Corel Centre) as Nick had to be there for 1:00 p.m. to get into his gown and get lined up. There sure were a lot of graduates today! The graduation ceremonies ended around 4:00 p.m. and we waited for Nick to come out so I got a photo of Nick and Becky. Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to get photos of Nick receiving his diploma. Maybe I can steal one from Gordon when he gets his processed.

We then headed home to feed and walk Bib and were to meet Nick, Becky, Nick’s parents and Becky’s parents at Swiss Chalet for 5:30 p.m. We didn’t arrive till about 5:45 p.m. due to traffic but Becky’s parents came in right behind us. It was nice to finally meet them. Nick and Becky have been together now for nearly two years. They actually started dating after high school graduation.

After dinner we headed with Nick’s parents, my sister, Margie and her husband, John to Merivale High School where their daughter, Danica was performing with the high school band. All the bands were very good but of course, the Senior Concert Band was the best. Danica even had some solo parts. She also played in the Jazz Band and the Intermediate Concert Band. I had the same problem with taking photos of Danica on stage with my camera!

It’s been a very long day!

By the way, blogspot is giving me difficulty with uploading a photo of Danica so I'll save that for another day.

Ah! Sitting Under a Tree

Another photo of our site at Ottawa Municipal Campground

Today was another bright, sunny day but all that is supposed to change. The forecast is for cloudy conditions this afternoon and rain for the next three days but the weather forecasters are rarely right so hope they’re not right this time too.

This campground is much more conducive to walking that Rideau Heights was so I had a nice long walk around this morning. Gordon had a doctor’s appointment this morning so we went out for that and while we were out had a coffee at Bayshore Shopping Centre.

This afternoon we were torn as to what to do. Gordon talked about going to Morris Island Conservation Area at Fitzroy Harbour but it was quite hot, too hot to take the dog and leave him in the truck and also I didn’t want to put on long pants and a long sleeved shirt to keep the mosquitoes away, so I decided to stay here and sit outside and read. So out I went with Bib, but he wouldn’t stop rooting in the grass so had to put him inside. Gordon also decided he wasn’t going to go either so that was the end of that.

I did sit outside for a lot of the afternoon and it was beautiful under the tree. Bib and I went for a walk and he got to sniff around, his favourite pastime. I also realized about that time that I had either lost a filling or part of a tooth so on the phone to the dentist and set up an appointment for Monday.

After dinner, I vacuumed out the truck and cleaned the windows and seats as we’re picking up my nephew, Nick and his fiancée, Becky for Nick’s graduation tomorrow afternoon. The truck badly needed it!

Moving Day

Our site at Ottawa Municipal Campground

Gordon setting up the internet satellite

Today again dawned bright and sunny and quite warm but we were just glad that the rain originally forecast for today is bothering someone else. We took our time packing up, we had to be out of Rideau Heights by 11:00 a.m. and I think we were pretty close to that by the time we left. After saying goodbye to Roger and Anne, our neighbours for this past month we headed west to the Ottawa Municipal Campground arriving at about 11:30 a.m.

The guy who had occupied our site had just left so we were able to drive in and set up right away. Check out time here is 1:00 p.m. I vacuumed which was badly needed and then we relaxed for a while.

I got my second wind and decided to go and exchange my books at the library and pick up some groceries. That done, I returned home and had a nice shower at the shower house. We have no sewer connection here so we’ll be using their shower house instead of our own. Then sat outside for a while and enjoyed the scenery and read my book.

Photos above are of our campsite.

A Trip to Morrisburg

House mover takes up both lanes of Hwy 31

Morrisburg dock on the St. Lawrence River

Path runs along St. Lawrence River at Morrisburg

Gordon White Sands Gallery slid to #3 today! He had an 8 day run as #1 so he's gotten more than his 15 minutes of fame!

Yeah! Sun! I woke up this morning to bright sun shining through the blinds in the bedroom. Seems like a long time but I guess it’s only been a couple of days.

I had planned to go out and do errands today but since most of my errands are in the west end and we’re moving to the Ottawa Municipal Campground on Corkstown Road tomorrow, I decided not to bother.

I’ve finished the 7 books that I got at the library just over two weeks ago, actually I finished 6, one I had already read so the library will definitely be one of my first stops after we’re set up tomorrow. From Wednesday on, we have a fairly busy week. Gordon has a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and then the hospital on Friday to have his lip surgery. Thursday is my nephew’s graduation from Algonquin, then out for dinner with he and his fiancée and his parents and then my niece is playing in a concert at her school on Thursday evening. On the weekend, I’m meeting up with friends, Nancy and Sandy for our get together. Next week is fairly low key. The only thing planned is a visit to my former employer on Tuesday to see all the folks. Past that, we’ll have to see!

Late this morning I asked Gordon if he wanted me to book a campsite at the Upper Canada Campground at Morrisburg. He has a pass for Upper Canada Village and he wants to do some photography there. He said we should go look at it so we jumped in the truck and headed to Morrisburg.

For those of you that don’t know, Morrisburg is my home area, not my home town as I lived all of my young years just west of Williamsburg but all my high school years were spent at Morrisburg High School. I also lived for a while after graduating high school in Morrisburg but that was another lifetime. So, the area is quite familiar to me even though I’ve been gone for some 35 or so years. My mother also lived there up until she passed away in 2002 so we were often in that area.

We first drove west of Morrisburg to Caravan Camp. It had been built years ago but I didn’t know if they accepted short term stays or not. We got there and it looks like a trailer park. The road in was so rutted and unkept that we just left and from there drove down to the Morrisburg dock as it’s quite pretty overlooking the St. Lawrence River. Then east where we stopped at a provincial campground at Riverside Heights. No one was in the booth but we drove around and it was very wet so on to Upper Canada Campground. I had emailed them last week and was told that they had a site for us with a clear view of the southern sky so we checked it out and it should work so we booked it for arrival on the 4th of July to stay for a week.

We returned to Morrisburg and drove down to the dock again and we able to pick up the Verizon signal so we could update our cell phones. When we’re in Canada most of the time we get only Extended Network so all of our calls go onto our 500 minutes during the week or 1000 evenings and weekends. When we’re in a Verizon area you can call another Verizon customer for free. So Gordon called his daughter to see how they all were and how the new baby is doing. Everything there was fine so we headed home arriving in Ottawa around 4:30 p.m.

On our way back all of a sudden vehicles were pulling off onto the shoulder of the road. No wonder! They were moving a house and it was taking up both lanes of Highway 31 – photo above. That’s the first time I’ve seen that in some years. You often see half of a modular home on a truck but that only takes up one travel lane. This was quite something!

Back to Mer Bleue

Mer Bleue Boardwalk

Evergreen tree with reddish blooms

Two turtles on a log

Marsh

Since we got some sunshine today, we decided to go back to Mer Bleue and walk the boardwalk. So shortly after lunch, away we went although there was some cloud in the sky. We took the dog as it was cooler today and decided we could leave him in the truck. I put the windshield protector up so the sun wouldn’t come in. He wasn’t happy about being left and started to howl. I said that when we came back the Humane Society would probably be there and take us away for leaving him in the truck however on we went!

The first part takes you through the marshes and eventually you wind up in the forested area. That’s where you get attacked – by mosquitoes! Needless to say when we reached that part, it didn’t take us long to get out of there. I had sprayed with Off before we left and they don’t usually bother me too much anyway but they really like Gordon’s blood! All in all, the one kilometer walk only took about half an hour complete with photography. Other than some red winged blackbirds, we saw a couple of little turtles, photo above but no other wildlife to speak of.

We did see some interesting evergreen trees with what looked like little buds on them. I don’t know if they are some sort of cone but some trees had reddish ones and others were more pinkish brown. A photo is above of the ones with the red buds. There were also lots of white birch and the smell of peat especially in the forested area.

On our way back, we stopped at Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up some Sprite which was on sale today only but they didn’t have any and Gordon didn’t want to try another store so we came home.

Not much else happening today!

More Rain!

Raindrops on my window

Today was a very lazy day. Having had back problems all week, I’ve resorted to taking ¼ muscle relaxant at night making me groggy in the morning so I read and slept till about 1:00 p.m.

Then while having lunch I turned on the TV to find “The Man With One Red Shoe” with Tom Hanks so we watched that while surfing the internet. Then we watched “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. Definitely a TV day!

I’m also reading the blog of a family with two kids who have a website called “Away We Go”. They bought a motorhome in July 2005 and are home schooling their two boys. Each state they go to they visit the capital for a history lesson. It’s an interesting blog complete with lots of photos. If anyone is interested, here’s the link: http://www.awaywego.us

I did my walk this morning despite the rain but was pretty wet when I got back!

Mer Bleue

Boardwalk at Mer Bleue

Mer Bleue

Gordon on the Mer Bleue pathway

Not much happening today. This afternoon we did take a drive to the Mer Bleue Conservation Area which is off Anderson Road in the southeast end of the city. We took Bib with us as he was itching for a change of scenery. When we got there, no dogs were allowed. Sure wish they had posted that on their website. I walked him around the parking area while Gordon went to take some photos. Then I put him in the truck and took a quick trip down to the boardwalk to see what I could see. I didn’t go far as I didn’t want to leave him in the truck although it was parked in the shade.

Mer Bleue is a major element of the Capital’s Greenbelt. It is first and foremost a huge acidic peat bog but it is also a series of marshes and sand ridges that provide a habitat for many aquatic birds, so the National Capital Commission out of concern for the survival of the fragile ecosystem has designated it as the Mer Bleue Conservation Area.

We didn’t stay long as it was cloudy and not a really nice day for photography.

Photos above were taken at the Mer Bleue Conservation Area. The boardwalk is one kilometer long. I would like to go back and check it out but will have to leave poor Bib at home!

Oh, and Gordon's White Sands Gallery is still #1 on pbase!

Visiting

Today was humid but not as hot so we didn’t use the air conditioner, just the fantastic fan and our two fans so it was quite pleasant in the RV.

I went out for groceries this morning and had to have my glasses adjusted so went to WalMart in Barrhaven. They have also opened a Food Basics there so got my groceries.

I was back home around 2:00 p.m. My afternoon then consisted of reading and napping.

Tonight we were invited to our former neighbour’s house, Bridget and Jim. We hadn’t seen them since we moved out of the house in 2004. They are getting ready to pack up and move back to British Columbia for the end of June. They’ve been in Ottawa for three years and don’t really like it here so when their landlord told them they had to find a new place as their son wanted to move into the house they decided now was the time to pack up and go back to the west coast.

Just as a note, Gordon is still #1!

That’s it for today. No photos again.

Last Day of May

Photo today is of a hand made thank you card that Gordon’s daughter, Michelle made for us. It’s a very pretty card. She showed us some that she had made when we were in Ohio and she’s doing a good job. She also does scrapbooking and this ties in with it. Don't know where she finds the time with three kids!

Today was another hot, humid day. I decided to get the laundry done anyway. The laundry room in the campground is located at one end of a concrete shed. It’s very small holding two washers and one very large gas dryer and a folding table. There’s little room to even sit in there so I sat outside in a lawn chair. It was quite pleasant as there was a breeze so it wasn’t too bad until you start unloading the dryer. That done, I actually set up some towels on the counter in the RV and did some ironing. I must be nuts! We do have the air conditioner on and it makes a lot of difference. It was 23C (73F) in the RV at about 5:30 p.m. and it was very cool. In the house that would have still felt warm.

This afternoon, after my ironing, I lay down on the couch to read and fell asleep for a while, then worked on the computer getting May expenses updated, then sat outside and read for a while till I started to hear thunder. Our thunderstorms here in Ontario are nothing like the one we had in Branson, MO. Thank goodness! That kept me awake most of the night. Usually I sleep through the thunder storms we have here.

May Expenses

Campground Fees - $528.40
Groceries - $400.22
Laundry - $83.55
Wine - $31.95
Entertainment - $0.00
Snacks - $7.83
Eating Out - $92.21
Fuel – Truck - $293.00
Propane - $36.91 (includes buying 3 bottles of propane for BBQ)
Dog Food/Vet etc - $212.00
Repairs RV/Truck - $0.00
Misc. - $443.67 – includes safety deposit box rental & 17” flat panel monitor
Insurance - $153.74
Internet - $114.99
Cell Phones - $112.06
Medical/Dental - $445.83 (over and above what extended health care pays)
Gifts - $30.00
Total - $2951.96

We did okay for the month of May but June and July will be a total washout with a birthday, a wedding etc. and also our campground for June is more expensive.

Another Hot Day!

Today was very hot and humid but there was a slight breeze so it wasn’t too bad.

I left around 10:30 a.m. to go to the periodontist. My appointment was for 2:30 p.m. but thought I would look around some before my appointment. I went to Bayshore and picked up a prescription and then to Carlingwood and looked around there before heading to Westgate which is right beside the periodontist’s office.

I actually had my teeth cleaned by the man himself as his hygienist is on disability. He suggested that while we’re away I should consider having my teeth cleaned as having it done twice a year instead of four times a year which I had been doing prior to our nomad lifestyle apparently isn’t cutting it.

On my way home, I stopped at my sister’s to pick up our mail and have a chat.

When I got home I found out that Gordon had lunch out with the guys. They came and picked him up and went to the Greek Souvlaki House at Baseline and Prince of Wales.

For the third day in a row, Gordon's White Sands Gallery is #1 on pbase!

That about covers today. Again, no photos.

Hot!

It was very hot today. Even when I went out to walk this morning, it was showing signs of being a hot one. So, I took advantage of it by sitting outside under the awning and reading my book. Late in the morning we went to Superior Propane to get our propane tanks filled. They wouldn’t fill the small one that we use with our BBQ as it had a broken weld on the collar and they wanted $90+ to replace it so we decided against replacing it. Instead we went to Canadian Tire and got some propane bottles. They are easier to carry around. We also stopped at the post office and the bank and then came home. Back out to my lawn chair.

We did turn on the air conditioner today before we went out and it did a pretty good job but at 30 amp service we’re just borderline on being able to run it and anything else at the same time.

We got our reservations at Tranquil Acres firmed up for a month beginning July 11th.

Gordon is still #1 on pbase. He’s very proud of that!

No photos for today.