Happy Canada Day!

Here I am at Morris Island Conservation Area on the Causeway

This is the first time I’ve seen this campground full since we arrived here nearly a month ago. This morning when I walked there were five RVs lined up in the driveway. I guess they didn’t have room for them last night so let them park there overnight.

We had to dump the tanks again today so again had to pack up, go dump and put everything back together again, another two hours. We’re leaving Tuesday to go to Upper Canada Campground. Too bad it couldn’t have waited but our black tank has shown full on the gauge for the last two days.

I was sitting outside reading when Gordon came out and said he was trying to decide if he was going to the fireworks tonight or not. Then he thought he’d like to go and have a look at the Morris Island Conservation Area at Fitzroy Harbour. We left poor little Bib behind as I didn’t think he would be allowed at a Conservation Area but there was someone there walking their dog. It would be nice if they let you know on their websites if dogs are allowed or not. We walked a short way on the causeway and saw lots of dragonflies and wildflowers. It’s a very pretty area. While we were out in that part of the county, we drove through places I hadn’t been before like Galetta, MacDonald’s Corners, Kilmaurs and Dirleton. I had never heard of Dirleton or Kilmaurs. Mind you, as towns go there’s not much to them. MacDonald’s Corners is a pretty little place, kind of like a small Constance Bay. We drove to the ferry at Fitzroy as I hadn’t been there before but didn’t go on it. We arrived home about 4:45 p.m. to a hungry, happy little dog.

With the campground full it means lots of kids. Consequently Bib doesn’t want to go outside. He doesn’t like kids, bicycles and bouncing balls and there’s a lot of that going around this weekend.

Tonight we’ve decided to stay at home. We’ve been having sprinkles of rain on and off so home is the best place to be!

End of the Month

Today we didn’t do much. Gordon went to his friend, Leroy’s this morning for a while. Leroy is his supplier of Macintosh products.

This afternoon I went to Bayshore to refill prescriptions, get one of Gordon’s shoes repaired and do some other miscellaneous shopping. Other than that, it was a thoroughly boring day.

Here are our expenses for the month of June:

Campground Fees - $665.26
Groceries - $333.68
Laundry - $28.00
Wine/Spirits - $10.95
Entertainment - $31.01
Snacks - $11.72
Eating Out - $96.75
Fuel for truck - $265.45
Propane - $0.00
Dog Food/Vet etc - $0.00
Repairs RV/Truck - $0.00
Misc - $674.08
Insurance - $323.59
Internet - $195.24
Phone - $110.94
Medical/Dental - $74.67
Gifts - $180.00
Total for month - $3001.34

We ate out more this month because we had company from Ohio. Also for internet there is a yearly fee to be paid of $75.00. We paid our Emergency Road Service for the year this month so our insurance costs are higher than usual. We also had some gifts to buy for various occasions. Our misc. expenses are also higher as I bought a few items of clothing and Gordon upgraded the memory in his computer, our gold card fee comes due in June and we also paid for our internet domain for two years. So, we went over our $3000.00 per month by $1.34. Not bad!

Since I didn’t take any photos today, I borrowed one from Gordon. Can anyone guess what it is?

A Slow Thursday

Today we had an appointment with our financial advisor to sign some more papers and to go over some things. After that we stopped and picked up a few groceries, filled up with fuel, stopped at Bulk Barn so Gordon could stock up on candy, stopped at Henry’s to look at camera bags and then at WalMart where Gordon got a camera bag for about 1/10 of what they cost at Henry’s.

The weather today has been cloudy, humid, rainy with thunderstorms, sunny – the full gamit!

When we got back after lunch, I lay down on the couch, read and had a brief nap, then did some surfing. I have three books to read over the weekend as I'll have to return them to the library on Monday since we'll be leaving town.

Not much happening here today!

Today's photo is of the wildflowers in the park.

Happy Graduation Day, Danica!

Danica with her parents, Margie (my sister) & John
There's something about a cap and gown that makes you look so grown up!

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
That flat, funny hat,
Looks awesome on you!

Another very humid day. We did have some sun this afternoon though! The power had been off and on three times this morning before I got up. We can tell when it goes down as our power surge protector for the computers beeps and drives the dog crazy.

We had to meet my sisters and my sister’s husband at Lansdowne Park for 12:30 p.m. for our niece’s high school graduation from Merivale High School. The actual commencement started about 1:10 p.m. and ended around 4:15 p.m. There were a lot of graduates!

Danica graduated with a Fine Arts Music Certificate, French Immersion Certificate, highest mark in Merivale High School for the National Biology Competition, Ontario Scholar and OCDSB Silver Medal Award for 90% or over average, the Academic Achievement Award for highest mark for band, music and exercise science (anatomy and physiology) and the Faculty Award for Music. Wow! We are all extremely proud of her.

We left Lansdowne Park and came home to feed Bib and let him out and then back to the DeJong’s for a celebratory dinner.

Nicholas wasn’t working so he was there for dinner too. It seems that Nick is either working or sleeping and we don’t see him that often but have been lucky enough to be able to spend some time with him over the past few days. Only 30 days left till his big day!

Hot, Humid & Rainy!

Today has been a hot, humid, very rainy day! I had been invited by my sister, Betty to go for lunch with her friend, Linda and herself but I declined as I needed to get some things done around the house. So this morning I got the laundry done, had a nap and did some reading and then this afternoon, I got the dress that I purchased yesterday for the wedding altered, bought my waterproof mascara also for the wedding, I have a feeling I’ll need it and then got some groceries.

It wasn’t raining when I went into the grocery store but when I came out it was pouring and didn’t show signs of stopping any time soon. A bunch of us waited outside for a while to see if it would let up but when it didn’t, I put up my umbrella, luckily I had taken it into the store with me, picked up the groceries and made a run for it. Water in the parking lot was about 3 inches deep so even with the umbrella by the time I got the groceries in the truck and myself in, I was wet from head to foot. It was still raining when I got to the RV so I only brought in the things that needed to be refrigerated and left the other things until the rain let up a bit.

Pictured above are my new, updated personal cards that we waiting for me on the table when I got home last night.

Happy Prom Night, Danica!

L to R - Larisa, Danica and Wendy

This morning I spent reading both inside and out and getting ready to go dress shopping this afternoon. Gordon dropped me at my sister, Margie’s for 12:30 p.m. My older sister, Betty was the chauffeur. Also this evening was Danica’s prom so we had to get her ready for that.

We went to Carlingwood Shopping Centre and after trying on about 20 dresses at Sears, it came down to two. I couldn’t decide which I wanted so bought them both although I’m pretty sure I know which one I’ll wear to the wedding. It was great to have feedback and I had lots of it with three females giving their opinions. At the last minute Danica decided to go with us. Margie also bought a power suit. It would be nice to be a size 2. She got it at an excellent price!

We got back to the house around 3:30 p.m., had something to eat and then Betty and Margie did Danica’s makeup. She had refused to have any at first (she never wears makeup) but she finally agreed. She looked absolutely beautiful! Betty had also bought her a corsage and the sweetheart roses really matched well with the dress. It is of note that the dress she wore was my matron of honour’s dress for her mother and father’s wedding 28 years ago. It looked great on her, a perfect colour for her complexion.

Danica, her parents, Betty and I all went down to the Westin Hotel where their graduation dinner was being held. The parents and whoever else wanted to attend were invited to come between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. to take photos. The kids all looked so great. It’s fun to see them all dressed up.

The three girls in the photo above - Danica, Larisa and Wendy have all been together since grade one. They are now going their separate ways – Danica to University of Ottawa, Larisa to Queens and Wendy to McMaster.

We left the Westin around 7:00 p.m. and returned to my sister’s house where we chatted for a bit and then Betty drove me back to the RV.

Gordon wasn’t able to go to the photo shoot for the grads tonight as he had been invited to speak on his ‘travel photography’ at the local Mac group meeting at the Sportsplex.

Happy 21st Birthday, Nick!

Mel and Janice left this morning about 8:30 a.m. to head to the Lake George, NY area.

Later this morning I called my sister’s place to see what they were up to. I had forgotten to pick up my mail when I was there yesterday and there was a letter from the medical insurance people about my claim from when I was in the hospital in the U.S. I asked her to open the letter to see what it said but it didn’t make much sense to her so I told her I’d stop by today to pick up the mail.

I also wanted to get something so that it would be easier to hook up our hose for flushing our black water tank. Trying to hook up a hose at some of the dump sites is an exercise in futility. You often wind up with skinned knuckles from the handle of the tap being so close to the tap as is the case here at Ottawa Municipal. I went to the Canadian Tire in Bells Corners and as I drove into the parking lot I saw an SUV with a Jay Feather trailer attached. Hmmm, Mel and Janice’s rig looks just like that one. So I got out of the truck and went to look and it did have Ohio plates so I went in to the Service Department and there they were. The had a flat tire just as they were getting onto the Hwy 417 ramp at Moodie Drive so not far from the campground. Their Good Sam Emergency Road Service had come and changed the tire and then showed them the way to Canadian Tire to see if their tire could be repaired. There Service tech said it could be repaired so I waited with them and saw them off on their way to Lake George again.

I didn’t get anything for our tap problem thinking that our two way faucet attachment might work.

Continued on to my sister’s, checked out the letter and it didn’t make much sense to me either but they did enclose a cheque for me to pay for the prescription I got. I called them but had to leave a message for them to call me back tomorrow. I stayed and chatted for a while and we were invited to come back for dinner. So, I left and went to a couple of stores on Merivale Road looking for a dress for my nephew’s wedding on July 28th but didn’t find anything so came home.

Today is my nephew and godson’s 21st birthday so dinner at his parent’s house was in honour of Nick’s birthday. Photo above is of Nick with the candle in his ice cream. He didn’t want a cake. It was a nice family get together as my sister, Betty from Toronto was down and Becky, Nick's fiancee was there as well. We were only missing Betty's husband, Garth.

Surprise Wedding Shower and More Sightseeing

Becky models her hat made of the bows from her gifts

Becky arrives at the shower. Was it a surprise?

This morning I spent reading outside and getting ready to go to a wedding shower. I haven’t said anything about the shower in my blog other than alluding to it over the last few days as it was a surprise shower for my nephew, Nick’s fiancée, Becky. It was held at her sister’s place, who is her matron of honour. We had a beautiful day for it and it was held outside in her sister’s back yard. Becky and Nick got tons of presents. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much stuff at a shower. They are well set for their kitchen and bathroom.

I got home around 5:30 p.m. and Mel and Janice, Gordon and I went to Swiss Chalet in Kanata for dinner and then we took them on a tour of the Gatineau Parkway and points between the campground and Old Chelsea.

It’s been a long day!

Photos above were taken at the shower.

Hospital and Sequence

A little humour (considering you can't get anywhere in Ottawa these days without being tied up with construction)

Today was sunny but seemed quite cool in the shade.

This morning was spent reading and this afternoon Gordon had to go back to the Ottawa General Hospital so the doctor could check his lip. It has healed and all is okay there. Bib and I went with him and as there wasn’t any parking on Lynda Lane across from the hospital, we dropped Gordon at the hospital and then I went in search of a place to wait. I ended up spending part of the time at the high school on Dauphin Street near the hospital, some time parked on a nearby street and then at Rotel on the hospital grounds. It took about 50 minutes by the time we arrived to the time I picked him up.

We headed home arriving around 3:15 p.m.

After dinner, Mel and Janice came over with their game of ‘Sequence’. Janice and I won over Mel and Gordon three games to one!

Museum of Civilization

View of Parliament Buildings from Museum of Civilization

Totem Pole Exhibit at Museum of Civilization

This morning after walks, I vacuumed the RV and then sat outside and read. Around noon, Janice came over and helped me to wrap a gift for an event that’s upcoming. Then while Gordon and Mel went to get Gordon’s computer memory upgraded, Janice and I sat and talked for a while.

After lunch I read while sitting outside again, then got ready for our trip to the Museum of Civilization. It’s free after 4 p.m. on Thursday nights. Unfortunately they still get you big time for parking. It was interesting but I’m not really into history. The Imax show on Greece was good and Janice enjoyed the History of Nursing as she is a retired nurse.

After the museum we went to Feleena’s for dinner. Yum Yum!

Another Nice Day!

Today was bright and sunny but cooler, no humidity.

I went to Barrhaven to finish up some shopping that I had started and pick up some groceries. I’m trying not to buy so much at once so I have to go to the grocery store more often. My cupboard shelves are starting to bow from too much weight!

This afternoon I spent getting some gifts I had purchased together and wrapped for some events going on over the next week or so. Other than that I sat outside and read as it was a really beautiful afternoon.

At 4:00 p.m. our guests returned from their sightseeing trip downtown and we headed out to the barbecue that was held by our financial group, Canada Retirement Centre held at the Hellenic Centre. It was excellent, lots of food and even Chateau Neuf du Pape! Gordon was impressed with the wine. They had Gail Gavin as entertainer. We left there around 6:00 p.m. and drove to Dollarama in Kanata as I had a few things to pick up to complete my gift wrapping.

Then back to the RV where I sat outside and read again for a while. Early to bed tonight, we’re all tired!

Today's photo is of Michelle's family without Michelle who has obviously taken the photo. In order - Grace, Faith and Eric holding Luke.

Sightseeing

Janice and Mel taken at the Museum of Science and Technology in front of a train engine. Look at the size of the wheels!

Photo taken by Gordon - This is of me at the Museum of Science and Technology in a 1931 Austin American

We had a lot of rain during the night and a few showers this morning but we got ready to take Mel and Janice to the Museum of Science and Technology and arrived there around 9:30 a.m. We were there for a couple of hours and saw pretty much all there was to see. From there we headed to Summerhays at Woodroffe and Baseline for lunch and then went back to the RV to pick up the dog.

From there we took them downtown on the Ottawa River Parkway, through the Market area, down Sussex and the Rockliffe Parkway, into Rockliffe to show them Michael Cowpland’s house, then back to the King Edward Bridge and across to Quebec to show them where the Museum of Science and Technology is located, then back to Ottawa on the Alexandra Bridge and down Elgin to the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, showed them the Arboretum, the Ornamental Gardens and the Experimental Farm. Then off to Hogs Back and Rideau Heights Campground and from there back home.

Then Janice and I went to Carlingwood for a couple of hours and did some looking around and actually bought a couple of items.

The weather cleared up this afternoon and was very nice although a bit cool but thank goodness the humidity is gone!

Just Hangin' Around

Granddaughter, Faith holding grandson, Luke

Granddaughter, Grace holding grandson, Luke

Tonight's rainbow

Very cloudy this morning and humid. It eventually started to rain and cool off.

We hung around the RV today with Mel and Janice and Janice and I got some laundry done. Gordon and Mel did computer stuff. Mel was using our wifi. Late in the afternoon, Janice and I took off to do some grocery shopping. I took her to see our former house and we hit a few stores as well. We got back just as a thunderstorm started with lots of rain. The power went off a couple of times and we had a really nice rainbow, photo above.

Above also are more photos of the grandchildren sent by stepdaughter, Michelle.

Hot, Humid & Windy

Pretty purple groundcover that I found here in the park

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there reading my blog!

Today we hung around the RV. When I walked this morning I saw someone else with a DirecWay Dish. Turns out this guy is from New Jersey and will be here for a couple of weeks. So now we know there are other spots here that we can park in and still reach the satellite.

It was quite hot and humid today, more like Ohio weather than Ottawa. If it wasn’t for the wind it would be pretty much unbearable.

Our friends, Mel and Janice from Ohio arrived around 6:15 p.m. They had booked the site beside us but decided they would rather be surrounded by trees so moved to a site about four sites down from us. They had a long drive from Niagara Falls today.

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.