Yesterday, Dave and I were on a road trip… headed down to Long Point.

Long time readers will recall that Dave’s uncle has a cottage there, and for many years, Dave and I would often spend `New Years down there. This year, his uncle was having a Christmas party at the legion in Port Rowan, the town just north of the point.

But before we headed to the party, I drove Dave and down to the beach.

Both of us have grown up on and around the shores of three of the Great Lakes (Erie, Ontario and Huron) – and we both miss them a little, living where we are now.

It may seem odd, but my favourite time to be at the beach is in winter. Mostly because it’s completely devoid of people.

There’s a beauty to the desolation that I just love.

The water was fairly calm (for Lake Erie, which can change moods in a heart beat), and there were some beautiful patterns in the sand left by a previous storm.

And when you turn from the water, the sand banks with their towering trees are just as beautiful. There were some very large pieces of drift wood I wanted to bring home for the garden, but they were too heavy. (Ok – they were basically still trees, but so soft and smooth!).

But I did find some other beach treasures…

A couple good-sized freshwater oyster shells, and a pretty rock. Because you can never have too many pretty rocks

I’ve been buying plants again….

After my birthday dinner, we stopped into Home Depot since we were in the area. While Dave was poking around the lightbulb aisle, I snuck over to the house plants.

And I snapped up this pretty pink Anthurium. I don’t feel at all guilty about it because it’s to replace my previous pink Anthurium which died this summer. My white and red ones are doing well, but the pink one just wasn’t as robust I guess.

And then…. over by the Christmas cactus…

I found a Hellebore!!!! You may recall, Hellebores are early spring woodland plants. They were selling these in pots as “Christmas Belles” or “Christmas Roses”. And it was 1/3 of the price that I’ve seen Hellebores at.

You can bet this one is getting planted out in the Woodland garden as soon as it’s warm enough to work the soil come Spring!

And last (which I got a couple of weeks ago) I got an Amaryllis.

I got it planted late, so it won’t bloom in time for Christmas. You can see the new shoot is just starting to poke up. But that’s okay – it’s something to look forward to in the new year.

How much is that Lemmy in the window?
The one with the gingery tail
How much is that Lemmy in the window?
I do hope that Lemmy’s for sale….*

*Not for sale a the moment, but he will be free to a good home soon if he doesn’t stop looking for trouble every second of every day….

Last Saturday, Dave and I were headed out to a Performance shop in a town called Blenheim, about an hour south of us. I knew our path would take us by something I’ve wanted to share with you all for a while, so I made sure I brought my camera and long lens around.

You can see it from the main road, but I pulled off on a little side dirt road to park out of the way.

And when you turn from the road, you see…

That, way up in that ENORMOUS tree, is a bald eagle’s nest. Dave pointed it out to me in the spring. While it’s still visible when the leaves are on the tree, it REALLY stands out now when the branches are bare.

And my friend, the pictures don’t do it justice, because it is just massive…

It’s just breath taking. But even more exciting, as we were driving up, Dave noted something else in the tree. Two somethings to be exact.

Do you see them to the right? Here’s a closer look.

How lucky to get the pair “at home”. I certainly wasn’t expecting that when I put the camera in the truck.

The tree overlooks the Sydenham river, and these two were on a branch directly overhanging the water. Perhaps watching for a bit of breakfast to swim by?

Aren’t they just beautiful??? I understand why the United States has adopted them as its symbol. They really are majestic.

The female should be bigger, but these guys look pretty close in size so I can’t tell.

My long lens was just barely strong enough to get somewhat decent pics. I’m going to look into getting something a little stronger… because apparently come summer, you can sometimes catch the babies fledging!!!

As soon as my brother’s socks were off the needles, I cast a pair on for his wife.

I have a gift card for my sister-in-law already, but I’d like to tuck a pair of socks in with it if I can. I have until the 22nd to finish this pair. They are just anklets, so I should be able to do it. But of course, I’ve got to finish all that binding first….

The biggest accomplishment of the weekend was sandwiching, quilting, and binding the Christmas placemats. Well – the binding is on – I still have to sew it all down. That’s going to be my task for the next few evenings.

Except for this evening – it’s my birthday (44th) and Dave is taking me out for a late dinner. Binding can start tomorrow. Besides, Burton isn’t ready to give up his comfy spot yet.

Under Lemmy’s close supervision….

I finished the socks for my brother’s birthday – which is Wednesday. I won’t see him until the 23rd, so I finished them with plenty of time to spare.

The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in “Gone Fishin”. Plain vanilla men’s socks using a cast on of 72 stitches and basic sock math. Nothing fancy, but it doesn’t need it because those fun stripes do all the work.

Now these are tucked aside, ready for wrapping – and I’ve got other things to work on. But more on that later.

Our thrfting adventures have continued – mostly popping in places when we happen to run across them instead of seeking them out on purpose.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve added a couple large conch shells to my collection.

I got my first couple when we were cleaning out Grandma’s house. And I grab them when we see them at thrift stores if they are in good shape, and a good price (sometimes they can be quite pricey.) I put them in the garden in the summer – they are a nice little surprise in between the plants – and they provide a nice cool place for critters to rest on the hot days.

Also for the garden, we found this beautiful birdbath. It’s not very tall – maybe just over two feet, so I’m going to have to find/make some sort of pedestal to put it on

But I just loved those little fish wrapped around the column. This one may go in the front garden, as I already have two birdbaths out back.

I got this gorgeous sewing stand for an absolute steal!

I have to move some things around in the living room, but it’s going to be a great place to store my knitting projects and keep them safe from a certain ginger feline.

Another steal was this little teapot

My Spice of Life Corningware, of course! My Mom said her grandma made her tea in the Cornflower Blue version every day!

And I wasn’t planning on getting any canisters, since I got my mushroom ones already but…

It’s not Corning Ware and its not Spice of Life – but it’s similar. It’s Jeanette Glasbake and they were made about the same time as my Spice of Life pieces (1970-79). They obviously work so well with my other pieces I would have been a fool to leave them behind!

And Dave hasn’t been neglected in our thrifting adventures…

We both fell in love with this canvas print of an old Canadian Navy recruitment poster.

And he loves old tins

Especially if they have ships on them.

And last, but certainly not least. Dave has been bugging me for weeks about what I want for my birthday (which is Tuesday). And the truth is ….nothing. There’s really nothing I seriously want, or need. That is until we came across this…

He saw my face light up as soon and I saw it, and that was that. It’s in need of a very good cleaning, but it seems to work. Quick research has told me it’s an Underwood Type 6, made in 1938.

They were made in Canada, most likely in Toronto. I am over the moon – it’s so pretty and is going to be even nicer when it’s cleaned up!

I am well on my way to finishing my brother’s socks this weekend. In fact, I’m on the toe. So I’ll be grafting soon.. that is…

…as long as a certain pair of prying paws stops trying to pull out my needles and drop my stitches…

“What??? Me??? I’m not touching you knitting… I’m just…. looking… at it… yeah… that’s it… looking…”

I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the wonderful things about getting the new windows was getting rid of the ugly awnings over the windows. There’s so much more light in the rooms and it just looks so much better on the outside.

There is one downside in my office though. Once the leaves are off the trees, and the winter sun is lower in the sky – I get the sun right in my eyes all afternoon while I’m trying to work. So… I decided to rearrange the office. As a result, the cat tree got moved to the window.

To say that the move was a big hit with the boys is an understatement. Of course, settling in has not been without it’s difficulties…

But eventually… they got it all figured out.