Deadlines and Day Trips and Visitors

Actually let's start with day trips. 


Mr. O and I have been sorting and purging in the basement. We have a big job coming up this Spring and to do it we need to empty our basement (hence the deadline). Emptying a basement of a house you have lived in for over 33 years is much easier to say than to do. Over the span of 33 years you tend to accumulate a lot of "STUFF". Surely I can't be the only one who "tucks this away down here" in case I need it again.
Gracious! I found more than one thing I forgot I had, and some things I didn't even know I had!
Some of the treasures I found were vintage postcards with the postage stamps still on them, some of which are 1907 one cent stamps...not worth much but charming reminders of a time when people communicated by letters and postcards, not telephone, texts and e-mails. While sorting through my patterns and bins of yarn I discovered a book (magazine style) that was given to my mother-in-law over 60 years ago when she would have been taking her new baby home from hospital. It apparently gave a new mom all the information she needed for looking after an infant. There was an info page inside that she had filled in with birth details, ex. Baby's name, weight and date of birth, name of hospital and attending doctor.
Well there were a great many other mementoes that I simply could not get rid of so I packed them up to deal with at a later date. However there were also a great many things I/we decided we just didn't need anymore. So we packed them in boxes and loaded them in my vehicle. Last week I brought in a load of things and delivered them to a local volunteer centre. This weekend we managed to fill my vehicle again and I thought I would donate them to the volunteer centre in Tabusintac this time...spread the wealth so to speak...ha ha ha. Today I was to make the delivery. It is about a 1 hour drive from here so I decided to make a day of it. After a short walk on the treadmill, a quick shower and a few other small jobs I was ready to set out.

This is one of the things I packed to take with me...know what it is? No? Okay well look again...I'll open it up...

I had packed a pic-nic lunch for the drive. A little dish of raisins and almonds for snacking, slices of apple and cantaloupe, and a ham and swiss sandwich. I stopped and bought a coffee from Tim's and voila! Lunch to go! Complete with cloth napkins, after dinner mints and entertainment! Did you notice the audio book I brought along? It is Julie Andrews memoirs. The sun was shining, the snow was melting, Julie was charming company and it was an absolutely delightful drive. 

I stopped at a little shop along the way to look for fabric for a bathroom makeover that I plan to have finished by the end of April (another deadline!) 

Spring was feeling rather close what with mud puddles, melting snow and bare roads.

I know this looks like mud and water, but to me it means the snow is melting and when the snow melts we can move back to the cottage. So I decided to swing by the cottage to check on things...

Bare roads into the cottage...good sign.

But...I 'm thinking that it may be a while before we can open up at Winterpast (my name for our summer place)

That snowdrift is still about 8 feet high!

From there I dropped off my cargo and continued on to visit with a friend and have a cup of tea and chat knitting and quilting. Before I knew it the day was spent and I had to get back to Bathurst. A quick stop at the local library and then the grocery store and then home. Mr. O and I took a 3km walk before supper and all in all a good day.

Now I have to show you a few pics of some of the visitors to our feeders. 

Pine Grosbeaks

Notice I didn't say bird feeders because apparently it is not just the birds who are feeding these days.

Raccoon!

You know what's so nice about deadlines? The way they sound as the go whooshing by!