Carol Got Married!!!

Aha! Ken thought he told all the news. It's true! She called on Sunday to share the good news. She and Bob went to the valley on Saturday to visit Gordon Neish ( our minister friend) and lo and behold, it happened. They went over to see the church single and came back a couple. Gordon's two children stood for them. Carol feels she saved me from having to buy a new dress. They are extremely happy and relieved and displaying matching gold bands.

Almost Hallowe'en

We are stocking up for another big Hallowe'en -- and both trying to stay out of the candy boxes, at least until Wednesday night. We expect our usual 200 or so; due to an appointment, Kathy will leave Ken to finish up with the trick-or-treaters, and then make his way to the titanic hockey struggle between Saint Mary's and St.F.X. (Lindsay's brother plays for X, so we expect we will see her there).
We had Eva, Clayton and Gary over for supper Friday night -- now we are down to five pies! And then Clayton and Gary over for the baseball marathon on Saturday night. That, plus the games on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, has imposed a little sleep-deficit on old Kenny; will need to spend the week catching up. In case any of you missed it or have forgotten, the Joy of Sox! sweep by the boys; let winter begin.
Spent Sunday afternoon visiting an old friend, John St. Amand, who's in hospital in Kentville and nearing the end of a very good life. Among his many visitors were a number of friends and comrades, some of whom have left him pictures from the time we knew him best -- the mid-1970s, when Kathy and I had just met. Wonderful pictures of old friends with us in a very good time of our lives -- nostalgia and sadness for us.
Got a good e-mail message from Jessie this week. Mostly news about the family she is staying with, but she is enjoying her jobs. Nothing much (wisely, we think) about the political situation (a showdown between the local authority and the military over control of the local airport about ten days ago, so things are yeasty). Bet she's going to have some stories, and a ton of good photos too.
That's it for now...

More signs of fall

That we don't have any kids around (the signs are all around us, but we don't notice and lament them with the head-shaking frequency we suffered in September). This morning, we finished the Jumbo box of "Just Right" cereal. Once a staple of our weekly shopping, it took us almost two months to finish this box. Anticipating Kellogg's announcement that they are going to reorganize their distribution system due to the sudden switch in demand for their products to Ontario.
Fall days! Colder, of course (though we had another 20+ day on the weekend) rain or the threat of it and wind and falling leaves. Fall can only mean one thing: the Red Sox are back in the World Series! Late nights for this fan, for a week anyhow. Hope A-Rod's golf game is rounding into shape.
On Sunday we drove down to Mahone Bay with the Harts...that's right, a pair of aging couples out for our Sunday drive. Stopped by Plovers for the first time since "the incident" (Kathy wore a "sheep" tea cosy around the store, thinking that it was a goofly hat). Noticed that the cosy was on the top shelf, well out of the way. Asked how come, and the staff member told us that "a lady" had come into the store some time before and put the cosy on for a hat, and they wouldn't want that to happen again.
Kathy chuckles every time she goes down to the freezer now. As a result of Ken's "generosity" toward the Highland Park Grade 9 class and the Rawdon Anglican women's group, we are the proud owners of six frozen pies...better off, she says, living on Just Right.

Happy International Chocolate Week ...

...not at all why we are writing, of course.
Got a surprise call from Jessie in Santa Cruz last night -- just a few minutes and then the phone went dead. Jessie reports that she is well, working in the mornings at a vet's clinic and in the afternoons at a shelter for abused kids, many of them very young. Not much in the way of detail before the call was cut short; Jessie likes her work, she says, confesses to talking way too much English still -- all delivered with the breathless, words-spilling-out enthusiasm that we've all grown to love (or at least accept). And that was it.
Fall has arrived -- high of six degrees and rain today.

Walking, laughing, dancing and eating: our version of a balanced life

Kathy and Ken communed with nature a little less than the rest of you this weekend, apparently. We went for a walk to the beach in Hubbards on Saturday night, but hardly noticed the leaves or the sea, as all was pitch-black. With a crew crew nearing 20 – Merle and Ray, Vince and Claire, Micheline et Cliff, Steve and Jane, Jane Wright and her new fella, Barb and John Arthur, and a half-dozen odds and sods, we went to the lobster dinner and 50’s and 60’s dance at the Shore Club, for many of us the second time this summer. The beach walk covered most of the hour between the meal and the band’s set-up, so it was a nice long leisurely stroll. Lovely evening of talking and laughing and dancing (K&K danced more than 2/3 of the first set – many of them real poppers! Once home it took us three minutes at least to talk our sore and weary muscles and bones out of the car and up the stairs.)
Thanksgiving dinner at Steve and Jane’s on Sunday, with another squad of pals. The turkey, one of Joel and Linda’s (and we have another in our freezer) was succulent, trimmings piled high and wide and traditional nut-filled desserts.
Signs of fall at last. Crisp nights and even though sunny days are relentless, they’re usually cool enough for a sweater.
Congratulations to Matt; came out of nowhere to win the first week of the famous Finally hockey pool. One week down, eight months to go…Ken and Ben – who often have more important things on our minds – did marginally less well (and promise not to report the standings each week).

Between Saskatchewan and Manitoba

The Trans Canada Trail winds through the Shubenacadie Corridor, among the Gatineau hills, along one side of The University Of Waterloo Campus and across Duck Mountain Provincial Park between Manitoba and Saskatchewan. It's proximity to all we care about is fairly guaranteed. As this blog creates an electronic tie, that path may provide to many of us " walkers", another link, one from the natural world. As Megan and Matt hiked in the mid east, Bob and I treked the mid west. Who else was afoot?

Bob and I love a section of this trail . We regularly make the 15 minutes drive from his home town of Kamsack, to a parking lot by a wall of trees. The 9 km(return) path around Madge Lake was set in rough asphalt over 30 years ago and the extreme temperature shifts that happen year after year have now left patches of black along only small portions of the walk. Time after time, snow or heat... we reflect, relax and breathe deep as we thread through the pines and the elm and the birch.

Saturday, deciduous trees were bare - too many evening frosts. As we made our way, the path appeared to pop up through the press of leaf piles. The weather managed 5 above and promised rain. First a drizzle. That was okay. We had packed rain gear. Two roughed grouse jerkily tiptoed before us for awhile. Did they know it was Thanksgiving weekend? Then the sky opened and the folds in our rain gear acted as drain spouts as water leaked onto our slacks. Too wet, we turned around early ... the soaking making as laugh as we remembered our previous drenching this year at the infamous Lightening Bowl game between the Sask Roughriders and the Edmonton Eskimos.

Back in Sakatoon we have just enjoyed our Thanksgiving Salmon (sure to be a tradition) and are thankful that Amy bused in from Edmonton for two days.

Gatineau Park in October?

Mathieu and I went for a walk around Pink Lake in Gatineau Park on Friday. It was a beautiful day, with the temperature climbing to 29 degrees! The scene was a bit disconcerting: the colourful leaves were a clear sign of fall but hikers in shorts and t-shirts made it hard to believe that this is Thanksgiving weekend.