Burrard Inlet

It is Halloween night. I am sitting in the front entry room (where my computer resides), so it is easy to write emails and a blog post while I am waiting on the little "trick or treaters". I am dressed as a bride corpse but I will tell the kids that I am the bride of Frankenstein if they ask. When I wore this costume to work, I did a pretty good  job with the makeup and fingernails. I don't like to scare the little kids that come to the house, so all I have done tonight is put on black lipstick and mascara. Previously I had put on a facial mask under white makeup so that my skin was constantly sloughing off during the day. I made sure the makeup was on all parts of my exposed skin. I painted my own short fingernails black with white crackle polish overtop so that my fingernails looked like they were rotting off. I wore black shadow around my eyes so that they looked sunken in my skull. I carried a dried up bouquet of roses that I spray painted black. The costume itself is white satin with white and black tulle with silver laces. And I am wearing my little ghost necklace that lights up and adds to the "cute" factor. I remember coming home from work years ago, still dressed as a witch. I was trying to get supper on the table and help the kids get costumed up and out the door. There was a knock at the door and I scrambled to get the candy out to give away. When I opened the door, I scared the poor child so badly, her mother couldn't console her. So I vowed from then on that I would tone down the scare factor.

We arrived in Vancouver on a Wednesday night and my grand daughter's convocation was on the Friday. It was such a joyous occasion. The ceremony was held out of doors and went very smoothly. The graduates  were piped in with all the pomp and ceremony that such an event can muster. I took lots of photos to remember the day but I took them with my cell phone. I have yet to figure out how to download them from my phone. We all went out to a restaurant for dinner afterwards. And when I say "we", I mean everyone except my poor daughter-in-law. While we were traveling by train, my DIL went to see a doctor when her jaw suddenly became quite swollen. They drew blood to check for infection and to check her for Mumps. Because her young daughter did not have her booster shot and because of my son's compromised immune system because of dialysis, and because my father is 92 years of age, the doctor suggested that she quarantine herself by staying at her mom's house. So my DIL had to miss the convocation and the Thanksgiving weekend on Vancouver Island, that she had been so looking forward to. After a week, the results came back negative. She didn't have Mumps after all. They are continuing to investigate, but suspect it is a compacted gland.

During my last weekend in Vancouver, we rented a motor boat for a few hours and toured Burrard Inlet. This is my husband's last resting place. It was a gorgeous day and the views were spectacular. No wonder Rick loved it here so much. The photos are thanks to my daughter-in-law.

Recap of the week

Since returning home a week ago, I have .....

Washed up 3 loads of laundry, hung it out to dry, folded and put away. I washed all the sheets, quilt and  comforter and put down a brand new mattress protector.

Cleaned my oven.

Cleaned the Master bathroom and the half bathroom downstairs.

Vacuumed both upstairs and downstairs.

Went shopping three times. Most of it was grocery items, but I also picked up some Christmas items.

Wrote inside the seven Halloween cards I made before I went away and got them into the mail. I made a card and sent a package to Germany. I made another "Congratulations on your engagement" card and mailed that out. I made 5 birthday cards to begin a gift package for a friend for Christmas.

I scrubbed my four Cricut cutting mats in preparation for a lot of paper crafting in the near future.

Watered all my indoor plants, including the ones I repotted and brought inside for the winter.

Cut the front and back lawns, hopefully for the last time this year.

Started wrapping and making a list of the Advent calendar items I have already purchased for my two grandchildren in Bradford.

Went for two blood work-ups in the Lab and I went to two  doctors' appointments, called in a prescription repeat and picked it up. FYI, my blood sugar is still going down and I have lost 20 pounds since starting my diet.

Gathered all the garbage from throughout the house, sorted the recycling, and fed the composter my kitchen scraps. I did not put the garbage out this past week because there wasn't enough to warrant paying $2.50 for the bag.

This week I have spent $350.00  Fifty dollars was towards putting gas in the van. The other $300 was for both groceries and sundries. I have not yet itemized how much of that was for food purchases. I will do that hopefully by month's end.

Part 2 of the Canadian Railway

 As soon as we left the Canadian Shield, the land became much flatter with meandering rivers, large agricultural fields of grain, flax and canola, and oil rigs.

 I can't believe I only took this one poor photo of grain elevators.

This is what greeted us as we awoke the following morning as we headed into Edmonton. Yes that is snow. This was also the day that everyone saw wildlife. Some people reported seeing moose in the morning, but I only saw deer and caribou throughout the day. I would love to have seen some moose or bears.

 I took these photos from the dining car as we entered the foothills of the Rockies around 5 PM. 

From the very beginning of the trip, we were behind schedule. We were supposed to leave Union Station at 10 PM Saturday, but we were 2 hours late getting started. We didn't leave until Sunday morning shortly after midnight. Although the engineers made up lost time during the nights, we were constantly being delayed for one reason or another. It should be expected when you are going anywhere by train; but, the biggest disappointment for me was the fact that most of the trip through the mountains took place after dark while we were sleeping. We should have arrived in Vancouver by 10 AM Wednesday morning; but in fact, we never arrived until suppertime. On this last day we were stuck here for hours overlooking  the Fraser river because of a broken train rail. A freight train was on the track at the time. They were unsure whether or not they could fix the rail under the train, or whether they had to move the freight train very slowly over the broken rail and send in a crew after to fix it. I still don't know how they handled the emergency, but I know there was a backup of trains waiting to go through, and we had to wait our turn. The staff were not prepared to feed all of us again, but the chef prepared a wonderful pasta dish  and ice-cream for dessert. He made me a big salad. The staff was incredible through all of this. Towards the end of the afternoon, they played some movies and poured some sparkling wine for anyone who wanted some. And like I mentioned before, there was always an abundance of muffins, croissants, fruit, cookies, and the like. No one ever had to go hungry.

 The Fraser River earlier in the morning.

Our vantage point of the Fraser, several hours later. No one was allowed off the train while we sat on the tracks, but we had lots to do. Finally, we were on our way into Vancouver. I loved this trip and I would take it again in a heartbeat. It is more expensive than flying, but the pace is much more relaxed. Like going on a cruise, you meet some wonderful people from all over the world. Can you imagine eating fancy meals with constantly changing panoramic views just outside your window? It doesn't get much better than that.

The Canadian Railway

I love the train..... always have.  When my husband and I lived in Thunder Bay in North Western Ontario, I would take opportunities to visit my family in Southern Ontario by boarding  the 7 PM train, travel all night in a sleeper car and arrive at Union Station in Toronto about 4 PM the following day. Traveling at night allowed me to sit in one of the dome cars and watch the Northern Lights.

This trip was no different, except that that I was traveling with my Dad and "Dee" and it took four nights. I didn't see the Northern Lights this time around but I wasn't looking either. I headed off to my berth early in the evening, read a bit, and turned in early every night. Morning always arrived early and I always slept well with the rocking motion of the train.

 We spent most of our waking time on three of the cars. There was this entertainment car where you could sit and play games or do puzzles, or read with a cup of tea or coffee or a drink from the bar. If you were hungry, you could help yourself to a piece of fruit or pastry which was always abundant. We spent a lot of time here playing cards and admiring the landscape. In the evenings, they showed movies here. There was an assortment of games, books and magazines to choose from.

There were also the dome cars or panoramic cars. There were 3 of them on this train. On the lower level of the car was another seating area that housed the bar. The third area we spent a lot of time was one of two dining cars. There were four options on the menu (one of them being vegetarian) and the chef was always accommodating. The meals were scrumptious and I did not have any problems sticking to my doctor's diet.

 All of my travel photos were taken from a moving train, and a lot of them unfortunately did not turn out. Of course they will be good enough for my scrapbook, but I chose just a few of them for this blog post. Everyone says that Ontario is just rocks, trees and lakes anyway. And here is the proof. But I love that kind of thing. We would watch through these windows for hours and hoped we would see some wildlife.

Here is an example of a burned out forest. The charred remains of the old forest still stand, with the new growth coming up to replace it.

We boarded the train in Toronto at midnight Sunday morning, traveled through  a lot of Ontario during the night and when we awoke, we were in Capreol just outside of Sudbury. It would take all of Sunday and then all through the night to get through the province. Tomorrow, we will leave the rocky Canadian Shield behind and enter the prairie provinces.

Tuesday at Home

I made a To-Do List yesterday and it took me two days to get everything accomplished from that list. So I guess I have discovered the secret. Write everything down that you hope to accomplish in the day, and then divide it by two. That way you will  feel pretty good about yourself when you get (half) the items accomplished.

I told you I had to butcher the meat I bought yesterday morning and repackage it for the freezer. Also, I had to prepare the cabbage, 2 heads of cauliflower and make dog treats. The meat was done yesterday, and I spent most of today in the kitchen cooking. I grated one of the cauliflowers to make cauliflower fried rice for tonight's dinner to go with the leftover chicken and veggies I made last night.

I also finished up writing sentiments and signed my name to the Halloween cards before taking them to the post office this afternoon. I made another card package up for my Grand daughter in Germany, but it will not be mailed until tomorrow. The lovely weather held off for another day so I cut the front lawn only moments ago.

When I first arrived back in town I made a short trip to Giant Tiger in Napanee to pick up just a few specials. The main reason I went was to pick up my Halloween candy which was the best price I could find this season. I didn't want to miss the deal before the sale was over.

The boxes of candy were only $8.97 each and the ghost necklace that I will wear with my costume on Halloween night was only $2. I also picked up a new fitted mattress cover for $10 and 6 pairs of black socks for $5.97

While there, I took advantage of some grocery specials. All of this, plus the mattress cover, socks and Halloween candy cost me $95.93  But it wasn't a final grocery shop. So I went back out yesterday morning to the Bulk Barn and Freshco.

I bought ground black pepper, cornmeal, oatmeal, quick oats, brown sugar and hickory smoked almonds for a total of $24.26  The oatmeal and cornmeal are to bake doggie treats. The brown sugar is for baking Christmas treats. I forgot to take my $3 off $10 coupon with me. Drat!

At Freshco, produce cost me $13.63 Four avocados are missing from this photo.

Meat cost $43.53 The Italian sausage and the chicken thighs were on sale for $1.75 a lb. I saved $55.76 off the costs of both the pork loin and the eye of round beef roasts. They were unadvertised sales.

Dairy cost me $8.16  I didn't need to buy more milk because I had placed all the milk from the fridge into the freezer before I left on my trip.

Tea and Stevia cost $9.48 I paid $5.99 for a bag of Splenda brown sugar which is not shown.

My total bill from Freshco came to $82.10 with a whopping $79.71 in savings. I also picked up a couple of items to use for stocking stuffers.

Daybook: Monday, October 23/17

Outside my window.....it is another nice day, mostly sunny with increasing cloud and wind gusts. Rain is coming into our area, but perhaps not until tomorrow. The front lawn needs cutting again, but I finished off all the back yard yesterday.

I am thinking.....about another trip I need to make this week. Within the last hour I learned that my step father has passed. I will be going to his funeral when I hear about the final arrangements. I am also thinking of all the catching up that needs to get done now that I am back. When I arrived back to the house on Friday afternoon, my feet hit the ground running and I have been going ever since.

I am thankful for.....my family. My son and his fiancee looked after picking up my mail and delivered packages. They watered my plants and cut the grass (otherwise, it would have been much, much worse than it was) My daughter looked after my dog for the whole three weeks so I could make this trip. My eldest son and his wife put up with me for two weeks and showed  me a wonderful time by taking me to a NHL hockey game,  the Vancouver Symphony, and sight-seeing tours including one from a boat around Burrard Inlet. I got to spend lots of time with my oldest grand daughter who graduated while I was out there, and my youngest grand daughter who had to stay home from school with the flu for a whole week. I read 3 books while I was there, which is more than I would read in 3 years. I am jazzed about that.

From the kitchen...... lots of chores await my attention. Saturday night and Sunday morning I cleaned my oven in anticipation of all the Christmas baking I will be preparing for soon. After doing a major grocery shop this morning after going for my Lab work, I have cabbage and cauliflower to prepare. I found a huge eye of round roast and a pork loin on sale that needs some butchering. I have packs of chicken thighs and Italian sausages that need to be frozen into smaller packages. I also need to bake the dog more doggie biscuits because the store-bought ones my daughter supplied, are running low.

I am wearing.....denim jeans, a black button down shirt with 3/4 sleeves, and new black socks I had to buy because I have worn holes in most of my other ones.

I am creating.....nothing yet. I need to write a message and sign the Halloween cards I made (fortunately) before I left. They need to get into the mail ASAP. Only then can I get busy on some craft projects.

I am going......to the post office later. I have already done all my running around this morning.

I am hoping.....my mother can get through these next few days. She will be lost without her partner. My sister and her husband had already moved up to Elliot Lake while I was away. They aren't even unpacked yet, but they drove down yesterday to be with my mom when our step-dad went into the hospital. They were preparing to move both of them up north to stay with them in a granny suite. That was to happen  a few months from now.  However, they may be wanting to take my mom  back  with them, even though they have not prepared a space for her yet.

I am hearing.....more sirens and blasting. I had really hoped that the blasting would be over with by the time I returned.

Around the house.....I want to do more vacuuming and dusting. I did all the vacuuming before I left, but with this being an older house and the blasting going on 3 or 4 times a day, the dust is incredible. I NEED to get some crafting done....cards and homemade gifts.

A few plans for the rest of the week....include two doctors' appointments, which I may have to reschedule again depending on the trip I need to make. I was also scheduled to serve the homeless this Sunday, but now that is up in the air.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

Just a teaser for what's to come.....taken from one of three dome cars on this train trip across Canada. This was a very long passenger train pulled by three engines. I was lucky enough to see lots of deer and caribou.