Ahhh, Dear November.  You are a trying month. All this no more summer and the bits of winter you throw at us just as a challenge.  We Canadians need to drop our joyful summer ways and get down to acting like winter Canadians.  But why this weekend???   There is too much to do this weekend!   So much infact I couldn't sleep trying to figure how to fit it all in.  Daughter is moving and that takes some doing as she is 2 hours away.   We need to figure out some food to take so the poor moving bunch doesn't starve like last time.  There is tons here that I am trying hard to ignore but can't as it has to be done this weekend.  All I can say is argggggghhh.  Then for the end of this November we are covered in ice.  I watched last night as it came down and even though there is only the street lights as the sun is no where in sight yet this morning,  it is beautiful.  Everything is weighted down with ice,  the branches and the wires, all glistening in the street light.  The air is misty and soft looking as the moisture is still settling.  We having to be out early and back for the kiddies stopping through on their trip and there are tons of places we are to be today.  I think I'll sit on my bum and scoot there.  Then crawl up cause it would be easier than slipping and sliding away.  The layers of ice built over the night and the iron table outside is in a beautiful lace table cloth!  The ice has dripped and draped it's self over the edges of everything with a variety of icesicles large and small.  They look like a delicate edging.  Lace ice!  The air is mixed with rain and snow flakes right now so it will be interesting to see who wins!  The rain will clear the ice but there will be black ice for sure, the snow will make it slippier!  Black ice happens when moisture hits the frozen ground.  I have spun out on black ice before!!  It was scary but exilerating...only because i didn't hit anything!  It happens so fast that you are one minute driving the next on some crazy thrill ride!  Gets the blood pumping and is one of the main reasons for pile ups and accidents here in winter.  Well off i go as I hear the traffic report.... yup,crazy crashes,hope they clear soon.  Whhaaaa,want to stay home..safe and sound!  Oh where,oh where is brave Marg???  LOL,   looking for her ice skates!!!

Haaaa,haaa!!   Can you stand me in a reflective mood??  Nah...didn't think so!!!   I saw Sean!   I had a wonderful play on the floor after the young lad was fed!   Boy he loves his food.   Got snuggles!   Wooo Hee!   Made my day, year, life!!!   Don't mean to over react but I'm going to!   He came back and back putting his little face against mine and I almost cried,  in heaven!   When a child embraces you it is so pure and the love flows from heart to heart and mine just got so full.  If you don't have anything this is the most precious, then you have everything that matters.  Oooppsss slipping into reflective there!  Got to watch it!  LOL!!  Have worked and worked and the house work part is the usual...kill yourself doing it up right,turn around and who really cares???  Darn place looks the same!!!  What is up with that?  I blame the dog.  He is responsible for all the fur!  He is responsible for the marks on the wall where he rubs up against it.  He is the cause of the mud on the floor and down the wall!  Heavens and it is always after I just cleaned it.  Darn dog!    How on earth did I keep the house spotless with five little kiddies, work,  and all the dogs and critters???  I was crazy,  driven and should have eased up a bit.  The work will always be there...forever waiting for you but the moments won't be!  Darn...that feels reflective to me.  Gotta stop!  My thoughts today are for Janice,she needs vibes for her appointment.  I feel safe cause she blogged about it...and  "other" things...that shall go unmentioned!!!!   Sending you the best vibes my Dear Nature Buddy!!   I have been reading blogs here and there and best vibes and wishes to others that have so much to cope with.  Got to go get something done and I am still struggling with the stupid falling apart body.  Oh well, makes it all the more interesting and challenging!  I need a nap...hummm or a rum and coke...darn too,much too early in the day!  LOL!!!  Have a great day Ladies,the best is yet to come for each day is as full as you want it to be...haaaa,haaa reflective!!! 

Our first "staying" snow!!!  Weeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

If you keep hearing it does it make it true???  I am starting to wonder!  A strange guy came up to me today and said..."Hello happy Lady!   I smiled and said "Hello" back and he smiled.  Smiles are great things until you start to question it!  LOL!  I have heard several times that I am happy and that I am enjoying this and that and that I am a big kid.  Well yes,much larger than I use to be.  Should I start acting grown up?  What is that any way?  I have found the delight of being Grandma is that I can now play with toys...for a reason!  LOL!!  There are great toys out there!  Wildly imaginative toys!  And ones that are lit and make sounds and just so many creative toys!  I love toys!  I still love the cuddly teddies and wonderful dolls.  And kiddies books!  Oh to behold the selection of books!!  They are delightful from soft covered stuffed books to ones with whimsical pictures!  Kiddies have everything today!  I can see where it would be so easy to over do it!!! 

I think our lives are so fast and so stressful that to take delight means we can for a moment shed the stuff.  The stuff that makes us have to be grown up and just relax and enjoy!  I have had interesting conversations in the last week with a gentleman over the topic of teacups, an elderly lady while we talked about cook books and an interesting man that collected records.  Life is all risks and by risking talking to people you do risk being rebutted or ignored but then you also risk learning something and connected if only for a short time.  I love when a conversation is interesting and I delight in laughing with a stranger and making a day seem brighter.  There are a few miserable people out there,true!  The ones that think only they have suffered or that the world is cold and hard.  But mostly there are engaging and lovely stories and people and shared humanity that makes the world seem smaller and somewhat warmer.   I guess I enjoy people.  I love to watch people and see what's up!  I am forever curious!  O.K. ... maybe nosey!  So as I regress into a well earned second childhood I will enjoy myself.  Cause I don't think I've tried all the neat toys yet!

Hummmm,on and on it goes.  I am for positive thought.  I have used it in my own life,battles and wins over some heavy stuff.  Stuff happens in life...oh yes it does!!   Stuff that can flatten you,take the wind out of your sails and cause such unhappiness.  If you do not know how to react or handle things you yourself can cause a downward spiral.  Learning how to react or cope is the biggest thing we face.  Really!  If you react without thinking or spouting some things you risk depleteing your own power.  How many times have I myself thought that???  Many!!  If I had only stopped to think.  Well we learn.   We learn to look at things from all sides.  We learn empathy for others and understand where they are coming from.  We learn to give people a chance. 

I believe in free speach.  If you gloss over true feelings then how fake is that???   If you can talk about things that is great.  You then see different points of view and people coming at problems from different experiences.  We do not all come from the same backgrounds.  We do not all think the same, thank heavens!!!   We CAN however give dues and respect to different points of veiw and listen!   Listen and learn!  We can each learn from all the varied experiences here on minti. 

Point I am trying to make is that in this world if someone is not on your page do they have the right to not be?  Yes!  If some one sees something differently than you do they have the right to do that?  Yes!  Can we control thought and weed out all that offends us?  No!  Do i want to be part of something like that?? No!  I truely enjoy thinking when I see other stuff that approaches things differently than I would.  It makes me think.  I think we can do that in a respectful manner and with proper language skills.  As we all strive to be adults it is so good to have others to bounce thoughts and ideas off of.  Heavens....they might have some thing to help!  So..... learn grace.  Learn respect.  Learn to cope cause we all can help each other.

Me is sooo happy!  My beautiful daughter in law dropped in to spend some time with us!   So lovely!  She runs such a crazy busy life with work and school and all the tons of stuff she does, it was pure joy to see her!  She's the one that calls me Mom without any prodding!!  LOL  so of course she is special!!!  LOL!!!  We talked and talked then Hubby and her had the usual debate!!   Haaa,haaa she is so well read that it is always interesting to listen to them.  We got a quick supper together with her in mind!!  Actually this would be Janice's kind of supper too!  Home made frech fries from new potatoes and Hubby's special chicken wings that are to die for!!!  Gee they were good!  Got caught up on news,her little new niece's pictures and of course hugs...she gives the best hugs!!!  Just love that girl!  The very best thing about her is when she and my beautiful son are together they shine.  They just glow with a very special light.  I am so lucky!

But!!!   Darn I hate buts... I am soooo injured.  I have a pain in the back of my head to mid back and out to the shoulder. No pills will touch it and I feel nauseated since it started two days ago.  This I am sure is the spine problem and even though the pain is wearing it doesn't affect how you look at this wonderful life!  The blessings are many and in so many places!!!  I find the very best blessings in the faces I see.  The beautiful eyes that look at me and see me.  Then there is everything in the great and wonderous outdoors!!!  How lucky we are to see clouds and beautiful trees and see the wind catch the leaves to dance with.  Special things are everywhere you just have to look.

We trekked to an awesome place.  I forgot to take the camera and so wish I had. But electronic gagets let out on you!  The global positioning unit that my eldest son had just reprogram was fun until it turned off!  Now what good is that? LOL!  It told us to that point we had walked almost 6 kilometers and that our average speed was 5 kilometers an hour reaching top speeds of 11 kilometers an hour!!!  We were an odd little band of trekkers,dog out front all excited to lead in an adventure,Hubby trying to contain him a bit and the rest of us following!  My daughter in law bundled up like a winter storm was headed her way, my eldest son with little Sean in a navy carrier strapped to his front and me....trotting along poking here and there and catching up!!  I was last....always last until I run ahead to get in on the talk.  I get distracted checking plants and rocks and seeing what is over this ridge or what might be in that depression.  I like to see things as we go,take in it all! 

The day had been so much fun,getting up to the cottage to do a repair and Hubby desided we should put off the chore and go out!  Great plan!  We headed north,up the cottage's long winding lane and turned to walk along the highway.  This road is a major route so it did have sparce traffic.  We kept to the side and that was great as this road for most of it's way has been blasted out of former ridges and goes through areas were the rock faces are so beautiful.  You see the layers of the rock bending and see where the earth's pressures have folded it.  The slate greys and deep blacks are broken by the colour of rose granite and sometimes the stark white of quartz.  When the rock faces give way you are passing marsh lands or waterways and lakes.

Our highway trek soon went off-road and we walked up a road and past an open federal gate!  Offical warnings were posted here and there but that did little to stop our band from drawing nearer to an fantastic sight!!!  Up on the top of the hill was a grey object up in the air,or so it seemed from back at first glimpes. It looked so foreign and unfriendly.  As you got nearer the grey seemed to soften and this huge object was a lattice of iron!  A huge disk sitting on top of the hill!  The 20 foot by 30 foot building at is base was dwarfed and looked like a small pedestal to some odd cake plate. The grey metal stairs sat in front of the white building and lead up to the aray that spread for meters.  Walking under the disk you couldn't help but notice the size of the huge frame that held this thing meters into the air as it calls out to the heavens. In fact the vision of aliens landing is hard to get out of the mind!!!  LOL!!  The antenna arays point up from it all straight to the skies it has such clear view of. It is massive,covering the whole of the hill top spreading at least a hundred meters from side to side.  So odd to walk under this beacon directing all air traffic and see the unbroken nature it sits in!!!  This intruder of metal and steal and odd electronics is the northern most point for all aircraft to get positioning yet around this hill is the best of Canada's north.  We walked under as it loamed over and gazed all directions to see hills and evergreens and marsh.  The late fall marsh is alive with colour.  All the grasses and wheats have ripened and are colours of bronze and browns and gold!  The cranberries have added a hue of yellow to orange to reds of all kinds to the marsh vistas.  We spotted a shaped that moved several times off in the land we surveyed from this peak and it looked like a moose filling up on marsh goodies. To stand under this and look past all to the hills that looked purple in the distance just literally took your breath away!  You could see the sun passing over the land casting shadows here and lighting up the features there!  How grand I thought,how marvelous to be here in this moment and see this wonder.  Sean kicked and squealled with delight as the wind caught his face.  How marvelous all these wonders are!

All gone.  All quiet.  I feel soooo sad.  The stupid house sits empty and so echoy.  Is that a word?  My daughter has started her new job.  She was the one that stopped in for supper in the weekend with boyfriend in tow and needed a costume for a Hollween party.  So after running about like crazy she left as a gypsy,long flowing colourful skirt,gathered black top and a long fringed black shawl.  A colourful headscarf and tons of crazy jewerly and I made her up with totally over the wall makeup!   She looked the part!  That was so much fun,we laughed so much.  My expecting daughter is in her home now and they live so far away!  They were here for four days and I wish I was closer,three hours seems like soooooo far!   The son and DIL with Sean were here for our big congratulations supper on Sunday and were they shocked!!   It is funny how long it took for it to sink in that Daughter and SIL are having a baby.  The toast from my daughter to her sister had me in tears.  How lucky am I that they love each other so much?  The two that couldn't be here were on the phone with us...it was something to remember!  I was able to play with Sean and keep him interested so Mom and Dad could eat so I hope I survive!!  I am still sick and it has been two weeks.   I had so much work to do yesterday and I felt so down...a house is so lifeless without the loves of your life in it.  I know I should be so thankful that they suspend their lives to come here but it is just so wonderful when they are here.  It is busy and happy and exciting and you get all those great spur of the moment hugs!!!   I feel greedy wanting more.....but I do!  So advice that is not asked for or probably wanted...LOL!!!  Treasure it all cause it passes so fast!!!! Now I am off to work and wonder why I have gypsy stuff????

Well here it is November and I turned the calender to see the most beautiful Jacaranada trees!  My Nature Buddy gifted me with so very much,most of it things you can not see that are so very valueable but this calender is so special.   I get to see some of where she lives and back in May are my excited scribbles about her trip and it is a wonderful daily tie!  But November is being such a wonderful month!  I am to be a Grandma again.  The excitement is just so wonderful.  I feel so very,very blessed!!!  I just am in wonder of how special this is to me.  She found out by chance and they drove the three hours in with the news,it was the first thing they told us!!!  Her sister was coming in and we went out so she could tell her.  Her sister was very emotional !!!   I had to go out....I was just so excited and happy that I would have blurted it out!!  Nah,wouldn't have had to, you probably could have read it on my face!  So only her sister knows now out of the kiddies,leaves a few to go!  As it would be Janice called just as we found out.  What a wonderful thing to have her right there so to speak to share the news with!  Wow!!!  So very.very, happy and excited and so blessed...think I will have to get good at this Grandma thing...the best thing to be in the whole world next to being a Mom!