Come, let's go for a hike!

The weather holds up to be gorgeous. It is just that the temperatures at night keep dipping. I mowed the lawn around our house once more. The grass is still green and growing, though slow.

Since we had two nights that dropped to the freezing point I took my gladiola corms out of the ground and prepared them for winter storage.

Hopefully they will survive until next spring.
That was yesterday.
Today my friend and I did another hike in the park.

It shows clearly how the colours are changing and how fast the leaves are coming down now.

This was taken 6 days ago

This was taken today

This time I had only the 200mm lens, but I can show you what we saw, though a little blurry.

View over the Bay of Fund from Raccon Beach with the ferry to Grand Manan at the horizon and seals on the rocks in the front.

Ferry to Grand Manan

Seals in on the rocks

We went to from Racoon Beach to Liberty Point, the southern most point of the island.

Molly leads us right up to the platform to get the grand view over the waters.

There was no wind, glassy water and a balmy air. Seal were sunning themselves on the rocks, eider ducks drifted on the water and an eagle soared over our heads.

Grand Manan at the horizon, eider ducks up front. It takes a good eye to see them, but with a little help...

Fishing boats were out trawling around, Grand Manan in the background

Back home waited good size piece of cake and a hot cup of coffee for us as a reward for our agility.

This is an oatmeal, blueberry, walnut crumble that my friend backed for us. I have asked for the recipe because it was VERY good.

Thanks for following us on the hike. Too bad you could drop in for the cake as well!

Corn stalks and tree trimming

What do these two photos have in common?

St. Anne's Anglican Church, built in 1855

and...






... my vegetable garden plot.

The answer: Corn stalks

A photo of my garden plot before I took the corn down.
Today a friend of mine came by to pick the stalks up.


This Sunday Canadians celebrate their "Thanksgiving",
and my humble corn stalks shall help decorate the local church.

Later my friend invited me over to show off how it looked like.
(I will not be able to see it on Sunday as I will be off to work.)

Some stalks adorn the entrance

 Beautiful fall leafs brighten up this small church

A few stalks are combined into a nice arrangement

Good Job, Rogette!

After that I started to trim our ancient apple tree.

  The tree had grown wild for many years and I decided that a third of the branches had to come down to bring air and light into the crown.
Also, it will be easier to reach up to the apples come next fall.

J.P. took his chain saw to cut the biggest branches into firewood.

All in all a busy day. 

The temperatures were up to 66°F (19 °C) in the afternoon. We were able to enjoy lunch and dinner outside on the deck.

Hubby did the dinner job and cooked up a concoction with black beans, tomatoes and BANANAS. 

I might write this recipe down one of these days because it was surprisingly good! :))

Gone are the corn stalks. Now are just Cosmos and Calendula to brighten the garden until the frost takes them down as well.

Stay tuned.

Wrestling with a Leather Leash

The leash is sometimes the most important thing between a dog and its  owner. Not that Molly needs a leash, she is well behaved and listens good. But in the Park it is required to have ones dog leashed. So.

The cuprit

Yesterday when Molly suddenly lunged after a squirrel, the leash broke.

Usually the leashes are sewn with a strong thread, like this shown below.

But our particularly one is not. It is only one single long piece of hide.

Nonetheless there is a clip or hook on one end and a loop for the hand on the other. All attached without the use of any thread or rivets.

Why not buy a new one, you could argue?
I am inclined to recycle and the leather is still fairly good higher up. It would be a waste not to give it a try.

I fixed that leash once before, about 7 years ago, but today I had a hard time recalling what I did then. Old age is creeping up on me :))
So this posting about the repair of the leash shall be a reminder "how to".
First I cut off the frazzled end, then I straightened the leather out on both ends.

With a carpet knife and two new incisions were made into the leather at the end where it had broken. The end where the clip is located has 3 incisions close to each other. The end with the handle loop has 2 aligned and one further out.

Now it was just to twist and bend the leather around the hook and itself, and through the holes several times until it looked right. Easy peasy. It is not complicated once you know how.

Well, it took me about an hour to figure it out.

But, I did it!

Molly is 11 years,  if the leash holds for another 7.... 

My guess is that I don't need to buy another one.

Molly dozing off while I was working on the leash.

I hope I didn't tire you out! :))

Out and about...

As one fellow blogger said: out and about. I was just doing that the last couple of days.
In the beginning of the week a system with heavy wind and rain passed through overnight (Monday/Tuesday). We were lucky - the sun was out again the following morning.
No thoughts of going south yet under such conditions. :))
While I was just about to take a photo of the yellow aspen trees, the sun disappeared behind a cloud and I waited a coupe of minutes until she reappeared. What a difference in colour.

Yesterday I took my bicycle and drove 2 miles (3,2 km) to visit Rogette and had a cup of tea with her on their deck.

She treated me with a delicious vanilla-chai.

Today I had a relaxing 4 miles (6,4 km) hike with another friend, Deborah, on the trails of the Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

One of Molly's objects of interest

The weather is still warm and gorgeous, the air full of the aroma of fallen leaves.

What a live!

Back at home awaited us a cup of coffee and freshly baked chocolate chip cake.