Fall is here! Sept 9 - Sept 22nd.

The weather became more "fall like" with temperatures of low 20's C (70F). The clouds are starting to come in, so there's a bit of a sunset Monday night.

Our granddaughter Amelia had a lesson this past week of physics and gravity ... poor thing forgot to brake on her new bike and hit their garage door. Messed up her face quite a bit and a bloody nose. This included a bunch of tears, but she is quite a trooper. 

Looking pretty bruised, poor thing.

Fortunately after a couple of days and lots of puppy hugs, she's looking much better.

This fall, since we're not going south, I've signed up for exercise programs at the Cowichan Arena. In the meantime, Ray's got 6 weeks of physio with his new knee. He goes twice a week, Tueday and Thursdays and I go 3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

In between, I've been emptying the dock boxes and putting some of the furniture on the sundeck away for the winter. I've emptied out some of the deck planters and harvested all my mini peppers. At the end of the month, my gardener will move all the planters under the sundeck for me. 

Tuesday night brought rain, which we haven't seen much of since July 9th. Glad I put away a bunch of stuff yesterday.

The rest of the week and weekend became much cooler, but enough sun came out to be able to sit on the driveway. 

Our neighbour's friend landed on his heli-pad for a visit, 4 houses down from us. Right over Pat's house. Sure is loud!

View from our driveway.

Bye bye!

Sunday I drove up to Nanaimo for a Costco run and stopped in to see Amelia and Jason on the way back. Took them out for lunch and spent some time reading with her before heading back home. Jason made me a 1/2 dozen jars of yum yum pickles. Thanks a bunch! Back home for 2 pm to join Ray sitting outside on the driveway in the sunshine.

The rain on Friday, finished off most of the flowers in my planters so time to rip it all out. Quiet weekend other than puttering in the yard a bit.

Next I will be emptying the front planters and then next week Sean with move these off the deck for me. Then the deck can be pressure washed when Jason comes up to help me move the rest of the patio and driveway furniture into the basement for winter. 

Got to keep busy this fall, because at this time last year, we'd already left for our winter vacation in the motorhome.

I also went to a craft night at our local pub. Made a seaglass wind chime.  A lot of laughs with my table mates.

The weather's been quite warm in the afternoons, so we've spent quite a bit of time either on the driveway patio or the back deck. I had our gardener's helper, Penny, plant about 100 daffodil bulbs so I'll be here to see them next year. Notice her on her hands and knees, precisely why I had her do it. lol I did have a drill attachment to dig the holes making it easier though.

Penny

We had a "guest" perch in our front entrance again .... a bat! I wish they wouldn't decide to rest there between flights! Fortunately, with the screens Ray put up, they can't get into the very top and into the house. After fighting with them entering the house for 5 years, this year we seem to have finally convinced them to nest somewhere else. At least we have not seen the "droppings".

Saturday morning we went to an Art Show put on by our neighbours daughter Tara. All the proceeds are going to Lake Cowichan's Food Bank. 

We bought two of them lol

After we dropped Pat off next door, we headed into Duncan to visit the Farmer's Market and drop Ray's picture off to be framed. We noticed another mural we haven't seen before.

After wandering around for an hour, it's time for brunch. I started with mimosa's ... yumm.

A great Saturday. The rest of the day we spent down on the dock and out on the driveway enjoying the last day of sunshine for a bit.

Sunday, the first day of fall, sure looks like it. Cloudy and showers in the afternoon. Good day for chores and playing in my kitchen. 

Ray has his left leg knee surgery - August 26 - September 8th.

Monday and Tuesday we spent doing anything that needed doing before Ray is laid up for the next 6 - 8 weeks. Fortunately our son-in-law Jason and Kristi, will be down here at the end of September to help put away our summer furniture from the dock, deck and driveway. Too much for me to handle myself. We also have very helpful neighbours if I need help with something. So lucky we live where we do.

Dropped Ray off Wednsday at Cowichan Hospital at 6:30 am. Unfortunately for him, there was an emergency surgery ahead of him. A young boy broke his elbow and took a three hour surgery to fix. Ray finally got in at 11 am. Dr. Popovich said the surgery went really well and is happy with the result. Fabulous! 

We were able to finally spring him out of the hospital at 4:15 pm. He's happy to get back home. The next 5 days will be limited sleep for me, and him with meds every 2 hours. Just like having a newborn lol.

The weather is finally back to summer again. Ray's able to sit outside on the driveway and on the sundeck. I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen processing my tomatoes.  We will have a lot of tomato sauce ready for fall cooking. For the first time, I tried pickling some veggies with cherry tomatoes. I have to wait a week to taste test.

Friday morning I left Ray at home and went to the Cowichan Hospital in Duncan for an 11:45 am Echocardiogram. This was requested last summer. Kristi asked us to get one to find out who carries the "gene" that Amelia has. "Dilitation of the Thoracic Aorta".  Basically it is the possiblity of an aneurysm. More likely if you have high cholesterol. My blood tests are within range. Kristi has it as well, but very minor. She said if you've it bad, you'd already by dead by 40! I guess if I have the gene it is minor lol. The fix is a stent. Ray had is Echo in April and he didn't have it. 

With being the last long weekend of the summer the lake traffic has picked up substantially. Lots to watch. Friday night's dinner is homemade butternut squash ravoili with fried sage, brown butter sauce and candied pecans with prawns. Delicious. This is a take on a dish I used to order at Cactus Club in Surrey. Ray's a happy camper. He said "that's one of the best things you have ever made!" I guess this dinner will be hard to beat :) Since we are "stuck" at home for the next few weeks, I'm keeping my self busy with processing tomatoes and cooking. Afternoons are spent outside enjoying the warm weather.

Saturday morning is beautiful. Another batch of tomatoes processed into tomato sauce. Trying to keep up so it's not such a big job. Tonight's dinner will be Chicken Parmigiana with my homemade tomato sauce.

Sunday we spent the afternoon sitting on the deck watching all the activity on the water. It was so warm that I went for a quick dip in the lake to cool off. Ray can't make it down to the dock for awhile yet. His new knee is doing really well.

Monday the kids called to see if they could come for a visit. Of course that meant I'm making lunch and dinner lol. It's great to see them and our granddaughter Amelia. It's a month since we've seen them.They were camping and then we were worried about Ray getting sick before surgery.

We played in the driveway, and on the road. Zoom Zoom!

First up lunch, Italian Sausage Pasta ... fortunately I'd just made a batch of tomato sauce from my tomato plants.

Next is sitting outside on our driveway patio.

We set up the little pool for Amelia. She had a great time as "naked baby" for an hour or so. At the end it's time to give Olaf a bath before draining the pool.

He was so tired he found a place to sleep while we were out on the deck.

All too soon it's dinner time and then they were off by 6:00 pm in time to get Amelia to bed at their house in Nanaimo. So nice to see them.

Tuesday afternoon, Ray's dressing on his knee started staining with discharge. Oh oh. Ray called his surgeon's office and they told him to come to the hopsital tomorrow for 9am at the Ortho Clinic. We watched it for the rest of the afternoon but by 8pm his leg looked like it was getting red as well. Off to the ER we went. Arrived at 8:30 and he wasn't seen until 10:30 pm. After taking bloodwork and a culture they bandaged him back up and we left shortly after midnight.

Wednesday morning we were back at the hospital at the Ortho Clinic. It turned out that Ray'd developed a blister beside his incision for whatever reason and it popped, which is where the discharge came from. His incision is healing perfectly. 

His knee is redressed with the proper dressings and we came home. What a relief. If I'd been allowed to take his dressing off myself, I would've seen the issue. Oh well, better safe than sorry. We're both exhausted after only 5 hours sleep and the worry from the night before. We made use of the front driveway patio and the sundeck for the rest of the afternoon. I even managed a nap. Our "garden angel" came and transplanted two of my hydrangeas for me. The garden has a lot of roots and rocks so I didn't want to do it.

Thursday another gorgeous day. I spent the morning cutting down my tomato plants and harvesting all the green tomatoes. All the vines have died off and are yellow, so it's time. I've quite a few to ripen. lol

Ray spent the morning outside in the front before the heat moved him to the back deck. It sure is a hot one. I ended up swimming in the lake to cool off.

Friday I left early to go into Duncan for some shopping, return Ray's walker and get a pedicure. When I got back at 1 pm, there's a different guy waiting for me lol. Ray shaved off his goatee and moustache. Haven't seen that face for 3 years. :) I like it. 

Saturday's still quite warm and probably my last swim in the lake this year. It's really hazy out with the smoke from Washington moving north. It isn't as hot as predicted, but still warm enough for cooling off in the lake. 

Sunday I cut down my mini pepper plants and harvested a bowl of peppers that'll ripen on my counter with the tomatoes. I'm surprised by how many 2 small plants produced. The deck boxes are slowly emptying out getting ready to be moved under the sundeck for the winter. Today the temps are only low 20's C so we're now into fall temperatures, no more hot days this year. Time to start bringing up the deck box stuff from the dock. Last year at this time we were packing the MH getting ready to leave Sept 14 for the USA. So different this year.