Goodbye, friend.

Some sad news from our home. Yesterday we said good-bye to our 13 year old yellow labrador retriever, Diefenbaker. The house feels so empty without his smiling face and wagging tail. I'll miss him following me while I garden. Wherever I was, he was. I will never forget what a perfect companion Diefenbaker was.

Five Senses Friday

Seeing:

The FIRST snowfall of the year (yesterday)

Hearing:

The music of Footloose at the local stage production

Tasting:

Mexican spice in the fajitas I made the other night

Smelling:

My blackberry sage soap

Feeling:

The cold cold snow and wind

*************

Have a wonderful weekend!

Photos of the first snowfall by me around the yard

Halloween

Did you have a good halloween? We had a fun weekend filled with carving pumpkins (picked up from local pumpkin stands), roasting pumpkin seeds, handing out candy (we had 80 trick or treaters) and putting together costumes for the pets!

Diefenbaker wore one of P.'s old ties from his days at working at McDonalds. He asked the trick or treaters, "Do you want fries with that?"



I sewed Kingston a small cat sized tie on Saturday. I made my own basic pattern from an idea I saw on Etsy. I made it so that it can slide onto his collar. He is so darn adorable running around the house in a tie! Quite the little business man.



This year we decided to attempt something a little more challenging with our pumpkin carving. I downloaded some templates from the internet. We printed them onto paper and taped them onto the pumpkin as a stencil. It worked great! A little more time-consuming than the usual Jack I draw, but we had tons of compliments all night long....especially on the CBC pumpkin!



I'm glad halloween is over...I really don't need to be eating that much candy! Can't believe it is November already! Time to start thinking about decorating for the holidays!

Apple Picking

I mentioned in my Five Senses Friday post last week that the sounds I'd been hearing were the sounds of falling apples. We decided that the tree was telling us it was time to pick, so we spent the better part of yesterday afternoon filling boxes and boxes with delicious ripe apples.



Last year we had our apples pressed into juice, which we stored in our freezer as it was all natural (preservative-free). It was the most delicious apple juice I've tasted and we are going to do the same thing this year.



Of course it was a HOT HOT day yesterday and we were all doing our best to keep cool. Diefenbaker napped in the shade...



...even Kingston chilled out (too hot to chase butterflies I guess).



We kept refreshed with ice cold rum and cokes.



The old toy car we found buried in the yard when we moved in. It sits on the pavers around the apple tree now.



We ended up picking eight boxes of ripe apples and there are still lots on the tree that need a few more days before picking. I think it's safe to say that we should be set for the winter with apple juice!

Garden Friends

My little pets who 'help' me in the garden everyday. Kingston, the cat, absolutely looooves the garden - I can hardly tear him away from chasing butterflies in the kitchen garden. Diefenbaker, the dog, is more mellow. He's been keeping himself happy by obsessively eating the dozens of apples that are falling from the tree everyday.

I think my gardening experiences would be so much less interesting without these little personalities to keep me company