Well, the big news this month is, of course, our trip to England to visit our youngest DD. Bill had enough points that he saved us a bundle on airfare - in fact, we BOTH got to go first class for half what ONE seat would have cost us in regular seating! I do like first class, just not enough to pay the outrageous prices, LOL. You get to board / exit first, they start serving drinks as soon as you sit down, they give you a blanket and pillow, free ipad and earbuds, they bring a hot towel to wash with before meals, and serve meals on real glass dishes with real utensils (not plastic forks), and they give you this little fabric case, with a toothbrush and toothpaste / one of those eye masks for sleeping / and a pair of really comfy socks that are supposed to be good for your legs when travelling!

So, we got there in style, *GBG*. We travelled overnight, as Bill thinks we will sleep on the plane... but we never do (sigh). We travelled during the day on the way back, and I actually think I like that better, as it makes for a long day, but you're not up for 2 days. Unfortunately, the flight FROM Canada to England (during the day) is really early, so we would have to go to Toronto the night before and stay over, to get there on time.

In spite of England's well-known proclivity for rain, LOL, we only had a slight misting the first day or so, and after that the sun was very co-operative. We knew this visit was going to be all about family, so we didn't plan a lot of activities, but we did manage to get in to the art gallery, with a quick peek into the Natural History Museum, which we love. They had a butterfly house on display, so we spent some time in there, surrounded by colorful butterflies of all shapes and sizes and gorgeous tropical plants. Another day we went with Katie (our DD) and Alaa (her significant other, LOL), to pick up his boys, Talal and Zaid, ages 5 and 3, who spent the rest of our trip with them. While in Rochester (where the boys live) we visited some quaint shops - including a needlework shop and two art stores, a cathedral and castle, so did our playing tourist bit - we even bought the boys toy swords!

Lots of eating out in great restaurants, and Alaa is a chef, so he cooked for us as well - yum! Katie also has a birthday in August, so while her family was all there Alaa threw her a birthday party. Of course mom (me!) had to bake the cake. She decided she wanted a gluten free cake, so that was interesting. Some on-line research turned up a chocolate cake recipe that used black beans in place of flour! It did have SIX eggs in it, so when we doubled it to make a good sized cake, that meant it had a DOZEN eggs... then she decided we needed a second layer, so we actually had to go shopping to get more ingredients, LOL. Was quite rich (with 2 dozen eggs, I guess so), 4 TBSP (yes, that is tablespoons, not teaspoons) of baking powder PER LAYER to make it rise, and honey in place of sugar. But everyone agreed it was quite delicious, and not gooey like gluten free tends to be. The other grandparents hosted the party and even rented a bouncey castle for the kids - though I must say the big kids (including my DD and her friend) spent as much time in it as the little ones did!

Because all the 'flats' are so tiny in England, there was no room for us at our DD's place (though our oldest DD, who came over with us, stayed with them for an extra week after we left). So, we rented an apartment in an old Victorian house, which was actually quite spacious. Bill and I had an extra-large King - it was massive - and Adriane had a bed tucked in an alcove off the living room. There was a full kitchen (with fridge/stove and dishwasher), and they had laundry facilities on premises as well.

There was a big yard, with a koi pond full of dozens of fat fish, and even a hen-house sized enclosure full of songbirds! At the back of the property was a long building, which housed an indoor pool, bar, pool table, foozball table and seating, where guests could visit or entertain, so we had the kids out on two different days to swim, and we took advantage of the patio and bbq (also on site), to make the men cook and we all sat at the outdoor tables to eat, LOL. Someone in the neighbourhood had a rooster too, which would crow at all hours of the day, except in the morning, ROFLOL. This was just outside London to, in a place called Catford, so was kind of surprising to us.

All too soon it was time to head home. Was sad to say goodbye, but was lovely to see them all, and we'll have to do it again soon. The boys will grow so fast, skype just isn't the same. I had taken a bunch of small toys and chocolate bars with me, LOL, so every day when they saw me there were little gifts - I'm pretty sure they'll remember me/us!

Bill had 2 days to recuperate before he headed back to work, but he's off for the entire month of September, so I'm hoping next month I'll have lots of house news for you *wink*. Till then, keep safe, enjoy our beautiful weather, hug and kiss your friends and family... and of course, happy stitching!

Counting down the days now, until we head across the pond to visit our youngest, who you may remember is living in England. We're quite excited, as we haven't seen her in a couple years, though we Skype regularly. We have two wee step-grandsons over there who have only ever met us via computer, so we're looking forward to that as well.

Dree and I keep putting off working on the front garden, as it has just been so hot here, but we really have to get to it this week, before the weeds take over completely! When I put in the second half of the front garden last year, I put plastic on the ground, around the plantings, and spread white stone on top of the plastic. Hardly any weeds on that side. So you know what that means (sigh), We have to scrape the stone off the old half, pull all the weeds, put plastic down, and re-spread the stone. I bought new stone to add on top as well, as there are some bare patches, and it really DN stay as nice and white over time, as I would like.

Bill is trying to convince us to move our office into the little blue house (the house my parents used to live in behind us), but the heat of summer has made us even more appreciative of the coolness of our split-level offices, and he's having trouble budging us, LOL.

We are hoping to work on the kitchen in September... but there is a very high liklihood that he will be laid off shortly, so we'll have to see. On the one hand, he'll have lots of time, GBG, but on the other hand, money will be a lot tighter, as he probably won't get a job overpaying him as much as this one did! Apparently the recession that hit the rest of the country 5-6 years ago is now trickling down to the Uranium industry, leading to mine closures and massive layoffs over the past few months. So if anyone knows of a job for an SAP specialist, with 10 years experience in maintenance, and a real knack for writing macros, let me know, LOL. OK, enough gloom and doom, he's a hard-working, warm, funny, caring and way smart man, and any company would be lucky to have him - so hopefully one of them will realize it and snap him up quick, ROFLOL.

One of the things we want to try in the kitchen, is a bit more moving around. Right now we have a small 3-drawer island poking in to the room. It's very useful, both as a place to put hot things coming out of the oven, and as depository for all the microwave dishes. But it does make the room seem a bit crowded. SOOOO, lol, we've decided to move the hot water heater (which is hidden beside the frige, in a cupboard) AGAIN.

We're thinking it will fit in the back corner of our walk-in closet, which is just storage of things we never wear right now, GBG. It will be close to the main washroom (upstairs), and right above the kitchen sink (middle floor). It will be quite a ways from the basement bathroom, but we hardly ever use that tub (it's actually full of bolts of stitching fabric right now, LOL), so may take time for hot water to get there. In future another owner could put in one of those mini-hotwater tanks for about $300, to have a separate supply to that room, if they wanted.

This will let us move things around, kind of like this:

Obviously not to scale, LOL. That grey circle is the hot water tank (black circles are the sinks, which are actually square), and the oven-microwave/pantry are a floor to ceiling wall. So on the THEN picture, you can see both those items have been moved against side walls, and the stovetop/island would have be counter height (with one continuous countertop), and open to the dining room...

That's what we're kicking around anyway. We'll see what happens in September! For now, let me say bon voyage, and I'll tell you all about our trip when we get back in August! Happy stitching!!

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I don't generally allow shop talk here (that's what my newsletter is for), but I'll just mention that I've done two shows in the past two months, had meetings for the upcoming Studio Tour, and also for the committee hosting the Quin-Mo-Lac Women's retreat in September (which I'm on), and I've been in the church office every week (or double-time the week before I'll be away), keeping the bulletins done up... so I'm a wee bit knackered!

AND just before the show last week, we had a Gatenby Family Reunion, HERE, at our house! Fortunately one of Bill's cousins organized it, but we still had to give the house a tidy, set up the portable sun-room, clean up the yard, weed and fill the horse shoe pits etc., and I was motivated enough to put in some new flowers at the front, where some of last years didn't come back this year.

While we were doing all THAT, LOL, Bill was building us new display racks for the show (more about that in our newsletter), and Adriane painted them all nice black for me, so they looked very elegant!

I think I've made a decision on the library color - but we just haven't had time to get in there and get some work done (sigh). Adriane (our oldest DD) did get the overflow of books filed away before the reunion, and we cleaned out a lot of things that were just being stored in the library, so it looked quite lovely when people went through the house. One of Bill's little nephew's just stood there looking up and up and up at all the books, "I want to live in a house with a room like this", he finally said, in an awed whisper.

We were quite concerned that we were going to get rained on, and have to make room for all these people in the house, LOL. The event was scheduled to start at 1pm, and just as everyone began arriving the sun came out and the day turned beautiful! Suddenly the air above us with filled with dozens of dragonflies, zipping around enjoying the sun and catching bugs, so we weren't even bothered by mosquitoes - it was wonderful!

Oh I have to tell you about my Sangria! When we were in Spain a few years ago, my Aunt (who married a Spanish doctor and moved to Spain many years ago) and her DH took us all to this little outdoor restaurant on the Mediterranean. They had taken Bill and I there the previous time we visited, but this time we had my parents (her brother and his wife) with us - I probably told you about this. Anyway, we ordered a jug of Sangria there, and it was delicious, but A Beth kept saying hers was better.

SOOOOO, knowing this family event was coming up, I e-mailed her for her recipe, which she kindly sent, and we whipped up a double batch. Well! It was the hit of the party. Almost everyone tried it - including Bill's mom, who had several glasses before she realized just how much alchohal is in that fruit punch, LOL. We also had to make sure everyone knew the punch bowl was NOT for the kids!

Anyway, a nice time was had by all... it was great to meet some of my husband's relatives I'd never met, and his A Bea (one of my favorites) came, so we had a really good visit with everyone. They also left a LOT of food (some of which we are still eating, or it's in the freezer to be eaten), and I seem to have inherited a lot of dishes, so the next time Bill goes to visit his mom he will drop the stack off and everyone can pick up what's theirs there, LOL.

No business talk... so I can't mention that I'm up to my ears in back orders from Quilt Canada last week, LOL, but slowly getting caught up. We are starting to look forward to visiting our youngest in England in August - I heard from the bank today that my English pounds are in, so have to go pick them up this week. It's been a few years since Katie was home, so will be lovely to see her, and meet her young man in person (we Skype, but it's not really the same)...

So I'm going to close for June... not sure what I'll have to tell you in July, but in August you'll hear all about our trip! Happy stitching until we meet again...

Well apparently I lost a month somewhere, LOL. So apologies for this late posting! Basically, I've been on the run, so no finishing being done at the house (though I have made poor Adriane (our oldest DD) paint one wall in the library 3X so far, as we search for the right shade of yellow), and nothing but work-work-work ... which I can't talk about here (wink).

So what can I tell you about? I did slip away for a weekend women's retreat with my sister... our mom was going with her, but dad had a bad spell and she didn't want to leave him (even though he swore he was fine, and I offered to look after him).

Long story short (too late, LOL), she told me to go, so we had a sister's weekend away, which we haven't done in ages. It took about 1.5 hours to get there, so we had a nice catch-up chat on the way up Friday night.

It was a church-sponsored event, so the singing was heavenly, LOL, but the family camp where it was held was just gorgeous. Chris (my sister) and I took a canoe out on the water Saturday afternoon, went for a horse-drawn wagon ride, and had a lovely 'tea'. We also did some shopping at the very nice gift store they have there, and I bought our hostess a gift, and my mom a scarf.

I did leave late Saturday (rather than staying to Sunday a.m.) as Bill was coming home, and the next day was our own church's anniversary service. We had a wonderful tenor who took the service, I always love to hear Paul MacKay sing, so didn't want to miss that!

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned how much I love music. Although I don't play an instrument, I have sung all my life in church choirs, and school choirs, in duets and trios, often with my sister. When we were growing up we would harmonize while we did the dishes after supper, and she's still the easiest person for me to sing with.

Whenever I have the radio on you can be sure it will be tuned to a station I can sing along with - and most often the wonderful Christian music stations they have now. Our local one (out of Belleville) is UCB (102.3), and I just love their music - both entertaining and inspiring!

Anyway, I'll have lots to tell you about in my newsletter (where I'm allowed to talk business LOL), so I'll talk to you next month (or in a few minutes, for those of you who know I didn't post May until June, ROFLOL)... happy stitching!