What a Month

Here we are again, playing catch up with my writings. It’s not that we have millions of readers though, it is just a personal thing. After Mardis Gras, the activities here ramped up the next day without a breather break. It is kinda fascinating how so many seniors can have all this fun and everyone just keeps on tick’n – sort of like the ever ready bunny!

The ladies are back to  their quilting fun and projects. Of course that means more shopping trips to either Pensacola or Biloxi and as of yet, I have not heard a single lady decline the opportunity! Barb has been coaching other ladies with their projects and even put on a couple of courses teaching how to make a 4 point posie and how to make fabric flowers. The day she did the fabric flowers, she had a case of laryngitis and the ladies had to be real quiet to hear her – now that was difficult!

Barb has also been working with some online quilters and building monthly blocks, made a wedding gift for friends, mug mats and finished her `Carol Doak`final block. If you remember her summer project last year where she along with 5 other quilters from here at the Plantation built quilt rows and passed it along to the next quilter on the list – called a row robin. Barb has now arranged the rows and added a border to create the quilt. Here are some photos of her work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a coolish winter here and I haven’t had much ambition to work outside on the gardens or the rig. Lots have to be done – we want to improve our gardens so we don’t have so much work on them when we get back in the fall and the rig needs a wash and wax.

We have received air tickets to fly back to Toronto to surprise Mark for his 50th b’day party and what a party it was. We flew out of Pensacola on Friday with plans to meet at their local favourite restaurant to surprise Mark. On the way to the airport, we were notified by Delta Air that the plane is delayed by 30 minutes but that should not impact our connections or our arrival by dinner. Unfortunately, one delay lead to another and of course, a weather system slowly went through and we sat on the runway for 2 hours – apparently FCC rules say the airline can not hold us like that so we had to taxi back to the terminal so people could get off if they wanted to make other arrangements. So to make a long story short, we missed dinner with Mark & Terri and didn’t get into Toronto until about 1:30 AM, standing at the foot of Mark’s bed singing ‘happy birthday’ to him – some of you might think that would create nightmares!  Maybe Mark thought so too.

The party was on Saturday and the theme was James Bond and we needed to go to the party/costume store for finish Barb’s costume, complete some set up at Terri’s house before over 50 guests started to arrive. It was a surprise on how many actually dressed to the theme. The party was in full swing with the help of the bar tender mixing Bond’s favourite cocktail – a dirty martini, shaken not stirred. Being the ‘older’ Bond characters there, I’m sure you can guess that Barb went as ‘M’ and I was ‘Q’.

 

 

 

The flight home was uneventful – of course, we didn’t have a deadline to meet anyone. We flew into Washington DC for our connector to Pensacola. This was the first time we left a terminal building and got on a bus to our airplane. Up the steps and into a small plane – I couldn’t stand straight – for the ‘stormy’ ride to Florida. The plane was so small that we had trouble getting our carry-on in the overhead compartments. We landed in wet stormy weather, similar to what we took off in on Friday.

Elvis has left the building….. Yes, that is correct, we had an evening with an Elvis impersonator. He is a vice principle at the local high school. He would venture out through the crowd and hand an excited audience member with one of the many silk scarves he carried around his neck during the performance. It was good entertainment.

 

Our good friend Jim, is enduring chemo treatments and we thought we could help keep him warm and cozy with a hand made quilt from Barb. We decided an a golf theme and printed some pictures of the 4 of us on the back. Jim and Lydia called us the evening they received it with lots of emotion and thanks that we lost it too. This is a very difficult time for Jim & Lydia`s family and friends. Their mantra is to Stay Strong and Stay Positive.  However you derive your spiritual strength, please remember Jim and Lydia in your thoughts.

 

 

 

 

Well, that`s it for February, stay tuned for March….