Thursday, or Thereabouts - October 20, 2016

Happy and Home Free!

We slipped under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at just past 5:30am Tuesday morning.

Bowed to the grand Lady of Liberty just before 6am - She is such a fine and wonderful sight!

And then on past the lights of lower Manhattan to dock at Pier 88.

Some eight hours later we greeted yet another fine and wonderful sight - Toronto - undiminished in my heart by clouds and mist.

We enjoyed our time away (more about that another time, when the laundry has been dispatched and 5600 photos uploaded), but it is always good to see the lights of home, to come back to familiar places, faces and routines. No haute cuisine for supper tonight, but the comfort of a home-cooked meal has its own rich flavour.

While we were away, Autumn breezed in, her resplendent beauty filling the countryside with vibrant colour. Best of all she seems to have waited for our return before dropping all her fine artwork to the ground.

Even in today's rain, her palette along the street where I live, is on full display.

And around the house, there are still begonia blooms. Nothing prize-winning here, but worthy of special mention because it is October 20, not August 20.

These gourds though do proclaim October fullness.

As do the sumac leaves.

It's time for gathering in all the joys and blessings of life here and now: family, friends and a good homeland.

Deo gratias!

©2016 April Hoeller

Thursday, or Thereabouts - September 12, 2014

It's an "or Thereabouts" kind of day.

Nothing like a few days away to put me weeks behind, or so it seems. We returned home Thursday just after 3pm having enjoyed 5 idyllic days in the land of  Niagara wine and the Shaw Festival. No problem I thought in putting together a post before the end of the day ... ah but then there was the unpacking of the car, the trip to town for a physio appointment, the clean up windfall debris (two large tree branches) brought down by a storm Wednesday night, followed by the phone mail, the email and the laundry.














Oh and then someone had to make supper! No printed menus to peruse, no ice water shimmering in fine glassware, no gleaming cutlery, no executive chef, no one to chop and clean, no servers, eager to please, and no artistry on a plate.

Just me, flash thawing some haddock and rescuing veggies that had made it three-quarters of the way to the compost bin all because the house sitters did not eat them, tossing all in the oven then slapping it on a plate in some ill fated attempt at presentation craft. Well - it tasted good.

And now it's Friday. Afternoon. What began with a lovely leisurely massage was soon morphed into a morning swept away by grocery shopping, a trip to the Zephyr Organics farm for our weekly supply of veggies followed by the unpacking, washing and storage of my acquisitions.

Is it nap time yet? Nope, it's time to get a blog post out!










For the record, and because I know you all are just dying to know, the stock at 7 Niagara wineries has diminished by 95 bottles. My next job is to get them out of the boxes lined up in the hallway, catalogued and tucked away into our inventory. I'm so glad we cut back this year...















©2014 April Hoeller