Two New Dances

    Just to be clear, these are Scottish Country dances (similar to folk dances), quite different from the highly technical and competitive Scottish Highland dancing. They are danced in three orfour couple sets and, in fact some are quite well known such as Virginia Reel and Strip the Willow. Here are two we learned this week. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

    Better late than never - it was a busy weekend.  I spent Sunday with the family. Judy and Dave cooked the turkey and all the trimmings - they do it in the barbecue and it always comes out tender and juicy. Elliot made a pumpkin pie. The previous week they had attended Markham Fall Fair and all had things entered in various categories. Elliot got 1st place for a photo he submitted, Natalie got 1st for a poster (she said she thought she won because no one else entered) and Judy got several prizes as well as "Best in Show" for her marmalade. I must get her to share her recipe with me!

   Monday, which was the actual holiday, we had a social at the tennis club. It was a bit on the cool side but a few brave souls came out to play. I had on 4 layers but gradually stripped some off as I warmed up. More people turned up for lunch which was "Pot Luck" and reflected our wide variety of heritages. I was very conservative and brought ham sandwiches but there were Chinese dumplings, samosas, spinakopita curry stew and chili as well as salads. I went home stuffed and had to take home some dessert for later! That tennis club is now closed as it switches to a winter club with the courts covered with a "bubble". My other club is still going so, hopefully, there will be a few more nice days.

   This week has been advanced voting for the Municipal Elections. I went to the Senior's Centre even though the classes were cancelled as it is a polling station, but it was quite busy with people coming and going. In fact I probably sold more coffee and pies than usual!

Change of Colour

 The trees have begun to shed their leaves but first are putting on a magnificent display.

They had to go.....

 ....the nasturtiums, that is. We had almost frost last night and there's nothing worse than having to dispose of slimy frosted nasturtiums. Tonight's overnight temperature is set to be 3C, so pretty close to freezing.

   So, now they are in the composter. They did really well this year.

   Yesterday some of the family came over with Birthday cake, carrot cake and yummy cream cheese frosting. I still have more in the fridge.

Can't remember what was so funny!

Blowing out the candle. We could only find one!

The rest will go home to the boys who missed the ceremony. I kept a sizeable chunk.