The Big Reveal

    If you have been following my blog this summer you will know that my daughter and family were staying with me while they had renovations done on their house. Well, today was "the big reveal"!

The central island was enlarged when the wall was removed. Now it is where they eat breakfast.

    Lots more cupboards and storage space which was sadly lacking before. With a family of five they were always tripping over each other in the kitchen.

    The best part is this new pantry (stolen from Dave's office) so beautifully organized. Hope it stays that way!

    It was my birthday party. Here I am blowing out the candles with youngest grandson helping.

  When I came home I got busy dealing with a glut of tomatoes. I made a jar of passata and another jar of green tomato chutney. There are still more tomatoes to come but I don't expect they will ripen any time soon.

Party Night

   It's been a busy week with quite a lot of over eating and last night was no exception. It was the tennis club's Gala Party, held at the prestigious Donalda Country Club. I was seated with other Kaffeeklatschers (our morning social play) and it was fun to see everyone out of their tennis clothes. They sure clean up well!

   A fabulous buffet dinner (I overate as usual), speeches, awards and prizes (I won a massage) were the evening's highlights. Once the DJ started up and people got out on the dance floor, it was time for me to make my departure. I'm afraid I don't enjoy loud music any more, but, on the whole it was a pleasant evening with tennis friends.

A Day Out

    Lovely bus trip yesterday to Niagara-on-the-Lake to have lunch at the Prince of Wales Hotel and see the musical "Brigadoon" at the magnificent Festival Theatre. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera! 

   NOTL is a very picturesque little town  but there were traffic holdups on the way there so we had less than an hour before lunch to explore and shop. 

   Quite a bit cooler today - only 9C this morning - but the sun came out while I was at tennis and warmed things up. 

Welcoming the New Retirees

    I attended the RTO District 24 New Retirees brunch today to tell about the activities I run. It was well attended by new and recent retirees all eager to find out how to fill their days, and about the insurance coverage that RTO offers. I'm sure we had quite a few sign up for that reason alone.

   The brunch was bountiful and delicious - more like lunch as far as the quantity of food was concerned - scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, spinakopita, pastries, croissants, lemon loaf, fruit and even cheesecake, and of course, as much orange juice and coffee as you wanted. No one left hungry. It was held at our usual location, Bluffer's Marina, but it is under new management so we weren't sure whether it would live up to the previous owner's standard. It most certainly did!

    The marina is right down by the lake close to the Scarborough Bluffs (hence the name) so we had lovely water views. It was a gorgeous day and ideal for a stroll along the waterfront to walk off all the delicious food.

Some of them don't look old enough to be retired!

 This is a nice view - you can see the boats moored in the background. There are several houseboats nearby where people live year round. All in all, a great day!