July 13, 2012

Here I was planning a trip to Utah, I hope the fire is out soon.

There was a forest fire! It was close enough that this is the view from my front door. Scary! The authorities had us pack but not evacuate. Fortunately no homes burned and all was well in the end.

My oldest turned 16!

Happy Birthday Trenton. 

More Flooding.

Duluth, Mn.

Three weeks after the flood in Thunder Bay, On, our sister city, Duluth, Mn suffered the same fate.

We had a fish on our road, Duluth has a seal, who escaped from the zoo, on the mail street, downtown Duluth.  The seal got back home, safe and sound.

Here are a few photos.

Teddy McDonald, Racing Cars. June 6, 2012

My Dad and his first wife Margaret, had 6 children but only three survived. Theresa, she moved her family to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jack, stayed in Fort William, Ontario, and William Harold, who died during the invasion of France, June 6, 1944. Margaret passed away October 1925. My dad married my mom Barbara in 1934. Life got in the way and dad’s first family never really got to know us. By the time we found my dad’s last remaining family, two grandson from his first marriage it was too late to have a family relationship. Ted the youngest had a stroke, Jack the oldest is living in British Columbia, but Jack and I do keep in touch with emails. Ted had two children Teddy who lives here in Thunder Bay, and his sister Kellly who lives in Southern Ontario. My sister Monica and I met Teddy at his father’s funeral, March 2009, in Fort Francis, Ontario. Teddy, Bill and I have met for coffee a few times. It is so interesting being with him, his late mom was a good school friend of Bill's. He looks like a McDonald but he's his mother's son. Teddy loves racing cars so a while back when I saw these fabrics I knew I would make a quilt for him. He can share it with his two children, son Bristol and daughter He now has a caring Great Aunt, me, and I couldn’t ask for a better Great Nephew. Today Wednesday June 6th was a perfect day for Teddy to receive his quilt. It is 68 years since the death of William Harold McDonald, (Bill) and the 31st year since the pasting of Teddy's mom Francis, both are gone but not forgotten. This is Teddy's quilt.

Time Sure Flies.

These last few months got away from me quickly. Bill’s health issues start out seriously but after many tests and doctor appointments they ended up being, not total good but manageable. 

Dr. Dhurjon, ophthalmologist, order a Fluorescein Angiography and Retinal O.C.T. test in May, done at the hospital. Bill has Diabetic retinopathy—damage to the blood vessels in the retina, the blood vessels may swell and leak fluid. Dr. Dhurjon is holding off with the injections in Bill’s eyes hoping they might get better, so we will have to see the doctor more often for check ups. Waiting time in this doctor’s office for us and about forty other people is three hours. Taking care of Bill is no problem for me, I just don’t have time to visit our local quilt shop, or do some quilting.

During this tiring time, I decided to look at my stash. I have more fabrics than I can use if I had two life times. I found a good home for the fabrics I know I will never use, although when I purchased them I had such great plans. Durning the month of May I made kits from the beautiful fabrics I received as gifts for my birthday and Christmas. 

Now on to sad news, May 29th we had a flood in Thunder Bay. I have lived here all my life and I have never seen anything like this. We were told that the sewage treatment facility is state of the art and that something went terribly wrong which crippled the plant during heavy rain conditions May 25th to 28th. 

Our dear sweet friend Maria, lost so much. Her friends and I are heartbroken for her. Here are her own words.

3-4' of water in my basement. Was away visiting my Dad. Joan took one for the team and saved our sewing machines! Got it pumped out to 6" last night, but over a foot this am. Had everything in bins to protect my goodies, and they just floated and tipped over.

Thanks everyone. We are still pumping as the water is still coming in! Took a bunch of dry things out and put them in a storage room. Lots of wet stuff into the garbage. Was really worried 

flie

Saturday when I came out of the grocery store I couldn't believe my eyes. If I didn't know better I would think someone hated me. One bird did that to my car. wow. What a mess!!!

It seems like the weeks have sped by on me. I haven’t posted in the last two months, I should have many things to blog about, but my dear husband has been the main focus of my life as of late. I have never really wanted to be a responsible adult, but now I have no choice. We still makes our daily visits to McDonalds at Walmart. Everyday our circle of friends keeps growing, but that’s what makes Bill’s life more rewarding. Dr. Dhurjon, an Ophthalmologist, ordered a Ultrasound on Bill’s carotid artery, plus an Fluorescein Angiography and Retinal O.C.T. for May 4, 2012 at our local hospital. We will get the results on Monday. In the recent past I started making bags, aprons and mug rugs. I enjoy signing up for Aunt Pity Pat’s Mug Rug Swaps, they are always so interesting, as Forest Gump said, “... you never know what you’re going to git”. Bags, and other small items are fun to make and they aren’t time consuming. My latest Spring Mug Rug Swap was for Sharina in Australia.

My Spring Mug Rug I received from Sharina. Now I can honestly say I have a friend in Australia, and she has a friend in Canada.

The last few weeks Bill has spent most of his time sleeping, so I put my quiet time to good use. I have far too much fabric in my stash, so I decided to give some away and to make some kits. I started with the two packages of charms, one layer cake and two patterns I received from my sweet Nicole for my birthday and Christmas. Heather also gave me fabrics for my birthday. I cut three kits. I had a long “to do list” for many years, so I decided to attack this list with vengeance and get some of the quilts done. Last month I made a quilt for my friend Bill Nelson, my great nephew Teddy McDonald, my grand daughter Kate Maki. I’m working on a pattern for Kate’s sister Jenna, my other grand daughter. I will post the quilts as their owners receive them. I hope the quilts make everyone happy, it’s been my pleasure.

Bill Nelson's Dog and Cat Quilt. Simply Smashing Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Spring 2012 Designer - Janet Houts Owner Bill Nelson For years I’ve had three different ten inch strips of fabrics, two with cats, one with dogs. I kept them in my stash because I didn’t want to part with them. One fabric had aristocratic cats, the cats are lying on their backs on a velvet heart shaped pillow, the other cats were very scurfy looking, great contrast. The third fabric had a variety of beautiful dogs with the name of their breed. I was able to make a charm pack with these fabrics. I’m constantly looking at quilt magazines while I’m at Walmart McDonalds, having coffee with Bill. I came across the pattern Simply Smashing, designed by Janet Houts, I bought the magazine. I altered the pattern slightly, because my charm pack was a different size than the one used by Janet. I used fabrics from my stash, some came from The Circle of Friends and a few from Fabricland. I quilted the top using Superior Mono Poly clear thread on my new Janome Horzion 7700, but I still ran into trouble with the thread breaking. I am grateful to Heather for finishing my quilting.

March 2012

Maclean's magazine, Candian equivalent to the US Time magazine.

The Canadian winter that never was. In 65 years, we’ve never seen such warm winter days with so little snow;
That our national identity, our culture and our economy are so tied to winter makes what’s happened over the last few months all the more disconcerting. On average, Canada experienced temperatures 3.6° C higher than normal this winter, and 18 per cent less precipitation. This season was, in fact, the third warmest and the second driest in 65 years. Which might not sound so bad except that the last two times it was warmer, in 2009-10 and 2005-06, it was much snowier and wetter. And the last time it was drier, in 1956-57, it was colder. Until now, Canada has never had such hot days with so little snow. “So in many ways,” says David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, “this has truly been the year that winter was cancelled.

If interested you may read the full article on line.


http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/03/19/the-winter-that-never-was/