Christmas Celebrations

 We hosted 2 Christmas celebrations at our home during this past week. During this past summer, we painted our garage floor, repainted the walls & installed the baseboards. With floor heat, the garage is toasty warm & is a roomy place for a larger group.

 Wednesday evening, our Small Group got together for a lasagna & salad supper. I found instructions for a fun game on the internet & thought I 'd try it to entertain our Small Group & entertain it did! 

 I wrapped candy & some Dollar Store items using plastic wrap & made a large ball. To add to the fun, I used pieces not one long piece. Made for a more difficult time to find the end!

 One person rolled 2 dice, trying to roll doubles while the other person unrolled the ball. Surprising how long it can take to roll a double!

 

 Also it sometimes took a few seconds to find the end of the wrap.

 Fun game.

Produced lots of laughter!

 Saturday we hosted my sisters, their spouses & added 2 families who live in the area. Make your own taco salad is always a favourite.

 We fed 16 at lunch time.

 Nick enjoying his food.

 During the afternoon,  the children left & we added 2 cousins & 1 spouse for supper. Didn't get a picture of the BBQ Farmer Sausage & scalloped potatoes. This is a picture of goodies we enjoyed for coffee.

 Sisters - Helen, myself, Edna & Carolyn.

 Cousin - Lois & Milly.

Great day, great food & great fellowship!

A Quilt Post

The above 9 quilts I sewed for the Care Committee from my church & the baby quilts are gifted to families having 1st babies. I sewed most of them in spring & finished the last 3 in fall. Love sewing baby quilts as they are a small project to work on & sew up quickly & also love working with bright colours & also a variety of patterns.

This cranberry quilt I sewed for a door prize for my church's Christmas Banquet that was held earlier this month.

I just loved this fabric collection when I first saw it at the fabric store & I put some white with it to bring out the vibrant reds. This was a new pattern for me & not too difficult except I made it into a lap sized - approx 58 x 58 & not the crib sized that the pattern called for. 

This is the back of the quilt. A dear friend from my Small Group won the quilt & she was so very pleased & it has gone to a very good home!

Burwalde Woods

 On the other side of this bridge, are the Burwalde Woods. It contains large maple & oak trees, natural prairie grasses, a variety of wildflowers during the summer & beautiful vegetation to photograph in the fall.

 The Dead Horse Creek also meanders through the woods & there is a small amount of water in places.

 

 In the meadow, there are many Milkweed plants & some pods are still filled with seeds.

 

 These seeds are just waiting for a strong wind to take them to another area where they will grow. Milkweed is not wanted by dairy farmers in grassy meadows where cows graze as it can taint the milk.

 

 Lexie, my assistant, looking for a squirrel to chase.

 

 Looking across the meadow, is a slough filled with bulrushes.

 Golden leaves & rose hips on a wild rosebush.

 A green cluster of berries gives a contrast of colour to the reddish stem & the brown & green leaves.

Sharp thorns on a hawthorn tree. I found so much colour & textures when exploring the Burwalde Woods. 

Autumn - My Favourite Season

This was taken on Pembina Ave, here in town. This street has quite a few of these colourful Maple trees that put on a beautiful show every fall.

Lovely sunset just outside my backdoor.

This Silver Maple grew many inches this summer.

 

Leaves on my Autumn Blaze Maple.

This is 2 Tidal Wave petunia plants that have bloomed & bloomed all summer long.

This was taken at the Hoop & Holler Bend close to Portage. 

This colourful field is asparagus.

Island Park at Portage.

Took a different route home from Portage this past week & saw this large herd of horses.

And then we saw this pond with Canada geese & 1 lonely swan.

The geese didn't seem to mind sharing the pond with this young heifer.

Autumn on the Prairies

Fall. A favourite time of the year for me. Cooler nights, that first hint of frost in the air, pumpkins appearing everywhere.

Fall colours everywhere.

This was taken overlooking the golf course at Morden.

This was taken at Island Park in Portage la Prairie.

Don't know the name of this tree. Love the changing of green to red in the leaves.

Oak leaves usually turn from green to brown quickly. Here I found an oak leaf with yellow colouring.

This was taken at Island Park too. One of my favourite places to visit in the fall.

Visiting the Rockies- Final

 At Radium, the Mountain Sheep know exactly where to cross the street!

 The highway on the way to the hot springs. We spent about an hour at the hot springs & then I was so exhausted from the minerals in the water that we went to our hotel room & had a nap!

 A stream in the ravine beside the highway at Radium.

 Gateway Motel where we stayed at Radium. Someone here has an amazing green thumb as these baskets of flowers were filled to overflowing with bright, large blossoms.

This was taken on the way to Panorama Mountain, just west of Invermere.

The mountain stream was so clear, the beauty of the changing leaves contrasted sharply with the green of the pines & the air was so clean & fresh - memories of the Rockies.

Sunset in the mountains. We cut our holiday short because it started to rain & the weather forecast was more rain for the next 3 days so we decided to go home & to return another time as we didn't see all the sights that we had on our agenda. We said that we needed to leave somethings for another time.