This, That and Two Birthdays

This is my favourite weekend of the year, the Thanksgiving long weekend.  It's also known in our house as Darlene-a-palooza as my birthday falls around the same time.

Fall fairs, pumpkin pie, gorgeous colours, people making merry and somehow, like magic, the weather usually cooperates making for the best country drives.

My blog is two years old today and I am another year older as well.  Later this afternoon, R and I will be joining a group of friends to tour a couple of wineries in the Niagara region.  We're really looking forward to sampling a variety of wines while nibbling on cheese and crackers and having a laugh.  And of course there will be cake!

My Hawthorne scarf is finished, just in time to wear to the Balls Falls Fall Fair tomorrow.  In J Peterman catalogue-speak, the crisp autumnal air entwined with the reddish and golden hues of fall foliage will create the perfect atmosphere for this accessory.  This project was so much fun and I was so pleased with the result that I've started another one in blue!
            
The Heiress has come home for the weekend full of excitement and anxiety that there are so many plans to be made for next year in regards to her MA.

And last but not least, I've finally managed to finish The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.  This wasn't the most stellar of reading experiences for me, I much preferred No Name.  There was one line though that for some reason I found utterly captivating by Mrs Catherick 'The dress of Virtue, in our parts, was cotton print.  I had silk.'  How dramatic and yet it says so much doesn't it.  This book was definitely a roller coaster ride in that when it was good it was great but then it would get tedious in description or tangents and I would glaze over.  This book, for me, would rank as one of those which I expected to love and was disappointed by but I am most definitely not put off by Collins!

Time to put on some lipstick, grab my purse and set off for wine country.  Enjoy your day wherever you are!

Blog Friends

Last week, I had the delightful pleasure of receiving a parcel from Book Psmith, as was.  Stacy will always be Book Psmith to me even though she has called time on her blog.  When she left the blogsphere I wrote that I would keep in touch and we have sent an email or two back and forth.  To let her know she is still thought of, I sent off a postcard and was so surprised when she sent me back one of the Yarn Harlot's books and a gorgeous flower pin!

A few weeks ago, in response to my post about British treats, Cornflower generously sent me some Tunnock's teacakes and wafers.  My belt is fitting a tad tighter this week and I have only myself to blame...I ate them ALL myself.  Shocking isn't it!?  Offers were made to share, I just want to be clear that I wasn't scarfing down chocolate treats in the closet or anything. 

Over the past two years I've referred to those of you who drop in here as blog friends.  Whether you realize it or not, you have all been mentioned at our dinner table.  Be it a trip you've taken or a new book which you've bought that sounds really tantalizing, the adoption or passing of a beloved pet.  When Verity got engaged it was announced in our house!  In Rachel's case, we've been following her hopes of moving to this side of the pond for months...and now she's done it!  At first I referred to you by your blog names but I've come to realize that many of you are now referred to by your first name.

When I mention the kind gesture of a book sent through the mail or a bookmark won in a contest, I am frequently asked who sent it.  When I say it was a blog friend, I sometimes wonder if my friends or colleagues think I'm a tad doolally to consider people from blogs as friends?  We didn't grow up on Facebook so perhaps it's a generational issue.

There are some really lovely people out there who just so happen to like some of the same things that I do and I'm more than pleased to have 'met' them.  And in Kristina's case, I actually have met her!  We lunched in London...a totally gratuitous statement, I just like saying it. 

I'm really interested so please, do tell.  How do you refer to the people you communicate with through your blogs when talking to colleagues, friends or family and how receptive are they about it all?