Long Weekend Wrap Up

The past four days have gone by all too fast. I had a birthday, ate with chopsticks...well mostly, enjoyed a Fall Fair, had friends over for dinner and drove through some really gorgeous vistas in full fall colour to visit The Heiress at school. I've barely had time to pour over some recent acquisitions! Finally, They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple has been reprinted and one can never have too much Whipple. In my quest to read more Elizabeth Taylor I pre-ordered A Game of Hide and Seek almost two months ago and look forward to comparing this one with, In a Summer Season. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith is a book that I read about on Simon's blog awhile ago and has 'stuck' with me ever since. I was walking around Indigo in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, looked up and there it was in all it's witty English, historical social culture glory. I'm not shy about admitting that I smile and scrunch my shoulders in glee when browsing through its pages.

Most of Kitchener was shut yesterday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. But after a lovely visit with The Heiress, R spied a bookshop that was open - hooray! The Barbara Pym is one that we don't have at the library so I couldn't say no. Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart was in pretty good shape and rather inexpensive, again, I couldn't resist. Short stories are something I've come to appreciate more and more lately and short stories by Muriel Spark should definitely grace my shelves. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 2 was in...well, not very good shape. The pages are yellow, they even smell a bit stale but I couldn't leave it behind. R may have wished that I had as I was glued to it for the hour's drive back home!

And this is an absolutely gratuitous photo of the beautiful flowers that my lovely husband gave me on Friday. All together now....'Awwww'.

Balls Falls Conservation Area

We love taking a drive out to the Balls Falls Fall Fair every Thanksgiving long weekend. You know that you've arrived when you hear music, smell woodsmoke and the delicious aroma of apple fritters being fried on the spot. I'm more than a bit concerned about these teens sitting around a vat of boiling hot oil though, yikes!

This mill has a giant wheel churning away inside, grinding wheat into flour. The lower level is very dark and has that wonderful aroma of being ages old. There's a display of tools used during the last century as well, it's all very historical and fascinating.

The blacksmith's shop is the place to be if you're cold! Just behind him is the bellows to bring the fire to a raging hot glow, I'd love to have one of those for our fireplace.

Here are the falls from which the conservation area gets its name, very serene but quite a drop!

Who wouldn't have wanted a teepee in your backyard as a child? All those sheets thrown over chairs or clotheslines in the backyard were a pretend version of this.

I've spared you the photo of the large order of chips and gravy that I had for lunch. The sun was shining the brass band was playing and the aroma of chip fat was in the air - what a day! Unfortunately, I was too full to enjoy one of those hot apple fritters made by those poor teens putting their lives at risk to make. I was able to manage a cup of freshly pressed hot apple cider for the drive home though. A lovely drive through some small towns, past homes with porches decorated with pumpkins, corn stalks and pots of Mums. A lovely day indeed!