They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions … if so, my road is well paved! So many memories keep coming up on my Fb page – and I continue to be totally unfocused both on actually blogging and on the content of the blog – that I think I will try to write about whatever moves me for the day than be focused. We will see how that works!

So, …

we are not talking about storm vs rain sewers … but sewers who sew things! My mother was a sewer throughout her life. She made her clothes (and mine) as I was growing up and when I was a teenager, she taught me to sew. She also taught me to keep the “cuttings” of leftover fabric “just in case”. I still keep them! Once one has such a collection of cuttings it is called a “stash” and can, if not carefully managed, overwhelm any storage space available for it!

This is the last of the “stash” I inherited from my mother as she moved from her house into a retirement residence in 2009. She took to quilting in her 50’s and thus had large numbers of pieces of fabric – 100% cotton! -in her “stash” that I used  when I was making masks through the first two years of the pandemic and donating to the food bank for their clientele. They are now handing out N95 masks and the clientele are now used to having to bring and wear a mask so this last piece of fabric has been cut out to make a cheerful blouse for me to remember my mother.

30 years ago as my mother took up quilting seriously, she made me this “quillow” (a quilt with a pocket into which it could be folded to make a pillow or into which feet could be put to warm.). It was especially welcome as one of the original squares was the leftover cuttings from a dress I made from fabric my mother was given by Great Aunt Molly from Great Aunt Mabel’s (Grampa Scammell’s sister) stash in 1978 when she died and Mom had given me. I gave Mom back the saved “cuttings” to use in her quilting and she saved it and some other fabric “cuttings” from clothes I made as a teenager to make this quilt. As one can see, the quilt has received heavy use over the years and, given that the age of the fabrics was much older than the quilt, some have failed – it is now somewhat more of a “patchwork quilt” in that I have added complimentary fabrics (mostly bought during a trip from Jordan to visit my brother in Qatar over New Year’s 99-00) as patches for the failed older fabric. Still more memories added to the quilt!

40 years ago on 24 April 1982, Sahib and I received this quilt, made by my mother, as our wedding gift! My mother had used the “cuttings stash” I left behind when I left home and some of her own “stash” to make the quilt! I can remember what she and I made out of the fabrics, what patterns we used, what clothes we had – and what fights we sometimes had about taking an incorrect seam out! Needless to say, I have now added a few more “patches” as repairs when older fabrics have failed from being well used. When Mom gave it to us, we both had a few tears!

ps. The lump under the quilt at the back right is our cat – who loves to crawl up under a quilt when she thinks the house is too cool and have a long snooze!

Well, all the good intentions of the past have not led to a regular blog … even with all the time on my hands with Covid-19 lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, etc.

11 March 2021 – we are told to stay home or, if outside Canada, get home. I got home from Belize on 10 February 2021 and haven’t been further east than Oakville or further west than Point Pelee since. Twice in September I was camping – once at Rondeau Provincial Park, once at Wheatley Provincial Park – at a time when the numbers of covid cases were down, things seemed to be doing better and provincial parks were open. We have been locked down since Boxing Day (for the non-colonials or non-Brits, that is 26 December 2021) and under a stay-at-home order since 06 April 2021 … supposedly to end 20 May 2021. However, the numbers of Covid cases goes up, hospitals and ICU’s are bursting at the seams and that end date seems likely not to be firm. As with so much of this pandemic, the goalposts keep moving just out of reach. At first it was “weeks”, then it was “months” and now we are well into our second year.

With vaccines available, one would think we should be near the end but the virus now has new variants that are more transmissible and less amenable to the vaccines already on the market. Not only that, Canada manufactures no vaccines in-country anymore where we were once a leader in vaccine development and manufacturing. Sadly, we seem no closer now than we did a year ago to being able to produce vaccines in Canada – we have not taken advantage of the past year to either build a manufacturing facility (although we have Mirabel Airport sitting in mothballs which is surely big enough and could be converted) or negotiate licencing agreements to produce the vaccines in Canada. So, with the inability of our politicians to think out of the box resulting in a botched vaccine rollout, the percentage of our population that is vaccinated is low (approximately 34% have had a first dose). The additional problem is the Covidiots – those that deny Covid is any worse than a cold or flu; who think masks are unnecesary and that their “freedoms” are being impinged upon by Public Health orders. This, before getting back in their car, putting on their seatbelt and driving away. In the meantime, the compliant are beginning to breakdown from Covid-fatigue.

I know I have struggled throughout … prior to this, I was retired but working contract work for my previous employer. Covid ended that and now my income is half what it was. My contracts were international and I travelled extensively (and lived for weeks or months at a time in other countries) and, when I was not doing that I was travelling on my own dime either for pleasure or to see my children and grandchildren who live far away. Now I stay home. M is a home body and did not, for the most part, travel with me so M has not really been impacted and has difficulty understanding why I do. M volunteers twice a week at the food bank and I have dragged out my sewing machine (then bought a new one) and have been making masks and donating them to the food back – well over 500 now and counting! I have 25 folded and ready for the final sewing awaiting my doing in the near future.

We have also formed a “household” with a daughter, her husband, our two grandchildren, his parents and brother with whom they live. Her husband works (not from home) while our daughter works from home. The children have spent significant time with us when the schools have been closed – as they are now. Difficult for all concerned but the least we can do. While the schools were open we did not see them at all. Fortunately now, M and I, our daughter’s husband, and his parents all have had our first vaccination. Her brother in law has his soon and hopefully she will get hers soon now that it seems it will become a free-for-all (or at least those over 18) in mid-May.

So, just a bit of catch up – will try to get back into blogging … I suspect it will be a combo of past travels, current comfort food, gardening/preserving successes and, perhaps a kitten picture or two – Kitu came to live with us on New Year’s Eve and has been a delight: she was a rescue so her birthdate is unknown but suspected to be September so she is about 8 months old now. She loves to play fetch with a small plastic spring. She does not always bring them back so there are about 30 scattered throughout the house: most in spots inaccessible to a kitten.

Until the next time,

The rain has continued: usually starting after a sunny afternoon and carrying on through the night until midmorning at varying intensities from drizzle to bucketing down. This is good as it keeps the cisterns that store the rainwater from the roof full.

However, the drizzly rain I awoke to yesterday almost caused me to bail on the boat trip but I decided “what the heck, let’s have an adventure”. The drizzle let up about the time Jason came with the boat at 7:30 and W and I headed into Placencia for his dentist’s appointment and the inevitable messages to be run when a trip into town is necessary. As we went along, dark clouds gathered and just before we headed into the storm, there was a glorious rainbow, at times a double rainbow, that hovered over the mangrove swamps below a cloudy blue sky. W got some great pictures before diving for the tarp he had brought. We held down one end of the tarp with our feet and held up the other as a shield in front of us. With the shade cover overhead and the tarp we managed to stay surprisingly dry. The table, going in for repairs, that was in the middle of the boat did not fare so well but the water was beading on the surface of it so it likely did okay. Before landing at Robert’s marina, we pulled into the airport canal where the table fixer came and loaded it up. The penny had not dropped and when we turned around to head out of the canal, we came face to face with a Tropic Air flight about to land on the other side of the canal – the landing strip of the airport! Jason had the boat at a crawl and slowed it even more and the plane landed safely without taking off the shade cover on the boat.

We then went on to the dock where W picked up the car and we quickly loaded it up with the empty water bottles, empty gas bottles and the cooler we had brought with us and headed in to town. We stopped en route at a property W and D have bought and checked out progress there. Once in to town, we stopped for breakfast (for W, second breakfast for me) at Da Tatch where he enjoyed a waffle and hash browns while I had a breakfast burrito, sans ham and bacon for this vegetarian. The burrito was more than I could eat but soooo good.

W then headed off to his dentist appointment and I to the Barefoot Bar on the lagoon beach where I had an ice tea. Then I took a walk on the beach while I tried to call Sahib but he did not pick up so I left him a message. D had advised a walk on the “sidewalk” that is about a mile long and runs parallel to the main road and the lagoon beach about equidistant from each. It was interesting, a few souvenir shops and clothing places. Just seeing the various guest houses and local homes and the differing architecture of each was pleasant. W then called the cell phone he had given me but, being the klutz I am with cell phones, there was some confusion. We did, eventually, meet up at the Barefoot Bar successfully.

Then W did a whirlwind of miscellaneous messages, errands and shopping while I tagged along picking up a few things for the rest of my stay at the grocery store. We then picked up a friend of D and W’s coming out for a few day’s visit and their handy man Sv prior to calling Jason and meeting him back at the dock. Boat loaded, we headed out in glorious sunshine and still seas for the ride back. Jason has hawk eyes and spotted a pod of at least 5 dolphins playing in the calm waters and W got great pics. I had left my camera behind as it really, really does not like to get wet and hoped my cell phone camera was still working, which it was not. Given that the phone has been back to the manufacturer several times for repair with very little success and has been nothing but frustration, I think I will pay off the small balance due for the phone itself, cancel the service contract since I have had not had satisfactory service and I am done trying for it, smash the phone, get a new phone and switch providers when I get back!

We arrived back at 3 pm having had a marvellous return trip. However, the early rising and day of fresh air and (mostly) sun had left me tired with drooping eyelids after supper and I turned in about 9 pm and slept very, very well.

 

Yesterday was sunny and bright but not too hot after a night of rain, so I washed a few things and hung them on the balcony to dry. Then D and W seem to have invoked the weather gods and last night saw high winds bringing rain into the cabana through the windows so I had to close the louvres. Just before the rain, I heard a clicky clack against the screens inside the louvres and found the ugly brown beetles that have, thankfully, up to now been absent this year, had arrived in swarms. Once the rain started I had to open the screens to close the louvres and a few of them made it into the cabana and took to dive-bombing me. Each and every one of them was thrown out the door to make their own survival plans.

 

Just before drifting off last night I became aware of a firefly in the cabana. I gave an amazing amount of light as it flew around the ceiling.

 

Awoke this morning to find a sodden, rain-drenched world outside. Seems to have rained, if gently, all night but this morning the skies have opened and it is pouring buckets. Can only surmise D and W’s invocation because W has a dentist appointment in Placencia on Monday and I suspect it might get cancelled if the weather were like this. W and I will head into Placencia and have a “second breakfast” then I will do a small grocery shop while W gets his tooth fixed before heading back here.

 

D and W have put new rain gutters on the cabana and more water tanks out back to store the rain water since I was here last year. At the foot of the stairs, D and W keep a basin of water to rinse one’s feet after walking on the sand and, given that it is now overflowing after all the rain, I suspect the tanks are full, too. I will take advantage of it today to wash my hair since a walk up the beach is out.

While this blog has expanded from “just” travel to the renovations done to our house, picking (and processing for the freezer) gooseberries gives plenty of time for thoughtful reflection so here are some of my musings.

As we moved into the house and lifted the house up to put in a new basement, we found two red currant bushes hidden in a corner. We had Roger pick them up with his front-end loader and put them in the middle of what would become our vegetable garden. Loving all small fruit and berries, we were glad to save these bushes. They lived happily in the middle of our veg garden for two years while recovering from the move … then we moved them forward of the veg garden and went to the garden centre where we acquired and planted company for the two red currant bushes … another red currant bush as well as two black currant bushes and a couple of gooseberry bushes.

All of these have thrived – this year’s gooseberry harvest was 17 litres from the original two gooseberry bushes, two more we added later and one that came up in the grass from one of the early added bushes!

And, what, you asked, do I do with all these gooseberries? Well, first I wash them then top and tail them – removing the little stem and scraping off the remainder of the blossom.

I then set aside enough to make a batch of gooseberry jam – the instructions carefully saved from Certo bottles of 20 years ago since nowadays Certo only offers three or four of the most popular jam recipes!

Then I line cookie trays with wax paper and spread the rest of the gooseberries out. I stack the trays in the freezer – which is usually pretty empty at this time of year – overnight. The next day, I take the gooseberries off of the trays and put them in bags and put them in the freezer.

Throughout the winter, we enjoy gooseberry pies. I also make gooseberry-yoghurt popsicles:

2 cups yoghurt

1 cup thawed gooseberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

Blend with immersion blender before pouring the mixture into an ice cream maker. Follow the ice cream maker instructions and when not too solid use a teaspoon to fill popsicle molds, put in freezer until frozen. Unmold and enjoy. Makes about 9-10 depending on size of molds!

This year’s garden, above, just before it went stark raving mad .. everything is much, much bigger now .. the dill plants are taller than I am and the beans produced 12 quarts today. The currant and gooseberry bushes are behind the photographer! We certainly love the summer when “What’s for dinner?” is answered “What is ready in the garden today?”

 

 

 

So, the background work had all been done: the town had come and marked the water and sewer entries; the mason had come and had done a sling for the remaining (furnace) chimney to hold it as the house was raised; the electrician had come and dealt with the panel box; the oil company had sent workers who had removed the oil tank and disconnected the furnace; the plumber had come and disconnected all water into and out of the house; neighbours had offered use of their bathroom as needed although we had a small camping potty we could use most of the time. We were, if hesitantly, ready for the big day!

Roger and his crew … two other workers and the mini-Cat showed up … with three 50 foot I-beams.

Before (remember, this is the “before house”) the I-beams could be placed, Roger used a laser level to decide where, exactly, under the house the beams would go and a cement saw to start the holes in the foundation, such as it was, through which the I-beams would go – making the holes big enough to slide the I-beams through. He had also cut through the walls of additions that had been put on the house that had no foundation.

Our street being narrow, it was not easy bringing each I-beam individually down the street nor placing them through the holes – our neighbour across the street was very gracious about the “trespass” committed especially since the process did create a bit of a path through his grass (which we promised to repair … and did later) while the neighbour behind us was quite rude, allowing Roger and his crew to manoever the I-beams over his property but not allowing them to step foot over the property line.

This became, for the duration, the way in and out of the house!!

To keep the house level, Roger and his crew built these Jenja type stands under the I-beams to hold them level.

Then Roger and crew set up huge jacks – this picture is much later in the process, but imagine these jacks raising the house, inch by inch while each is levered by human power!! First they would do the three jacks at the front of the house…then the three at the back … an inch or so at a time. Then, when four inches had been raised, they added a 4×4 inch wooden block into the Jenja pile … and carried on until the house was fully raised.

In the meantime, my employer had arranged for my spouse and myself, at their expense (!!) to take a “retirement planning course” in a nearby city … so, after the house was raised up, off we went leaving Roger and crew and one of our neighbours (as official photographer) behind the next day. Roger made good use of the mini-Cat to clear everything out from under the house, haul away the back porch stoop made of concrete, move the red currant bushes from beside the house into the garden. The neighbour had a lovely time watching all this and gave us his photos:

And, of course, when we got home, we had to have a photo taken:

…we may not have been physically holding the house up, but we sure were financially!

In 2005, anticipating our retirement in 2007, we bought a house – at the time, not certain of its age – that we now know was built well before 1903.

On a quiet lane, 25 metres from the TransCanada Trail and the Waterfowl Park, it was in pretty sad shape … and priced accordingly. We bought it while were were on vacation in Canada and for two years, rented it to students.

In April of 2007 we left India, spent a week in London as tourists in order to decompress and carried on to a cousin’s cottage on the Bay of Fundy where we relaxed between buying a car and picking up all of the goods and chattels we had left here and there during 14 years living outside of Canada but vacation back in Canada – usually camping with tent, air mattresses, Coleman stove, etc. – from a storage unit in Hamilton ON through relatives and friends holding various collections of books and stamp collections along the route back to the Maritimes.

A week before the lease was up, we toddled over to our house, disturbed our tenants and parked all of the various bits and pieces in the garage. Then, we left them alone, they moved out and on 01 May we “moved in” with an air mattress, sleeping bag and our suitcases and worked hard to clean the house prior to the arrival of anything more.

The next day our shipment of household furniture that had been in storage in Ottawa arrived – sadly missing many things including our couch. Seems there were 7 skids of our things in storage and we only got 6 skids back. The insurance claim was pages long and based on the inventory of what had gone in to storage in the first place.

The following Friday, we headed off to Moncton to meet up with Canada Customs, along with the inventory we had of what was in our shipment from India. Successfully clearing that, the movers arrived the following Monday with the shipping container. The only damage was a brass statue of a dancing Shiva where the welds had been damaged and broken due to salt water leaking in one corner of the container.

Having moved in, we then had an opportunity to take stock! And some stock it was! The house needed lots of repairs and the sooner they started the better. We soon found that this was a “before” house. It had “good bones” but “before you can do that you have to do this” became its theme….and the adventure of 10 years of renovations … and the travels in between not only personal travels but Habitat for Humanity builds and contract work that paid for all of the foregoing … began!

This blog then, is the story of all those adventures!

 

 

 

I originally started this blog to write about my various travels. One Habitat for Humanity trip to Sri Lanka, two years ago, and my resolve withered!

So, I am going to try and refocus the blog … looking at not only the travels but the home front renovations since I formally took early retirement in 2007. Since moving back to a small town in the Canadian Maritimes, I have travelled for fun and to do Habitat for Humanity builds and, with my spouse M, worked at renovating a 100+ year old house … all of the foregoing paid for through doing contract work around the globe allowing for even more travel.

So, since I cannot figure out how to write and add photos to this blog (hopefully, learn as I go) will leave this post with a photo of our house in India that we left in 2007: