August TUSAL with a finish to boot!

Yes it's August, can you believe it! Summer really must pass by quicker than all the other seasons. With the beginning of the month comes TUSAL time.

Look closely and you can see my ort jar hiding out above the tablet in this pic. Most of my stitching in the summer takes place in our gazebo which is where this little plaque hangs. It was a retirement gift from my younger sister and is just so appropriate for a morning or evening of stitching in the gazebo.

My orts have lots of blacks and whites from my Wicked Plant stitch. Fruit of the Spirit contributed most of the other orts. 
Here's a pic of my stitching spot in the gazebo.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this time of year unless it's  Muskoka!

The cooler weather we've had here for the past week has been so pleasant that I stitched up a storm and finished up A Wicked Plant on the weekend.

Barbara Ana Designs A Wicked Plant
stitched on 32ct PTP Ancient
using DMC and Gentle Art Sampler floss

I love the way that this one looks on the fabric. I think it's going to look great when it's framed. See if you can spot the little mouse. I hadn't even noticed him until I got to that portion of the chart. He's adorable with his curly tail!

I needed a change after stitching with all that black and the neutrals so I hunted through my freebies and came upon this cute, summer project. It's a freebie from Eszter over at Sub Rosa and it had all the light, summery colours I was looking for. I just started it Sunday night and here's my progress so far.

The white on the bee wasn't showing up on my light fabric so I did a little backstitching to highlight it. I'll be concentrating on this for the next few days since we are travelling unexpectedly to attend a funeral in Sault Ste. Marie. It will be a good travelling companion.

Each year our church holds a silent auction as a fundraiser and my DH offers a boat ride as one of the items for bidding. The Civic Holiday Monday was a perfect day for this ride so he contacted the winning bidders and we headed out to the St. Lawrence for a tour.
Here are a few of the sights along the way.

We spotted this osprey nest first thing and then I noticed Mom approaching in the distance.

She posed very nicely for us. I don't think her young were in the nest any longer but she seems to be hanging around the area so perhaps they were flying nearby.

Next we heard a plane overhead and I suddenly realized it was a biplane!

I didn't realize until later that there is a small airport just outside Morrisburg which offers rides in these planes. We'll have to check them out on another venture.

After leaving Morrisburg, the next location we passed on the river was Iroquois, Ontario. At this location there is a dam over the river and the freighters must use the locks here. The dam isn't often in use and when it isn't, they open a couple of the gates for the smaller boats to travel through.

It doesn't look high enough to pass under does it? However, this is the very gate which we had just passed through. From Iroquois we next approached the village of Cardinal. When we got to this point we decided to continue on up to the International bridge crossing at Prescott. This bridge will take you over to Ogdensburg, N.Y.

At this point we decided to turn around and head back. We had been travelling for over an hour now.
On the way back we had to switch gas tanks and when we did there seemed to be a problem with the connector on the new tank. We couldn't get the motor going at all. This happened last year and they replaced the connection on this tank but obviously it didn't help!
After several tries to get going we decided to transfer the gas from said tank into the empty one which we knew had a good connection. Success! We were underway once more.

You may not be able to tell, but those are dairy cows on that island. Yes, it's an island! Each year they are brought over to graze on this land. I'm not sure how they transfer them over or even if they have a barn on the island. Obviously there must be or how else would they get milked? The island is on the American side of the river and I've yet to see them being moved. This particular day the cows were hanging out at the beach!

For me, a long boat ride always results in a great night's sleep. I woke refreshed and ready for today.Tonight I'm heading into Ottawa to hook up with my Tuesday night group. We are being joined by our contact for the Torah project. I have a few questions to ask her and then I'm afraid I have to head home early and get packed for our short trip. See you in a little while and keep on stitching!