It is still summer, isn't it?

Is anyone out there noticing that the leaves are changing much earlier this year? Since when do they start changing the first week of August? In the past I have noticed colour changes during the latter part of August just before the kids return to school but on our way home from Muskoka I spotted several trees that had completely changed and were a vibrant red. I opened my mouth to comment on it and my DH said he had been thinking the same thing. I don't know if it's the cooler nights we've been having this summer or what but I for one am not impressed! Don't get me wrong, I love autumn but this summer I'm feeling cheated. It's rained at some point in time nearly every day. We had an incredible storm just last night. It carried on through most of the evening.We've had very few stretches of sunny days at all lately. When I see those trees changing it just reminds me of that miserable winter we suffered through. It's returning far too quickly.

On my last two posts I've neglected to say thanks to both Von and Dani for nominating me for a Brillante Award. Both of these super ladies nominated me while I was on vacation but I declined to pass on the award because of my limited access to a computer. Now that I'm home I couldn't possibly limit this award to only 7 people. There are too many bloggers out there whose work inspires me. Thank you to all the many bloggers who have shared so much with me over the past year and from whom I've learned a lot! A special thanks again to Von and Dani for choosing me as a recipient.

I'm not terribly ambitious so far this week. There has been a somber mood at work. During the past two days alone we've had some bad news. First, one of my co-workers' brothers died at age 40 from a stroke. They had been estranged but it has been hard on her family.As if that wasn't enough, today our secretary's husband was brought into Emergency feeling short of breath and within an hour he had died. Only 56 and it appears he has suffered a stroke as well. I happened to be the first to arrive at work right after this happened and received a call from one of the nurses to tell me that our friend was down in the hospital family room alone with no-one to comfort her. All her family lives out of town and apparently they are not close. I'm feeling kind of shell-shocked. She was so terribly distraught and not knowing her all that well,(she's only worked with us for a short time) I just didn't know how to console her. I kept trying to imagine how I'd feel in her place.

Then shortly after came the news that our boss, who has been suffering from back pain, is now diagnosed with lung cancer which has already spread to the bones and brain. He's only 56 as well and is the fifth person within our lab to be diagnosed with cancer.We've already lost one co-worker at age 45 with ovarian cancer. Although he's our boss now, for many years prior he worked alongside us as a tech. He'd just taken retirement and come back to work part-time on contract. We are all feeling as if life isn't very fair to these people and their families. As much as I may complain at times, I feel so blessed that my DH and I have our health and a loving, close family who support each other. I'll be saying extra prayers tonight.

As a result of all this I haven't stitched for the past couple of nights, but I do have some progress to show. I worked a little more on the weekend on CdC and even picked up my other Tantes Zolder piece for a short spell. Here's the results. I'm about a third of the way into my fourth page on CdC ( which is actually page 6 since I'm working my way backwards now). I'd like to continue working on both but my ornie needs to be complete by the end of the month. I only have the border to finish on that one. Plus I'm getting the urge to get started on my Witches Garden. Then I think I should be starting the Christmas present I'm stitching for my youngest sister in order to have it completely finished in time. I'm planning on stitching M Designs Peace Tree for her as a flatfold rather than an ornament. My head is just swimming at the moment so I think the best thing right now is to head off to bed early and leave the decisions until later. Sorry for such a depressing post. Here's hoping for better days ahead.