Muskoka- Here I Come!

Yippee! After weeks of counting down, my vacation time has finally arrived. The last few weeks at work have been just horrendous. Anything that could go wrong did and I'm glad to be taking my leave for a couple of weeks. This coming Thursday we head up to the cottage in Bala where I can hardly wait to take a seat on the dock, stitching in hand. The only stitching I've done recently doesn't count since there's very little progress but I do have a pic of Nature's Beauty to show you where I am so far.

As you can see, I haven't got very far but I'm hoping to rectify that in the coming days. Spring Lace is still hanging around too but I haven't got enough progress for another pic right now.

I have a new toy to aid me in blogging while I'm away. Last week I bought my very first laptop. I've been saving for one of these for awhile and I'd already researched them and had an idea as to what I wanted. This will make things so much easier for us while we're away from home. My DH likes to keep in touch so that he knows whether or not he has to play any funerals or weddings when he returns. In the past we've wasted a lot of time waiting to get on the computers at the local library and then your time is limited so I never bothered. Now we'll be able to keep up right from our home away from home. When I bought the computer you also got a deal on an internet stick so that we should be able to access the internet wherever you can pick up a cell phone signal. We'll see just how well it works! So if you don't hear from me while we're away you'll know that it was a washout.
My son Dan is accompanying us on this trip and he's quite excited since this is his first visit to Muskoka. We're going to head out on Thursday morning and we have about a six hour drive ahead of us. Since we're pulling the boat it might take us a bit longer. I can't use my usual lead foot when I'm towing the boat! Please keep your fingers crossed for good weather. I don't know about the rest of you but it's been a pretty lousy summer here so far. Much cooler and plenty of rain. The weather network forecasts improving temps but I don't trust them since they've been off on their forecasts most of the time.

We've brought over Dan's cat Tugger to keep Clarisse company while we're gone and a neighbour will come in and feed them for us. They're making acquaintance again right now. I can't say that it's all going well though since there seems to be quite a lot of fighting and hissing going on. They should settle down in a couple of days.

My Mom and Step-Father were visiting our place this past weekend and just headed home this morning. It's been 2 yrs since their last visit. We're about 500 miles apart and I know that my Mom just hates the drive, which is 8-9 hrs long. We tried to get my oldest here with his girls but it didn't work out. However the other two boys each got to spend some time with them which was nice. Dan was already here and we managed to hook up with Chris in Ottawa for lunch on Sunday. Saturday afternoon I took them to the village of Merrickville, which is a lovely little village along the Rideau Canal system. There's a set of locks there where you can watch the boats coming and going and the village is full of lots of quaint shops to check out. We had a lovely afternoon and the rain skirted all around us but we weren't touched. The photo on the left is a view of the main shopping district and shows some of the lovely architecture in the village. The photo on the right is of Dan and my Mom.

Now I'm in the process of deciding which stitching projects I should bring with me. I'd like to start another small for the trip up. I was also checking out Chapters this weekend for some good reads. I picked up the last novel in the Harry Potter series as well as one called Reading Lolita in Tehran which is a true story of students in Iran studying forbidden Western classics. This one promises to be interesting.

As I'm working on this post I'm having a heck of a time moving my photos about on this new laptop. This is going to take some getting used to.

My next post should be from the cottage if we ever get that internet stick working! I really hope we do because I also want to get caught up with all of you. I've been away for too long.