We're pretty much over summer

We had a late start to summer this year because we weren't here, but it is making up for our lost time now.  According to the weather people we are having a "low intensity heatwave" and have been since Christmas Eve......well, fancy that.  I would much prefer no heatwave at all.

Unfortunately I don't have the power to do anything about it, so we just have to suffer.

It was cooler in Canada.  This is the view looking west from our apartment window - see the bus stop around the corner?  We used it several times, but not on the day this was taken.

 Looking straight across the road.

I know that's not much snow compared to what some of you see every winter, but it's a big deal for us!

The day we drove from Midland to Goderich was quite snowy and very beautiful, if a little exciting for people not used to snow driving.  Maxwell is quite a small town with a diner where one can get excellent coffee; an agricultural machinery place - not quite what we needed - an Amish furniture store, and a really good quilt store, Threads That Bind.  On the premise of  'pics or it didn't happen' here is some of the snow that day......but this is nothing like we had driven through already, almost a whiteout in places.

Some fabric came home with me from Maxwell.  When the owner realised that I had come from a long way away she reached onto a shelf and gave me a fat quarter of fabric, saying she likes to give a gift to customers who have come a long way - how nice is that?  It's a fun piece with moose in checked jackets, and will become the feature fabric on a table centre because it's too good to cut into teeny pieces.

Stitches have been happening, an entire whole quilt top has been completed!  Not yet photographed, but that will be rectified in the next day or two or three.  The challenge quilt top is done.  I wouldn't like to have to count the number of orange spots in that fabric......it will be pinned to its fleecy backing next week and will have straight line quilting, then bound by machine, and it will be called "Quits".

The town is starting to fill with visitors who come for the annual country music festival.  It doesn't officially start until late next week but people arrive early to get a good camping spot, some even camping illegally until the camp grounds are officially open.  These are possibly the same folk who expect locals to step aside for them; while most visitors are reasonable we do get some 'special' people who think the world revolves around them and their demands.

Locals like to play "spot the visitor", and while it's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel it can be fun.  When we were doing some shopping in the main drag yesterday we saw some wondrous sights; I felt like tapping a couple of women on the shoulder and whispering to them that the bra was invented for a reason.  But being the nice person as what I am, I didn't.

Never mind, the money they leave behind them is as good as anyone else's, and the town does quite well out of it.

"Limit of a prolonged visit.
If no exact length of time is specified, it is well for visitors to limit a visit to three days or a week, according to the degree of intimacy they may have with the family, or the distance they have come to pay the visit, announcing this limitation soon after arrival, so that the host and the hostess may invite a prolongation of the stay if they desire it, or so that they can make their arrangements in accordance.  One never likes to ask of a guest, "How long do you intend to remain?" yet it is often most desirable to know."

We know that nearly all of these visitors will be gone by the end of the month as the festival finishes on 27th January, so that spares both parties the embarrassment of needing to ask.

Enjoy your days!