It's a cloudy, warm day at the farmette. We're back to needing rain once more. I was out watering the baskets and pots and nearly got carried away by mosquitoes again.
We were supposed to be on Sandy and Brian's boat this weekend, but life and technical glitches happen and we had to postpone. So I thought I might as well do a post, given that I'm turning the big 59 tomorrow.
Cripes. How did five - and nearly six - decades happen? On the one hand it's gone way too quickly, and on the other hand, I have managed to cram quite a bit in, even with the pandemic over the past year.

We hosted a barbecue dinner with the Thornton family almost exactly a year ago to celebrate my and Sandy's birthdays. She's just 2 years and eight days younger than me. Older sister Barb is festooned with one of my hibiscus flowers. Cute, eh?

While travel was curtailed, somewhat, we did manage to do a few road trips. This one was in the late fall, when we went down to the London area to visit with Barb and friend Leanne, who lives just outside St. Thomas. We went to this little cool restaurant in the middle of nearly-nowhere. The food was fantastic, though. There seem to be a lot more of these popping up all the time.

Christmas Eve was a blast over again at the Thorntons. Rob's looking fairly satisfied after a massive dinner of snow crab, prime rib, Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.
Fun, family, silliness and memorable times were had by all.

March came along, and it was time to tap trees and make maple syrup. Here's niece Erin with Sadie in the little shed that serves as storage for the boil-down of the sap.
Hard, hard work slogging through the snow, but worth it when we open that lovely sweet nectar through the rest of the year.
April came, and with it the lovely blooms on the crabapples out in front of the farmette, along with all the tulips, crocuses (croci?) and snowdrops.

We also got a chance to go to Guelph, and visit the cage that we sponsored at the new Humane Society building. We dedicated it to our Nick and Nora, the handsome feline duo who gave us so much joy.

It was a great day because we also got to share it with our friend Pat. Here's the wee bobtail boy that was occupying the cage at the time.

In May, we were treated to a day in Toronto, and the many amazing acts during a performance of the Cirque de Soleil.

On the July long weekend, it was the 150th Homecoming for our hometown of Durham, and the parade was a highlight.
Which brings us to today, and this week's gratuitous cat photo. Here's Fred, who has decided to be a lap cat - but only after lunch, and only for enough time for him to get a wee nap in - the hard core sleeping comes later. It's a good life.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lo! 🎂 xoxo