Trip down South

Wednesday evening I travelled on the Greyhound bus from my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie to Kitchener/Waterloo where my twin sons live.  My one son Dave, along with his darling wife Niki and his even more darling son Rhys live in Kitchener and his twin, Phil, lives in Waterloo.  I look forward so much to visiting them and now that I am retired I can and shall visit them more often.  Many of you would never dream to take the Greyhound bus but you would be surprised at who takes it.  It's not just students and drifters, on the contrary, there are many people my age who choose not to drive that long distance and there are even some who find it kind of "freeing", where they can just sit back and let the world happen - no worries.  Anyway, I arrived in Kitchener at approximately 9.00 a.m., it was a little bit late but considering the construction on the roads between Toronto and Kitchener it wasn't surprising.  Waiting for me at the terminal was my dear son Dave and I couldn't wait to get to his house to see the rest of the family.  That was Thursday morning.

Phil came over and had supper with us and hung around for a while.  Dave and Niki had also invited a friend of theirs to join us, along with her cute little daughter Rosa as her husband was out of town at a conference.

Friday Niki had doctor's appointment so we went together and then did a little shopping.  Niki wanted to go to this little "greasy spoon" type restaurant because she had heard that they served the best grub and so we did and, yes, they did.  We both had a toasted bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich made with Texas toast and it truly was delicious.  Later that day, they sprung on me that they were going to Belleville to celebrate Niki's dad's 60th birthday and that everyone wanted me to go as well.  They didn't tell me in advance because they know how much I hate travelling by car.  This way there was a chance that I would agree to go and I did.  Niki's family on both her mother and father's side were so very hospitable and I enjoyed visiting with Niki's mum and family and her dad and family.  The food served at the party was superb, barbequed jumbo, garlic shrimp, then souvlaki, Greek feta salad and a potato dish.  Dessert was those fabulous Greek pastries.  That party was Saturday afternoon, into the early evening and then we left to take Rhys home for his bath and bedtime.

Niki's mother is a very exceptional lady.  For a while she has been battling a serious illness and with her courage and strength she is coming out on top and we pray that it will continue to be so.  This lady, Laurie has so many talents and I got to see one of the most beautiful pieces of her work.  It is called "felting".  This art form is where you take a piece of silk and lay pieces of felt all over it.  Wikipedia says it better than I can - it's called "Nuno Felting".

Nuno felting is a fabric felting technique developed by Polly Stirling, a fiber artist from New South Wales, Australia, around 1992. The name is derived from the Japanese word "nuno" meaning cloth. The technique bonds loose fibre, usually wool, into a sheer fabric such as silk gauze, creating a lightweight felt. The fibres can completely cover the background fabric, or they may be used as a decorative design that allows the backing fabric to show. Nuno felting often incorporates several layers of loose fibres combined to build up colour, texture, and/or design elements in the finished fabric.  The nuno felting process is particularly suitable for creating lightweight fabrics used to make clothing. The use of silk or other stable fabric in the felt creates fabric that will not stretch out of shape. Fabrics such as nylon, muslin, or other open weaves can be used as the felting background, resulting in a wide range of textural effects and colours.

This is the piece that Laurie made, I should say, tirelessly worked on.  How fabulous...............

I think Laurie is going to turn this beautiful piece into a bolero, or something like that, to go over a beautiful dress she has for an upcoming wedding she will be attending.

We spent a leisurely morning with Laurie and her partner Chris having breakfast under their vine covered pergola.  Chris is a sign writer and he does great work in and out of the home and between them, they have created a beautiful home, not finished, it's a labour of love.  Made me wish that I was back in my home and had my garden to work in.  We packed up the van and off we went, heading home to Kitchener.

When we arrived "home" we found Phil waiting for us.  We had previously decided that for supper we would have the famous "Cameron's" Chinese food.  It's a local eat-in/take-out restaurant which is quite well known in this area.  Supper again was great.  Phil stayed and we watched a "scarey" Stephen King movie.

Monday Niki's Nana who is into her eighties and smart as a whip, drove herself from Guelph to have lunch with Niki and I.  We went to a lovely restaurant called Borealis - it was worth the visit.  You would think that I would be adventurous and pick something I hadn't tried before, but, no - I had good ol' English style fish and chips.  The rest of the day was spent lazily in the garden and then relaxing in front of the gogglebox.  The cooler, darker evenings are just perfect for an evening watching movies.

Tuesday, my last day here!!!!  Niki hasn't been feeling too well with this pregnancy and it has affected her plans for this week.  Love her heart, she had planned on doing so many neat things with me and has put in a valiant effort and I sure do appreciate it, but I don't mind if she needs to just lay low until this awful nausea passes.  Today we had planned on going to St. Jacobs, so we'll see how that goes.  She and Rhys are having a nap right now so I am spending some "quality time" with Dave.  I remember what it was like being nauseous whilst pregnant.  When I was preggers with the twins I was ill for nine months and couldn't eat and lost so much weight - best diet I had ever been on, LOL  Actually, I only put on 13 lbs and the twins weighed 6 lbs each when born.

Niki woke up feeling a little better and decided on taking that trip to St. Jacob's.  Of course we gravitated towards the upscale toy store and ended up buying Rhys a new riding toy.  Isn't that what grandmas are for?  Here is a picture of it, but in a different colour, it's called a PlasmaCar.

I also found two gorgeous tops for myself at the Red Coral boutique.  On the way back to Kitchener we stopped and picked Dave up and then headed to Swiss Chalet for our last supper together.  Yummy.  Now we are relaxing in front of the TV, my case is packed and I'm psyching myself up for my trip home.

Just to finish off this blog, I'm now home after a very long trip, 15 hours, the bus was behind schedule.  It's good to be home.  Gareth and Chelsie were waiting for me.  Of course I had to unpack and get everything put away before thinking of going to bed and it's now 2.30 a.m. and I think it's time for me to hit the sack.

Thanks Niki, Dave & Rhys for having me visit and Phil for spending time with me.  Love you all.