Stash-Busting

What do you do with leftover yarn from various knitted projects?  When I've paid for quality yarn and end up with oddments, I've tended to keep it in the hope of finding a use for it.  Then I came across this pattern on Ravelry and decided to make a knitted bowl.

I had oddments of coloured yarn too, so I was able to recreate the look of the original pattern, but then I decided to use up some other colours from my stash and made a second one in earth-tones.

This yarn was leftover from herdy the hot water bottle cover.

I like both bowls for different reasons but, now that I've got the bug for knitting these, I think that there may be a few more made in the coming months.

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Homestead

This is a bit late in appearing on my blog but, shortly before we left Ontario, we travelled to visit friends and stopped off at Adelaide Hunter Hoodless Homestead.  Unfortunately, the visitor hours had not been updated on their website and we arrived on a Friday, only to discover that the house was closed.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with her story, Adelaide Hunter Hoodless was born here in 1857,  and she was the youngest of 13 children.  She grew up on the family farm, which was run by her widowed mother (her father had died when Addie was only a few months old).

 

Addie met and married John Hoodless and in the process, became known as Adelaide.  She became a Victorian socialite, living in a grand house in Hamilton, Ontario and bearing four children.  Tragedy struck when the youngest son, John, died from drinking contaminated milk at fourteen months of age.

Adelaide began public life from a desire to prevent other women experiencing a similar tragedy.  She wrote a book about domestic science and spoke to women about the importance of hygiene.  My readers may recall that she featured in my previous post about Erland Lee House.  She was a founding member of the first branch of the Women's Institute in Stoney Creek and honorary president.

Adelaide went on to collaborate with the British Governor-General's wife, Lady Aberdeen, in setting up the Victorian Order of Nurses, which provided health services to women and children who lived a distance from any surgery or hospital.

Lady Aberdeen left Government House in Toronto and travelled home in 1898, after five years of residence.  The following year, Adelaide Hoodless travelled to London as Canadian delegate to the International Congress of the Council of Women, where she spoke about 'technical education' for girls (domestic science) and also mentioned the Women's Institute.  Her British audience were interested and Adelaide was inundated with enquiries about the organisation.  However, it would be some years yet before the Women's Institute as we know it today, would come into being.

The site of the original homestead is  marked by a commemorative stone and a time capsule.

There is a shelter in the garden with benches and I think that talks are held here in the summer - the site is also the official headquarters of the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada.

 The garden is filled with plants which are butterfly-friendly and there were many butterflies and other insects visiting.

 Another view from further down the garden.

A beautiful Monarch butterfly enjoying the flowers.

Some beautiful colours on this fine summer's day.

 

Although I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to visit the house, in order to complete the story of the Women's Institute, we still enjoyed the grounds and the sight of some beautiful mature trees.

 

Moving In

The much-anticipated day arrived when we were finally moving into our new home.  The day started early (again!) and we were at the house two hours before our moving help arrived to unload.  This was our first opportunity to view our new home, so when the movers arrived, there was still some confusion about where we wished to put various items of furniture, not least because it is a small space.

They did an amazing job of unloading and were finished within two hours.  We have now spent more than a week unpacking and there is still much to be done.  In the meantime, I look out of our windows at the sun rising across the bay (click on photo to enlarge) and enjoy the peace and tranquilty, which is a welcome change after city life.

This is a map view of Malpeque Bay.

Heading East

Dawn sees us heading east out of Edmundston along the Trans-Canada Highway.

 

The morning is cool and damp with mist along the valleys.

 

The sun appears on the horizon.

 

Our third day on the road and another early start as we try to beat the clock and arrive early enough to do all that needs to be accomplished before the end of the business day.

On the road, we see warning signs for moose, which can wander into the road and be extremely hazardous for drivers.  The sides of the highway in New Brunswick are mostly fenced in an attempt to keep them off the road.  Travelling at night is particularly dangerous because they are on the move and most drivers who hit a moose do not live to tell the tale.

 

 

We continue east on mostly quiet roads, as it is still early in the day and commuters are not yet on the move.

Though I had never driven anything of this size before, I did take a turn at driving the truck - 26 feet of truck complete with a 20 foot trailer are a bit different to the last car that I owned, which was a Mini Cooper S.

 

 

As we were heading east, we had the sun in our eyes for much of the day, so I needed the hat to cut down on the glare.  It is impossible to drive without good sunglasses too, as the light is so bright.  

 

We didn't get a photo of the complete rig this time, but this is the view to the rear.

 

Just to prove that I was actually driving, Mr Candytuft decided to take some action photos!

 

 

As we approach the coast, the scenery changes again.  It is very pretty and the air has a special quality to it, which is fresh and clean: a pleasant and refreshing change after weeks of humidity in Ontario.

 

The warnings of moose become more frequent.  We are on a highway which is notorious for moose collisions and the signs warn drivers to slow down at night. 

 

I am co-pilot at this stage and enjoying the scnery, but also following our route on the map.  Here is a little clue to our destination.

 

We are heading for the Confederation Bridge.

 

 

Excitement mounts as we approach the bridge, which is a first crossing for both of us.  We can see the bridge ahead as we approach.

The Confederation Bridge took four years to build and opened in 1997.  It is 12.9 Km (8 miles) in length and spans the Northumberland Strait.

We see wetlands as we approach.

We begin our crossing and I take a photo looking back towards the mainland of New Brunswick.

We approach the apex of the bridge - the height of this fixed bridge allows shipping to pass beneath.  We complete the crossing in about ten minutes.

Our first sighting of a lighthouse.  Welcome to Prince Edward Island.

 I look back as the road curves and get this shot of the bridge in the distance.

We are now entering the smallest Canadian Province - a place of farmland and fields of oil seed rape and potatoes, for which the Island is famous.

Almost at journey's end.  We are booked for an overnight stay at a local hotel before our move-in date tomorrow.

On The Road Again

We had an early start and loaded through the morning.  By the time we got on the road, we had already been working for nine hours.  We had a three hour drive to our first overnight stop in Kingston, Ontario.  The second day was our long one - twelve hours on the road as we crossed eastern Ontario, journeyed into and then across Quebec and on into New Brunswick.

We ran into a few problems when the GPS took us astray in Montreal, which is a nightmare of a city to navigate at the best of times, because all signage is only in French.  We eventually got back on track, but it cost us a lot of time as we passed Quebec City (above).

On along the shore of the mighty St Lawrence River with the Laurentians in the distance.  The weather was hot and humid; the truck noisy, uncomfortable and with no air conditioning.

A typical farm with red roof of the barn and grain silos.

Entering New Brunswick and heading down to Tamiscouata-sur-le-Lac.  The scenery changes to rolling hills and the truck struggles up those long climbs.  The cab is so hot that my feet are burning when I put them on the floor!

The kilometres pass and the journey becomes a bit of a blur.  It is only when I look back at the photos that my mind recalls just how long a day we spent on the road.

 The roads are thankfully, uncongested.  We are tiring and longing for our overnight destination.

We reach Edmundston, New Brunswick before dark and having checked in at our hotel, head back out to eat before we are too tired to bother.  The sense of anticipation is mounting, as tomorrow, we will arrive at our destination.

(These photos were taken through the windscreen and side windows and on the move, so please excuse the picture quality - dead bugs do tend to get in the way, even when the windscrren gets regular cleaning!)