Saturday, December 22

Hi Everyone.

New picture at top of Blog is one I took this morning from my back door.

Here is Jakie and I, he wasn't too happy about the horns. :-)

I just want to take this time to wish all of my family and friends a wonderful, peaceful, happy time this holiday season with their families. Please cherish every moment with your loved ones that are here with you to celebrate and we will remember in our hearts those who are not with us this year.

I guess we are all having a white Christmas although we are being told to expect 10 degrees and rain on Christmas Eve. I might have to get a bit ticked off at the powers to be if I put up with this snow and cold to have it all disappear on the one day that it would be okay to have it :-).

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy 2008

Doris, Ralph and Jake

Well, I'm finally back

I know I haven't been on for a while and I apoligize. I want to put pictures up here but I find they don't go on properly. Other people using this site have been complaining of the same thing so I said well I'm going to put them up anyways rather it looks funny or not the way they show up. So here are the Christmas trees this year. It is hard for me to tell which tree is going to be where so I will tell you that the tree with the kids in front is Carla's, the one with the combs and curlers on it is Velvet's salon tree, the one in the corner with the gingerbread man in the front is Velvet's "real" tree, the one with the two bows in the window behind it is Donna''s, the small one with the gold balls is San's and the one in the corner beside the desk is mine. There....I think I got them all. Well it took forever and they are not placed the best but here they are.

So is everybody else in Canada suffering from this early winter like we are here in Hammonds Plains Nova Scotia. Snow and cold!!! You'd think it was January/February. I hate to think what those two months are going to be like. We went to my sister Velvet's graduation from the Cosmetology program at the Community College in Yarmouth on Saturday past. Left here to probably 10 inches of snow on the ground and down there bare ground. Must be nice.

Bad weather this morning when driving in to work. Snow that turned to freezing rain, rain, just at morning rush. Two people killed on the roads this morning. Terrible thing, especially this time of year. We are just about ready for Christmas. Trish and Joe are leaving Oshawa next Thursday, the 20th to drive home. Should be here Friday, the 21st.

Poor Jakie is not feeling well this week. The leg he had his operation on is bothering him. He can't walk on it. He is in a lot of pain and we know this because he won't eat, and that is something for Jake. We started him on an anti-inflammatory tonight so hopefully he will feel better soon.

Will try to come on at least one more time before Christmas. In the meantime everyone take care. Remember, this is supposed to be a happy time of year so don't let yourself get too stressed out.

Stormy First of December

So, as you can see we are getting some of the snow that has been falling all over Canada this weekend. It started here in Halifax around noon. It is now 7:00 p.m. and Ralph says that it is already turning to rain. I took this picture before supper, around 5:00 pm. It was coming down hard and heavy then. You can't really see it but my tree is in the back corner of the room on the left which is the living room.

I hope everyone made it home safe today if they had to be out on the roads. Take care, just wanted to put up this picture.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I understand that it is looking more like Christmas some places then it even is here. We have the ground covered with snow but nothing like P.E.I. and some other parts of the Maritimes. I'm calling Trish later to see if they got all of the freezing rain today that they predicted. As you can see from the picture above though it is looking like winter (Christmas, at least) in the Murphy house. Had the Christmas Daddies show on the T.V. and away I went. Ralph went to the Curling Club to throw some rocks and to get out of the way. He does not do Christmas decorating.

We had our Christmas office get together Friday night. Lots of good food. Ralph and I went Christmas shopping yesterday. Holy God, was the Mall we were at ever busy. I guess Rosie, George, Flo and Fred are laughing at us in the snow as they lay on the beach in Hawaii right now.

San is coming out for supper and to stay the night and to take over and decorate the last two rooms, the dining room and the family room.. I am running out of oompah. :-) We will take her back into town in the morning with us when we go to work. We are supposed to be getting snow tomorrow. Will have to tune in to the six o'clock news and see what we are going to be getting.

I trust everyone is doing okay. I haven't heard otherwise and that is a good sign. Ralph and I are going to Yarmouth next Saturday to attend the graduation of my sister Velvet. She has completed her cosmetology program and has already worked one day at the salon where she has to do her apprenticeship.

Cooking a pork roast for supper so will go check on it now. Take care everyone.

Putting up those ****** Christmas lights.

Here is what was in our back yard this morning when Ralph got back from walking Jake. You can't really tell from the picture but they were really large does. The neighbour's cat was out there with them but Jake didn't see them.
I know this is the time of year to be cheery and loving and peaceful. Yeah right.....hard to do when you are outside on the coldest day of the year so far and trying to put your lights up. I got these lights from Linens and Things and thought that I was going to have a beautiful front doorway. Go to the link to see what I was going to put out beside my door, over the door and the wreath on the door.http://www.lnt.com/product/24deals.jsp When the page comes up click on the "four". Now... do you see any cords? I thought not. I was stupid enough to think that it must have run with batteries. Yeah right. Big ugly cords everywhere. One in the wreath, one in the swag and one for each tree. None would fit into any of our extension cords and all we saw was the cords stretching everywhere. Needless to say it is all back in the box and on its way back to the store tomorrow. And Ralph and I are on the way to getting our Christmas spirit back.

Tuesday, November 20th

Hi everyone,
I don't know what is going on with these pictures lately but I can't seem to get them in the right places on this site. The sunrise was taken one morning last week. I had just gotten back to the house from walking Jake and looked out back and saw this so ran into the house and got the camera . I see some beautiful sunrises most mornings.
The other picture is of course Jake but the other golden is our neighbour's dog Riley. He was over visiting for the evening while his Mom was working.
Ralph leaves for Newfoundland again tomorrow. Saturday we are going to put our Christmas lights up outside. I'll take a picture of them once I get them up.

Sunday, November 11

So, here is our backyard when we woke up this morning. The temperature is hovering around 0 degrees though and it is melting off the deck already. I think that the sun is trying to come out.

Going to have a lazy day today. Was going to start preparing my bathroom for painting but have decided to have a lazy day watching movies and reading instead. There is always another weekend to work :-)

Remembrance Day Snow 2007

I took this shot about an hour ago here in Halifax. Carolyn, and the rest of the NSCC crew, if you are looking at this in Nashville I can just hear you laughing.
Anywho....this is what we have here in great old Halifax on this Saturday night in November. Ralph and I are curled up here in the warm house though snug as bugs in rugs :-)
I know that it will melt by Monday and this will just be a bad memory. Jake wants to go out every 1/2 hour and roll in the snow and then bring it back in. That is a problem because he brings the snow in with him and I don't like cleaning up the mess. However he is a dog and he has few pleasures in life so if this is one I say let him go to it. :-) Just spoke with Flo on the Island and they have no snow (yet!). She is getting ready for her trip to Hawaii. Lucky lady. Hopefully she will be able to send some pictures and I will post them here.
I would like to post the pictures here of everyone's Christmas decorations this year. You can send pictures of the outside of your house, your tree, whatever. I think everyone likes to see what everyone else has done for Christmas especially as we seldom get to each others' homes at Christmas.
I hope that N.S. Power is more on the ball this weekend and we don't lose our power again this weekend. We were lucky, we didn't lose it at all but poor Mom and Louise lost theirs from early Sunday morning until 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Ralph just got back from Ottawa last night and he leaves Monday night for Newfoundland. Another week alone for Jake and I.
I will be posting soon about an exciting trip I may be taking next May with the College where I work. It is not a for sure thing yet but when it is I will let you know all about it.
Gonna go upstairs now and look out to see if it is still snowing. For those of you who will be out tomorrow participating in Remembrance Day ceremonies I hope that the weather where you are co-operates.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead.
Short days ago We lived,
felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved,
and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Tropical Storm Noel

I have a terrible time trying to make pictures show up properly here on blogger. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but anyways here is a couple of pictures I took this morning off our deck. The winds from Noel didn't get as high as forecast but we still lost one small tree as you see in top picture and quite a few branches front and back. There were power outages throughout the province. Ours was off and on periodically but on when we got up this morning.

My company has left, we had a good weekend. Now it is back to the grind. Ralph is off on a trip Tuesday so will be hard looking after Jake plus work and all the other stuff I have going on this week. Oh well, a long weekend next weekend in which I will be able to relax.

Hallowe'en pictures

Okay, before you all wonder why it is only ever Carla's kids that get their Hallowe'en pictures on my blog, it is because Carla is the only one that ever sends me pictures. All of you parents and grandparents could be sending me pictures of your little ones anytime and I'm sure everyone will love to see them. The picture above of course is our baseball girl, Erin, and below playing a hurt cheerleader is Tori. Carla tells me that a lot of people thought Tori had really hurt herself. :-) Last but not least is our witch Jessica. Very nice costumes all of them.

I thought I had better post tonight because if we get the storm tomorrow they are forecasting we may lose power. Hope not, since my company will still be here. Oh well, we will just have to wait and see. I'll let you know what happens on Sunday.

November 1, 2007

Fifty-four days til Christmas! So how did everyone make out for Hallowe'en? It was pretty quiet here in Hammonds Plains. Only twelve kids. No one on the street after 8:30. I didn't see even any smashed pumpkins on the way to work. I moved offices last Friday so that I could get one with a window. Michael, at work took this picture today. I really like the office. At least this winter I will know when it starts to snow and I won't be surprised when I go outside to go home.

Putting my winter tires on the RAV on Monday, Ralph put his on the truck yesterday. He is getting ready to go curling right now. I am housecleaning as I have company coming for the weekend. Really tired tonight, it has been a very hectic week. My company and I are going to the Christmas at the Forum craft show on Saturday. Or I should say we are going if we don't lose power and everything because we are in the path of tropical storm Noel. We will keep our fingers crossed that it won't be much.

Take care, will check in again soon.

Fall Day and those bloody leaves

Well we love all of our hardwood trees on our property both front and back but of course at this time of year it is a lot of work raking them up. Ralph was out yesterday and again today. They are still falling so he will be out there for a while yet.

Jake lays in the piles as he rakes them up so he is not really a big help :-) It was beautiful and warm today...I know that this weather cannot last forever but it is sure nice while it lasts.

Hallowe'en in a few days. I don't know where the time goes. Seems like it was just Hallowe'en a few months ago. Still strange to me how time speeds up so as you age.

Velvet and Donna and maybe my sister Doreen and her daughter Debbie are coming up next weekend to go to the Christmas Craft show at the Forum. http://www.christmasattheforum.com/ We went last year and it was a lot of fun. I made lasagna for supper last night so we are having it tonight again and as we know it is always better the second time around.

Happy October

I assume that all of you have had as nice an October as we have here in Nova Scotia. This is a picture of Velvet's twin boys, Brett and Drew. They are featured in this posting (along with their wonder dog, Buster) because it is their 12th birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday Brett and Drew. I am getting so old as it seems like just yesterday that I was driving through the early morning hours to Yarmouth hospital trying to make it there for their birth. I didn't make it by the way...turns out that they were making their appearance as I was backing out of my driveway in Dartmouth. The other picture is Ralph at his annual Finance Mess Dinner last Thursday. He organizes the whole thing every year so this year they presented him with a 1961 Black Hawks cap (last time the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup), and as you see he wore it proudly with his official mess kit.

By the way this picture is taken outside Velvet's front door. Quite a view huh? I think that they take the view for granted :-)

San flew up to Ontario today. She is there for a conference on the weekend but is going to see Trish and Joe tonight and tomorrow and is making a quick shopping trip to the U.S. with her friend Sarah on Friday, conference starting Friday night and back late next Monday night. I will pick her up at the airport as Ralph will be curling. I had my first session with my learner in Literacy last night. I will tutor him each Tuesday from 4- 6. I meet him right after work. I am also volunteering on the crisis line with Feed Nova Scotia one day a week for five hours. We have to do what we can and this is my little part of helping.

Got my candy bags ready for Hallowe'en tonight. Last year we had only seven kids so this year I thought I would be safe with 12 bags. Ralph reminded me that five families with children moved in to the new Cul-de-sac across the street so he is going out to get backups.

Have a good week everyone. Enjoy our beautiful Fall.

Rainy October Saturday

A friend sent us this web address. Check it out if you want to see some beautiful pictures of the Fall in Cape Breton. http://www.paulillsley.com/ns/capebreton/

Not much going on this morning. Ralph has ventured out in the rain to pick up a few groceries. My cousin Cora and her husband Randy are on the way here to spend the day and night. We are going shopping this afternoon and then supper out and the casino tonight. I have been playing with our newly installed "DVR" since we got it yesterday. That is a Digital Video Recorder and as Mama used to say "it is a keen rig", meaning it is pretty awesome. It is so easy to use compared to a VCR. I find the show I want to tape on the Guide and press record. That is it. I can press stop on live T.V. shows as they are playing (if the phone rings or whatever) and then go back and pick up where I left off. I love it! Trish had it on her t.v. when we were up there last week and that is what convinced me to get it. Glad I did.
I gotta get upstairs and make soup for lunch, chocolate chip cookies for dessert and then clean up a bit, shower and get dressed, all before my company arrives. Since I had a quote from Mama here is one from Daddy, I'd better "get my ass in gear" :-)

Reach out to Nova Scotia

Air Reservist of the Year

Hi,

Just got back from Ottawa and Oshawa. Ralph and I were in Ottawa for the Air Force Association's National Convention. Ralph was given the award for Air Reservist of the Year for 2007. Quite an honour and here is a picture of Ralph, myself and Ralph's boss, Lt.Col Don McLeod at the dinner last night. Also put on a picture of the plaque he received.

We were at Trish and Joe's from Tuesday until Friday. Had a great time with them. They are doing well. Ralph and I set in on one of Joe's first year Physics class. Needless to say what he lectured on went over our heads but he did a really good job. He sounded just like a real university professor :-)

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. November 1st I can start playing my Christmas music and that is not far off. Take care everyone....I am tired tonight so will not write much but wanted to put up the picture.

Long Time, No Post

Hi Everybody,
I have been spending my time on Facebook so sadly neglecting this blog. Let me see....what to bring you up to date on. I don't know if you knew but Ralph applied for the job of Recreation Director for Barrington Municipality and he had an interview last week. He will hear this Wednesday rather or not he was successful. He will have to call from Tricia's in Oshawa as we are leaving for her place tomorrow. We are staying with Trish and Joe until Friday and then going for a conference in Ottawa. Don't know what we are going to do if he did get it. Oh well, one step at a time.

We have had a lovely Fall so far. Lots of sun and nice temperatures. It did get colder today...only about 13 degrees. Apparently it was 30 degrees in Toronto today, don't know what to take for clothes for this week. I guess that I will have to take clothes for all seasons.

Ralph is going curling tonight, won't get home until midnight and we leave for the airport at 7:15 am. so he will be cranky and tired by the time we get to Oshawa :-)

Gotta go and pack.

Doris playing Grandma

Isn't she just the sweetest. This is Morgan, our friends' Trudy and Glen's first grandbaby. I saw her today for the first time and she slept on my shoulder there for about 1/2 an hour. I will sure make a great grandmother (hint, hint) :-)

Just got home from Dartmouth as a matter of fact. Had some business to do at the Dartmouth Campus of our school and then went to see Glen, Sheree and Morgan then did a little shopping, got some movies to watch tonight and then home. Just started supper (lasagna, garlic bread and a salad) and then I guess we will watch some movies and kick back and relax.

Ralph was up at the Branch today to see Mary and Mom. Also left the big ride on mower with Clarence....there is something wrong with it so Clarence is going to have a look and then store it up there for the winter.

Trish got a job in Oshawa, she started Thursday gone by. It is at the University where Joe is teaching as a matter of fact, in the same building. Was down in Barrington and Shelburne last weekend with San for her clinics. San and I went out to supper Friday night in Barrington with Doreen, Debbie, Jillian, Velvet and Donna. Oh my God we laughed and carried on so much I'm sure some of the customers must have thought we were nuts :-)

San is keeping busy and well. She and I went to see "Drum " http://www.drumshow.ca/ on Thursday night. It is a really good show. If you get the chance you should go see it. Must go, I have to finish preparing supper. Take care everyone.

Flo and Fred Fly High

So, Flo and Fred finally got to go up in a Hot Air Balloon. They have been trying for the last couple of

years to go up but there was always
a problem with the weather. Not this last weekend. Away they went!

I think that they are braver than me. I was surprised that the basket was so small. Flo tells me that it would only hold five of them. I thought they were bigger for some reason.

Well Flo and Fred were flying I was wallpapering and painting my kitchen. Just about wore me out I'll tell you. Took me from 10 in the morning until 10 at night to finish it. Ralph was not here to help, he was up with his Mom for the weekend as Louise has left for her month in Ontario. He would probably have been more of a hindrance than a help anyways :-).

Ralph's new Shed

So Ralph has been wanting a shed forever...to put his lawnmowers, gas cans, and other stuff in. He finally decided on this one and he and I spent Labour Day.....yes, you guessed it, labouring! It took us all day but we were quite a good team actually. I told him it looks like a dollhouse so that is what we're calling it..Ralph's dollhouse :-)

What other news. For those of you who know our friends Glen and Trudy Holman, they became first time grandparents on Sunday. They were away on a European Tour (much like the one we were on) and got back here just a few hours before Morgan Faye Lynn's appearance. She was a little early and couldn't wait for the old folks to get back I guess.

Traffic was horrendous this morning as it always is when everybody gets back to work and school. Well, I bought a DVD at Zeller's yesterday so must go watch it. It's a Christmas movie:-) Hey, it's September....never too early to start thinking of it.

Jean Murphy Celebrates Her 91st Birthday

We were up at the Branch yesterday to help Jean celebrate her 91st. Here she is getting ready for the food and Jean and Ede Cox. Jean at 91 and Ede at 89 are both still going strong. We should all hope to be doing as well when we get to that age. As usual there was no shortage of food and it all tasted yummy. I just realized when I was taking the pictures off the camera that I forgot to get one of the mailbox that Mom received. Sarah's partner, Dee's Mom tole painted it. It was very nice.
There were about 20 people there I guess. Perhaps the only ones there that were not at last years was Carolyn's sister Bev from Ontario. She is visiting from Ontario.
Mom said that she is shooting for her 100th birthday so Louise can get her on "Live at Five" :-) As good a reason as any for aiming for your 100th. At the rate she is going and God Allow she will make it and what a celebration we will have then.

What shall we talk about today

Everytime that I come down here to the basement and log on here I think....I must update my blog. Then I think, well, I don't really have anything to say so days go by and I don't update it. So I will type something here tonight even if it is trivial.

Let's start off with something not so trivial. Ralph was told on Tuesday that he had been nominated this year's "Air Reservist of the Year". He will receive a plaque and all of that jazz at the convention that we are attending in October. Yeah for Ralph!!!! Very proud of him, he deserves it. The convention as I said is in Ottawa and it is from Friday, the 12th until Sunday the 14th. We couldn't go to Ontario without dropping in on Trish and Joe so we are going to fly to Ottawa on Tuesday the 9th, pick up a rental car and drive up to Oshawa. We will stay with the younguns until Friday and then go back to Ottawa for the weekend. Should be fun between seeing the kids and Ralph being all honored and what have you.

What else.....Oh, I am going to see Colm Wilkinson at the Rebecca Cohn in October. For those of you who know and love Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals this will mean something, for the rest of you probably you could care less or are saying "who is Colm Wilkinson?".

Ralph and I are going up to South Branch on Saturday to attend a potluck in celebration of Martha Jean Murphy's 91st birthday. Wow!!! I will probably never make that, I don't live as clean a life :-)

I have purposely not told you anything about the picture here. Do you know who Elvis and one of his girlfriends is?

Doris's New Do

So what do you think? Ralph took the picture with my new camera that he got me for my birthday last week. I don't know quite what he did to get that effect but anywho...I take such bad pictures that it was the best of the worst. The other picture is of course Flo and Fred's boat. It is Flo on the boat, Ralph and Velvet and Fred on the dock.. Donna and I were already up on shore. So as you can see we were at Flo and Fred's on the Island last weekend. This was Friday, the "only" sunny day we had. No matter, we had fun anyways.

I got tired of my hair the way I was wearing it and decided today when I got there that I needed a change so told Karen to chop it all off...and she did! I like it, it will dry much faster in the mornings and all that jazz.

Thanks to everyone who continues to ask how I am doing. I am doing better. Time is the great healer so they say...I still have times where I can't believe that Mama is really gone, but I guess that is normal too.

The weather has really changed here as I guess that it has throughout Canada. Days are so, so, warm...about 20-22 degrees. The nights really cool off though. It feels more like late September than late August.

Ralph had his yearly medical yesterday and he is going around bragging that I married a younger man because his cardiovascular report stated that although he is 56 he has the cardiovascular system of a 53 year old. Yeah Ralph. Keep it up. That means that if our children get started on grandbabies you will be around a long time to spoil them:-) Hopefully, I will be also. That is it for now. Had more pictures from P.E.I. Trip but I am going through them and deciding which ones I dare post here:-)

Rainy Monday

I have got to get off of this computer before I download any more music ...at 99 cents a song I can run up quite a tab in no time at all :) Ralph gave me my birthday present early. It is a new digital camera. A Canon PowerShot A550, if that means anything to anyone.
The picture is my birthday present from Trish (Yes, a ukulele). I know that the Murphy family will be ever so glad to know that I am going to learn the ukelele by next reunion. Velvet, Donna, Flo, Fred and Ralph may even get to hear it this weekend on P.E.I. if I practice enough. The boots I just had to have when I saw them on a girl at work. You should see me with them on and playing the uke :) I'm not getting older, I'm getting sillier......

Anywho, must go up and play with my laundry I've got going. Ralph is busy making his second batch of beets. He is the canner of the family. I think actually that he quite enjoys it. And no, Velvet you are not borrowing my boots ..I know you want to.

August Long Weekend

Happy Holiday Monday everyone. Ralph, Jake and I got back from the cottage at BeaverDam Lake today. We had a great time.

The picture is Jake and his two new friends, Molson and Storm. The weather was beautiful for the whole time we were there. A brief thunderstorm on Saturday night but that just cleared the air more. Velvet and her family and Donna and Missy came out both days. Doreen stopped in on Saturday.

Jake just loves it there. We open the front door in the morning and he just walks out and into the lake anytime he wants. With his hair cut off he drys a lot faster so we don't mind him going in. Just spoke with Trish and Joe. They are all settled in Oshawa and trying to get used to the humidity again. I can't beleive the weekend is over already. I wish the work week went as fast. Ralph was busy after we got home. We stopped at the farmer's market in Bridgewater on the way home and picked up new vegetables for a hodgepodge for supper and he also picked up 10 pounds of beets. So this afternoon he made several jars of pickled beets and he also jarred up more trout. He loves that stuff for some reason :) Anywho, must go. Got to get things together for tomorrow and also have to go and practice my new ukulele that Trish and Joe got me for my birthday.

Another Good-bye

Another good-bye this morning. Trish and Joe left this morning for Oshawa. Here they are standing in front of their U-Haul ready to pull out about 1/2 hour ago. It was pouring rain but I am sure that they will run out of that once they get out of N.S.

It is so difficult for me to say good-bye to my kids even though I know that I will see her at least once between now and Christmas and that they will be home for Christmas. I'm going to miss them...the year and a half that they were home went by so fast.

Bob, Irene, San, Ralph and I went to the apartment yesterday and helped them load and clean. It won't be so easy for them on the other end as it will be just the two of them. They are young and strong though so they should be okay. Ralph has just left for fishing in the Branch...yes, in the rain. That man loves his fishing, I must say. Next weekend Ralph, Jake and I are going to spend the long weekend in Beaver Dam at the cottage we rented last summer. Hope the weather is nice. I had some beautiful weather for this last week of my holidays. Back to work tomorrow after three weeks. Oh well, it makes the days go by and doesn't give me time to think.

Final Farewell to "Mama"

It is a week ago today that Mama left us. We had the burial yesterday at the Ponds cemetery where Daddy is. Just the family was there. Nobody from the funeral home. Marty, Mom's grandson placed her urn in the grave and Ralph lovingly covered her. It was very intimate and very touching. It was a beautiful sunny day and the birds were singing and you could hear the ocean waves up behind the cemetery. Mama will like it there. It is peaceful and she can hear the ocean.

Life goes on. Ralph went fishing up at the Branch today but we have had so much rain the brook was really high so they didn't get anything. Trish, Joe, Ralph and I are going up to the Branch on Wednesday evening to see Jean and Louise and to give Trish the opportunity for one last visit before she leaves for Ontario.

Forecast is for another sunny day tomorrow. Hope so. There have been enough gloomy days here in N.S. to last for a long time.

Saturday morning, July 21st

Hi Everybody,
It hardly seems possible that last Saturday I was in Liverpool England, running to get through the doors of the Beatles museum before they closed. Now here it is just one short week later and so much has changed.

Mama's service took place on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. The funeral hall was full of her family, neighbours and friends. Just what she would have loved, Mama liked lots of people around. The pastor spoke of her fondly and honestly and gave us a wonderful picture of the kind of woman she was. The songs were meaningful and lovely and I did my best to give a eulogy that honored her. We are going down again tomorrow for the committment at the gravesite.

I am off all of next week from work which was originally part of my plans anyways, before all of this happened. I think that most of you know that Trish and Joe will be leaving us again. Joe has a job in Oshawa, Ontario so they will be driving the U-Haul out of here next Sunday, the 29th. So many losses....all a part of life I know, but always hard to deal with.

I thank God for my large family at a time like this. With five brothers and sisters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, friends and neighbours, there was never a time over the last few days that I could not find a hug when I needed one. Take care everybody. I will try and stay in touch as I get back to myself over the next little while.

Wednesday, July 18 2007

Thank you everyone for contacting us either here on the blog or by phone. It is wonderful to know that so many people care. I am still in a bit of a fog I think. Ralph and I arrived back in Nova Scotia at about 3:00 p.m. yesterday. We had been up for about 24 hours by that point so we did not dare to try and drive 2 1/2 hours down to Barrington. We are going this morning as soon as Ralph wakes up.

I don't know what to say. It was such a shock to get the call, I know that it was going to happen sooner or later but it was just so sudden and I was so far away. It still seems so unreal.

I have to go, I will eventually put our trip up here but for now I just wanted to let you all know that we are safely home and to thank you for your kind words of comfort.

Goodbye Nannie

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that at sunrise this morning Faye Chetwynd passed away in Shelburne surrounded by family. She had a great day yesterday with bright eyes, lots of visitors, she was laughing and listening to stories.

That night when the nurse tucked her in for the night Faye said "I'm ready", she passed away quietly hours later.

Please send your thoughts, prayers and good wishes to all of the Chetwynd family.

Mom and Dad will be flying into Halifax Airport Tuesday afternoon (the earliest flight from Dublin) you can give them a call then.

We love you all

Sandra

Please leave a comment, I am sure Mom will find your thoughts a great comfort

Dublin, Ireland

We are now in Dublin. Arrived this afternoon after a 3 and 1/2 hour ferry ride. The ride was really smooth, you could not even tell that you were on the water but it was a huge ferry. The skies here are grey and have been so all day. It is very cool for July. Even colder than home was when we left. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Ralph today on the bus. We just finished supper at an Italian Restaurant and now after this we are going to go back to the hotel and go to the bar to have a birthday drink with friends we have made on the bus from Louisiana and Australia.

Hope everyone is doing well. I check my email but one of my kids(Trish) never emails me so we are assuming that everything is fine on the home front. Tomorrow morning is a tour of the city and then we have the afternoon free for shopping. Will try to make contact here at least once more.

Wednesday, somewhere near Scotland

Hello there everyone, We are in Scotch Corner, England, just below the border of Scotland. We spent the day in York. I was pretty ignorant of York I must confess. It is a beautiful, walled city with a lot of history. The weather was not great today, no rain but the sun has come out now that we are here at the hotel for the night. It is 6:oo p.m. Ralph has gone for a jog, and then supper at 7:00 and early to bed tonight I think. Tomorrow night when we get to Edinburgh we are going to have a dinner and Scottish entertainment evening. Sounds like fun. I am going to go to see Mary Poppins when we get back to London next Saturday. Haven't bought much yet. Saving my money for shopping in Ireland and Scotland. Check in again when I can.

Lunchtime Monday. Ralph and I took the underground to Covent Garden and Picadilly Circus. Ralph said No flowers in Covent Garden and no clowns at Picadilly :-( Off now to Tower of London. Cannot get on to gmail so please communicate through comments on this page Trish, I just pre-ordered two British editions of Harry Potter, will pick up when we come back to London on 21st.

P.S. Ralph says Feed Jake.

Well we are sitting in a MacDonald's in London trying to find the right keys on this keyboard. 1/2 hour for a pound. What a deal. It is 11:20 here but for us 7:20 a.m. Ralph slept a little on plane. I did not. We are waiting for our room to be ready. We are in the Kensington area of London, today and tomorrow. Very near Hyde Park. We re going to the Tower of London tomorrow and a dinner and Thames river cruise tomorrow night. I did not get sick on plane, the bracelets worked great.

I can see why u get so much time for a pound. The keys are not in same places as in Canada.

Bon Voyage!!

So, I guess this will be my last post in Nova Scotia for a while. Our flight to London, England leaves tomorrow night at 10:45 p.m. It is a six hour flight and with the time change we land in England at around 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning. There is a 4 hour time difference between England and Nova Scotia. England is four hours ahead.

I am going to try and keep everyone up to date every few days through email or even posting on this page. My email that I will be using and checking is doris.murphy@gmail.com. Please everyone stay safe and healthly while we are gone. My family....look after Mama. I will try and not worry about her while I am away.

We have the suitcases up on the bedroom floor with some stuff in them. I have been checking the British weather and have had to change my mind about what to take in my suitcase. Average temp there is only around 15 degrees so guess that I will have to take longer pants.

Trish and Joe will be here at the house the entire time we are gone, dog sitting and house sitting. Joe has accepted a job teaching at a university in Oshawa, Ontario so they will be leaving the end of July. I will really miss them again but they need to get on with their careers and for Joe that is not possible here in N.S. At least I had them close for almost a year longer than I thought I would. Okay, so goodbye everyone. Will have a lot to say I am sure when we get back on the 22nd. Bye for now.

Three more days

It is starting to feel unreal now that in three days I will be on another continent. After reading about the bomb scares and snow in London yesterday, you may think that I should be having second thoughts about flying to England- but I'm not. Que sera, sera, what will be, will be. I could get hit by a tractor trailor going to work tomorrow. Nothing in this world is guaranteed.

Mom is doing better tonight. I was really worried last night as the nurse at the hospital told me they thought it might be a blockage in her bowel that was causing all her problems. Tonight though, they are saying that it is pretty certain that it is a urinary tract infection and that once she gets on a round of antibiotics she will be fine. Whew!! I was really worried about going so far away when I didn't know what was wrong.

Ralph and I just finished wrapping a baby gift and a wedding gift for a shower and a wedding that we will miss while we are away. Ralph will be celebrating his 55th birthday in Dublin on July 15th. What a treat! A Murphy celebrating their birthday in Ireland. I'm sure that we will have a good time.

I am going to try and update this blog while I am away. If you see an update on here after Saturday you will know that I have found an Internet connection in the UK. If not, just imagine that I am having a wonderful time and thinking of you all.

Happy Holiday Monday

Happy holiday Monday... for those who get it off I should add. The picture was taken yesterday on our back deck. The red on Trish's cheek is a Maple Leaf tattoo. She is very patriotic that kid:)

San, Joe, and Trish were out for the whole day yesterday. They all went home after supper and I'm sure were treated to listening to the concert on the hill from their apartments. They both live very near Citadel Hill and hearing the Canada Day concert from there would have been no problem.

I have been trying to catch up with shopping and cleaning and getting ready for the "trip" ever since I got back from Truro on Friday. Ralph was away a few days last week also. Trish and Joe came out and spent a couple of days "dogsitting".

Got a call last night that Mom was admitted to Shelburne hospital. She got sick last weekend when she was here with me and stayed not feeling very good all week. They took her in last night...we will hear more today but the symptoms sound like what she gets when she gets an infection so we are hoping that that is what it is and once they get the medication in her and rehydrate her, she will be fine. I'll keep you posted.

Jake is limping again also...on the leg he had the operation on. We are letting him take it easy, hoping it will just need a few days of rest.

On top of all that Ralph and I are getting together all of the last minute details needed to get ready for England. We leave this Saturday at 10:45 p.m. I am going to try to find internet service while there and update this site when I can. Okay, I must go do some last minute shopping and finish up what I have to do around here. Enjoy today everyone.

Paul Potts

I heard about this guy somewhere, I have no idea where. Anyways, he is the winner of Britain's show "Britain has Talent". For those of you who do not like opera I will warn you that he is an opera singer. Here is the YouTube link where you can see him sing what got him to the semi-final http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxTy7KIAaA . I think that he is great and it shows us how many of us let our talents go untested and unheard. I wish Paul all the best and no one deserves to win one of these talent contests more than he did.

Friday night and Ma is here

Hello everyone,

I am going to make this short but I wanted to post this picture and go upstairs to show the blog to Mom on the laptop. Ralph and Mom got here about 3:00 p.m., we had haddock for supper, and apple pie (don't tell Mary..Mom isn't supposed to have dessert:). After supper, because Mom said she was not tired from the drive today, we took her out to Peggy's Cove and it was not foggy out there for a change so she had a nice look at what Peggy's Cove is all about.

Tomorrow morning she is going to watch me paint my new window boxes ( I will post a picture when they are up and filled with pretty plants), and then we are going into town for lunch and a visit to Trish and Joe's apartment.

All for now, I'll write more later.

The Wilkins Family Boat

Carla is such a good blog buddy. When I suggest something for my blog she is the first to answer. We must get her really involved in planning the next reunion :) The pictures are of Tori and Erin on the biscuit behind the boat and pretty, little Jessica on the boat...actually, I think Jessica is driving the boat, right, Jessica? Carla tells me that they got the boat second hand from one of Rob's customers who is selling her cottage. It looks like they will have a ball with it this summer. Looks like the girls will really enjoy it for sure.

We finally had a nice day this week today. Jake got to stay outside all day at "daycare" so of course he is now upstairs snoring and Ralph is out mowing before supper.

I must go and turn on the barbecue for the porkchops and get the rest of it together. Will post again soon.

Hello Blog Buddies

Well it has been a while hasn't it? I am afraid that I have no pictures to put up to share our wonderful weekend in P.E.I. We left here in the usual (for this Spring anyway) weather on Friday, so we were dressed in jeans and socks. We quickly changed when we reached the Island. The weather was just beautiful all weekend. Oh and for any of you who get the opportunity you will love going out on the new boat that Fred and Flo have. It is just like sitting on the deck or in a living room only you are floating on the river. Very nice, very relaxing.

Ralph is leaving to go see Charlie Pride....yes, he is still alive and singing. I gave him the ticket for Christmas, so long ago that I had forgotten all about it. San's friends and cohorts are coming in from across the country for the third annual Naturopathic convention. Seven of them are staying with her so on Sunday most of my spare pillows, sheets and blankets took a trip downtown and tonight after the concert Ralph is dropping off the 12 towels she requested. When we called her at suppertime tonight she and four others were just getting ready to hop on the "Harbour Hopper". Check it out at http://www.murphysonthewater.com/FleetHH.php.

I have discovered a new author that you readers may like to read. Her name is Lesley Crewe and she lives and writes from Cape Breton. I am reading her second novel and have her first on hold at the library. I really am enjoying her writing. Here is her website http://www.lesleycrewe.com/

Three weeks and a little bit until Europe. We got our package last week....Ralph was peeved off that there was no little bag :) Anywho...that is all that is happening here that I can think of . Enjoy the sun, take some pictures of your pretty gardens or whatever you want and send them to me and I will put them up here for all and sundry to see.

Jake is shaved again

Hi Everybody,

Well, here he is. He always looks a lot smaller when he is first shaved. The other shaved person is Trish of course. My sister Velvet is training to be a hairdresser and she cut Trish's hair Saturday night and straightened it. This is the first time in a long time that I have seen Trish with straight hair. Of course as soon as she washed it it was curly again.

I am listening to a video on YouTube. It is Sinead O'Connor singing Make me a Channel of Your Peace. Now God knows that I am not a religious person but this is the most beautiful song and her version is one of the best I have ever heard. I first heard this song at Lady Di's funeral. Here it is if you want to hear it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAo_CgwdkPY. This is another song I found on YouTube. I had never heard of the guy, John Prine but I do have a CD of the girl, Iris Dement. The song is hilarious, Ralph said it sounds just like us. Maybe it should not be played around children as the words are a little raunchy here and there :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8

Anyways that is what I have been doing, finding songs on the Internet. I swear to God that you can find anything on here. Ralph just got in from mowing. Turned out to be a beautiful day today. Supposed to rain overnight and be nice again tomorrow. Velvet and Donna and Chris were here for the weekend. We went yard saleing...I know, I know that is not a word...and then Trish, Joe and Donna's son Barret came out for a barbecue and a rousing game of Cranium.

Only a month and we'll be off to Europe. Can't wait.

Spring has finally sprung

We have really had a terrible Spring. Cold as all dickens. The leaves here in Hammonds Plains finally sprouted this weekend and the grass is now really green. Couple of pictures of the green grass and my tulips that we planted last Fall. It was really nice weather here this weekend and again today.

Ralph is going fishing with Doug Lynds up in the Branch tomorrow and on Thursday he leaves for Newfoundland for a five day fishing trip. Guess I will be eating a lot of fish soon :) Everybody is doing well here hope it is the same for all reading this post. Ralph and I are getting excited about our upcoming trip. Jake gets shaved next week. I will take a picture of him before and after.

Bluenose Marathon

I survived!! Well, here you go. A couple of pictures of yesterday. Bottom is San and I just as we are coming up to the finish line for the 13.1 mile 1/2 marathon. Top picture is my race number and finish medal. Note the bad condition of the paper number. Well it was soaked through many times between the sweat and the rain. Our official time was 3:22 which was fine as we were aiming for between 3:00 and 3:30 hours. I did not come in last...apparently from the official stats I beat 15 other women between 50-59. Having said that I must say that 93 beat me:)

It was a miserable wet day but the sun did come out in the afternoon once it was all over. I was pretty dehydrated so felt quite sick most of the afternoon, nauseous and dizzy. I am fine today though. My legs are a little stiff but other than that everything is a okay.

Ralph did really well in the 5k. His time was 25 minutes and he took third place for the 50 - 59 year olds. Here is a picture of what he won...a hat:) Anywho I just wanted to post today to let everyone know I did it and I am still alive:) Another life goal acheived. What next I wonder?