Sept 8/09

Not much stitching to show as I just spent a 3 day holiday in a little village called Cocagne on the southeastern shore of New Brunswick. The sea air and quiet of the area had me catching up on sleep when I was not reading! I devoured "The girl who played with fire" by Stieg Larsson and made a big dent in "The Australian Trilogy" by Bryce Courtenay. The inn was lovely, but I was the only guest there for 2 of the 3 nights which was a bit spooky. On the other hand, I was not disturbed by other people so I could blissfully sleep and laze about! My room was the best bedroom in terms of the view as I could see the ocean out of the window and the patio door.

One afternoon, I drove to the Irving Eco Centre just outside of Bouctouche. The dunes and the boardwalk were gorgeous!

I have only seen a few blue herons in my lifetime in the part of the province where I live. Blue herons nest in the Bouctouche region and this is one of several that I saw in the marshes there.


Some very sad news to report. My long time stitching companion, Hayes the kitty, has gone to the happy mousing grounds. She used to spend her evenings either curled up beside me or behind me on the back of the couch while I stitched. She is known to go walkabout for several days at a time, but she left home over a week ago and not one sign of her has been seen by me or any of the neighbours. The other two cats suddenly became very clingy and needy a day after she left which is unusual behaviour for them when she goes walkabout so I am 99.9% sure that she has passed away. She has not been well for a while with a 6-7 pound weight loss in the past year, but she was still as cantankerous and full of character as always despite the arthritis that was slowing her down a bit. I know that they can not live forever and that she would leave me sooner rather than later, but I was kinda' hoping for much later. I have 15 years of great memories so the tears are tempered with smiles as I remember all of her little quirks and attitudes. I had many nicknames for her that sum her up: Fat Cat, Fuzzybutt, the Punkinator, Mrep Mrep (her meow was kind of bizarre), Chumba (short for "big fat chubby cat"), Miss Moo and more recently, The Old Lady.