2017 Drury - Harrison Newsletter

 2017 DRURY - HARRISON NEWSLETTER

It is the end of a very warm October and my plan is to work on roots and stories in November thus I am starting to put together the Drury 2017 newsletter early.  Earlier in the year I promised myself that my Canada 150 project would be to finally published some of our family history and the genealogy I have been doing on and off for several years.  Need it be said that project, although it got off to a good start, was in a traffic jam and stalled when life and other interests overtook it. So what have we all been up to? 

The highlight of the year was when Mike took a leave and came to spend a week with us. We simply enjoyed having him here and his company. At the end of his time with us we went with him to Cornwall to pick up his two youngest so they could come spend some time with us for a couple of days - they had been visiting one of their aunts with their mother.  When Mike and/or his children are here we have a family meal and take group photos.  They left  for home very earlier one morning and took part of our hearts with them.

Update December 6 2017 - I did it!  Three of THE HARRISON - DRURY FAMILY book, (for the

boys and one for us), will be ready to be picked up today. I was so elated and spent after they were left to be printed yesterday that my mind and body wouldn’t settle to anything concrete – so I started making an Izzy Doll – more about this later. Now that I have started to print our genealogy information the goal is to continue in smaller bites than the mouthful this first print was – not today though.

The summer was disappointing, weather wise, as we had no summer so to speak, during the months we expect to have it. It arrived in September when the kids were back in school and many summer attractions have closed. The warm fall weather has delayed the fall foliage and we are still waiting for a good frost to kill off the plants that will need to be cut back before winter moves in.

Well the weather has changed since I started this and we are ending October it a windy, jackets needed day. Dec. 6^th update – weather has been up and down through the fall and the weather reports say the temperature will drop down by the weekend and stay there for a while. However, because of the silly weather, many of the leaves on bushes and plants never dried up but froze.  Now they stay attached limp and sad looking. 

However let's go back to January of this year.  During the 2016 holidays I was concerned about

Brandy's eye sight and was pretty sure it was cathartics.  Her vet confirmed  her right eye had a full blown cathartic and the other was well on the way. We decided to leave them be and prepare the yard and house for a blind dog. We didn't have long before her left eye was almost as bad. By the spring she  pretty well knew the set-up in the house as long as we didn't move furniture or put anything in her path ways.  As we prepare for the holidays Brandy is once again learning to navigate the house again. Outside has been a changing learning for her as snow melted and we figured out how to keep our pooch from falling off the deck yet allowed snow to be shoved off. It took a bit of thinking to come up with something for summer and then winter that would stop her from falling off the edge. The summer method wasn’t permanent or that work in the winter. It took a tea break while sitting out with nature surround me, the sound of bird song especially.  Posts were put up on the corner and near the stairs, cup hooks were added at a height Brandy would walk into the rope barrier on the hooks and she has already adjusted to

the newest safety barrier.  The ropes can be removed if need be and snow can be plowed underneath them.  During the late spring we were planning to go to Southern Ontario for a few days on a dog-friendly vacation. Brandy was coming with us because her sitter is no longer taking care of dogs and I didn't want to put her with a stranger in a strange home as she was still fairly new to blindness.   The plan got scraped when it was not clear when the procedure would be to remove the skin cancer on my face.  We then planned to go in September when school was back for the year but that was scraped too by the weather and other nonsense. In the end it would have been too hot for Brandy. Another try this time to leaf peep Thanksgiving Weekend but again the weather interfered - thus we didn't go anywhere during Canada's 150, not even on a day trip.

A patch of skin cancer on my face was removed July 4^th and my four month follow up was positive so do not have to go back for a year. However, there is a precancerous area on my face I will be treating after the holidays January is a great time for me to do that – it will keep me in, away from slick patches ice and the dead of winter too.

Dick got in a few more rounds of golf in during the summer than he did in 2016, his partner though was laid up for a good part of the season so Dick never got out weekly as he did before

the club he belonged to closed. As I write that he is curling, yesterday too and came home saying, “I’m old.” When asked what he meant he said he heard some of the guys talking and mentioning their age, he is older that they are, at one point he was one of the youngest in both sports. Wine, two lots of it he made early in the year so I’d have my summer wine - seems I will get two summers out of this lot, not sure about the wine he made for us but he drinks. Very proud of my husband as he continues to get steps in  and now despite his Fitbit giving up.  He has tallied up enough steps to walk across Canada and then some in the last 18 months !

 I gave in and joined the Dollard des Ormeaux Senior’s Club. Surprise, surprise I am old enough to enjoy it ! That was my excuse before but found that there are members much younger that I am what a shock LOL. One reason I wanted to be a member was the knitting group so I’d have a place to donate what I make to give away. Have done that for years but

thanks to one I donated when I joined the group. It was held back as the sample.  Some of the yarn in the sample had come from the Art Hive stock. In the New year a friend and I will be heading up a project for the Art Hive; Izzy Dolls. Look them up on-line and you’ll see what a worthy cause they go to. The dolls were started by a mother before she lost her soldier son in Croatia – Mark Isfeld lost his life cleaning up land mines.

much more since the Dollard Art Hive began in 2016. There are containers full of donated yarn so with that and the odds and ends I have a lot of items can be made for worthy causes. At the end of October the knitting group gave away 720 items the ladies, yes we are all women had made over the year. The storage containers are already starting to fill with items to be given away next fall.  In 2018 we will be making Twiddle Muffs.  In September I gave a crochet demo at the Art hive and had two of the  people that attended interested in leaning or refreshing their skill . I brought a bunch of samples and a display board with m

 The Elm Park Ramblers CWF Wild Nature Family Club I head up has not done very much this year due to busy lives and weather. However the highlight for me was sharing with them the Monarch butterfly egg I found at the end of the summer. It was found after a disappointing loss of the five caterpillars I bought to share the experience of seeing them grow and change into a Monarch, with the children. The egg was named Sommer for where it was found, along the edge of Somerset Street at the top of the development we live in. Sommer hatched, grew and went into the chrysalis while I held my breath, fingers crossed all would go well as the area and patch of milkweed the egg was in was mowed to the ground a week after I rescued the egg.  Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed – what a shame but three years ago I had started planting milkweed so had some fresh clean food for Sommer. What about any other caterpillars that were depending on that mowed area though? Thus Sommer will become a Poster Child to help me save the natural area that they and other wildlife need to survive in 2018.   The end result of Sommer a beautiful female was set free on September with 12, children and adults, were here to say good bye and wish her well on her voyage down to Mexico for the winter. Hope possibly her grandchildren will come back this way next year.

 

When I gave Sommer her freedom I also set up photos and information about Monarchs to share with the children and their parents – It turned out that the adults were more interested than the children which made me realize if adults do not know about the wildlife around us, few children will care so the aim maybe should be on adults??  The shocking fact that Sommer’s food source was mowed down a week after I rescued her as an egg grabs the interests of adults as soon as they heard that – thus I have a little group now interested in saving the areas where milkweed is found.  That is a goal for me in 2018 with the help of those interested and Sommer of course.  

Some of us have also planted some Common Milkweed so there are little patches available among us.  I have two areas in our gardens that are becoming concentrated areas for Monarchs and other pollinators.

Our area of town was a construction nightmare through the spring and summer and apparently it will be our turn 2018.  It shouldn’t be a nightmare to get around as it was this year as it will only be in concentrated areas or here’s hoping.

Our grandchildren are all growing like weeds and in school now. Bella our youngest started kindergarten in the fall and her cousin Christopher is in his third year at Memorial University in St John’s and working too as part of his education. Jared will graduate high school in June; Lauren is in mid school while Alex and Katie attend the same elementary school as their sister.  Between their schooling and their parents schedules we see little of the children let alone their parents so try to enjoy our time with them when we do.

Well as I finish this it is snowing, Christmas music is playing and soon I will be getting back to creating gifts for our gang.  Dick has taken on some of the tasks that I usually and has become the dinner chef allowing me to get on with my creating, I so appreciate not having to break to get a meal on the table. 

Wishing you and yours the best of the holidays and a healthy, safe 2018.