It's beginning to look a lot like...

 Last weekend a few of our gang at work decided to stat setting up our display at the park.

 Our sign will light up and hopefully everyone will see whose display it is.

 Giant plywood Christmas trees strung with lights.

 And a giant snow-family too.

 All those sandbags hold down the displays and make sure they don't blow away.

 From previous experience they found out that plastic added to the bottom of the displays makes it easier to remove when they are iced in...

And here's our sweet display. It's for the Festival of Lights in Alexandria, Ontario, which runs all December with tons of lights and trees and is really a fun experience, albeit usually freezing cold. Every year we've added to this display. This year, the deer and the lollipops are new. I'll take a photo of it at night and report back!

Sweet kitties

 I have four lovely kitty cats and they love to sit with me when I watch TV. Nutmeg, the white calico whose face is obscured is now 15 years old and is moving a lot slower. Cookie, the other calico and her sister Oreo, on my legs are 13 and are still pretty active.

Somewhat new in the mix is Matzo Man who I found in my barn two summers ago. This will be his second winter inside. I think he's about three years old. He loves his time inside and never tries to go out. But he doesn't cuddle and in fact, I often find him curled up on the other side of the house, nowhere near the other cats or me. He's kind of like a roommate that I only see from time-to-time. It's fine with me. He's a perfect gentleman, never too demanding and very sweet. He definitely has his own personality...he's very fond of Cookie but keeps his distance from the other guys. Kinda funny how they all sort it out their way!

Visiting

 My friend from Toronto, Peter, came for a visit last weekend. First up? We made a cake together, honouring a English Lit. class we took at university many moons ago. We were big T.S. Eliot fans...

Then we headed over to Vankleek Hill to visit Beau's All Natural Brewing Co.

 Next up? Track down a good poutine!

 Richard was up for the search as well.

 Our search took us to Vert Forchette and we each tried a funky variety of poutine.

We also visited Natalie and her critters. The piggies are darn cute.

We lunched at the Quirky Carrot and had a wee visit with Julia who dreams up all that delicious food.

 And a quick boo at the amazing St. Raphael's ruins...

We also stopped at Glengarry Fine Cheese so that Peter could take their award winning cheese back to Toronto!

 Sadly, all good things must come to an end...

 It was a great weekend full of and merriment...and we missed the snow by one day!

Come back again soon Peter. It was so much fun! I have to rest now. I'm exhausted!!

Looking back...from kitten to cat.

 My dear old cat Nutmeg is rather creaky these days and at 15 years old, she moves very slowly.

I found these wonderful pages from my photo album of when she joined our household. 

She was such a sweet little kitten and as an adult, she's still as sweet, although a lot larger!

Take a walk on the boardwalk

 Over the weekend we went to Cooper Marsh, a conservation area just down the road a piece.

 Just recently they rebuilt what seems like miles of boardwalk...

 We took one of the shorter routes through the marsh.

 It was a bright windy day, likely one of the few left before the snow flies.

 Lots of golds and browns in the palette.

 And as I mentioned, miles of boardwalk with areas to stop and observe wildlife.

 The only wildlife in the marsh was Richard and me!

 But there were hungry chickadees waiting for a handout. Next time I'll bring some sunflower seeds for them. They sure are friendly. I think they've been hand fed a few times before. I tried to lure them with some sumac seeds. It worked only once and then they ignored me!

Very scenic spot for taking photos.

And we had to snap a selfie...natch!