Lee and Ken are alive and well and living in Nova Scotia

On the road again, we were. After starting her day in the city, Chantelle picked Lee up and they were off for Truro (Lee had come home from her doctor's appointment where she had the pleasure of receiving not one but two flu shots, also being prompted that she will be needing two additional vaccines in the next couple of months). It was a quick trip through Louie's to fill a couple of orders then off to Tatamagouche to visit with Shelagh. Shelagh's speech continues to improve as do her mental processes. It is a pleasure to go in and witness the significant improvement each week. Shelagh is improving to the point that she would like to have better abilities to eat and see. She did go to the dentist - a disaster from all reports and no real surprise since the dentist was always a huge challenge. Last night we talked about an optometrist and Lee committed to following up with the hope that new glasses will help in correcting her vision. Shelagh has made it to the stage of enjoying books on tape or CD and is able to manipulate the CD player that we delivered a few weeks ago. She asked for books by authors like Tony Hillerman so not only is she enjoying them, she remembers and can pronounce her favourite authors. The women went armed with dinner - a chicken pot pie, gingerbread muffin and date squares. All met with success and as we left, Shelagh was gearing up for a game of bowling in the recreation room. After the long chat and catch-up, it was back in the car and, through rain and wind, back home to make Ken dinner.

The dogs helped Ken look after the property, with good weather until late afternoon supporting the several projects underway. When no one is looking, Ken scrambles up ladders and nails shingles on the upper regions of the garage. Can't you imagine the lecture he would dole out if that were one of us! The kennel is quiet, Ursey having left early in the day, and Allan Welsh arriving for a visit. Ken chuckled as he recounted the story of old Allan's arrival. He was dropped off at the gate by his doting owner and pulled Ken up the driveway, never glancing back over his shoulder to see that he was being waved good bye. He is aging well as older male Welsh seem to do.

The house dogs are thriving. Sophie and her court play ball every day; Patti looks after the property, delighting in her own bossiness; Piper is looking after the little prince but fretting over what she might be missing downstairs so spending a fair bit of time going back and forth; the little characters are still able to spend their days on the kitchen deck and Jack's run, enjoying the great weather and the young Airedales are maturing beautifully into lovely, sensible adolescents.

Early, before the day started for any but the house dogs, Lee managed to start the Christmas baking with a couple of cherry nut breads. That is always a requested staple for the trip to Woodstock. There will need to be a flurry of baking over the next couple of days to ensure that the Christmas containers are ready for the trip on Monday. Dinner was lovely fresh haddock and Ken had potatoes cooking before we arrived back. After returning a raft of phone calls and leaving a few for tomorrow, it was time to call it a day.