Is it Halloween or is it Christmas?

I'm a bit confused with seasons at the moment - barely have the Thanksgiving turkeys and cranberry sauces been cleared out of the supermarkets, and we are already being inundated with Christmas displays - but Halloween seems to have that enduring appeal that has allowed it to span pre-Thanksgiving through to pre-Christmas! Oh the consumerism of it all! I have to say that I have been able to resist most of it - particularly after having the heady job of unpacking and placing so much of our things so recently - but the other day I was bewitched by this Christmas display (I thought that it looked very Aussie with Santa peeking out of the outhouse - except for the snow on the roof!):

And the next store had this display out the front...

Autumn colours are everywhere - it's very pretty here at the moment.

Last week the search was on for custard. Yes, custard. Heidi and Antoine were arriving for a belated Thanksgiving visit and I planned to have turkey and all the trimmings, along with trifle for dessert. But, ready-made custard is apparently no longer commonly sold here - I know, that's totally hard to believe! After several stops and lots of queries, we were directed to a filling for Danish pastries which is what I decided to go with. I thought it would be fine - though likely sweet. The other change was using an Almond Cream Sherry instead of normal sherry. Wish me luck!  **As it turned out, the combo worked pretty well.

Last week also was my first attendance at a quilt guild meeting here in Nanaimo and I was really looking forward to reconnecting with my passion - especially after missing the first meeting last month. The meeting place is less than 10 minutes drive from home - a fact I'm sure I will appreciate on some cold rainy nights in the future. This particular meeting featured members selling off their unwanted fabric and quilting accessories - masses of stuff filled this church basement. The people were really friendly and I lucked out in gaining the final spot in a 5 day quilt retreat to be held in mid-November on an island a few hours north of Nanaimo. That should be fun and really get me back into the quilting groove! Will also be a chance to explore another area.

I wonder which of those ladies will be my new best quilting friend?
I have yet to connect with one of the smaller groups who meet more often.

We were excited to welcome Heidi & Antoine last Wednesday for their first visit to Vancouver Island. As we did the tour of the house and deck upstairs, the last person out of the house didn't realize that the door handle was in the lock position! After enjoying the lights on the water etc. and commenting on how it was getting just a bit chilly, we were ready to retire inside for a welcome drink or two. Not to be. The locked door presented several problems - one was no-one had a key; other one was that we could get down to the back yard but couldn't get out because of our very secure side gate. Antoine somehow got himself lowered down off the deck and went over to the neighbours because we thought he still had a key to the house from the previous owners. Nope he didn't. While we were pondering what to do next, Brian disappeared - when we found him in the dark in the back yard, he had put the ladder up to our bedroom and was climbing into the only unlocked window in the house! We felt a bit sheepish when we finally got inside and vowed to have a plan B in place against possible future similar occurrences. So, that was an auspicious start to the visit.

Next morning we were up and on the road to Cathedral Grove and Coombs again...also decided to drive about 1/2 hr further to Pt Alberni which is a very pretty town. We had packed a picnic lunch which we enjoyed down by the water in the sunshine.

Cathedral Grove's fall colours.

The maple leaves were huge.

Cathedral Grove had been recently drenched by rain and
nicely decorated with fall leaves so looked quite a
bit different from our visit there 5 or 6 weeks ago.

Fall colours on the road to Pt Alberni.

Pt Alberni - looking up the main street.

We were quite amused by this waterfront sculpture 

and what it was doing to Brian's hat.

Heidi & her crusty seafaring friend.

This boat took forever to drag a huge load of logs
across the harbour to the mill on the other side.

Coombs Marketplace: Took a while to realize that
all of the vegetables in this display were fake!

We were taken by this really colourful cheese display.

Heidi at Beaufort Lake. 

Heidi, Brian &Antoine at same lake.

And just another pretty view of aforesaid lake.

And again...

We got home and had a short rest and then headed off downtown to have early dinner at the Lighthouse Bistro on the Nanaimo waterfront. Now that the summer is over and Thanksgiving weekend past, the place was very very quiet but still lovely.

The next morning was a bit rainy but we headed out anyway south about 45 minutes to Ladysmith. After a tour of their waterfront park and a bit of a wander in the main street (and a quick visit to a newly discovered quilt shop), we headed back to Nanaimo to catch the small passenger ferry across Nanaimo Harbour to Protection Island to have a late lunch at Dinghy Dock Pub - a very quaint spot. It's closing in two weeks for the winter for repairs to their pylons, etc. so it was great to get a visit in.

The street car at Ladysmith - passing the very colourful Visitor Centre.

Heidi & Antoine 

The Dinghy Dock Pub dock. 

The rules for the ferry - hope you can read them...funny.

And the ferry...about 350 people live on Protection Island
and many use this small ferry to get back and forth to Nanaimo.
The trees in the background are on Newcastle Island
- location of my big hike of last month

The tired group made their way home with the lure of an evening of karaoke. Brian had hooked up all the bits and pieces and was ready to go. We all sang our hearts out - some pretty well, others not quite so but it was fun anyway.

Saturday was much quieter - I spent the day cooking the rest of the dishes for our belated Thanksgiving meal that evening. Heidi and I had done a couple of things the previous night so that made things simpler. We had a wonderful meal - followed up by the Trifle with Vancouver Island variations - very nice!

The Sous Chef in action. 

Dinner! We used some of the autumn leaves
as makeshift table decorations.

We were all in bed early as our visitors had to be up and onto the first ferry in the morning. We were up with them and it seemed strange a while later to see the ferry go past in the dark knowing they were on it. Even stranger to think that the visit we have looked forward to for many weeks is now over - but that's how it goes isn't it? We had a wonderful few days and I think they both loved their first visit to the island.

Brian and I were both pretty tired but our neighbours two doors down took us up on a rain check to come over for a visit yesterday afternoon so I had to get organized and do some cleaning up and prepare something to eat. We had a lovely couple of hours with them - they have been in the same house since 1972 so they had lots of great history of the area to tell.

After they left we had dinner of leftover turkey and trimmings from the previous night - yum! In bed by 8.30pm - slept till 7.00am this morning!

I think this week is going to be a little more unstructured - might think about starting on the job hunting journey...maybe.