Time Well Spent

It was another whirlwind tour to my parents' place. I've been going down to reduce the "further-distance driving" that would be required of my mom since driving is becoming a bit more challenging for her. I also take the opportunity to take her out for errands and groceries. It's just a little something I can do to make life a little easier for her as she is the primary caregiver for my father.

This time, Mom had her first appointment for her dental implants. Listening to the dental surgeon, it is going to be quite the process. She'd broken off a tooth, and there was infection and bone degradation under it. It's the best place to position one of the posts for my mother's dental plate, so first he has to remove the broken tooth, graft new bone in, and clear up the infection before he can even begin work installing the post. Holy smokes!!!

The first evening I was there, when we sat down to a light supper, I caught my dad looking at my mom. She made eye contact with him, and I saw him squint-wink and smile at her. I think they are soooo cute together! Later in the evening, when my dad was trying to remove the plastic wrap from and Ensure and was having trouble (his serious cycling accident has left him with many issues), my mother grabbed the plastic he'd managed to make loose while he held onto the bottle, and together they pulled until the bottle was freed. My dad laughed and said, "We make a good team!" Yes...they do!!!  :) 

Even though it's a 5-hour drive to their place, and I've been having to make the journey each week....the song "On The Road Again" has become my mantra....I have to confess that I have really been enjoying spending some time with my folks. It's truly been time well-spent. 

On my way down to Brantford, I decided to take the back way from Barrie so that I could stop at Country Concessions (more on what I bought another day) to pick up some fabric that I knew they had in stock. As I was driving into Cookstown, I knew there was an antique place with a barn block on the barn. The interesting thing about this barn block is that I'm almost 100% sure I saw it on an episode of Scott McGillivray's Vacation House Rules. His interior designer was taking the cottage owners to an antique shop to find some interesting things for the design.

I think I will have to go have a look in that shop one day....but not this time.

In the quilt shop, I found the fabric I wanted....and then some!!! I also saw a really cute project that I think I'd like to do sometime.

This mini quilt is only about the size of an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. There was more than one pattern available, too. How cute would these be as a small feature in each of the rooms? :D

As I continued my drive, in Brantford I had a stop behind a vehicle with this license plate. I've NEVER seen a license plate like this. It's labelled as CANADA, rather than by a province. I wonder what the significance of that is???

After my visit, when I was back on my way home, I stopped behind a cube van and there was a transport truck beside me to the left. I just HAD to take a photo of this. It's a little hard to tell what you're looking at in the photo. you can just make out the left back corner of the cube van at the right side of the photo. The long white panel is the transport that was beside me. What really had me wanting to get the picture was the bridge that the trucks had stopped under. That bridge is a mere 4" above the transport :O

When I drove up the driveway, I noticed that my wonderful husband had made repairs to my decorative bird house stand. The birch branches had rotted and two of the houses had fallen off. It was so lovely to see it back together.

He'd also dug out my "special" (read "sentimental") painted stones out and place them at the base.

Our walk this afternoon offered up another surprise. Unfortunately, the camera on my phone does not do so well with distance photos, but if you look carefully at the tree, you can just make out a red-tailed hawk.

So cool to catch sight of animals in nature :)

And on that note, I wish you all a very good night!

TTFN