Oh it's just lovely at Lovella's!

I think things are a bit settled in again, after my being gone on vacation (or as they call it in Canada "holiday") for eight days last week. It has taken some time to re-connect with my darlin' husband (who was traveling on business even before I left), and to catch up on family news and of course, do housework.

Laundry: It never seems to take a vacation, does it?

Since I forgot to bring to Canada the cables needed to download my pictures from my camera, I was only able to post a few times while I was actually in Canada, by using Lovella's shots.
She is an excellent photographer, so I really had nothing to complain about there!

But now is my chance to tell the story of my visit up North with my own pictures about visiting my friend and fellow blogger Lovella, and her friends/relatives and pets. It was quite a week!

I've already posted about my harrowing flight to Canada; the hurricane, the stand by finger crossing etc. here. If you missed reading about that, feel free to catch up!

It seems hard to believe that somehow our first meeting at the airport curb was not captured for history; all I can say is after the five hours on the tarmac waiting out a hurricane, and then a five hour flight beyond that, all of which was dicey at best, I think Lovella, Terry and I were just so glad I made it to Canada at all, that picture taking just escaped all of us!

It seemed like I just blinked and the ride from the airport to their home was over, Terry was hauling my luggage out of the car, Otis was glaumping over to say hi, and Lovella was throwing open the door to the guest room, and making me feel totally at home.

On the old wooden dresser was a vase of flowers freshly picked from the garden, resting on two "Heidi" books; my Swiss adventures not forgotten! A sweet card welcomed me with Lovella's own words.

A welcome basket of goodies was in a basket on the floor next to the dresser: Cookbooks, apron, tea towel, Canadian magazines, a bottle of wine, chocolate...

On the wall I recognized the painted glass plaques that were from Lovella's grandmother.

I knew just enough German to read them too!

Next to the bed was a small nightstand with more fresh flowers; shell pink roses and a cute teapot lamp.

I didn't know Lovella collected this kind of bear figurine; I thought the bear with the chicken on the nest on the second tier was especially cute!

I know Lovella did a lot of thinking about what would be the the best bed options, and in the end the full sized blow up bed was perfect. I slept soundly each night, and woke up each morning thinking I could easily curl up in this room with a good book for the rest of the day.
But...that simply was NOT an option with all that there was to do and see!
Good books can always be read at home, so instead, each morning I sprang out of bed as soon as I awoke, eager to get on with the adventure.

(Before I go any further: A note about dinner the night upon my arrival. The cabbage rolls that were served for dinner were scrumptious, and I learned a neat trick: Pop the head of cabbage into the freezer, freeze, then thaw. The soft cabbage leaves fold nicely without the bother of dealing with cooking the cabbage in hot water.)

When I got up in the morning Lovella was already in the kitchen making some delicious blueberry and raspberry scones. I didn't want to get in her way, so I headed outside to say hi to the famous Canadian Canine Bloggers, Otis and Indee.

Indee was not convinced that friendship with me was a good idea. You can watch her reaction to me by clicking here.

I thought I'd try to win them over with Texas doggie lollipops. Otis was totally on board with that idea!

Lovella's patio planters were just rioting with color and Indee used them to keep me at my distance, standing behind the biggest one while keeping a watchful eye on me.

British Columbia has made a name for themselves via their exuberant hanging flower baskets.

Lovella's basket did her country proud!

While I was hanging out with the dogs, Lovella put the final touches on breakfast....

The raspberry jam was home made too!

(Funny thing though...I thought for sure I'd be getting eggs for breakfast, since Terry is an egg farmer. I even got to see him in action, sorting eggs and even got a quick peek at the hens. Oh well, the scones did include eggs in the recipe...)

After breakfast we headed "downtown", a cute little village just the right size to poke around and enjoy, with hardly any traffic, but plenty of blue sky and more beautiful hanging baskets.

First stop: The local accessory shop, with a lovely wall of HATS!

This green straw was my favorite; a knotted sisol straw that flattered Lovella wonderfully.

For such a small shop, it had an exciting selection of straw, felt and fabric hats. Added bonus was Lovella finding a "diamond" pin in the shape of a baby carriage.

Just the thing for a grandmother-to-be to wear while she waits for the next generation to arrive.

I had made Lovella a yellow Daphney style hat, with an underbrim done in a print of eggs and chicks. When I gave it to her, I suggested it would look great with a white blouse, yellow sweater and jeans, and lo and behold, that was exactly what she wore the next day!

There was a bead shop right near the hat shop, and since I had also brought an unblocked hood for Lovella, it was only natural that she get going on creating the perfect hat pin for that hat.

Sooo many beads! The hat pin really only needs about three beads, how ever can you decide with limitations like that? In the end, she went with silver beads, so the pin will work with any color hat.

I had been told (repeatedly) by my Canadian readers that there was little hat wearing in British Columbia. That seemed strange to me as Canada has a robust collection of milliners busily creating splendid hats for all seasons.

Apparently one section of the population is very much atuned to the up and coming turban fashion that I saw in Milan just this past May.

How quickly fashion fads spread!

Milan had shown women wearing turbans, but...well, I did read ONE article about how Brad Pitt (or was it Tom Cruise?) came to a party with a tuxedo and turban.

Sounds good to me!

If they can do it, then why not this guy?

I would say the turban would look better with a tuxedo though.

Oh well.

At least he is wearing something on his head.

(The size of the Sikh population in British Columbia was a bit of surprise to me. Sadly, last week there was accident involving this very community in which six Sikh's were killed in an accident during a wedding party and seventeen more were injured. Even small towns have their share of tragedy.)

Public art is fun and can be improved by inserting one's self into the display.
These three gents represent some of the historical people of the town; I think they haven't had so much fun in years.

There was a great little quilt shop down the street. In the center of the shop was a long table piled high with remnants which were being sold by the kilo. Lovella and I had quite some fun digging through the piles looking for pieces with designs that we liked. I got a piece with four circles exactly the size of the top of a Daphney hat. Be on the look out for that to be used in another millinery design really soon!

(Wish I had gotten a better photo of Lovella, she looked so adorable in a hat and sweater!)

Then it was off to the tea room. We had THREE to choose from! I decided on an egg salad sandwich (who knew when I might get an egg again around these parts?) and a delicious white tea, magnolia tea I think it was called. I took a look at the box as we left, and made a mental note of the brand, satisfied I could pick up some when I got home.

The mental note never made it home with me.

Lovella, next time you are down in the village, could you pop into the tea shop and send me the exact name of that tea we had? Or post it on your blog so all our friends can try to find some in their location and share a spot of tea with us too?

I had the prettiest cup for my tea; Lovella explained that the dogwood was the flower of British Columbia.

I really can not describe how wonderful it was to sit and have tea and a sandwich with Lovella after all the months of friendship only via electronics. While I do get to go to tea with my friends from the Houston Hat Net (by the way, when DO we go to High Tea as the St. Regis again anyway?) I really do not have a "spur of the moment" girlfriend to meet for coffee or tea midweek or nearby.

And to think this was just ONE of three tea rooms...

After lunch there was more public art to enjoy....

And clearly the public art enjoyed us as well.

Clearly the public art enjoyed seeing us as well. Look at that silly goose checking Lovella out!

After Mr. Goose had received a peck on the beak from me, Lovella and I headed out to another little area with more cute shops and houses.

But that will be on tomorrow's post.

So much more happened on my Friday in Canada that I'm going to split the fun up into two post.

See you tomorrow!