Pleasant Surprises are in the Stars for Me

There must be something special in the way the stars are arranged lately. Something strange is going on around here.

Remember I told you, in May that my next door neighbour brought me her glass pot and one of her blooming tea balls?  I invited an old friend over to enjoy the experience and quickly ordered my own blooming

teas from China.  They have now arrived safely, and I also now have my own
glass teapot and am ready to start sharing this experience with 16 more
people.

Anyway, that was just the first incident of a sudden pleasant surprise. There have been many more since then.

Friday one of my neighbours called to say she was going to Kemptville to
pick up this weeks specials.  While in the grocery store, she found this display of miniature roses that
were just being marked down. She started loading her cart with them.  There
were a couple of larger pots that were not being marked down, but she liked
the colour of one of them too, as it was an unusual shade of purple she had
never seen before, and there was just one so she grabbed it too.  Then she
picked up a pretty pink one and said that one was for me and she was buying it because I'm a good friend. 

Then we were in the meat department as she wanted some kabobs that were on sale.  They weren't on the shelf, so she asked about them.  The clerk went and fetched a box, but they were souvlaki as opposed to kabobs.  She wasn't interested in them but I sure was.  There were four in a package for just $2.79.  The clerk went back and got what she wanted, and I grabbed the 2 package per customer limit on the ones that were originally brought out.  My friend bought six packages of the ones she wanted, and then decided to get two of the other ones as well.  When we got home she took them out of her bag and plopped them into mine.  She said she bought them for me since there was that 2 per person limit.  We put our groceries away and I invited her for lunch.  I paid her for the meat, which she wasn't expecting, but I did accept the gift of the rose.  It's now planted out under my kitchen window and I sure hope it lives through the current heat spell.

Recently a local church held a Fashion Show and Tea, and I was one of the models. Yesterday I went to Doree's Habit, with plans to spend the $20 gift certificate I was given for having done the job.  That was totally unexpected too, since I was already able to enjoy the tea party without

paying the $10 admittance just for having taken part in the show.  I looked around the shop and  found this cute little black hat that turned out to be the an even swap for the gift certificate.

Last month a cyber buddy of mine finally took up geocaching after listening to my stories for the past several years. He wrote about his first geocaching experience, and blamed me for the whole thing.  Since then he seems to have become hooked on these little adventures, and this morning I discovered he had gifted me a full year's Premium Membership at geocaching.com . This was totally out of the blue, and a great surprise, since I think about upgrading my membership every year, but have never done it.

All this got me thinking and I realized that within the past week I have also received fresh lettuce when I walked by the home of friend who had just picked some from her garden. Another friend had been cleaning out her closet and was taking some things to the Salvation Army, but she saved a couple of red and purple garments for me to use in my Red Hatter outings. And yesterday my daughter-in-law brought me some rhubarb from the cottage. I had not managed to get any rhubarb this year, until now, so that was greatly appreciated.   

Businesses are getting in on this gifting thing this week too.  Last week I received a nice mug from Harper Collins just for "liking" them on Facebook and today Kashi sent me a new product. It's soft baked bar in an apple strawberry flavour. They also sent a $2 off coupon so I could by some more, or try the blackberry ones. 

I don't know what's going on, but I'm starting to really enjoy all these pleasant surprises.

Active Weekend

Once upon a time I always had my camera with me. These days I never seem to have it, but I had better change my ways as I know you would all love to see pictures of the weekend I just had.

The local United Church was holding a fund raiser they call Divine Diva Days. They rented tables to people who wanted to sell of some of the still decent clothing, handbags, shoes and jewelry they no longer wanted. In another part of the church they held a fashion show and tea with delectable goodies. The clothing for the fashion show came from a local store called Doree’s Habit and somehow I got to be one of the models even though I’m not a member of that church.

I got to choose the outfits I was comfortable wearing and really enjoyed the experience. There was a professional photographer who took group shots of all the models outside, in various locations, and then he was up front during the show catching us there too. The fashion show was Friday night. It didn’t last very long as we each only had two outfits to wear. Both of mine came with a hat. One was so big I stuffed a plastic bag into the crown to make it fit better. I may go down to the shop sometime this week and pick up the smaller one though. It was cute and would go with several things I own. I also discovered that I’d really like to own a nice wide belt. I’ve never worn one before, but I really liked the effect.

After the fashion show I was treated to the tea at no charge. There were lots of really nice desserts available, and I chose a piece of triple layer cake, and later a butter tart square. I was prepared to weigh more the next morning, but some sort of magic happened as I actually went down an additional pound, putting me at a weight I have not seen since I first became a Weight Watchers Life Time Member many years ago. I even had to get another hole made in my belt.

Saturday we went to the 1000 Islands Wine and Food Festival with another couple. I’ve never been to one of these before but it was an interesting experience too. You had to pay $8 to get in the door and they gave you a plastic tray with a handle at one end and a slot for a wine glass to fit nicely into at the other. They also gave you a nice heavy wine glass. You got to keep the wine glass when you went home, but you had to turn the tray back in.

There were demonstrations by celebrity chefs such as Pam Collacott of the Trilliam Cooking School, The Brockberry’s Chef Seth O’Hara and Merrickville’s Thomas Riding. If you sat for the demonstration, you got served a portion of whatever food had been prepared. You also got some wine that had been paired to go well with that food. They were cleaver in that they didn’t run the demonstrations back to back, so people didn’t just sit in those seats all day. We got up to explore the rest of the tables.

Various food establishments and wine makers had booths all around the edges of the arena and mostly at one end. You bought tickets, 10 for $5, and traded a number of tickets for anything you wanted to sample. Most places were happy with 2 tickets. For some little things they just wanted one ticket, while more elaborate things like cheese cake or shrimp in a bowl with flavoured rice was more like 4 or 5 tickets. There were a large number of wines to sample also.....which is why they gave you the glass. Many of them were from Prince Edward County but there was one from Oxford Mills, and another from Kanata, that definitely got my attention. They make summer wines, with fruits. The Oxford Mills vendor didn’t manage to get his licence in time for this show, due to the postal strike (I believe) but he said he would be open in August and we could come and sample all 8 varieties then. That’s the Blue Gypsy Wines. I got a good serving of a Strawberry and Watermelon wine from Colio Estate Wines from Kanata.. It was so nice I hope to be able to locate and purchase a bottle of that as soon as possible. I may want to try the blackberry one too.
Not everyone wanted a ticket in exchange for their samples. There was a place with several varieties of cheese where I tried one that had salsa in it. Now, that will definitely make a nice addition to my cheese platters in the future. I might just have to think up an excuse to have company now!

The other end of the hall was filled with art work. I think there were about 23 artists represented there. Some of it gave me confidence, and some of it gave me something to aim for. I had a nice chat with a couple of the artists, and came home with a few art cards to remember them by.

Between the wine glasses, the art cards, a copy of Zoomer Magazine and all the wonderful goodies, I think I got very good value for my money and had a very enjoyable afternoon.