The Travels of the Agnew Family

It is a mixed bag kind of day ... a bit of rain, a bit of snow, oh and a bit of sun. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest we decided to go watch the Santa Claus Parade. When we arrived at the parade it started to rain, then changed more appropriately to snow and when the parade ended it was back to rain. Still there was a good turn out and the parade was good.


There were horses,


a sitting on a wagon band,


advertisement of events to come,


decorated vehicles


and of course Santa and his reindeer.

Ed figures we got about 2 inches of the white fluffy stuff. The temperature hovered around the freezing mark so it hasn't disappeared yet. I think the road still has heat in it so the snow melted as it fell.

On our trip to New Brunswick we stopped at a winery just outside of Johnstown Ontario and purchased a bottle of Caramel Mead (honey wine). It is a dessert wine and I thought it would be best shared with friends. Tonight I have invited two couples to enjoy a five course meal with us. We started with a glass of wine served with pate and warmed brie with apricot jam.


Next up was spinach polenta cakes which was followed by Vegetable Carpaccio. Lemon sorbet was served next as a pallet cleanser before the main course. Roasted vegetables and a pork loin roast stuffed with an apple-cranberry stuffing served with a cranberry gravy was the main course. The caramel mead was served with an apple tart for dessert.

During dinner Mother Nature decided to show us that winter was indeed on it's way.


I think I might be persuaded to like winter a little more if it continued to stay on the ground but melt on the road as it did tonight.

Ellen, Anne and I try to have a "girls lunch out" around Christmas each year. Last year we just couldn't get it together and missed our luncheon so this year we decided to do it early. We couldn't have picked a better day --- 70 and sunny at it's the middle of November. For a change, we decided to drive to Port Elgin (about 15 minutes from Anne's house) and try one of the restaurants there. Allan's Fireside Grill was the choice and it was a good choice.


Even the plants are enjoying this weather. I cut this lily back but it's determined to flower.

Back in September when I was looking for a restaurant for my mother's birthday lunch I found a Scottish Pub in New Hamburg with the interesting name of Scran & Dram Scottish Public House. We ended up going to a different restaurant to celebrate my mother's birthday but Ed decided we needed to go to the pub one day as he had found a menu item he wanted to try. Weatherize it was amazing today so along with Rob and Ellen we climbed into the car and drove to New Hamburg for lunch and of course geocaching.


Ed's choice from the menu --- Rabbie Burns Supper. It was haggis, neeps, tatties with hairy hen whisky sauce. Ed said it was good but he does need to have haggis for another 10 years or so.

Driving through the town of Milverton, Ellen noticed a sign on a shop --- it was her maiden name spelled the way her family spelled it.


We stopped so Ellen could see find out if this was a long lost relative. Unfortunately, the owner wasn't there, but it we did buy some treats. Yum...

We drove through a number of cute towns stopping to look for some geocaches. New Hamburg has a lot of parks and they all have at least one geocache in them.


One of the parks.


Down the road in Baden, Rob had a little chat with Sir John A MacDonald. This was the start of a multi-part geocache.


Castle Kilbride in Baden is going to home to 22 bronze sculptures of past Canadian Prime Ministers. The statue of Sir John A. MacDonald is the first.


Are they looking for a geocache or enjoying a hot beverage?

According to Wikipedia "A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth." November 14, 2016 was the closet supermoon since January 26, 1948. For several nights both before and after the 14th, the moon was not only "super" but it was also really bright. It felt like a spot light was shining on the hot tub when we went out at 11pm for a dip.


One evening there was a bit of cloud causing a ring around the room.


Another evening jets left contrails that stayed visible for a long time.

Today is Remembrance Day and as we do every year, Ed and I walked down to the cenotaph for the Remembrance Day ceremony. We were happy that it wasn't raining or snowing but it was very cold --- the parka, hats and mitts were on. Again, as usual it was a very nice ceremony. The high school band and many high school students were in attendance along with many of local towns people. The legion pipe band led the legion members from the legion hall to the cenotaph.

When John and Carol were visiting in early October Carol noticed a bubble in the ceiling in the guest bedroom. A bubble in the ceiling is never a good thing. Ed went into the attic to investigate and found evidence of water --- at some point in the recent past water got past the shingles and the wood. Plastic bins were placed in strategic locations and the roofer was called. When the roofer came to look at the roof he told Ed two things --- it's a busy time of the year and would take 2 to 3 weeks before he could put a new roof on and we have a lot of roof. The arrival of the quote emphasized the size of the roof --- our roof is just about equivalent to two bungalows. At least it is in cost.


The "old" roof. The roof didn't actually look too bad but somehow water into the attic through the roof above the windows closet to the front door.

Day 1
It took a day and a half to put a new roof on the house. The crew arrived and were on the roof stripping shingles by 7:30am. They worked straight through till 4:30pm --- we saw a couple of guys eating sandwiches on the roof. Ed and I thought it was funny that last part of the roof to be done was the part that had the leak.


The roof was accessed from the driveway.


The garage roof was changed first.


The shingles from the back of the house were tossed into the backyard and using a wheel barrow were moved to the front of the house.


It was a beautiful fall day --- warm enough that several of the guys were in T-shirts, one guy even took his shirt off.


After the garage was done they moved onto the back of the house.

Day 2
There was rain in the forecast so the crew arrived even earlier this morning --- they were on the roof by 7:15am. As they only had the front of the house to do and cleanup they were done by 11am. Good timeing --- it started raining about 1pm.


It made the inside of the house dark but the wood covering the windows did a nice job protecting them.


The final touches.


The finished roof. I don't think you can see the difference between the old roof and the new in the photos but in person you can. The new roof is much nicer and it doesn't leak!!!