HELLO NOVEMBER!

It isn't often that we see rainbows on November 1 and I would have missed this one if I hadn't been outside raking leaves.  The sun was shining when suddenly raindrops were falling.  They soon changed  to snow, not flakes but almost little chunks.  Before I knew it, the little squall was over, leaving a beautiful rainbow to the east just for a short time.  In the picture on the left, Torquay is just behind the bottom of the bow with the elevators barely visible with Daniel Stepp's farm in the foreground.  The other end of the rainbow shone on McLachlan's place by the highway, formerly Marienthal church yard.

View from the driveway

There hasn't been a real hard frost yet so there are still flowers struggling to bloom in the yard.  Autumn Joy sedums are at their peak now and some violets are still blooming among the dried up leaves.

Parts of SK and AB are under a snowfall warning but it should miss us in the south.  Time will tell.

Now for some Halloween pictures.  The first two are from the Johnson's in Norway.  They go all out with decorations as you can see by the view from the open garage door and the family in front!

The next one is from Laurel with their three in the middle and neighbour boys, Wyatt and Isaac on each side.

The weekend was a busy one.  Jodi's niece, Charlotte Kot, played basketball with Regina Cougars on Friday and Saturday so Clare's and some of Laurel's family took in the Sat. afternoon game.  Kirk's went to Minot for a Precison Ag. family weekend.

 I even did something special on Saturday!  I told Jeff that morning that I wasn't going to cook supper - we were going to Torquay Community Fundraising event.  It started with a delicious barbecued steak supper followed by entertainment, lots of silent auction items to bid on and a Dutch auction with bids on tickets for a choice of prizes worth $10,000.00 and up for one lucky winner whose ticket was drawn at the end of the evening.  Congratulations to Harold Deschner who held the winning ticket!  He was in my grade one class in my first year of teaching in Torquay.  It's always special when a local person takes home the prize.  A lot of work goes into an event like this and it's great to see a small community still able to pull together and have a very successful tenth annual fundraiser to help keep Torquay Rink and the Community Centre in operation.  Thanks to all those who donated time and items and to all the generous bidders!

Tomorrow is a special day in our family as Kristy celebrates her birthday.  She is blessed to have her parents there to make it an extra special day.  Nora has a new fibreglass cast and can put some weight on her leg now.  I'm sure she is getting lots of attention these days!

Tomorrow also marks the day that my mother departed this life for her heavenly home.  Kristy was celebrating her fifth birthday on that day - Nov.4th,1984.  It's hard to realize that's twenty-nine years ago now.  Maybe that's why today was a lonely day for me as Mom left us on a Sunday and she was in my thoughts a lot today.  I didn't feel like making any phone calls and the phone was quiet all day.  Blessed be her memory.

Jeff came back on Friday night from his holiday in Ontario.  He is looking forward to a transfer to the port at Sarnia in the new year.  Torquay Port hours go by ND hours so we can have breakfast an hour later now with the time change.  Summer hours are from 8 to 4, now it's open from 9 to 5.

No snow or rain here yet.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.