Caper Art by Berni

December Mewsletter 2010

Summer and agreeable weather came to our shores from mid-April to mid-November. In fact we picked a wee daisy today.

It was wonderful to have visitors to the gallery and more then wonderful to have our family with us in July. Rory and Eric are now teenagers, nice, kind interesting teen agers. We love them very much and can't wait for summer 2011. The new year will be exciting for them as their school band will be visiting London, England.

We were so pleased to have a visit from Tim, Deb, Andrew and Maggie as well as Derrick, Melissa, Sidney and Grace this past summer.

The Community Hall was a centre for activity all summer with the great breakfasts and Wednesday coffee mornings. Wash day bridge on Mondays went very well. We had strawberry and blue berry fests as well as celtic colours which were enjoyed by one and all.

Our book clubs are alive and well.

On December 11th, the South Mountain Arm of Gold is treating the seniors to a turkey dinner atthe hall.

Over the summer, my neighbour kept me posted on new bird life in our area. There is no startling news. Some birds didn't make to our area this summer. Do we blame it on climate change?

It was a great year for roses. Our pond had an ugly algae, however it didn't seem to bother the water lilies. It was a bad summer for nasturtiums which I like so much.

Thanks to my neighbour, I made grape jelly from their local grapes. It was a jelly with a special flavour indeed.

Since early October, I’ve been seeing interesting cloud formations from the perch. They are calling out to be painted one day soon. I will have to drag out a canvas.

In September a film crew from Nova Scotia Life came to do a shoot of Gallery Ruairicroft. Mykal Anjello loved every minute and she stars in the film. Her book Nap Sack Cat Tales is for sale from the gallery.

Critters Corner is sad to tell everyone that Rusty MacInnis passed over the rainbow bridge, or so we think. He has been missing since Nov 11. A coyote was seen close to his home on that day. He was a darling orange cat loved by Carole and Benny.

When Ken was home in October he bought us a top of the line pressure cooker. For over fifty years we owned a pressure cooker and I was always too scared to use it. The new one seems to be user friendly. Today it took two hours to make a new England dinner fit for a king so I'm wondering if it could be used to make plum pudding.

It's that time of year. Yesterday the Christmas music made its way to the ghetto blaster.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Berni and Thorney

Ruairicroft, Cape Breton