Best Wishes for the Holiday Season

<----2006 - INDEX or 2006 Happy New Year---->

A new idea for sharing with our friends, family and new acquaintances; Seasonal Greetings from our world here at Apsley Acers. I wanted to give you choices on how much you wished to read . . You can choose to read the following in its entirity . . or you can just enjoy viewing the photos.

Starting with the card below ;- ) Enjoy!

Have a Happy Holiday Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Love Sharon and Tom

This card is a hoot hope you enjoy!

Doesn't take too long to down load even with my slow dial - up.

What a wonderful year we have had. It is hard to believe we are approaching its end already. We have already experienced some cold weather - 28 on the 14th of Dec. Since then the snow has begun and slowly it adds a thick insulating layer about the base of the cabin. By the end of the month looking out the Window is similar to the photo below. Now that we have a bit of snow cover it is easier to keep the heat in our circa 1875 log cabin - not much insulation in those days.

Our Michael was home for almost a week - he stayed to celebrate the Winter Solstice with us. We had not seen him up here in over a year. Was a wonderful visit.

We may get to see Meredith and Henry before the New Year. Who knows what surprises will be in store for 2006.

A selection from a Christmas Carol

"Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom? There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our understanding."

Our family orientated letter starts below the next photo and poem. . . we hope you all enjoy!

Snowflakes - by Linda A. Copp

Snowflakes spill from heaven's hand

Lovely and chaste like smooth white sand.

A veil of wonder laced in light

Falling Gently on a winters night.

Graceful beauty raining down

Giving magic to the lifeless ground.

Each snowflake like a falling star

Smiling beauty that's spun afar.

Till earth is dressed in a robe of white

Unspoken poem the hush of night

January 2005; here at Apsley Acers Looked Very Much Like This. January was especially exciting for me as I was asked to participate with both Paintings and Jewelry at the Art Gallery of Bancroft in a show called 3 in the Gallery. It was a wonderful success plus ego booster for me. Tom helps me in so many amazing ways - building frames and display pieces from pine - slicing and polishing rocks plus tons of positive support throughout all my endeavors. How I got so lucky I'll never know.

After the opening on Fri.Jan 7th - we were both ready for a long uneventful winter's nap.

By mid January our world was raining; then we were sent right back into the deep freeze. It is times like that I am glad we do not have to venture out if we do not wish.

March came in softly - not too far below zero and lots of sunshine. Color

This was a year of vehicle changes; late winter saw our dying red tracker traded for a newer bright yellow one. We found a great 2nd hand Tracker in Bancroft. If anyone had ever asked would I ever own a bright chrome yellow vehicle with Tweety Bird floor mats - my answer would have been definately negative.

I must have mellowed - lol - Mellow Yellow - upnote is it is easy to find in a parking lot. Late fall saw the demise of our truck - which I fondly called the gutless wonder - we will wait to see how much we miss using it. In the meantime we will use a small trailer for the odd large items we need to move.

On March the 19th the weather was so mild and sunny we sat in our south facing screened porch and read the paper in the sun shine. By the 22nd the weather was even milder. Tom tapped 15 maples on the maple ridge east of the house and has begun the sap collection for this years syrup.

Peggy and Madeline and my brother John and is wife Vicki and their family joined us for Easter dinner.

On the 28th we started to boil the sap - final collection was 11 quarts from 67 gal. It tastes wondeful! We have gotten into the habit of wild blueberry lemony pancakes with buttter and syrup and freshly made English Bangers from and Irish Butcher in Lakefield about once a month. Sure goes well with the syrup ;-)

April continued to hold for reasonable weather - I took a chance and put the growing light unit on the screened porch covered with plastic - planted up two hydroponic units and set a small heater to come on if it went below freezing. Had to turn back the plastic as it got too hot when sunny. It was also warm enough to start up slicing and polishing rocks - my display boxes in my studio are filling well. Life is starting to get busy again. A true sign of spring is when Tom removes the temporary winter walls and door from the front porch.

The Algonquin Art Centre asked for pieces for their Unique Boutique for this upcomming summer WOW! this means 2 alternate places for selling as the Art Gallery of Bancroft also kept pieces to sell.

In May the nights continue to be quite cool. This is the first year we used up all our stored wood from the woodshed. Fortunately we keep several spare cords near the pond - Tom has started to bring this in.

Had a nice lunch with Anne and Paul and Liz in Peterborough in mid May. It was good to visit with them. I hope we can make it a habit as Tom and I just do not put out enough effort keeping in touch.

Tomatoes moved into the greenhouse - it will be nice next year when the new growing room is ready. I will keep some items that like hot weather in the growing room all summer to see how they do. On the 19th Tom rototilled the big garden. I even had to cut grass. This spring was so phenomenal weather wise.

Tom warred as usual with the beaver who always wish to flood the low spot near the barn each spring. Each night the beaver puts his/her dam back up after Tom removed it earlier. This yearly contest which Tom invariably wins when the water runoff level drops.

Early June Tom has bought firewood for next year and restocked our empty wood shed.

My brother Bill and his Mary visited. A wonderful surprise that she could come. Mary has Lou Gehrigs' disease and is wasting away in front of our eyes. It is so sad. My brother Bill is handling the whole process reasonably well at the moment.

The trilliums are out ! So are the violets! Lawn areas are covered.

Our new summer flag arrived - it looks like a watercolour of day lilies. Tom has the new sign up also; I had it made by the local sign painter - the closed flips over and shows the weekend hours we're open - we are almost ready for customers.

I opened the studio to the public Sat & Sun all summer. Worked out to be a good idea. We sold things right up to December and it did not take away from the studio tour sales. Life is good. Every little bit helps.

Early June we took a wonderful drive up to Algonquin Park to deliver some of my Jools to be sold during the summer at the Algonquin Art Centre.. All I put in sold and they have asked me to do it again next summer ;-)

Have discovered the many joys of rhubarb juice. Tom still prefers stewed rhubarb with his morning granola.

We also had Our first customers - even with the sign still on "closed" ! Hope this is a good omen.

We are so warm we have already had to water the garden. Even the screens had to go on as it was too warm! in June no less. The screened porch is a joy. Studio opened for business on June 11th and 12th for the first time. The whole idea behind this idea was we never go out on weekends because it is just too busy with tourists. This may earn me a few extra dollars as I am home anyways. Time will tell. The hall to the studio looks great! I found some great caftans and sarongs at an Ontario wholesaler - I wanted a few for myself - decided to see if others thought they were great also! So I brought some in to retail - all sold except 3 so will do this again ;-)

Tom began working on the new growing room June 22nd. So exciting.

I sent the above collage to Toby last summer - thought you all also would enjoy. The summer was exhaustingly hot and the screened porch gave us the freedom of fresh cooler air without bugs. If this is global warming it has made for a phenomenal year weatherwise

The new growing room moved along by leaps and bounds. Tom is phenomenal in his ability to see and make; what I am thinking when I describe it so poorly. At the moment we are putting in insulation 6" everywhere we can.

Late November I had my first trunk show in Toronto. It went well and I made a few new contacts. Life is great!

Early Dec. were were down to -28 and the room went only to -10 and we still have to insulate the ceiling . My dreams of fresh greens all winter is slowly coming closer. Who knows what else wewill gain extending the season at both ends. Another bonus is that on sunny days the temperature goes above 80 and we often sit and enjoy the warmth and sun with a cup of tea. We can enter the new growing room through a door in the screened porch another bonus..

Now all the windows are in and the walls filled in.

This year we had a request from the daughter of my Dad's sister my Aunt Joyce for family photos for an extended family album gift. She was turning 80 and has visited us here several times in past years. I compiled this collage which you might enjoy.

I have some newer photos of all of the grandchildren except Austin and Ashley which will be shown below.

Max not born yet on the above collage arrived July 8th. After a hard start he is now doing well - hopefully we will be able to say the same for Peggy soon. Though she is much better some problems are still lingering.

Tom and I wished some of the bug - frog - butterfly catching grand kiddlies were here to see this giant water bug which arrived one night on the front door screen in Sept..

I wasn't even aware we had such monsters in the pond.