The Travels of the Agnew Family

At least once a year we meet Ed's sister Sonya in Orangeville for lunch (it's pretty much half way between us). We had a nice lunch and a good visit.


Sonya picked up a little Halloween present for Zaph ... see the bat in his mouth.


Someone has a good imagination. Did you notice the squirrel on the post? Zaph was not interested in the other dog at all.

On our apple excursion we got a peck for Cortland apples for pies, a bushel of Macintosh apples for sauce and some Russet and Empire apples for eating.

Yesterday was apple sauce day. Ellen took about a 1/4 of the bushel and the rest were made into sauce. I think I made about 27 pounds of apple sauce, half of which I gave to my mother. In the dead of winter we'll really enjoy the apple sauce with a nice pork roast.

Just before Thanksgiving, a friend had split a bushel of Cortland apples with me. I made eight pies and froze them. Today Ellen came over to peel apples while I did the pie dough. This was a lot easier and quicker than doing it all myself. Six pies were produced in a couple of hours. While I made a couple of pie shells for Ellen to freeze, Ellen (wonderful person she is) did the dishes and cleaned up the mess I made with the pie dough. After the pies were dispersed to various homes, Ed and I have two pies in the freezer. I think everyone will enjoy their pies during the winter.

Our neighbours Rob and Ellen make an annual fall trek to Meaford to buy Rob's favourite apple --- the Russet which is not available in the local grocery store. Ed, Zaph and I went along for the ride and to buy apples for pies and sauce. As usual Ed brought his GPS with him so we stopped and geocached along the way. The trip to Meaford should take 1 1/2 hours, after 2 hours we had made it to Flesherton, about the half way point. Given our rate of travel we decided we had better find food in Flesherton. Lucky for us there's an amazing dinner in Flesherton called the Flying Spatula. It looks like a little hole in the wall by a gas station but the food is amazing. This restaurant was featured on the television show "You've Gotta Eat here".


Made it to apple country.


One of several apple farms selling their wares. I bought a bushel basket of Macintosh apples --- they made great apple sauce.


Each fall, Meaford decorates with scarecrows. There were lots of them all around town, some hanging from light posts other sitting comfortably enjoying the day.



After finding 10 geocaches we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Dairy Queen ... best part of geocaching for me.

My mother and brother drove up from Burlington to help us eat turkey on Sunday. They lucked into a beautiful day --- the sun was shining and the leaves were beautiful if a little past their prime. Dinner was amazing, if I say so myself. To aid in digestion we all enjoyed a lovely walk by the river.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Day as much as we did.

We have gone for hikes at the conservation area just south of Hanover many times. Today we decided to follow the trail to the Sulpher Spring.


The water coming from the spring has a bit of an eerie look to it. It's very blue and glass like. The Sulpher Spring is a constant flow of water capable of filling 27 bathtubs every minute. The temperature also never varies --- 9 degrees C summer or winter.


Back near the parking lot we came across chairs set up for what we presume to be a evening wedding.

Can't believe we have flipped the calendar page to October --- fall is definitely upon us and especially today we can tell winter is fast approaching. I'm wearing my parka, hat and gloves as we tour Cinderella's Carriage Classic Car Show in Port Elgin. I'm not complaining, in fact I'm happier in my parka than I would be in my rain coat. This year a lot of cars stayed home as the forecast had been for rain, lots of rain. Luckily, some ignored the forecast and others came once they realized the forecast was incorrect so we still had enough cars to look at.


Ellen, Rob and myself checking out a car we would all be happy to have living in our respective garages.


Ed loved this decal on the side of a motorcycle --- thought it was kinda appropriate.


This weekend is also Pumpkinfest in Port Elgin. These dogs were showing their "pumpkin" spirit.