Weekending

Last week felt like Spring- or a very mild autumn. Every day about 20C. Gorgeous mornings like this:

Then on Friday the cold crept in, and, of course, we went up to VT. Where the trees are now bear and there is a definite nip in the air.
Ella, in particular, was reluctant to go away this weekend as she wanted to go trick or treating on Sunday night with her best friend. We had talked about coming home early, but when her friend got sick (Kit was also sick on Friday) we managed to talk her into trick or treating in VT.

On Saturday night, we had a spooky desert...
Served by a spookier ghoul. This is actually Remi in Ella's mask with the other mould (a brain) on his head.
A rare photo of me- doing what I seem to do all weekend; wash my hands. They really look a mess as they spend all week covered in remnants of paint and recovering from bruises and cuts.
This is something I forgot to share when I made it. It's just a little hanging thing with two sides.
It was kinda sorta a Halloween thing, but I just like it, so I think it will stay.
And this trip, we brought Lilly up. I never felt too bad leaving both the cats at home, but I couldn't leave Lilly on her own, especially as she still seems confused by Leila not being here anymore.
I have to admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of all my tasks this weekend. Especially when we got up there and our dining room was filled with all the building/painting materials that had been left in the front room. A lot of it is stuff we took out of the basement that we realised we just can't put back there as it's too damp. The contractors had been in to put a new ceiling in, but hadn't finished (they didn't think we would be up that weekend). The ceiling was there, but needed sanding and a lot of stuff needed moving around.

However, with Ella as my super primer, I did manage to paint 3 doors and touch up the trim in the lounge room. I love my green door. This goes outside. The other two doors I did the same colour as the trim.
The plug cover I made looks great.
As does my other paintings. The light up there does something to them and they just look better. Nothing is hung yet..

Ella moved into her room which has been all patched up and is now just (!) awaiting wallpaper stripping and painting.

I am continuing to tone down our room

And I still haven't chosen a colour for the hall- but must have bought every grey tester there is.

The boys worked hard again-Remi sanded the ceiling and Oscar finished priming the bathroom. And at the end of the day, this is where you find them. It's nice actually. We've been getting new movies to watch up there (cheaper than all of us going to the movies) and it's become a Saturday night routine. (this week Iron Man)

Not sure where Ella is...Oh, that's right having a bath- another Saturday night routine.

And Matt is loving his kitchen. We get so well looked after food wise.

Superb fresh bread and yummy soup. It keeps me going. MMMMM. (Matt took the photos of the bread- and the soup and the other things he cooked, but only the bread made the cut- sorry darling!)

Then on Sunday, Matt drove the kids out to visit some friends to do some trick or treating and it started snowing. Real snow. Heavy snow at times. Looking down the street.

The weird house across the road. This place used to be a rollerskating rink. Now it's owned by this old guy who does up cars in it. Oscar loves to take photos of it. He uses up a whole roll of film every weekend. I've only seen one of his photos (which is brilliant) as they have to keep them at school, but I can't wait to see others. I want to frame a bunch and hang them in the hall at the house.

Our house in the snow. I always get a shock when I see the house, because I think of it as being green- not that disgusting colour. That's a job for the summer though.

Honey, of course, was loving the snow.

It snowed for hours, and a fair bit of it stuck. It was so beautiful.

As it started to get dark, the trick or treaters started to knock on the door. Where our house is in CT, we've only had 1 person come on Halloween in 4 years! So it was such a novelty for us. Kit and Ella went out to a few of the neighbours (who were sitting out by fire pits etc), then the boys went up to the local fire department up the road who had a fire and haunted house and food. It was brilliant. Such a community atmosphere- we met a bunch of our neighbours. And the snow made it even more fun. Ella now wants to go up every year for Halloween.

And the next morning there was that reflective glow from a sprinkling of snow still on the ground. Sitting here, you can see the river, while the sun comes up over the hills. It's so lovely.

Lilly thought so too. She was great up there- although didn't catch any mice! But our neighbours have told us not to let her out as they had a cat taken by an owl. And they have bears, coyotes, moose etc.