Hospital vs. hidey hole!

October 15/11.

I'm very happy today, despite the rain and grey, dark, dismal sky, (not to mention ultra-humidity hair). Gak. Don'tcha HATE it when that happens?? - DOH!

The unnamed patient at Toronto East General is now home!

So I no longer have to visit this place! It's been a wild, five-day ride and I'm happy it's over. (More on this, if I ever get permission from the patient to write about the experience).

While I was hanging out in hospitals, my sister Carrie has been mucho busy. She opened on Friday night in Tafelmusik's Glorious Bach and Zelenka production, (two sublime masters of the baroque), conducted by Ivars Taurins. Carrie (a supreme soprano) has been singing with Tafel for many years.

Check the Tafelmusik ad for info here!

Tafelmusik publicity shot. Carrie is fourth from left.

Carrie says the music is very beautiful, but challenging, even for this extremely skilled and talented choir. Last night, Adrienne Clarkson (former Governor General of Canada) and her husband, writer John Ralston Saul, were in the audience!

During some downtime, Carrie paid a visit to the old "Hidey Hole"! Yep. (our late Mum's house).

All the new windows are in now, and a brand new door too.

The new owner, Dang, has been doing reno work there for months. I saw it in progress a few weeks ago, but so much has been completed since then and Carrie got a sneak peek the other day & was blown away by what she saw! (all this, just days away from the one-year anniversary of Mum's death, fast approaching on October 19th. - Sigh).

The kitchen is particularly fab. Absolutely unrecognizable from Mum's previously simple space. FINALLY, there's a dishwasher, tons of cool cabinetry, a new floor and new everything! Beautiful!

The wrecky, decrepit old basement is now perfectly finished!

Carrie, hangin' in the basement!

Great flooring!

And there's a brand new basement bathroom. Such pretty window panels. Wow! Outasite! (I'm stuck in teen idol '70's mode here I think).

And lo & behold, the washer & dryer I would LOVE to have had there these past few years, so I wouldn't need to take all Mum's laundry away to do it at home!

If someone showed me these pics out of the blue,

I would NEVER have guessed it was Mum's old house!

Even the backyard garden is slowly being cleared. Teddy (the dearly departed guinea pig's grave) seems to still be there, way at the back.

Perhaps my favourite shot is this one - Carrie at the fireplace. We chose to leave this brass screen in the house, (hoping Dang might use it), and he DID! It's the only part of the place that still looks familiar and brings a tear to our eye. We miss the house, the hidey hole and most of all, Mum. I'm sure I'll write more about her on October 19th. Can only hope she likes what Dang has done!

Contents sale over!

July 1/11.

Happy Canada Day!

Got to sleep around 4 a.m., back up at 6:30 a.m. (gak) to get ready for the second sale at Mum's. The last one was the estate sale. This one, contents. We're trying to clear out everything possible so the furniture bank won't have so much to take. (They charge a lot to haul it away).

What do you think of my "sale attire"? (it's been a helluva long time since I wore an apron!!) The dog belongs to a customer who left him outside.

We had a string of special guests at the sale! Carrie answered the door to THIS guy!

Introducing musician extraordinaire Mark Kersey! He's not only a fabulous pianist (playing the piano we're inheriting), but is also a Canadian yo-yo champion, a children's performer (who used to appear on Mr. Dressup as "Mark the repairman"), and worked with Carrie for years in Performers for Literacy. He plays gigs all over the city and is in high demand. Mark sat down, pounded out a couple of beyond phenomenal numbers and managed to knock the socks off the customers in the house. (Luckily for them, we had lots of socks for sale!)

I took Carrie's picture with Mark and his lovely wife, Bonita! (not only is this Canada Day, but it's also Bonita's birthday AND Mark & Bonita's 27-year anniversary! - Have a great day you two!)

Next special guest? My friend, Pam Deacon-Pickard. We met a few years back at Fern Resort in Orillia and became pals immediately. It was great to see her and catch up, (and we even ended up roping her into helping to wrap glassware and china for a couple of buyers!) Thanks Pam!

For her trouble, we told her to choose some books to take home. Among her picks - two Young & Restless anniversary books! (one for her, one for her Mother!)

(My Mum was a huge Y & R fan too and would love to know someone else will enjoy these special commemorative books). Too bad Victor Newman didn't drop by to autograph them!

Carrie's son, Lee, the hard-working garage sale king, was back in action with us again, lugging things here, there and everywhere, helping anyone who needed to get heavy items to their car.

Two MORE special guests! My sister-in-law, Debbie and her handsome son, Justin surprised us by dropping by! We told them to take what they like from the sale at the "family rate," (free!) - and Justin was also asked to cart some heavy boxes to my car. Team work!

Next? A visit from Tien, the gardener. She and her husband, John, have been taking care of Mum's lawn, and garden for years. They always did a wonderful job!

Carrie borrowed Tien's hat for this shot! - Thanks Tien and John for all your hard work. We'll miss you!

The above special guest is Hank. He is a chestnut tree! (Mum named him Hank after a guy she went to school with named Hank Chestnut!) Years ago, Mum's huge, beautiful front yard tree was hit by lightening and destroyed! The city had to cut it up into pieces and take it away. Later, they returned and planted a tiny chestnut tree to replace the big one. Mum fretted away over that little tree for years, because it never grew very much, but this year - (after Mum's passing), he suddenly decided to flourish! Now, he's taller than Carrie!

And our final special guests made their way out of a massive plastic bag of stuffed animals. These two puppets, (appropriately named "Giraffe" and "Panda") were part of Lee's old collection.

As a master of puppetry and voice work, (after so many years on Polka Dot Door), Carrie spent countless hours doing funny voices for Lee when he was a little boy. She's always been quite the entertaining Mum who has an amazing way of making little kids laugh with her crazy puppet antics! She wanted to say one more goodbye to these two little characters. Adios Amigos! Thanks for the memories!

Once the sale wrapped up, we put more stuff on the lawn for the taking. The rest has been boxed up for Goodwill and other charities. Will be back again on Saturday and Sunday to continue the never-ending process of cleaning out and closing down the house.

In the meantime, Carrie met the new owner of Mum's place! He stopped by the day before the sale to take some house measurements. His name is Dang!

I wasn't there when he arrived, but Carrie was, and took his picture for the blog! (he must have wondered what the heck was going on!)

Welcome to the neighbourhood Dang! Hope you'll be as happy in this lovely house as Mum was for nearly 30 years!

(So, wait, hang on, just a cotton-pickin' minute. Lemme get this straight Dang. - YOU'RE taking over the hidey hole????????? - Yikes! - Gak - Egad!)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! - It can't BEEEEEEEEEE! I will have no life!!!!!!!!