40 Years

No, we don't have 40 years left on our mission - we have been married for 40 years. Wednesday was our anniversary, but we didn't do a lot of celebrating. It is different in the mission field - especially in a small town like Campbellford. We normally would go to dinner and a movie. We did have a dinner invitation with Mary and Penny, however. Since we were in Belleville on Thursday we had lunch at the Lone Star restaurant for our anniversary dinner.

We had our last Pearl of Great Price class last week so we didn't have to prepare a lesson this week. We did find out, however, that they want us to give a family home evening about music around the world on November 5th which will take some time to get ready.

We made a list of people we would like to visit before we leave the branch. President Holt also gave us another set of membership records of members to visit to see if there are any changes. On Monday we stopped by a family we met in January. The response was a steaming letter to President Holt and the district president. We suggested that it would be better for President Holt to send the memberships with a cover letter rather than have us visit homes where we are not welcome. He agreed - Whew!

Warkworth is an "artsy" village in our branch. On Wednesday (our anniversary) we decided to take a walk around the village studying the architectural features of 24 homes that were highlighted in a small brochure. It was a beautiful day for a walk.

19th century Ontario vernacular home

House with Italianate doors

 We saw a striking yellow frame house from across the street.

Yellow frame house - notice the barge-board trim

As we crossed the street we got a closer look. 

(Watch out for Ginny's shady ladies)

Halloween is coming soon, since Thanksgiving is already over. Many houses are decorated for the season - some more than others. We ran across a haunted house with a graveyard setting in Warkworth (not one of the heritage homes). It was enough to scare all the little children.

The haunted house

Looks are deceiving at times. You never know what you may find in the graveyard.

Children under the pile of leaves

On Thursday, Sister Wheeler had another rug hooking session in Belleville. This gave us an opportunity to go out to eat afterward. We have not gone out to eat a lot on our mission. Restaurant food is very expensive. In fact, everything is very expensive. They then add a 13% sales tax which makes us think twice before buying anything. 

She has also tried to do some crocheting. She enjoys it - especially the unraveling of rows when she finds out she made a little mistake. She is making them as thank-you gifts for those that have fed us. She will have made 13 by the time she is finished.

One of her doilies

Since we didn't have time for a morning walk we decided to take an afternoon walk in Ferris Park. It was a very warm day for October - this will soon change.

Autumn trail in the park

Milkweed is in season in the park

Friday was another beautiful day. Besides our morning walk we took a walk down town. We stopped at the Bulk Plus store (owned by the Rowans in the branch) where they were having a book signing for a grain-free cookbook written by a lady who works in the store. There is a gluten-free store just down the street from the grocery store. Sometimes when we go there we see our friend Eleanor, the mother of the store owner. 

Eleanor is in her 90s

We took a little drive on the outskirts of Campbellford (the Heritage Tour of Seymour) to see some more old houses. These were scattered around the farmland instead of in the village like Warkworth. 

Old schoolhouse turned residence

We missed one of the houses which we were able to walk to on our Saturday morning walk. It was back from the highway on a private drive, surrounded by a large yard. Maybe we should live here.

The Johnston home

Saturday morning we did some deep cleaning (under the stove and refrigerator and trying to get duct tape gunk off the window sill). We spared you the picture, but the floor under the refrigerator had not been cleaned since long before the elders moved into the apartment more than 3 years ago. 

Sister Wheeler got a phone call inviting her to join the sisters in the branch who were going to Madeleine's 80th birthday party. It was located in Solina, north of Oshawa. They had a good time while Elder Wheeler stayed home working on the family home evening presentation (just to lose a lot of the work when the program crashed). 

Madeleine cutting the birthday cake
Half the cake was chocolate and the other half was carrot cake

We had our last pot luck after church today. Trent Hills is a good place to be on a gluten-free diet. There were at least 4 gluten-free deserts to go along with gluten-free dishes (no not the plates, the food to put on the plates). We have been regularly welcomed to gluten-free meals in the members homes. They not only speak English in Trent hills, they speak gluten-free. We are so blessed.