Autumnal Adventures

Fall is our favourite time of year - we generally have beautiful weather, fall colours are on full display, and art shows wind down so we have more free weekends. We spent a few of those free weekends getting in our fall visits to Orillia and Kingston, as well as a few runs to London.

We reaped the Roma bounty of our garden and canned crushed tomatoes for the winter, as I continued to enjoy fresh cherry tomatoes right off the vine in my salads. On a quiet Saturday after the neighbour's crop was off,  and the weather conditions were right, I had a rare bonfire to burn some brush and old taxes. I also finally got around to some overdue tree trimming and filled the van with a load of brush for the yard waste depot.

Now that certain streaming services are starting to offer sports, I was also able to enjoy some football on the back deck on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons and evenings. I was even joined by our resident possum for one late game - apparently I was sitting still enough and he wandered up to eat right at my feet.  

Given approaching Halloween, we also decided to watch a lot of retro horror movies, enjoying such offerings as Friday the 13th, Salem's Lot and Sleepaway Camp 1 and 2.

Canning crushed tomatoes from our garden

Great day for a bonfire out back!

Trimming some trees

A brush with greatness!

Perfect time of year for enjoying some NFL on the back deck

Nocturnal neighbour

Juke - Part Three

So we love our Nissan Jukes....we had a rootbeer brown 2011 Juke for two years, before trading it in for an atomic gold 2013 Juke that we drove for ten years and nearly 300,000 km before "The Incident with the Deer". That one saw Canada from coast-to-coast, including Newfoundland and the Yukon, as well as a bunch of U.S. States. So much fun to drive, especially with the turbo and 6-speed manual - like a big go-cart!

With me back at the office four days a week and Jane teaching Aquafit three days a week....the 1992 maxi-van was getting way too much use as a second vehicle. We decided we needed an economical beater, and Jane had her heart set on another Juke. Of course, they had also stopped making them years ago, so any available Jukes would be well-used.

After viewing and test driving a few used options as far afield as Kitchener and London, while also scouting others in Brampton and Ajax, a great opportunity presented itself in Windsor! Following some tense negotiations and the stressful dominoes required to purchase a used vehicle, including a Saturday safety at Nick's Auto (highly recommend!) followed by a visit with the seller to a delightfully quiet Service Ontario branch....she was all ours!

Ironically the purchase came while our Bronco was in the shop for some repairs, so we had to drive a dealership loaner Ford Escape into Windsor a few times to facilitate the transaction! 

It's been great driving a "fun" car again, especially when it's a choice and not required for longer trips and GTA traffic jams. We're also happy to maintain our manual driving chops for rental cars in Europe....it really is like riding a bike....especially when it's the exact same model of car!

Introducing our new (to us) 2014 gunmetal grey Juke - starting with 173,000 km but mainly intended as a local option, so she should last us many more years!

Juke the Third!

Getting our safety on a Saturday in  the shadow of the Ambassador!