We are having a group birthday party every month. Elma Birt and Linda Kurylyk are celebrating this month. We will make a cake and have a ukulele troupe from Charlottetown come in to play for us. Last time round we had a miniature horse come and visit but it will be hard to top that experience.

Annie Leard has been knitting up a storm since she came here. She has lost count of how many pairs of socks and mittens she knit this past year. But she doesn't knit on Sundays. She has agreed to teach Julia how to turn the heel on a pair of socks. Knitting keep Annie busy. Marion says she  has to take the needles from Annie at bedtime. Orla says it's cheaper to buy them but hand knit last indefinitely if you don't put them in the dryer.

Annie's husband's family had mills all over the Island in the old days. Her home is in Westmoreland, a mile from Crapaud on the Leard Mill Road. When she lived there the saw  mill was still going. The original Leard  homestead  of Eldon's great grandparents was across the pond from their home. Seven brothers and two sisters lived there. The seven sons grew up to have  grist mills all round the Island,  up west and down east. The miller features in many fairy tales such as  Puss in Boots and  Rumpelstiltskin. The miller was an important person.

We had a sweet visit from a family of cats. The father, mother and three kittens. The kittens were just the sweetest little mewing darlings.

And now it's time to work on our newsletter. Winter is fast approaching and we are developing some activity ideas. If you are reading this please leave us a comment.

Julia Purcell
Activities

September already

 Hi all,

It's back to school time. We can remember when that was big deal says Orla. I was happy to go to school when I was young.  And then later as a Mother I was even more pleased that the children were out of the house.

We'd like Fall even more if winter didn't follow so closely afterwards, says Barbara. We haven't had much frost but a few of the trees are turning red. Imelda says it was 28 C in Toronto last week.
We decided that a computer could have it's uses. But we aren't sure about Facebook because of the loss of privacy concerns. I hope to change that. It is a great way to keep in touch.

We enjoyed the miniature horse Princess who came to see us last week. She was friendly and even showed off her jumping skills for us. Orla wanted to take the horse to bed with her. Annie Leard loves horses to this day. She would hitch up a horse and take it out for a ride when she was young but she says this was long time ago. Mary says she hitched up a lot of horses in her day too. That was the only way to get around whether is was to church or the store.  Gerard  developed a love for horses as  though he saw lots of them in the coal mines of Cape Breton. Marion's father kept a horse for running errands. She learned to control the horse and drive it back home after she dropped off her Dad at his work. Beryl had work horses on the farm. She would help Dad out and make deliveries to the next farm for example.School was from 9 to 3:30 pm and near by so there was lots of time to help around the farm in those days. If you are reading this post please leave us a comment.