Fairy houses at the South Shore Villa

We have  finished fairy houses and placed them  out in the South Shore Villa gardens. They are starting to get the attention they deserve. We hope the visiting children will seek out our houses and help us name the fairies. We have a large jar on the mantel to hold the suggestions and it is going well. My favourite fairy name suggestion  is Moonlight Pearl by Linda Kurylyk. She has raised the bar on imaginative names.

We spent many amusing hours choosing colors and imagining what a fairy would need and want as part of their home. |A healthy imagination is most useful at any age especially when living in long term care.http://www.raisingthebarrs.com/2011/06/21/fairy-houses/. Let us know how you enjoy our creations and help us out with some name suggestions.

 It was a once in hundred years news  event when Geraldine Inman turned 100 years old on August 13th 2015. We had a proper celebration with over 40 guests including family and friends and staff. We had song and fiddle music provided by  Renee Dahn.  Cake and ice cream was enjoyed by everyone. It was a lovely party. The Guardian Newspaper photographer came and photographed newsroom@theguardian.pe.ca  Geraldine,  her son Ernest  and daughter Dianne. And they made the third page of the paper later that week. We appreciate the efforts of the Guardian Newspaper to make Islanders of all ages feel special.

Everyone was in awe of Geraldine living to be 100 years old and how smart and wonderful she is.

Well dear readers it took 20 minutes to refresh myself on how to sign in. It's been so long since our last post. We have been very busy with lots and lots of great activities. We hired a wheel chair accessible van and went on a terrific outing to the http://www.crapaudexhibition.com/schedule_of_events.phpCrapaud Exhibition. We saw horses and 4H exhibits and many old friends too. Crapaud is a super community and has many wonderful volunteers who make their  community strong and vibrant.  We were served barbecued sausages and pop with chips on the side. Entertainment followed by our old friends the Campbells. The light breeze

and cool air kept away all mosquitoes who might have annoyed us.

Today we started work on our  own fairy houses. We got this idea from a garden we visited on PEI   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fairy-Gardens-of-PEI/808673882491300?fref=nf. Only a few people were able to make it down to the activity room today but the four who attended had a great time. We chatted as usual and shared a few laughs.  The idea is to place these finished creations outside, in our beautiful gardens  around the South Shore Villa, when they are completed. It's going to take more than one session. Here is how it it going so far. Talk to you soon.

Spring hurry up

We know we that March 20th  marks the Spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere but here in Crapaud it's hard to see any sign of spring weather. We have  deep winter with snowbanks everywhere. Sherwood Forest Drive was badly drifted during recent  storm and staff were marooned there for two hours until help arrived.

  Barb McQuarrie recalls that in the old days the Island had plenty of  heavy, wild snow storms. In her childhood they  dreaded a snow storm arriving  and  not being  able to to get out to family for Christmas dinner. Spending time with family  made Christmas special.

Florence Coles Lewis recalls there were times that people were storm stayed three days or more. You could out to the barn for the animals but that was it. She grew up on the Loyalist Road in Milton on a 90 acre farm.  She didn't like the farm life and happily left it all behind when she moved to Summerside to start her own hairdressing business called Du-Hart Saloon.

A recipe for a merry Christmas and New Year.

Well Christmas 2013 has come and gone, once again. When you are 94, 90 and 72  years old we aren't complaining, we are grateful for the years we have had.

 We did our best to complete a full Christmas with all the ingredients. By that we mean a fine tree, coated with ornaments, bows and shiny things. We had garlands, reindeer and a pretty Christmas globe.

 We had visitors in a steady flow, bearing gifts of chocolate, slippers, lingerie and  much more. We had a turkey dinner with all the fixings and Christmas puddings of course. Family members came out to share a meal and make it all the merrier.The local chapter of the WI came out and put on a tea for past members living here at the Villa.www.peiwi.ca We asked them to make it an annual event. They will supply the cake and we supply the tea and tea cups. We love an excuse to use our china tea cups.

There was plenty of entertainment over the season. We started with the annual concert from the Winsloe Choir. It was a treat. Englewood School Choir  came and filled up the room with 35 children and sang their hearts out for us. www.edu.pe.ca/englewood/ And many other groups with guitar and fiddle came to cheer on the season.

We had a church service with an Anglican priest father Rev Canon Rich Weber. He is a member of the  Franciscans,www.franciscanfriarstor.com  now living in Borden, PEI. He celebrated communion and told the Christmas message of love, peace  and understanding. He is planning to come to us at the South Shore Villa once a month.

Of course we had a Christmas eve party with delicious hot apple cider, sweets and gifts from Santa. So all in all it was a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to the New Year party tomorrow.
We'll have to make some worthwhile  New Year's resolutions.

We'll get back to you soon. Happy times to all.

We are having our first computer session in a long time. We had a good discussion regarding the usefulness versus the dangers of computer use. Gerry thinks that there are major privacy concerns especially our personal financial information. Gerry said that children today aren't learning how to spell or do simple arithmetic or their times table. The kids are using calculators for simple math and many don't seem to open a book. Julia can recall thirty years ago when it wasn't clear how useful computers would become. Annie, Mary and Barbara felt they received excellent educations in their one room schools.They had oral spelling tests in class.We have to stop because the children are here from the school.

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