Harvest Crush in the Penedes October 9, 2010

Some members of the International Women's Club of Barcelona and their families met up at the Lavern-Subirats train station in the Penedes area of Catalunya for a day in the vineyards. Our first stop with guide, Paddy Mannion of E Moli Tours (http://www.elmolitours.com) was across the road at the Cava Guilera for a morning glass of chilled cava! No Tim Horton's or Starbuck's for this group!

































Views of the Cava Guilera vineyards















We then started on a walk (what we thought was to be a short walk!) through the vineyards on a gravel road, up hill and down dale, some of the group struggling with bicycles, others with blistered heels for well over an hour to a meeting place in the village of Sant Pau d'Ordal, where we were supposed to enjoy coffee. However...by then our guide was trying to gather up all the stragglers in his van and we were transported directly to the vineyards of Albet i Noya to do some grape picking.




























Pat and Kathie on our walk
















































Close to the village of Sant Pau was a riding club














The vineyards where we picked grenache grapes...delicious!














Our group haul!



















The Albet i Noya winery














The vineyards at Albet i Noya Winery





























Kathie was Official Grape Crusher #1 with Paddy's help




















Pat's turn and yes! they washed our feet first!



















Heather in the "grapevine" pose!



















Inside a film to watch about the winery and tastings of the final product!






































Salud! Y hasta luego...

Fall at the Lakehouse September 24 - October 3, 2010

We had barely been back in Spain for three weeks when a Coty business trip took Pat to Cleveland for a few days in late September. It was a good excuse for us both to return to the lake to enjoy the fall colours, the weather and oh! those fabulous Cortland apples! We flew from Barcelona to Paris to Toronto and on to Fredericton, arriving a little later than expected. Sleep more or less eludes us on the first night so we were up bright and early to enjoy breakfast at the market and pick up some fresh fall veggies and fruit, not to mention a big order from Mulder's Meats!

Do we look just a little bleary-eyed?!?




























Inside it was much quieter than in the summer!















Outside it was cool and a little damp but just check out those colours!















































Sunday morning just after sunrise (taken from the back steps)














OK everyone, can we please retake all those wedding pictures on the lawn? Just look at the green grass now!





























The hydrangea has turned from creamy white to reddish-burgundy! Lovely!



















A close-up view...














The back yard...no more dead patches in the lawn! Pat had to cut it twice with his new tractor!














The neighbours' houses still under construction next door














Front yard and garden














Our private golf course just inside Route 690!















The week flew by all too quickly...we enjoyed company for most of it (Jen and Ben from Montreal, Gary and Laura Lee from New Germany, N.S. then Beth from Ottawa), got some construction-related jobs done (or redone, in some cases), and started Christmas preparations (i.e. the beds are all ready, the tree stand is in the dining room and the grocery list has been started!). We'll all be "Home for the Holidays"!

Hasta luego...back to Spain for the next ten weeks! (Will I ever learn the language?!?)

30th Anniversary Party August 22, 2010

What's a Saturday family wedding without another party on Sunday?! In our case, we decided to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary with a Vow Renewal Ceremony, as led by Rev. Jen and Father Monte Peters (who co-officiated in 1980 in Hudson, Quebec), followed by champagne toasts and a lobster feed for about 60 family and friends! It was wonderful and brought back many memories of that hot day 30 years ago!

Uncle Art leading "the bride" down the breezeway



















The Reverend Jen with her opening words



















Father Monte and Rev. Jen



















The rings were blessed again (Pat is sporting a new one, having outgrown the original!)














Steph led the prayers



















Art gave a toast to the bride, reminiscing from his original speech of 1980 and calling Kathie, "the project manager" for the lakehouse construction!














That was a funny story! Father Monte and Julianne



















Cheers! To the "bride"!



















Half of our original attendants joined us: Beth, Wendy, Kathie, Pat and Francis














30 years later...some of our guests!














That's a lot of carats...Steph, Kathie and Jen!














And that's a lot of white gold...Kathie, Pat, Jen, Ben, Steph and Lou













Cakes baked by Jen, using the original German Pound Cake recipe from 1980 (from June Coldwell, Bathurst, NB)



























Pictures by brother, Terry:






































Kathie's wedding dress hanging on the clothesline!



















Kathie and Wendy, Maid of Honour and long-time friend from Kindergarten!














Brian and McKenzie with renovated and repainted children's Adirondack chairs and table, originally belonging to Kathie, then later Jen and Steph!














The Seamone family: Luke, Ben, Jen, Laura-Lee and Gary


























What a lovely day we all enjoyed! Sunshine, a perfect blue sky, good food and the company of our family and long-time friends! Here's to another 30 years!

And now, I'm all caught up! Enjoy the blogs! Hasta luego!