 |
It was back to work again for me this week, though it was nice to have had some time off. James's soccer team continued their winning run by winning both their games this week. They are definitely the most improved team in their league this year and of all the teams that I have coached over the past five seasons. Emily's team also won this week, though their game on Monday was rained out.
Emily went to science camp at the Discovery Centre this week along with her friend Keara and Rachel, a girl that was on her soccer team a couple of seasons ago. There were lots of different activities during the week including dissecting squid (yuck!) and a field trip to the Ovens, coastal caves eroded by the sea near Lunenburg. Emily enjoyed it.
We briefly considered going away somewhere this weekend but in the end we stayed at home and got stuff done in the garden. David and Emily are making a Zen garden along the south side of the house which has basically been a weed patch for quite a while. So far they have stripped the weeds and grass from it. The plan is to replace them with pebbles and tastefully arranged rocks with a few plants and perhaps something ornamental. Meanwhile Katy spent the weekend in PEI with Ben and his family.
Yesterday afternoon Ann, Emily, James and I went with our friends Claire, Paul, Rachel and Max for a hike along the Salt Marsh Trail in Cole Harbour. I have passed the head of the trail many times going to and from Rainbow Haven Beach but had never hiked along it. It was very pleasant as the weather was gorgeous: sunny, not too hot and a moderate breeze. The trail follows the old CN railway tracks across the shallow waters of Cole Harbour. Tide was receding and there were lots of birds scavenging the mud flats for juicy tidbits.
 |
Katy, David and I have been co-existing peacefully while Ann, Emily and James have been off in Ontario fishing. I took the week off work and spent the time rising fairly late, watching the European Bridge Championships on the Internet until about lunchtime, then getting some odd jobs done around the house and in the garden until it was time to coach soccer in the evenings. Katy has been working all week and David hung out with his friend Scott and refereed soccer games in the evenings. I also took the opportunity to go cycling down the Trans-Canada trail a few times. One of my favourite spots is just off the trail near the end of Lake Charles, where there are reeds sprouting up through water lilies. This week it was particularly nice as the water lilies were in bloom.
This weekend David has had five more refereeing assignments (though a couple of the games were last minute non-starters) and I have spent a good part of it at the Soccer by the Sea tournament in Eastern Passage. The Rovers, the team James is on, which has been losing all season, surprised us all by winning two of their three matches and tying the third; everyone was ecstatic. Emily's team, the Whitecaps also played well but lost the first match to a strong team and tied the second 0-0 despite having numerous chances to score (many more than the other team); they won their third game easily. Emily and James each missed their game yesterday (see below) but played in two games today.
Ann, Emily and James arrived home from their fishing trip late last night. I picked them up from the airport at about 11:30 PM. As I was walking down the airport hallway to the arrivals area I passed Ann's cousin Sherry who I had not seen for several years. Although she used to live in Wolfville, where Katy goes to university, she has lived in Ontario for many years and has come back with her son for the first time since she left. She had just arrived on the flight preceding the one that Ann, Emily and James were on. She waited with me until Ann and the kids arrived, then chatted with Ann until our bags arrived and I dragged everyone off home to bed.
We preceeded our fishing trip with a wonderful visit to Granny's. She always spoils us. She took us to the Toronto Zoo where we visited the African, Australian and Asian exhibits. The next day, we explored the Ontario Science Centre. At its special exhibition "Animal Grossology", we learned more disgusting facts than you can probably stomach about a house-fly's proboscis, a cow's digestive tract, a cat's production of a hairball, or animal dung. However, even better than a trip to the zoo or the science-center were our swims in Uncle Simon's backyard pool.
"I fish, therefore, I am!" announces my new T-shirt from the Trading Post. James' new shirt displays a small-mouthed bass, a pickerel, a pike, and a muskellunge a.k.a. muskie. Emily's new shirt shows wolves, of course. We had a lot of fun last week at the French River Lodge situated in the delta of the French River which flows west and then south from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay. We three shared a cottage with my sister Martha and her family. Mom and Dad and my brother's son John shared a cottage with Uncle Bud and Aunt Carole. Cousins Ted and Scott and their families occupied two more cottages. We totalled 11 adults and 9 kids in all (minus one once my brother-in-law left for work on Monday). The kids caught lots of small fish off the dock: sunfish, small-mouth bass, rock bass, lake-perch blue-gill and blue-gill. They also swam around the end of the dock; I think the youngest of the cousins loves swimming so much that I wonder if she might be a mermaid. They caught frogs every day and named every one; Emily kept the list for posterity. They also caught garter snakes (Tom, Jerry and Baby Jane) but stopped once we warned that they might mistakenly capture a baby rattle-snake or a water-snake. Afterwards, they switched to collecting rocks. We paddled kayaks around the island one day. We hiked around the island a couple of times and the kids and their Uncle Thom built an Inukshuk. Martha and I finally rented a motor-boat mid-week so we could troll slowly along the river's edge between the lodge and Thompson Bay. Fortunately, each of our four kids caught a pike much to everyone's excitement in the boat. Accomplished fishermen might have released such small fry since they were too small to fillet and batter properly. Surprisingly, not everyone on this fishing expedition actually likes to eat fish. However, the Bluenosers among us were willing to take our chances with the tiny fish bones so I begged Ted to clean them and then wrapped them in foil and BBQ'ed them. I even put some into a not-bad chowder. I told Aunt Carole (who dislikes fish), Uncle Bud, Gran and Papa that they just had to come over to our cabin to taste the chowder. Imagine Aunt Carole's relief when, instead, we surprised her with a delicious chocolate cake (planned by Martha) and a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday"!
Uncle Bud planned an outing for all of us that was the highlight of the week for me. We climbed into three boats and headed down the Eastern Outlet and across to Bass Lake. The three boat drivers (including me) steered carefully around submerged rocks and past gorgeous scenery. Once we reached an old Voyageur camp on Bass Lake, we pulled up onto the rocks and walked just over 200 yards along a boardwalk to Georgian Bay. We took lots of pictures of us there. We retraced our steps and then boated up the Main Outlet back to the lodge. What a delightful way to spend an afternoon. -- Ann
 |
I missed updating this page last weekend as Ann, Emily, James and I went away to PEI for the long weekend. A number of families in our neighbourhood were all staying in the same campground, so we decided to tag along as well. We left in mid-afternoon, taking the Confederation Bridge, and arriving at the Cavendish Sunset Campground at about 7 PM. We set up the tent, made dinner on our brand new propane stove, then roasted a few marshmallows over the fire before snuggling into our sleeping bags for the night.
On Saturday we spent most of the day at Sandspit, an amusement park just down the road from the campground, with our friends Claire, Paul, Rachel and Max. The kids had a great time on all the rides. Paul tried them out too, but Ann, Claire and myself were content to watch. We returned in the late afternoon and had a swim in the campground swimming pool before making dinner and treating ourselves to ice-cream at Cows on the Cavendish boardwalk.
On Sunday, we explored the national park in the morning before spending the afternoon at Shining Waters Family Fun Park, also just down the road from the campground. The main attraction there is the water slides. Emily spent almost the whole time on them but James did a bit more exploring and tried most of the other attractions. This time Ann and I particpated too.
On Monday morning we packed up, then headed to the beach. Unfortunately it was quite breezy and, though sunny, not all that warm, so no-one actually went swimming. Emily, James and I built a sand castle instead. Around lunchtime we began to meander our way back home taking the scenic Blue Heron route along the coast to get back to the bridge (we actually saw a couple of blue herons) and arriving home at about 7 PM.
On Tuesday Ann spent the day washing (our new washing machine arrived the Tuesday before we left for PEI) and packing and then she, Emily and James took off (literally) for Ontario. They spent the rest of the week at my mother's in Aurora before heading up to the French River yesterday for a fishing expedition with Ann's family. We'll have more details when they return next weekend.
 |
Katy, David and I have spent the rest of the week working (Katy and me), coaching soccer (me; the Rovers won their second game of the season on Thursday; the Whitecaps also won their game on Wednesday, but they have been winning regularly) and refereeing (David). On Friday evening Katy took the van and went off to Acadia for the weekend to visit her boyfriend Ben.
Yesterday David and I got up early, picked up Ingrid and Alex, and headed to Lunenburg for the day. We started with nine holes at the Bluenose Golf Club where Ingrid is a member. It was a gorgeous day and the views over Lunenburg harbour were spectacular. Although I played a lot of golf when I was a teenager, I hadn't actually played a round for over 25 years. I didn't fare too badly off the tee (though I did slice it quite badly several times) but my short game leaves a lot to be desired.
After our round we picked up some sandwiches at Subway then headed to the wharf stage of the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. We spent the afternoon there or at the Lunenburg bandstand watching several different acts. When the stages shut down at 4:30, David, Alex and I went to the Knot Pub for some dinner while Ingrid went back to the golf club to particpate in a social tournament. We met up later during the evening show in the big tent on Blockhouse Hill. The Knot Pub was packed, so David Alex and I shared our table with a lady from Saskatoon who turned out to be the sister of Susan Ormiston, the CBC TV news reporter. She was very pleasant company and bought a plate of mussels for the table to share.
Each year that I go to Lunenburg I am impressed by someone that I have never heard of before. This year it was Andrew White, an amazing guitar player and pretty good singer. I also enjoyed Stobbe, Trottier and Simm, Kendra MacGillivray, Joel Plaskett and Bob Snider.
Today has been a lazy day. We got up fairly late as we didn't arrived home from Lunenburg until after 1 PM. I watched the European Bridge Championships on the internet for the rest of the morning then did a bit of gardening before going for a ride on my bike while David made dinner (ham and cheese croissants with mushroom sauce: his specialty). His friends Scott and Claire joined us, then the three of them went to a party for another of their friends who has just returned from a summer in Quebec.
July 2006 Archive
September 2006 Archive
Archive Table of Contents