My Summer So Far

Kate in her "Number 1" dress uniform

 

 

The title of this post is actually a bit misleading.  I'm not going to be able to get into all the wonderful things I've been up to this summer, but I did want to get started with my posts again.  Also, technically this post should not be in the cottage blog--because it is not about the cottage!  But que sera sera, I thought you might be interested to hear a bit about what we did in July--which did not involve going to the cottage.

As many of you know, Kate joined a new pipe band last fall.  The Paris Port Dover Pipe Band, while not nearly as convenient as the Guelph Pipe Band, has offered a variety of new experiences for Kate.  For example, in January, Kate got to play at the Sony Centre in Toronto!  Yes the Sony Centre!  (It used to be the Hummingbird Centre and before that the O'Keefe Centre, in case you haven't been to Toronto recently).  Then in March she won a beautiful silver trophy for best piper under the age of 18 in her band.  That came with a bursary, which was gilding the lily as far as Kate was concerned.   But the really most wonderful experience was the trip to Basel, Switzerland this July.

Basel is an interesting city at the intersection of 3 countries.  Although it is a Swiss city, it has suburbs in France and Germany.  When we arrived at the airport we cleared Swiss customs, but the French border was out the other door!  For the last 10 years, Basel has been hosting the "Basel Tattoo," a truly spectacular event.  Kate, as a member of the PPDPB was able to participate as part of the Massed Pipes and Drums.

The Opening.  Performing the Victoria Cross with the Massed Pipes and Drums

It was an incredibly well organized event, with bands from all over the world participating.  For example, Kate made friends with people from Australia, Korea, Oman and South Africa.  I went along to support Kate.  It was a gruelling schedule with two performances each day, for a total of 17 shows, plus one huge parade watched by over 100,000 people.  The weather was hot, hot, hot.  Temperatures ranged from 32 to 36 degrees.  Kate had to wear her full kit (see photo) which is entirely wool.  I spent a lot of time hand-washing the t-shirts she wore under her tunic.  If you google Basel Tattoo 2015, you should be able to see some of the amazing event.  Kate was in the opening and finale.

As I said in the introductory paragraph, I'm just getting started into this blog again, so that is all for this evening--but stand by--more to come.

March Break at the Cottage

March Break at the Cottage

Typical cottage entertainment--unplugged!

As I sit down to write this blog I am struck by the difference between this March Break and the last one here at the cottage.  Last year it was all about renovations, tearing out the old, manky carpet, laying flooring, varnishing beds and painting.  The weather was still wintery, but temperatures moderate with lots of sunshine to warm things up.  This year there are no renovation projects underway--just discussions about possibilities.  It’s nice to truly relax and unwind.  However...

Rocket and Buster

We are here with our two dogs, Dermot and Pippa and their four puppies.  Rocket, Buster, Bandit and Isla are 6 weeks old and BUSY!!  They, like their parents, love the cottage.  They run around like demented things, chew anything in sight, clamber all over each other, our feet, our shoes.  They are getting better at doing their business on the provided mat, but we still spend lots of time cleaning up after them.  We do have a nice little “puppy yard” for them, but when awake, they want to be dashing about.  Can’t blame them really.

Yesterday was sunny and warmish--on the plus side of zero anyway.  We haven’t had many days like that this winter.  In fact, this is the snowiest winter I can remember since childhood.  The snow has been magnificent.  It has also been the coldest winter I can remember, it seems like there were weeks and weeks of -20*C weather.  Despite the cold, I have been out cross country skiing a few times with my friend Arlene, back home in Guelph.  Here at the cottage, John and Anne got out on that gloriously sunny day and skied around the islands and up to the Ramparts Cottage (ruined by the current owners apparently).  Kate, whose feet seem to be growing exponentially does not have cross country ski boots that fit.  She was able to get out on snowshoes though and toured around with John (on skis), and claims that snowshoeing is a much more intense work-out!!  

Once again we are here with the delightful heat of the fireplace insert, but no running water.  It is amazing how little water you can get away with using.  It makes me re-think my wasteful ways when at home.  Of course, we do have a huge lake, albeit under about 2 feet of ice, so water is there, available and just has to be hauled up the steep, snowy hill.  Easy?  John chopped the hole in the ice with the chain saw.  Frankly that sounds really dangerous to me.  I think I’ll get him an ice auger for Father’s Day (I’m sure he’ll be thrilled!)  

What a great Dad Dermot is!

Anne and Kate are working on a 1000 piece puzzle of the cover of the Abbey Road Album, something they rarely have time to do at home.  It is really coming along.  The games table that John made is working beautifully, and even if they don’t finish this time, they can leave it all set up for when they arrive next time.  Simple pleasures.

Today John, Anne and Kate went over to Uncle Mac’s for a visit and a trip back to the sugar bush.  With the cold weather, the sap wasn’t running much, but it was still a lovely time, and always great to see family.  What was I doing at the time?  I was back at the cottage, puppy-sitting and doing homework--ugh.  At least it is done for the moment, and we can travel back to Guelph tomorrow without me panicking about all the work I have to do!  So we will stop en route at Aunt Virginia’s for breakfast, and then in Cobourg to visit with John’s parents.

I must admit--I love every opportunity to come to the cottage.  It is so serene here, so quiet, so pretty.  We all sleep better too--comfy mattresses? Fresher air? Less stress?  All of the Above???  Nice.

The Moon from our Front Porch

New Year's Eve

New Year’s Eve

All worn out

It has been a lovely, somewhat lazy few days at the cottage.  We had a chance to reconnect with family and friends.  Anne and Kate spent time with their camp friends, Jenny and Anna.  John and I were also invited to dinner with Jenny’s family which was so nice.  The conversation was interesting, at times hilarious, and we feel that we have a lot in common.  Also I must say that it was an absolute treat to have a break from cooking and doing dishes in this environment of no running water.  Anne and Kate ended up sleeping over at Jenny’s and I’ll include a photo of Anne after her return.  I gather they didn’t get to sleep very early.  

We all spent time unwinding:  reading novels; playing crib; watching Top Gear DVDs and napping.  To me that’s just what a cottage break should be.  Naturally John got a few jobs done, like taking down some trees at the shoreline.  Obviously that job can’t be done in the summer as he needs to stand on the lake ice in order to access the trees.  Hauling the logs up to the woodshed for future use kept us all warm even on a sunny but -15*C day.  John also painted a wall in the kitchen and it looks great!  

Dermot and Pippa, loved their stay, as usual.  They found some interesting holes to dig, chased the brave squirrels who ventured by and just generally ran around.  On the cold days they wouldn’t stay out too long, but did go out often.  In the evening they’d collapse on the couch in front of the fire.  They too love to unwind at the cottage.

Can you just sense the joy in this photo?

John is still searching for a name for our cottage.  The sunsets are magnificent so he is thinking about something that honours that.  Everything we’ve come up with so far is goofy, so we’d gratefully receive any non-goofy suggestions.  Either that or so goofy that it is truly funny.  

We will head to Cobourg in few hours.  We’ll spend Hogmanay with John’s parents and then head home to Guelph on New Year’s Day.  A nice way to finish another wonderful stay at the cottage.  Happy New Year everyone!

Dermot takes a break from running on the ice

Christmas at the Cottage Part 1

Christmas at the Cottage

We have arrived at the freezing, although happily not frozen, cottage for a few days of winter fun!  Getting here and getting settled involved some serious resilience, but I’m sure we’re all better people for it.

Pippa and Donna trying to keep warm

I have to say that we were a bit smug when we bought our new, 2013 Toyota Highlander this past spring.  We really had no choice but to retire the 17 year-old, 430,000km wagon we had been driving for 13 years.  A 4 wheel drive vehicle seemed in order, I mean we really didn’t want to lug groceries, water, clothes, bedding etc. etc. up the laneway, over the hill, up the ramp and into the cottage, if we could avoid it.  The Highlander is equipped with all sorts of snow-defying gadgets.  It has this function that if you press and hold the brake pedal while on an incline it goes into this “pull me up” mode and crawls up the hill without the driver’s assistance.  It has the best snow tires that money can buy (well, now they’re the best after a major glitch which resulted in me having 3 flat tires--but that’s another story).  The list goes on.  However, what the Highlander does not have is 5-inches-of-crusty-ice-on-top-of-soft-snow defying gadgets.   Yes, the recent ice storm which wreaked havoc across Southern Ontario, and still has major areas without power, stopped us in our tracks at the foot of the laneway to the cottage.  So once again we were lugging!  Happily we didn’t have all that much to bring in.

Anne and Dermot join us in an attempt to keep warm

Once in the cottage we set about getting set up, turned on the power (no problem there--unlike in Toronto), Kate built a fire and the place began to thaw--SLOWLY... painfully SLOWLY.  We began to reminisce about the place we rented near Athens that was made of concrete and was absolutely FREEZING the whole time we were there.  We were laughing about the weiny little heaters that were running full blast and then would pop the breaker.  We remembered about John having to go outside to a post at the road to flip the breaker back on.  We outlined all the clothing that we wore to bed in an effort to keep warm and chalked it all up to the fact that the Greeks seemed to have the whole idea of keeping cool in the hot summer months down to a science, but keeping warm in the winter was a whole different ball game.  I guess there was a certain amount of smugness there too.  The one advantage to our trembling in the cottage over trembling in Athens, is that we knew the cottage would eventually get warm!  And it has!  I’m very cosy as I write this.

John hauling wood with plywood
covering the water hole!

Naturally we don’t have any running water while we are here but mountain man John has chopped a hole in the ice and is hauling water for our daily use.  He looks cute in his Austrian wooly-ear-flap hat and Swedish snow-shedding cargo pants and work gloves.  

Labour Day Weekend

The early morning calm.

A quintessential loon.

I can’t believe that we’ve actually come to the cottage this weekend.  Usually we stay home and prepare ourselves logistically, physically and emotionally for the start of the school year.  It is so exciting to be here rather than stressing at home. 

Lauren, Anne and Pippa enjoying a campfire

After we picked the girls up from camp, we went home to Guelph to do piles of laundry and so that I could go in to the school to plan, prepare and set up.  John and I were busy with meetings, conferences and workshops until Thursday afternoon, so once those were all completed, we jumped into the car and headed to the lake!  Joy!

Anne and Kate have brought their friend Lauren up for the weekend and they all seem to be having a lovely time.  Friday and Saturday were intermittently rainy, but with enough dry, calm times to allow for more water skiing.   We played some games and the girls did some artwork and other indoor activities during the rain.

We’ve had some visitors too, this weekend.  Our friend Don Mann arrived Thursday evening and helped John out quite a bit with closing-up jobs.   Don’t worry he also had time to relax!  

Lauren, Anne and Kate loving smores!

John’s brother Bruce and his partner, Cathy joined us Saturday evening and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  They made the drive from New Jersey primarily to visit John’s parents in Cobourg.  John’s mom is still in hospital and as you can imagine she really appreciated the visit.  They also got to see John’s dad who at age 90 still gets around very well.  He has never had to prepare meals for himself though, so he is struggling with that a bit.  When Bruce and Cathy joined him, he was on his way to a church supper.  I had no idea what a church supper was until recently when John’s parents started attending.  Most of the local churches offer a meal to the public about once a month.  The cost is minimal and the food is good and is along the lines of meat, potatoes and two veg., which is just the ticket for Ev and Don.  Their calendar is loaded with the dates and locations of all the church suppers in the area.  

Cathy and Bruce

Although rain and possible thundershowers were predicted for Sunday, they failed to materialize and instead we have had one glorious day.  John and I got up and jumped into the canoe for an early morning paddle.  The mist off the lake was beautiful.  We saw some loons up close on the way back and they graced us with the sound of their haunting cry.  

Sunrise.

After breakfast the day was all about fitting everything in that will be impossible for the next 8 or 9 months.  I think Anne and Kate went skiing three times each today.  And...bah, bah, bah, bah...I also went waterskiing, and I got up slalom skiing for the first time in my life!!!!!!!  How exciting is that!!!!!  I don’t think I skied with much finesse, but hey, I stayed up and that’s what counts.  That and hearing my teenaged daughters cheering on my efforts.  What fun.  

The last time we were in Cobourg, John picked up Bruce’s old archery set.  Kate, fresh from her success getting her level 2 archery badge at camp, was very excited to get an archery “range” all set up.  So after a bit of creative use of tarps and old boxes, they got a backdrop and target set up.  They’ve been having fun with that.  In fairness, I should mention that Anne got her level 3 archery this year at camp.

Lauren takes aim

As I sit here, at the picnic table, looking out over the lake and listening to the crickets chirp and cicadas sing, I think about what a wonderful summer we have had and how lucky we are to have a cottage, on such a lovely lake in such a beautiful part of the world.  It is so nice to share it with friends.  

We plan to come back for Thanksgiving weekend, which is around the 11th of October.  It will be much different then--water too cold for swimming, leaves a riot of colour, boats turned over or stored in the garage.  There will still be that special calmness and serenity that comes from de-stressing, looking at sunsets and spending time with family and friends.

The archery range

Just John and me...and oh ya, the doggies.

The cottage as viewed from the lake.
John has since stained the docks and chairs so it looks really nice.

John and I have spent a lovely week at the cottage, just the two of us.  Both Anne and Kate are at summer camp and so we decided to spend this week here, enjoying the lake, the views, the occasional paddle and relaxing by the water.  With no set schedule we have found ourselves having lattes at 11 am, lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner at 8.  Everything is pushed back as we stroll through our days.  

Another amazing sunset.

We have had the opportunity to visit with a few of John’s cousins too, this week.  Heather and Walter invited us for dinner on Tuesday evening.  This is so nice, not just because they invited us for dinner, and not just because Heather makes the best cheesecake in the world, but also because it was a workday for them, but they still managed to have us around.  Heather and Walter live in what John’s family calls “the Big House.”  It is the house where John’s Mom and most of her siblings were born and grew up.  It is a classic old Ontario Red Brick Victorian, with green shutters and high ceilings and the most amazing woodwork ever.  The mink ranch that Walter runs is behind the house, and just beyond that is a lovely little lake called “Cedar Lake.”  There is a cute change hut down at the lake, a nice beach and a fire pit.  We met Walter and Heather down there and were joined by Julie (Walter’s sister and also John’s cousin) and her husband Karl, and by Sharon (another cousin-in-law).  The breeze down at the lake was most welcome, and some of us went swimming too.  When we returned to the house we had wonderful mile-high lasagna that would make Garfield swoon and the promised cheesecake for dessert.  We shared a lot of laughs.  

Heather loves to do all kinds of things and is often organizing people to go to this or that.  She loves the show “Downton Abbey,” and recently had a Downton Abbey party.  All the guests dressed up for a garden party.  In order to make sure that everyone had just what they needed, Heather ended up making several (dozens?) of gowns for the ladies to wear.  She found hats etc.  She went up to the walk-up attic in the house and found all kinds of paraphernalia from the first world war period, including letters from John’s grandfather stationed in Egypt.  These artefacts were arranged in the front hall for guests to see and to evoke the period of the show.  The last time I visited, Heather was astounded to hear that I hadn’t seen Downton Abbey so this time guess what she had for me?  Exactly right, a DVD of the first series.  We have already watched 5 episodes and I must say that I am hooked!  All very fun.  

Julie, John and Karl on a typical summer's afternoon.

John and I had talked about taking a cruise to the other end of the lake, and just as we were trying to figure out when to do that, don’t we get an invitation from Julie and Karl.  Now Karl’s parents bought a place up at the opposite end of the lake, back in the 1950s.  They owned the farm up at the road and 5 cabins down at the lake.  They used to rent 4 of those cabins to people for the whole summer.  The remaining cabin they kept for themselves.  Karl now owns one of the cabins and has converted it to a lovely cottage, and his sister owns the neighbouring one.  Julie and Karl invited us for lunch, which was lovely and was topped off by amazing raspberry pie.  

It took us about 45 minutes by boat to get to Julie and Karl’s.  Loughborough Lake is quite interesting in that it is almost like two distinct lakes.  Our end, the East Basin, is pure Canadian Shield with big rocky islands, white pines and lots of shoals.  As you motor along you eventually get to a road bridge that crosses over a narrow section of the lake.  It is this bridge that separates the West and East Basins.  The West Basin is Kingston Limestone with flat sections and some very steep sections too.  The water is very deep, 120 feet deep in places, with very few shoals.  It was my first time heading up to that end of the lake, although I have driven over that road bridge a few times.  It was a beautiful afternoon with sunshine and just the right number of fluffy clouds.  The breeze was light so travelling up the lake was comfortable, with very little choppiness.  It was a great afternoon out!

The Canadian Shield of the East Basin.

Tomorrow we head to Guelph, stopping en route to pick up the girls.  It will be so wonderful to see them again.  Kate has been gone a whole month, and Anne has been gone two weeks.  I'm sure they'll have lots of camp stories to tell!  Then it is a busy week of getting ready for school, but our plan is to return to the cottage for Labour Day weekend.  Yahooo!!!

Dermot and Pippa love canoeing--there's so much to see.

Back at the cottage.

My week at Kripalu was amazing!  My program involved learning about how to use yoga in the classroom and also about helping teachers use yoga techniques.  It was very practical and I will be using many of the techniques right away.

The people in my course were lovely.  They ranged in age from about 60 to 29.  They were all so interesting.  Sara, the 29 year old, was from Northern California and was my go-to person for information on which yoga teachers to try, what their style was, and what other events were best.  She was great.  There were social workers looking to use yoga techniques with the at-risk population they serve, classroom teachers and yoga teachers.  We really got a wealth of information and experience from each other.

There were four other Canadians in my course, including my instructor.  another attendee, Leonora is from Toronto and we may try to bring our show on the road, doing workshops for teachers in Ontario.  That would be fun!

The food at Kripalu was amazing, fresh, local and largely organic.  The weather was great most of the week and so we ate outside at picnic tables a lot.  What conversations we had over dinner!  There were some fascinating people and presenters there.

I did a minimum of two yoga classes per day plus usually an evening event such as attending a comedy show or doing a rest and relax type workshop.  All that was in addition to the 40 program hours I put in to get my Yoga Ed certificate.  It was busy!

The natural environment around Kripalu is beautiful with lots of opportunity to hike in the hills and woods and to go swimming at their private beach.  It is located very close to Tanglewood, an outdoor venue for musical performances.  The Boston Symphony Orchestra practices there and you can bring your lunch, sit on the lawn and listen to their rehearsals.  Yo yo Ma was there last week.  The Boston Pops also practice and give concerts there.  Neat.

Sunday morning I got up early and was on the road by 6 am.  It meant for clear sailing along the highway, through the toll booths and no line-up at the border either.  I arrived back at the cottage at 11am.  The dogs were there to greet me, but John was out getting groceries.

Aunt Virginia came over in the afternoon with a beautiful dresser that someone was throwing out that she cleaned up and refinished.  It looks amazing in our hallway.  It certainly is nice to be so close to John's extended family.

So now it is just the two of us plus the dogs, hanging out for a few days on the lovely shores of Loughborough Lake.  Nice.