On route / en route

Another cracking morning - how can we leave this?

It's never the leisurely pack up that you hope for, but we were ready for Claude when he arrived at 13.00.


After a very high speed drive down, despite three stops (the post, Marcel to leave a key for the van, Labelle for Claire to pop in to the Bank) we still arrived at the airport just after 15.00 Honest!

So, here we are, supper and some shopping to follow then away - all being well.

Great holiday.  Great.

Getting it all together

As Providence would have it, the temperature on Sunday went up to a warm -3 degrees - which of course meant that we could finish washing the salt off the car, ready to tuck it away in the barn for the rest of the season!

Buckets of hot water and scrubbing brushes in the snow - only Ali, Eh?

But a quiet day; and then a walk to visit neighbours to say our "au revoir" until whenever.


Spent much of the evening converting this blog into a photo-book on line, ready for when we get home.  NOT going to have the same mammoth task that still awaits me over the trip to the West last September - 1,400 ish photos to sort through!

Monday - Yves has just been to clear the access to the barn; time to get going......



Well - we had to clear at least 2 inches of snow off the car - but we got there; and we filled the hay feeder.  So that's that for this year!

And then Ali filled all the bird-feeders!  So hungry are they that, at one point, a chickadee landed on her staff whilst she was cleaning out the grain-tray!  It soon thought better of it mind you!
























The basement's swept, the tools are away.  Laundry and packing next!

Not long enough!

Well, long enough to be away from our nearest and dearest, but not long enough to be here.  The days slip past, each one as lovely as the one before.

Yesterday, a trip out on raquettes - snow shoes - into our wood where every step shows a new, breath-catchingly perfect view of our own personal, frozen, Narnia.

And today, Marcel came at lunch-time to agree some thaw and summer care for the van, to try to avoid so much damage occurring to the brakes this year.  Then we went to Labelle to wash the salt off - only to find the carwash closed.  So we had to drive on to Tremblant / St Jovite to complete the task.

Back to the local shop; then, in light snow, home to pizza and pasta and reading and quiet.

More please!

Gosh!

Doesn't time fly?

The blog pages tell me that I last wrote on Monday - in fact, I added the pictures on Tuesday, I'm sure.

And here's Thursday....  still terrifically cold.  So cold that we've pretty much stayed in.  There's plenty to do; the tab at the top of this post will take you to my record of the progress on the cedar-canvas project canoe.  That's much of my time.

Ali is luxuriating in time to read; usually snatched in the UK but taken at leisure here.



On Tuesday I went to the garage for the car to have an oil change and the shops for some essentials - this was the view on the way home:













Ali had re-filled the bird feeders whilst I was away and thrown some hay out of the barn.  This was the result yesterday!




Good news from home - our next-door neighbour, who has been very ill - is back home.  Ali rang and chatted to her.

And my father has had his investigation today and is up to looking after Mother again this evening.  BIG thanks to PW for his help there.

The Greeks had a word for it.....

... in fact, the ancient Greeks had four words for it - storge, eros, philia, agape.  So, what is "it"?  Why "it " on this occasion is love.

Wikipedia has it that storge is "natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring". Saturday was full of it!  Guy and Julie (and Lila!) took us out for lunch to Toronto's Chinatown for dim sum -sort of Chinese tapas.  We shared and chatted and Lila ate prodigious quantities of crispy fried squid tentacles whilst the rest of us tested and tasted a huge range of flavours, shapes, textures and presentations.  Absolutely delicious and astoundingly cheap.  Storge again when we shared a brunch at the Old Mill on Sunday, such a range of flavours and dishes - western style this time!

 

 

Philia then when Guy and Julie went out on Saturday evening whilst we baby-sat Lila (a real non-task if ever there was one!).  They went to say farewell to a good skating friend of Guys, who is off to Los Angeles - or somewhere similar - for a couple of years.  Friendship, affection, philia.  We stayed overnight on Sunday at Ann and Stevie's in Kingston where we shared a wonderful Indian meal with them and with two of their friends - Chris and Virginia.  What a remarkable pair of women.  Together for many years now, their conversation was really interesting.  Chris' grandfather's land on the west coast of the USA had been the tribal lands - in fact the potlatch site - of First Nations people since whenever.  The clam shells in the midden were 15 feet deep.

Ann's continuing care for an increasingly forgetful Stevie is remarkable - philia.

 






Eros - four days in a comfy hotel, playing at "posh"; indulgent breakfasts, time together.  Wikipedia has it that: "The Modern Greek word "erotas" means "intimate love." It can also apply to dating relationships as well as marriage."  A five day date :-)

Agape - "Agape is used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children.  Guy and Julie and Lila were welcomed in to membership at Emmanuel, Howard Park on Sunday.  Ann - the minister's - words of welcome were a powerful statement and re-statement of the abiding, all-embracing love of God for each of us.  None of us is excluded. 

Here's the first verse of the first hymn - it's by Marty Haugen.

Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live,

a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace;

Here the love of Christ shall end divisions;

All are welcome, all are welcome.  All are welcome in this place.

Ann said, referring to the dark events of the week in Paris - that however well hidden under layers of fear or pain or hurt it might be,
within every one of us there is a spark of goodness. 
It is a remarkable Church Family; it more than reflects God's love of diversity. 
We are proud that  Guy and Julie have chosen such a spiritual home in which to bring up Lila
- it says a great deal about them and for them.

And so, safely home in increasing cold and some snow at last to 107
- not much time here now; some work on Burlesque after a familiar supper of cheese on tomatoes with toast. 
 
Can't beat the old staples - but we have enjoyed the change.  I haven't cooked for a week!

So, this is what we do!

Lovely hotel - don't get to see much of it really!

Breakfast -as good as ever - out (very cold!); arrive Guy and Julie's; paint:



      row (who doesn't at some point?); make up; eat; come home, repeat!



Nah - not as bad as that by a long way.  Today we slipped out at lunch time to collect the computer cut planks for Becky and Lucas' canoes (Perhaps more another time)  and to pick up some lunch.

Then we were treated to a fabulous supper - mmmmmm; thanks guys!

This is the charcuterie board;




Guy and Lila fought over a lamb burger (chicken ;-) )

and then we came home to jazz on the radio, catching up with all of you and eventual bed - the Laird and his Lady......

Toronto

A quiet day, yesterday.  To the village for more wood,  but the outside cold limited other activity.  Today, the long drive down, over the still open Masson crossing:






















to the Old Hotel, an upgrade this time to a more spacious room.  Supper in the bar then quiet.  Bliss!

A funny thing about minus 20 Celsius....

.. is that it's COLD.  That sounds daft, and a bit pretentious, but there is a reality about the fact that minus 10 is chilly.  Fling a coat on, don't bother about a hat, slippers are OK and out to the bin and back is just no problem. 
Minus 20 is different.  That begins to be serious cold.  Coat AND thermals beneath; cold-resistant boots; hat is obligatory; gloves go without saying - and then the same trip to the bin is OK.

Today was minus 22 first thing; and didn't rise above minus 20 all day. 

So what do you do when Environment Canada is warning of frostbite?

You go for a walk, of course!  Oh!  Not a long one, about 45 minutes.  But the camera refused to work in the last ten minutes - too cold!

 Yesterday - Sunday - had been very quiet; thoughts of home and FB and then a Skype with Posy.  The weather was too fierce - an ice-storm with freezing rain making the roads like skating rinks - to consider venturing out to Mass.  Next week in Toronto......

..... A Queen's day - and other things

Late Saturday evening now; on Friday we went over to Mark and Janice's place for a light lunch; very nice and a good to catch up.  But it was sad to remember with Mark that two years to the day, the weather had been as cold and as clear as Sheila, his wife, died.

Sad but somehow right that the three of us who were so involved then were together again now.
On the way there we had picked up the 3 1/3 inch timber for re-planking the canoe.  By the afternoon, we had  we had delivered the order for the next pieces and headed into Tremblant for supper with  Pam, Noel, Isa (belle) and her boyfriend L-P (Luc-Philippe).Steak et frites and had a very happy meal, returning home at -22.

The youngsters intended a full day on the slopes today so they shoooo'ed us all off to bed at about 9.30 - they were sleeping on the living room floor on mattresses!  They didn't stop talking for about an hour after the rest of us had been banished!  :-)






Today - Saturday - off to the village for the makings of supper, as well as (more) wood, a disc-grinder (thank you parents for my Christmas present) and some pipes to make a steam box - see later!

Then home to await the return of the seemingly frozen snow-boarders and supper - a cunning new recipe of chicken breasts, wrapped with smokey bacon and stuffed with cream cheese, chopped, smoked almonds, cranberries, finely diced lemon rind and parsley.  Seemed to work OK..  Served with the very nice glazed carrots recipe from Christmas Day. 


Deserts courtesy of Pam and Noel - a tarte au bluets, and a Galette des Rois - a traditional, French Twelfth Night treat with a bean hidden within.  It's a long story and it's late!










And so, with a view of the outside Christmas Tree and with the snow softly falling, to bed!

All Change!

New Year's eve was indeed bitterly cold - but still clear!   A bit more work on the canoe for me,  a bit of house-being for Ali, and then a fabulous Queen concert from London followed by the Eye fireworks.  What could be better - and all at 7.00pm!


Today dawned grey - with a blizzard.  At LAST.  We have seen about 4 inches fall during the day in total. 

I rang to chat with M&D and then I went down to wish Happy New Year to Gilles, Dianne and their family - up for the holiday.  Lots of happy conversation then a late lunch;







these visitors firstly in the field

and then right outside the front door;

a yet-to-be-prepared supper beckons.  More guests tomorrow ........