Full on!

Carpe diem; "grab it by the throat", "never put off  'til tomorrow..."

Whatever the expression, they have it right!

Friday, 29th July, started well and we were about our chores well before lunch ;-)  Which is to say that we have finally adjusted our sleeping patterns and got over the deep stress of the UK-EU divorce election.   At least to the point of its no longer affecting our sleeping!

Which it was.  For a long time.

However; some general cleaning and tidying prior to the Torontarians' coming on Saturday and then I decided to steam the other ends of the gunwales on Vermont boat 2 - using the "boil in the bag" system and my multiple new clamps.

Clifford Pope, of Pembrokeshire, on 22-11-08,  wrote: "Steam in a bag. Clamp the wood at one end, slide on a piece of polythene tube, or sections cut from old fertiliser sacks folded and stapled, stuff rags in the end, connect up to DIY wallpaper steamer.
Bend the wood gradually, waiting just long enough for it to be soft enough, clamping and sliding the polythene along as you go."

Here's a more recent video clip.  "Published on 11 Mar 2014.    Shipwright Louis Sauzedde shows us his trick for steam-bending frames using plastic bags rather than a traditional steam box. The frames are steamed right in position on the side of the boat so that no heat is lost and the frames can continue to steam even after being clamped into position."

I made the tube out of polythene folded on itself and fastened longitudinally with duct tape. And it works!

Thanks, Mr Pope, Mr Sauzedde!

Saturday, 30th July.  Last minute tidying and a fixing of the central vacuum (!) and then in to the village for the annual garage sale - which is progressively being taken over by traders....

Ho hum.  An Old Town Penobscot for sale - couldn't tell whether it was Royalex or not.  Don't need another boat here anyway!.  And all of a sudden, there was Guy!  And so we rescued Julie and the kids from the car and went to Gisselle's for brunch and wandered a bit more and came home.  And every one slept a bit and then we went paddling!

Yaay!

And Guy went off on his own...

 and Minihaha waited for Hiawatha....









And Guy wet for a swim, and we all came home and Lila and James (and everyone else!) ate loads of crispy chicken and went to bed!

That time of evening called crépuscule - twilight.  Occasional roars from local quad bikes as visiting youngsters flex their decibels; somnolent chirrups from settling birds.  Coolth creeps across the land.

Night night!

Busy, busy!

So, my body has finally made the temporal jump - too soon!

Wednesday, 27th July, 08.00 and Claude arrived wanting the chimney pieces for the little cabin - which I had been unable to store in there ready for him since had the only key!  By the time I had washed and dressed - to a background of thumps and bangs from the direction of the Camp, as they call it, I was requested to head back to the village for yet more insulated piping and some more tire-fonds - screw-bolts - to aid the job! 

But they ploughed on and, by lunch-time, we had a beautiful, shiny, insulated, insurance-safe chimney installed, ready for the next pyromaniacs who might use the cottage!

The afternoon seemed to be taken up with more sanding of the Cedar-canvas canoe, by which time I was ready for a spot of paddling and fishing - a 0-0 draw this time....

Pretty, isn't it?










Thursday, 28th July,  and a whole day of travelling and commissions.  10.30 - To Montreal first, to pick up a bed-head  from a fascinating hotel furnishings recycling centre.  Amazing!

Then to the Bank in Laval - our nearest Branch - where a delightfully helpful lady sorted our minor problems immediately, efficiently and smilingly.

On up to St Jerome where Canadian Tire were having a 50% sale on C-clamps.  An extra 28 should surely do?  And on to Karen and Denis' to collect the gunwales for my boat - which behaved perfectly, strapped to the roof-rack.  Thanks, guys, for the arrangements - worked just fine!

Last stop at St Jovite for supper at the Sports Bar - where Ali watched some tennis on the screens there - and to IGA for provisions for the weekend.....


Home at 7.30 for a very subdued evening!

And awake late again this morning.

(Lots to do getting ready for the Torontians today - can't wait!)

Dodging the showers!

I have spent three days looking for my steamer. 

I found the box easily enough; just where you would expect it to be but empty.  I contacted Karen - yes, I had returned her steamer at the end of last summer - minus the instructions (for which I am deeply sorry - but it's amazing what you can find on line these days!) and not presently generating steam - for which I am even sorrier!

But I couldn't find my wallpaper stripper steamer.  Trouble is, at the end of last summer I tidied the basement if you remember and I didn't use the steamer over the winter so now, it could be anywhere.

(Monday, 25th July.)

Well, that rather underscored the last few days.

Not to say that it spoiled anything; I dropped in to see Claude late afternoon to arrange some work on the little cabin.

We went out to supper at Norman and Marta's place about an hour away.  They're just about to head back to Ecuador for the winter.  They need to put in 9 months or so to qualify for residency.  Great chat; Jordan (Lorne and Audrey's other twin son) , who is a full time sign-speaker, and Zoe (N & M's granddaughter / adopted daughter (it's a long story) on particularly fine form.  Wonderful grub; N & M are just lovely hosts.  Thank you.



And today, Tuesday, 26th July, was a bit manic.  Having discovered my steamer (hooray) in the dark recesses of the shelves in the basement (!) I just had to get on and steam-bend one end of each of the gunwales for the Vermont boats. 

It worked quite well (1" oak it is!) but - and I've forgotten this from before although I warn everyone about it - I've now run out of clamps.

Hmmmmm

The plan is to steam the other ends "in situ" - but not without some more clamps!

At 13.00 I went up to the garage to have the winter wheels taken off and the summer ones fitted.  Lighter, flashier ( ;-) ) and a bit quieter.

Marcel had double-booked himself so it took a while to get it done and, when I arrived home, I met Gilles and Dianne on the road in their car and agreed to nip down to their place to take the measurements of the quad tires / tyres again. 





I dropped in home to tell Ali where I was going, to find Claude and his brother in law at work in the Cabin, measuring up to fix the rocking loo and making a list of stuff for me to go back in to the village to buy (cost! Eh?!) in order not just to repair but to make legal the chimney!

By the time I was back from the village (again!), having taken the two quad wheels for re-tubing and collecting the chimney bits (a Saturn 5 would be cheaper!), they had re-floored under the loo and had spotted this wasp's nest in the broken off chimney - where the external elbow had completely rotted away......

The guys intend to get going at about 7.00 tomorrow morning!

The wasps' nest has been zapped!

Deer all around the place at dusk; a happy little text chat with Ginny (late for them) and a similar with Guy.   An email from my parents saying they had caught up with the blog - albeit with help...

How previous generations had it so much sadder......

Bugs and beasties....

Never think that, just because this blog is relatively full of activities, mostly chores (or what could be perceived as being chores!) that this is an encumbrance.  Far from it!  I for one like "doing", and Ali would soon object if she was overburdened with tasks.

Saturday, 23rd of July.  Breakfast on the deck in the blazing sun; a clear, blue sky and real heat at 10.00.

Ten minutes later, this!  Thunder, lightening, rain driving horizontally in through the bedroom fly-screen and wetting the floor....  This country, eh!













There's been a sort of chewing noise in the roof over the front window downstairs.  It doesn't sound like a mouse; it isn't the tapping of Death Watch Beatles (besides, I don't think that they have them here); it is far too substantial for woodworm (unless it's the .303 woodworm from the Unseen University Library of course......).  Could it be some other sort of borer?


I just happen to have (as you do!) a large syringe and needle, "surprise" fillings in do-nuts for the insertion of.  So I mixed up some borax solution and approached the offending log.  It seemed hollow!  So I inserted the surprise filling!  Then I drilled some holes and inserted some more surprise filling.  The noise went away (but latest news is that it may be back.....).

All of which fired my resolve to borax-treat the cabin - where little piles of sawdust and flight holes were spotted last season - and the barn (ditto).

And as I was treating the cut ends of the logs, this guy put in an appearance.

What is he / she please?








Today, Sunday, 24th July.

Up early enough for an unrushed trip to Arundel for church; a lovely welcome.  Of course, this "home" church is the only place where I get to be "congregation".  Ralph preached the Lord's prayer.  Helpful :-)  (But I really DID hope that he'd take Hosea 1: 2-10.  That would have been fascinating ;-) )

Back via the nursery in Arundel, IGA in St Jovite and bits in the village to start sanding the first gloss coat off the cedar-canvas (me), plant out the new acquisitions (Ali) and motor cut the pitch (me again).  But the deer are eating everything this year - all over the Laurentians.  It's a pity the lavender has to smell of Bobbex (rather like urine - Yeuch!) in order to protect it!

Moules marinieres for supper.  The fan's whirring to stir the heavy air.  MORE sad news from Germany.....

Little by ittle

Thursday, 21st July.
Quite a quiet day; another coat of undercoat on Burlesque; some work on the keel which has needed sanding (done) and a rotten void repairing with penetrating resin and filler (done).  Some more filling of the tie-holes in one of the Vermont boats.


More scything on the footy field...  The wild-flowers are pretty, but  in a  very restricted space.

In the late afternoon I sat in the screen-room listening, as you do, to Messiaen's "Quartet for the end of time".  I gazed out over the meadow, empty now of deer, still, in the late shade.  A pair - male and female - of American goldfinch , perhaps our most spectacular visitor, perched together on the rail of the steps, six feet away from me. 

And then this guy popped up just beyond the steps!

He really had the scent of the parsley - but I have placed it in a hanging basket and even HE decided against the adventure!

Today, Friday, 22nd July, another coat of undercoat - and I have discovered that  I don't have an outside gunwale for my boat!  I have inside and outside for the Vermont boats, but that's it.  Rats.  Shall have to work a  wheeze!

Went in to the village for plants to replace the hydrangea at the front of the house - the deer have shredded it again this year I'm afraid.  Ali is presently digging it up.

And I went paddling (kneeling, and leaning the boat, you will please note) and fishing. after 4.00pm.  Missed two, caught one - bass again.

Jambalya for supper, Messiaen on the player again.  Heaven.

Time flies!

Sorry; I'm a day late from my self-imposed two day turnaround for the blog!

Monday, 18th July should have seen us drive to St Jerome to collect the car - but it wasn't ready ; it needed another part and should be ready for Tuesday we were told...  Instead, we pottered around with various other chores....  We moved the cedar canvas canoe down to the barn and I ended up going down to sand the filler coat.  Strange that ;-) 

Tuesday, 19th July, I was up early and in to the village to shop for supper; Denis and Karen and a friend from Alberta were coming for a paddle (the ladies) and supper.  Denis and I went down to see Yves and then Gilles to find the quad.  It has two, very tired looking flat tires / tyres, so I shall have to buy a new set.   Hmmmm  This holiday is getting a bit pricey all of a sudden..

A lovely, chatty supper; sushi maison; soue orientale maison; Buta no kakuni ( braised pork - I used chops instead of belly - not as fatty and very delicious!); chicken tonkatsu (panko coated, beaten out chicken breast, shallow fried) with a sweet and sour sort of sauce, my own recipe trout terriyaki; boiled, thinly sliced cabbage; rice.

But the piece de resistance was the blackberry cobbler that Karen had made!  Scrummy!

After they'd gone I went fishing; I am now officially old and officially resident so I get a reduced price permit.  Just one fish threw itself at the lure - too small to keep.....

Today, Wednesday the 20th July, the car was ready (new rear stub axle, new rear brake something; new transmission, new transmission ECU, new alternator!) so we made the 5 hour round trip to St Jerome to pick it up and to pick up the paints for the cedar canvas.

Ali raked out the dead grass from the front lawn;

I started cutting the football pitch!


Eat-up supper; Rachmaninoff on the sound system.

The Marmotte's about, eating clover!

A new beginning!

Yesterday, Saturday the 16th of July, was another sorting sort of day.  In the afternoon we went in to the village for lunch at Giselle's - a lovely welcome and a free lunch because we had brought back a little broom from the Canary Islands for her huge collection!  And then on to the "exposition d'artisans" in the village hall to admire all sorts of lovingly handmade fripperies.  We bought (!) new oven gloves for me and the Goldmans, as well as some garlic jelly for them to rub on meat prior to cooking.

Hmm

Home to a super of chicken goujons and that old stalwart, ratatouille (aka Rat Stew) followed by much preparation of liturgy for today and to a very, very late session for Ali shortening my pre-loved cassock.
 






Whilst I was cooking, this pair appeared outside the kitchen window.  Makes a change from cats!


A very restless night; nerves and too much liquid close to bed-time...

 




Today, Sunday 17th July,
we finally woke at about 10 to 7, shower, coffee, croissant (huge, crusty and just full of butter!) from the boulangerie in the village 

a quick call to my father - it's his 94th birthday -

and then out; off to St Sauveur to lead Matins and preach for the first time in my new appointment as Reader in the Diocese of Montreal!

We arrived with about 15 minutes to spare at 09.15 - 1 and a half hours ' drive!

 

A really nice church - St Francis of the birds, nick-named "the Skiers' Church".  A log building.  We had half a dozen little children attending with their parents so Ali popped out for me to Loblaws for strawberries and wet-wipes so that we could have a children's address based on the first lines of the Old Testament reading; Amos 8:1-12:

"This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ " 

The Hebrew used implies over-ripe fruit so we (or I, they were pretty little) spoke about not leaving things to spoil; getting on with it!

Then on to Trinity, Morin  Heights, to do it all again.  Three children of a wider age-range  so out came the strawberries once more.
All done by 12.00 and lunch not due at Lorne and Audrey's until 14.00 so off to the Gare at Labelle for a much-needed cup of coffee.  Busy, lots of people eating, lots of bikes on the P'tit train du Nord cycle-track.  

And a lovely, long, political, chatty lunch with L & A.  And home to write for all of you guys.

Oh!  one bird-song has bothered us for years; we mimicked it for Audrey and she had it in one.  It's the White-throated sparrow - the Peabody.  They are all around the house, or one moves greatly around the house, you never know.

This - and the Loon, and the Raven, and the Blue-jays (third sound) - are the songs of 107.

Parsley thief!

Well - that's not quite how it all began; we'll get to him in a minute.

Thursday, 14th July.

So - we knew that the car, which Karen and Denis had fortunately brought down to their place, was playing up.  It's the brakes - again!  So, there is a very pleasant brakes specialist at the end of K & D's road to which they had already taken the car.  The brakes were fixed, but now the transmission is playing sillies.

It's a bit like that Flanders and Swan song that begins "It was on the Monday morning..."

The loan car we were offered, and used to go to visit my vicar - Ralph - in Ste Agathe, was a bit of a clunker; so, once we had transferred the  car to the transmission specialist, we rented a saloon at an amazingly low rate from an adjacent hire-place and eventually made our way, via an  inevitable shopping stop at Tremblant to home by about 18.30 - still hot.

The house is fine; Claude has cut the grass all the way from the fire pit to the back of the house - looks rather nice!  Denis rang at supper time - the transmission factor has found the faults and believes he can fix it.  Lots of money but should be OK for Monday.  Good.  Long sleep.


Friday, 15th July.  Terrible news from Nice; know the places affected quite well.  Terrible.




The canvas on Burlesque has hardened,  and is presumably at least impregnated with filler oils but the white shows between the planks inside the boat. 

I know that wetting the boat will cause the wood to swell but it was a rainy day today so I couldn't move the boat down to the Barn for exterior sanding and painting.  Instead, I added a coat of varnish internally to soak the exposed canvas.






Seemed like a good idea.




Anyway; back to the parsley thief.

We have had five or more deer on the meadow today, three very dappled (young) fawns and their does.

And then, just as I was making tea, this guy gaily climbed up on to the deck and proceeded to munch the parsley pot!

And took quite a bit of shooing off!


Darned cheek.

A cooler day - phew!

Here - sort of!

Our British friends will know that this has been a trying Spring.  Enough said on that score!

Early start on Wednesday.  D L brilliantly whisked us off to the airport at 07.45 where we joined a short queue for check-in.  The agent asked us whether we had our eTA for Canada.  We have our US ones; surely it's not necessary for Canada?  We'd have heard of it.  Well, the supervisor came and told us that yes, it was.  We could apply on line right now at the other side of the hall.  Worried now, we rushed to begin the process, eventually to discover that we had used a commercial site, charging €44 instead of $7, and which now had all of our personal and banking details and which might take two days anyway!

As you can imagine, a heated discussion took place back at the check in.  We had found a link to the Canadian immigration website which said, yes, that the eTA requirement had been in place since March but that there was an exemption until September.  Perhaps our personal and credit details had been taken by this company?  Ali rang the Bank and negotiated a stop on our U.K. credit cards whilst I was 'calmed' by the agent!  They were happy - eventually - to embark us.  Amsterdam apparently weren't.  O.K.  let's do this.  We sped through security faster than I ever remember.  Straight up to the gate and boarding in about ten minutes.  Stage one.

Smooth flight to Amsterdam.  Instant but very welcome coffee on the plane.  Panini and better coffee at the airport, opposite the M and M franchise......

Some shopping, a bit of wandering, and then the long wait to see whether we would be accepted to fly!  KLM put out a call asking for volunteers to take a later flight, they seemed to be overbooked.  In the queue and up to the gate...  hand over the boarding pass.  'Welcome, Mr Crawford :-) '  Scan; red light goes green... 'Have a nice flight :-) '  Through the gate - such a relief.  

 A pleasant, smooth, well cared for KLM flight with an almost imperceptible touch down.  A huge queue for immigration, no issues there;
no queue for luggage, no challenge at customs and then the wonderful sight of Karen and Denis.  

And home to their place -it's about 35 degrees with the humidity - for supper and bed.  Such a day!