Ottawa / Kingston / Toronto

Friday 28th April

An early start (for us) - away just after 09.00 from Aylmer after a great breakfast - thanks.

Down the fairly tedious 417 / 401 (highways) to Kingston to meet up with Ann (and Patti).  Ann has been unwell and certainly tired in conversation.  Completely rational but slowing and then losing words after about 3/4 hour.  We had lunch with her which was great before Pati turned up to take her to a medical appointment for, I think, a review of an MRI scan the day before.  Hope she's OK.

We arrived in Toronto in time to go with Guy and Julie to a church wine and cheese and silent auction with jazz.  We had a lovely evening; some of the lots (holiday accommodation in particular) were very tempting.  We resisted!

Saturday 29th April.





Aren't young families busy?!  Dance class for Lila (meanwhile we returned the rental car) and then swimming for both of the kids.  Feeding tends to be a bit erratic in all of this and none more so than for Guy who was both caffeine depleted and very hungry by mid-morning :-(



Julie had what sounded like a very exciting Poets' walking tour of corners of the city in the afternoon, so the "rump" - once James had awoken from his snooze and the rest of us had finished Lila's delightful tea-party - walked to Loblaws to buy supper just in time to feed the youngsters before their bed.  James ate an inordinate amount of brocolli! 



I crept out before dusk to take this snap at the front of the town-house.  Amelanchia canadensis in context :-)

On the road again!

Wednesday, 26th April



Hard to imagine it's tomorrow we start for the UK again.  This has been a happy holiday; this morning it was really warm - 19 degrees C by mid-morning.  We made the most of a sun-warmed screen room at lunch-time.  No such views across the meadow in the UK!

And then odd chores for me - more politics for Ali.

I roped off across the trail; there had been signs of winter quad access when we arrived.  It won't stop determined riders but it sort of says - please don't come this way.

And more of the battle against the lady-birds!  Where on earth have they been hiding?!


But real holiday stuff in the evening; we went for a lovely, chatty supper with Mark and Janice.  They have been on some extraordinary trips since we last saw them; Africa, South America, Switzerland.....   Gosh!




Thursday, 27th April - packing day - was same-old same-old.  The van was cleaned and in to the barn; the fly-screens are up; pump off;  all the usual stuff. 


 The daffodils made it to full bloom at the cottage today :-)

Away about 14.00; to the  village for maple biscuits and syrup.





Aylmer (Ottawa, sort of) this evening.  Just watched the Sens beat the N.Y. Rangers at ice hockey.

Anyone seen my wife?

It's OK;  I know exactly where she is and I am completely in support.


The time taken on the election has increased again.  We have had to put a real stop on bed-time because we need to re-acclimatise to UK time at the earliest opportunity.

Monday - 24th April

Ginny's birthday - happy birthday girl!  We had a lovely Skype chat with both her and Bryony on Sunday.  Hope you had a good day Monday, dear.

The barn's done for now; I took the trailer down to Yves to get the flat tyre inflated so that I could manoeuvre it into the barn.  Completed.  

We shall seriously consider an insulated floor this autumn.


 



Tuesday, 25th April.

We met up with Karen and Denis for breakfast - thank you - in St Jovite, then Karen came back with us; we shall so miss you guys; here's hoping you get good use out of the cottage this year! 
I carried on with the deck; I had noticed that one of the boards had bulged upwards and once I'd lifted it yesterday I found that the horizontal cross-member had parted company with the stub upright.  The upright had lifted the board; four screws had just sheered off over the winter!

I had to get the car-jack under the cross member and lift it up.  Then I bolted it through to the upright with three heavy screw-bolts (tire-fond).  That's not going anywhere much.






I went and chatted to Claude about his cutting the grass this season, and about the damage to the maples in the wood.  He is pretty certain it's a porcupine!  He and Yves are welcome to tidy and take timber from the wood.....

 



Last year, we arrived in the summer to find that the deer had been up on the deck and eaten the tops of the hydrangeas outside the loo window!  So I have cut and eye-spliced a couple of cords, one across each end of the deck - to stop them.  Nothing's ever wasted, eh?!  I learnt to do that a very long time ago.



And, just at nightfall, another surprise.  What we think is a female ruffed grouse!  Amazing.

Tomorrow I have to start the clear-up, including getting the van in to the barn.  You know, I'd be surprised if it spent very long in there ;-)

Friends re-visited

Sunday, 23rd April

Yesterday - Saturday - was a whirlwind of political activity; really.  Ali must have spent five hours at least at her lap-top, fielding questions and initiating actions.  For the record; it is increasingly suggested by liberal elements of the British press that the PM called this election because, faced with the prospect of up to 30 cases being brought by the Crown Prosecution Service against her MPs because of financial irregularities with the last election, she saw herself with no majority, potentially, in the House.  Added to which, with the slim majority that she presently has, she would be hostage to the vagaries of her more rabid back-benchers and, finally, with the Labour Party in disarray (there are ruder words!) she seems to have felt confident that she would gain a large majority.

Well, she might, but there have been many who have written to Ali as Chair of the Constituency Party expressing their disgust and their willingness to help out.  We shall see.

In the mean time, our "holiday" continues.

So, Saturday morning I went to the Municipal facility to dispose of some large rubbish.  They have stopped the Spring roadside collection and added in this local Saturday service, saving all that petrol driving up to Riviere Rouge where the main tip is.

I changed the switch covers for the barn at BMR - I had bought the wrong ones on Friday - and came back and fitted those.

But the wildlife highlight of the day was the turkeys, who have turned on their charms!


Although the females haven't yet succumbed.

Two, possibly three males (they haven't all been in the same shot yet) and three, perhaps five females.

The lads are very funny when they stamp their feet.  It's extremely easy to anthropomorphise them!









But seriously, they are extraordinarily beautiful birds - just a bit weird!

However, the flocks of various feathered visitors already referred to are playing havoc with the feeders.





The little birds, then the slightly larger birds, come to the feeders and pull out the seeds they prefer to eat, whist dropping the rest on the floor.  Where the larger birds, and the turkeys of course, just hoover up!  This feeder was filled mid-morning; the picture was taken about 5.00 pm.  And the same is happening all around the house (there are a total of three!).


Today, Sunday.

Up early to catch up the overnight e-correspondence (!) about the Constituency and then down to Arudel for Church.  Such a lovely welcome; everyone very happy to chat.  Back by the flooded valley of the Rouge - the access to the covered bridge blocked.

And then a bit of shopping in St Jovite before we drove back in time for Ali to join a web conference call with Western Counties.

I stripped back some flaked paint on the outside of our bedroom windows - at the top of a bouncy ladder - and then I rather poorly applied too-thick undercoat to the bare wood.




The exposed, original cedar has not rotted but I think that this may be one of the windows we painted with acrylic rather than yacht enamel, which is why it has not lasted so well.......

Tourtiere, onion sauce, broccoli, roast potatoes and courgettes for supper.

And now Ali is back at her lap-top.  (But so am I, so what's the difference really?)

Mix and match

Friday, 21st April

This is out of sequence.  I had hoped to catch up with all of our trip so far but it's not proving as easy as that so here's today!  The rest will fill in as and when..

Bits and bobs around the house this morning - the impending British Election is taking over our lives with a lot of constituency work going on here.  But we made ourselves stop at lunchtime and went in to the village for lunch at the restaurant; Club Sandwiches Minervois - scrummy!  A bit of shopping later and I went to the barn to do some beam-reinforcing whilst Ali grabbed a snooze.  And then we both fell asleep for an hour or so, me on the settee, Ali in bed!

We've had quite a bit of rain over the last few days, in fact the field is currently a pond and the pond itself is overflowing!  But today brightened towards the end so we made ourselves go for a walk.  

The house surroundings are alive with wildlife at present.  Bird-life - Juncoes, Grackles, Turkey, White-throated Sparrows, Chipping Sparrow, Wood Duck, Sap-sucker, Piliated woodpecker, American Robin ......  Crazy!  The noises are just wonderful and we're not talking one or two birds here; we have flocks of them!  Even the Marmotte (Groundhog) made an appearance.

The walk was lovely although there is a certain frisson since Karen photographed what is clearly bear-poo just down the road two days ago!  It would seem that something has been eating the bark at the base of some of the trees in the wood.  Clear teeth-marks; deer, hare? 






And the ice is rotting on the lake; won't be long now!

 Although this “trip” is predominantly a Canadian one, it has also been a Spiritual journey, and is rapidly becoming a Political journey, so it’s fair to say that is started on Wednesday, 5^th April when we took the Shuttle from Folkestone to Calais.  From there we drove up to Brussels to see (Sir) Graham Watson.  Graham has been working with us as Provisional Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) in case of a snap election.  He’s been great; dynamic, energetic, interesting…..  But he’s been in hospital since just after the New Year and so we decided, for friendship’s sake, to drop by to see him on our way to Rouen – as you do!
 

He lives right in the political centre of Brussels in an Art Deco house that he and his Italian wife, Rita, are renovating.  (This is not their house). 
Brussels – at least that corner of it – was a revelation! Of course, we walked around in the dusk and so there aren’t many pictures to show but the houses were lofty, stylish, fin de siècle buildings along spacious boulevards and around little parks and lakes.
We must go back in daylight!
Graham really wasn’t very well at all.  He’d had another surgical procedure that afternoon and was pretty knocked about.  But he regretfully told Ali – as Constituency Chair – that he wouldn’t be continuing as PPC.  Much has changed in their lives since he took on the role “just until the end of April” and it’s time for him to concentrate on getting well.
 

We had a jolly Italian supper with Rita in a restaurant near the European Parliament and then strolled back to their house past the heart of the European adventure.  Very sad.

Thursday, 6^th April

Rita had gone to work by the time we got up so we packed our bags and headed off to Rouen. An effortless, motorway drive!  More by accident than design we found our way to an underground car-park in the area of the Palais de Justice. And by some (initially confused) following of Maps Me on the iPhone we arrived at our hotel.   

 Les Initiés  is essentially a bar with a first floor restaurant which was never open whilst we were there and rooms, up a tiny spiral staircase.  But it’s right opposite the restored Palais de Justice (this is the view from our bedroom) and serves very good beer!

 

And crepes :-)

Thoroughly refreshed we strolled by the Seine for a while.......

.....and then found another beer somewhere (I think; things became a little hazy; it's the driving you know....)  

But we did, eventually, settle on a restaurant in the vieux marché which promised much, was reasonably priced but just missed the mark.  BUT, (I had tatin of boudin noir - puff pastry over pieces of black pudding - with a caramelised apple sauce).... there's a recipe hiding there somewhere .........  

Ali had salmon with sorrel sauce (oseille).  Sort of green flavour apparently.......

Tired to bed; gentle saunter back through soft-air Rouen.  Lovely.

Friday, 7th April.

We slept well, it's very quiet in the centre of a pedestrianised city!  Breakfast in the bar was simple - pain, croissant, yaourt, confiture, cafe au lait (a really small one!) and orange juice.  Such friendly people, such easy French!  

Then we set off on foot for the Kindarena where the tennis was to be held.  We decided to stop off to buy some fruit for Ali to take with her - this is an "ordinary" vegetable shop.  Such choice, such pride in arrangement!

It was about an hour's walk to the stadium - we didn't necessarily choose the prettiest route.....

But we got there in plenty of time - Ali was booked for the singles, Day 1.  She was face-painted as she arrived :-)  This is what passed for British colours - looks more like Poland to me.


We agreed where to meet after the match and then I started the long, lovely, leisurely walk back along the river towards the hotel.

Not the best shoes for walking perhaps, but supportive and with my orthotics doing a great job.



The sun, and a few other pedestrians were out, but mostly I had things to myself.



 
I'm not sure whether the markings on the "dial" here  show up.  At the top it reads PM, at the bottom, BM.  At the quarters it reads 1/2.

Very mystifying...

Well, not really; PM is Plein Mer, BM is Bas Mer, 1/2 is half tide either way!

It's a tide measure!

All along the river banks is clear space.  Old pictures - even early in the 20th Century - show warehouses and even town-houses right on the dockside.  But the Nazis heavily occupied Rouen and the allies bombed the docks ferociously early in the war and then later again.

I stopped at a war memorial marked with the double-barred Cross of Lorraine; a memorial to the men and women of the Resistance.

My French wasn't up to the tenses it used so I asked a passing Frenchman to help with the translation which he gently did.

In paraphrase it read something like, "However few you might have been, you were enough".  Do you know, despite the arbitrary butchery meted out by the SS in occupied France in reprisal for the actions of the Resistance, I have never heard of civilian complaint or bitterness for their actions in striking the Nazis.  I wonder whether we would have been so sanguine if it had happened to us.

A little further along there were lilacs coming in to flower.  I thought of Lila in Toronto with her 5th birthday coming soon.  Where has all that time gone?



It's thirsty work, walking, so I stopped at the hotel bar for a catch-up.  Where I was introduced to a beer only brewed in April and May;  Pink, complex with added herbs of some sort, it slipped down happily - but don't they all?

A goodly salad was a bit gritty - less washed lettuce I thought - until I discovered  a pebble. Fortunately, I was savouring the flavours so I didn't crunch down hard - phew!
 
But I was offered a citron pressé with Perrier as an apology.  So it wasn't all bad!

Suitably sustained I pottered off to the Art Gallery.

I wrote elsewhere:

A light, airy building; plenty of space for the hangings, but an unbalanced display for me. A seemingly endless number of religious tableaux, some of prodigious size, relieved by a very cheerful gallery of 'visitors' choices' with a luminous painting of a 19h century threshing machine, all glowing dust and brilliant corn stalks. And there's a moderate collection of impressionists (but go to Cardiff to the Davies' bequest for far better). This a Monet of Rouen cathedral - image captured from the web.

For me, the happiest paintings were two in the central cafe space; a lovely country wedding feast, perhaps from Provence, and a huge composite of an art exhibition with many well know figures fitted in.


But my biggest regret is that there were too few places to sit and admire the paintings. It's a big gallery and it had been a long day so far!


The afternoon's singles matches didn't go very well - GB lost them both.  But I had previously popped into the Metro office to find out about travel from town to the stadium.  Easy!  Just buy your ticket before boarding at the tram stop and "validate" (cancel) it on the tram.  So I breezed back to the stadium, met up with Ali and we headed back to the hotel for a snooze - and some liquid replenishment I think......

But maybe it was something else......


Anyway - we went to a posh sea-food restaurant later.  Here's my review of "La Pecherie":

“Wonderful service, careless cooking”

Such cheerful staff, so kind, chatty and attentive; top marks.

But our starters were lukewarm or even cold; immediately whisked away by the maitre d' "We shall start again". The food returned replated, but not newly cooked - the temperature varied from one end of the plate to the other - time under the salamander I think!

The main courses were OK, flavours a little indistinct.

The plateaux de fruits de mere on other tables looked the part, it was a delightful experience all in all, but ' first impressions' count. Cold food won't do!

Would I go back? Probably, but I'd be sure to remind them what happened this time !-)

Saturday, 8th April.

OK - big day today, my first, live tennis match.  GB 2:0 down and the doubles.  Mr Murray (the other one) on court.  We bought lovely, crsp, well-filled bagettes near the vieux marche on the way to the tram and joined the throngs of (mostly) French supporters.It  wasn't pretty :-(

Ali met up again with two ladies she'd talked o the previous day.  We caught the tram home with a swarm of Brit supporters.

Later - rather later (we were a bit despondent really) we strolled out for a great galette and crepe supper with Breton cider, just in a side street.

Ah!  France in the early summer.  What could be better?Well, frankly, France and Britain as part of a greater whole.  But 52% of my compatriots thought otherwise and a sense of sadness and mourning coloured much of our - well my - time here.  

France will still be here, but I shall no longer be a part of it.

Sunday, 9th April.

No breakfast provided in the hotel so we had instant coffee in our room and then made our way to the cathedral.  People were selling greenery on the pavement outside - it was Palm Sunday of course.

We made our way inside, in time for the sermon by the Bishop and then the Gospel - the Passion Narrative.  Folks came and went, in a very Catholic way which we had met before, and the narrative was not read, it was sung.  Sung by two well-voiced cantors, both men (of course),one being the narrator, the other voicing the words of Christ  A piano and the organ added decoration from time to time and the choir commented and took the part of the crowd.

The cantors were essentially in chant, the choir more harmonised.  It was very, very beautiful.  Phrases in French caught the ear and landmarks in the story fell in to the silence.  Judas, Pilate, Peter, the Crowd's call for Barabas, the Thief, the Last Words...

We crept away with the start of the Mass; profoundly moved.  Christ's sacrifice for us - before we were born, before any of us was born - is a universally recognisable truth.  Halleluia. 


Back into the Sunday world; shops closed, the streets at peace; coffee at tables outside cafes.  Sunday non-trading.  We have lost something there.  Except the Market - of course that was open, just until noon.

We bought bread and fishy mixtures for sandwiches from the poissonerie in les Halles, and paused to admire the flower stall.

If we had moved to France rather than Quebec, I would have been buying Ali flowers and patisserie on a Sunday morning.

It nearly happened......So - back on the tram to the stadium again.  The first of the reverse singles was played rather like an exhibition match with quite a lot of fooling around.  The second in a less convivial spirit.


Monday, 10th April.

Breakfast in the bar of the hotel and then a clear run up to the tunnel and a clearer run home.
Two days to sort ourselves out and then off again!

The garden looks lovely!
 






 Thursday, 13th April.

Off again!  David Luff, bless him, ran us up to the airport.  Usual sit around, connecting flight to Frankfurt, Air Canada to Toronto.  It's just a long way!

Guy met us at the airport ran us to the hotel then we went to a "Pub" for supper - and back to the hotel to crash out!

 








Friday, 14th April.  Good Friday.


It felt best, good in fact, to spend the day with the family in and around the apartment.  The weather was sunny, we started inside for a while with Guy playing ' cello a little and James and Lila wanting to join in.....

 Then we took to the play-park in the development.  Much rushing about and sliding and digging.

 


And James having quidich lessons....

 
 

























 Saturday, 15th April.

Guy took us to town to pick up our hire car, then we all went to the swimming pool for first Lila's then James' lessons.

They are both obviously enjoying the water!


We spent some time (re-)newing friendships!But at (their) bed-time we headed off to church for the Vigil. 









St Martins in the Fields is an Anglo-Catholic church about two miles away from Guy and Julie's.  It was in semi-darkness when we arrived.  

In line with long tradition, the first part of the service was a beautifully ordered reading of scripture, with a psalm - the congregation knew the scansion for the psalms very well and sang up with the skillful choir - and a prayer for each. 

Four of these; the ancient tradition was for the vigil to last all night as candidates for baptism were prepared by the prayerful repetition of age-old scripture.  This is the story of God's relationship with humanity, culminating in Jesus' all-saving sacrifice.  We were caught up in the story.  The  Bishop lead the peace rearwards to the font where the Easter fire was kindled and the fire brought forward in candles to fill the church.  Bishop Jenny Andison - newly installed in the Diocese of Toronto - preached and led the centre of attention back to the font for a baptism.  The choir sang a setting of the psalm, accompanied by a rain-stick.  What a lovely, aural imagery!


Once returned to the choir stalls, we began the communion with the Gloria - accompanied by a glorious, unending ringing of bells - which everyone had brought with them (except us of course).

I remember those bells, I remember an alleluia to the rhythm of native drums; a psalm with a what sounded like an inverted, lower voices "descant"; wonderful congregational singing; the faultless chant of the psalms; the sussuration of the rain-stick around the font; the crackle of the charcoal briquettes as they caught of the incense, like Chinese firecrackers in the updraught of the Easter fire.

And I remember going forward for the first communion of Easter, surrounded by an anthem and light.


 
 



Afterwards, at 10.30, there was a feast in the basement.  

We drove home and didn't get (straight) to bed until 11.30!







Sunday - 16th April.

A doubly big day!  Easter Day and Lila's 5th Birthday!

We met the family at (their) Church.  This is the most impressive community.  Here's a clip from their web-site, "We are an affirming Christian community in the heart of Roncesvalles Village. Everyone, and we mean everyone – is welcome! We don’t care who you love, what you’ve done or how long you’ve been away. Christ welcomes everyone, believer or not. We do too!"

I love this stained glass window in the church:





Toby Dancer would seem to have been a pretty special individual.
 The service was a delicious, inspiring, joyful, solemn, happy, MESS of an occasion.

Ann - the minister - started with this story:
"A man was driving along the highway on Easter morning when he felt a bump;  so he stopped the car.  As he walked around to the back he saw the unmistakable evidence of a dead rabbit under his back wheel.  "Oh no!" he wailed, "I've killed a  rabbit!"  And then, as he looked further, he saw a crushed basket and a great cascade of foil-wrapped eggs, leading off into the wood.  "Oh NOOOOOOO!", he wailed, I've not just killed a rabbit, I've killed the Easter Bunny!  What shall I do?  What shall I do?"

Just then, a woman drew up in her car behind him and found him crouched on the ground, sobbing his heart out.  "What can possibly be wrong?" she asked. 

"I've killed the Easter Bunny," the man replied, "and now children all over the world will not get their eggs today!  What shall I do, what shall I do?"

Right away, the woman ran to her car and came back with a bottle from which she poured the contents all over the dead rabbit.  And right away, the rabbit sat up, dusted itself off, collected up the eggs and hopped off into the wood.

"Wow!" exclaimed the man, "What was in the bottle, I have to get myself some of that!"

"I'm not sure", the woman replied, "I just bought it; it's shampoo but it says, 'revives dead hair'!"

It got even better after that. Ann shared the breaking of bread and administration of communion with a second female priest; the intensity of their looks or their prayer at the taking of the bread and wine was shocking.

I am convinced that this is how we are supposed to be.   “I reject …nostalgia and all talk of return to traditional identities and values. It is a recipe for conflict. It is much better and wiser to see postmodernity’s meltdown of all traditional identities — faiths, cultures, forms of selfhood and so on — as a great religious opportunity to leave the old antagonisms behind.”
From Don Cupitt, The Old Creed and the New.

And so home to the second celebration!  Joe (Julie's biological Dad) joined us for lunch.  e was on good form and we had a really happy, family meal.  Julie had cooked the most enormous ham which, in true North American style, proved to be ready-sliced.  We never got that far, the top end was such a lump that it served us all!

My roast carrots were awful - rock hard after an hour in the oven, Julie's birthday cake was a triumph!

And so, for now, farewell.  Off to bed, and off to Montreal tomorrow.

Monday, 17th April.

It's a long way along the 401 and then upwards to St Jerome - flooding on the Riviere du Nord below St Jerome.  Lots of flooding.


And a wonderful welcome from Karen and Denis  and a great supper - thanks again, Karen.

Tuesday, 18th April.
I woke early - and then settled to read the news; Ali turned over to sleep some more - and then there was no sleeping for anyone.  Theresa May, British PM, had called an early election.  

Bang goes the holiday.  Rude words!

We travelled up to the cottage via St J for shopping and Labelle (where the river was in full spate under the newly-restored Pont aux Chutes d'Iroqouis.)








 

The house was lovely, it was a glorious early spring day; we had opened up in perhaps half an hour.  Loads of ladybirds of course and some dead flies at the windows but no mouse damage and no leaks.

 

The field to the side of the house has flooded!  The pond is overflowing.


Karen and Denis followed us up later - they were to have supper with Mark and Janis and so they stayed over with us instead of rushing back to Prevost.

It's so quiet........

Wednesday, 19th April.

The election correspondence has begun.  Ali was busy at the internet for perhaps 4 hours during the day - (grim) signs of things to come.

I started on demolishing the inner parts of the barn in order to make space for van, trailer and quad together.  Much bashing and crashing and re-positioning of switches and pondering and keeping out of the rain!

I need to take down the partition directly in front in this view, to make a space for thetrailer.  There's a lot of dust, a good many, massive nails and general junk to remove.  Ah well; what else was I going to do today, Eh?

A pair of ducks pottered around in the flood; this solitary turkey turned up.....



 


Thursday, 20th April.









Ali joined me to help with the demolition - and to get away from the increasing flurry of email correspondence.




But it's not all destruction - time, too,  for admiring the signs of spring - and raking the front lawn, despite the patches of residual snow!