Still no internet....

Saturday, 27^th July.

Ali’s a bit better this morning and the weather is wonderful.  I changed the dressing on my ankle which is doing OK.  Still no progress on the internet front. We went to have toast and coffee at Giselle’s to catch up with news, emails and to post the blog.  The village was very busy with the garage sale but we by-passed it and headed instead for the municipal spring, the store – which had serpentine queues for the tills - and to buy some bird seed.

Almost as soon as we had arrived home, Lorne came to visit.  It was very good to see him.  He’d been to spend time with Mark who is, perhaps, a little improved after his ordeal.  He was a passenger in a light aircraft with three other friends when they crashed on their way to a remote fishing camp.  Only Mark survived. 

He went into self-rescue mode; he got out of the wrecked plane, raided it for all the supplies that he could, built fires for smoke, activated the rescue beacon which, fortunately, was detected by an RCAF Hercules already searching for another crash in the vicinity.  They parachuted in two paramedics and then air-lifted him out to the local hospital.  He was only kept in overnight and then rented a car to get to Mont Laurier, where Janis came to collect him.

Physically he’s OK.  His head’s in a bit of a mess apparently; not surprising really.

Later, we finished off clearing out the screen room; by mid-afternoon the weather was hot!  The fish were a bit more active but I lost two in succession from abraded line breaking.  Bother.  Three in the boat, none in the bag.  I can’t find my black, telescopic spinning rod at the moment but the Daiwa take-apart which Ali gave me eighteen months ago is serving very well. 

The loons have two good-sized chicks this year; they were happy to be about 20 yards away from the boat as I drifted with the breeze.  I met up with Yves the dentist as I came home.  He confirmed that much of Chapleau is affected by this invasive waterweed and that we may not fish in its vicinity.  Our end of the lake is OK so far but……

You have to have your boat washed and certified to move it from place to place, including from Chapleau to des Mauves.  I’d heard this also from the lady at the Information centre but from her explanation I couldn’t work out the price.  From Yves I think I understood that it’s $25 for the washing with a $25 supplement because of the weed.  Per boat; per movement!  And there’s an additional charge for access to des Mauves!  This will have a profound effect on the community, advertised as the area of so many lakes.

The deer on the lawns go almost without notice; we have seen at least one fawn in dapple, accompanied by its dam and a buck in velvet.  Never seen a family group like that before.  The white-throated sparrow is the sound-track to the cottage; at times when it’s not singing, the air is completely silent.

Sausage and slightly better skinny fries with home-made “baked beans” for supper.  I’ve sorted the photos and written the text from “March ‘08”, the first time we came to the cottage.  Funny how the memories come back – for now!

An early night at 10.00; we slept with the window open and mostly without covers.

Sunday, 28^th July.

Ali woke not a great deal better.  In fact she couldn’t make it to church so I drove down on my own.  Such a lovely welcome from a nearly full house of residents and vacationers.  Josee lead worship and preached on prayer.  The reading was the Lord’s Prayer and she spoke extempore and on times rather ramblingly but powerfully, too, making the point of the intimacy of prayer hat Jesus encourages us towards.

I didn’t leave church until 13.15 and then stopped at the Municipal garage where they do the boat washing.  I chatted with the most friendly attendant there who reassured me – once we had found our house under Ali’s maiden name – that for locals, canoe washing was free.  I described where we lived and where we canoed and he was clear that I wouldn’t need to wash boats between Chapleau and des Mauves since both had microphyla infestations.  But moving outside those areas or coming back from Ontario – I would.

And the charges for Visitor boat cleaning and registration were huge!  Don’t bring boats to use; use ours!

I stopped at Giselle’s to have a sandwich and catch up with the email (and talk extensively of the cultivation of garlic, which Giselle does commercially) and arrived home after 15.00.  Ali was only just beginning to worry a little, expecting that I would be diverted by something or other!

A good fish amongst the rocks off Yves’ dock burrowed deep amongst the stones and fretted the line until it broke!  Huh – I shall have to go back for that one.  Three in the boat, none in the bag.

Supper was chicken casserole which tasted better when it was first made and lost some of the distinct flavours when it was reheated when I came back from the lake.  But it was pretty yummy really.  Sleep at 9.15; bed at 10.00!

Back again

(A later start this year.  We had been up to Yorkshire the weekend of the 14^th to celebrate Daddy’s 97^th birthday; a really happy lunch at the Blue Bell at Arkenstall. 

The weekend of the 20^th, 21^st we had again been busy with Adrian’s 70^th birthday gathering on Saturday afternoon – all of the cousins and little cousins – as well as catering for lunch for the Benefice “have your say” day on Sunday.  I was pretty tired after that and didn’t do anything for the rest of the day really.  So Monday was a protracted tidy-and-pack and a late night!)

Tuesday, 23^rd July.

Up at 6.00 for the taxi and then the flight to Amsterdam.  We soon had a text alert that our onward flight to Montreal would be delayed and so we settled ourselves in to Café Coco for the duration – about 5 hours.  Reading, dozing and an excellent fish platter all meant that the time passed perfectly agreeably.

Once on the plane, there were more delays; it was hot because the air-conditioning wouldn’t function effectively on the auxiliary power but the flight attendants broke open the water rations early and then came around with the face flannels so we were pretty well sorted.

We eventually left about two hours late but Wanda was there to meet us, and to waft us home in our newly cleaned and oil-changed car to a bug-free supper outdoors at their place.  Good to be “home”.

Wednesday, 24^th July.

Awake about 7.00 Canadian time; breakfast (coffee!) with Rod and Wanda and then the leisurely drive up, via IGA at Tremblant and buying my fishing permit here in the village, to the cottage.  No mice this time; no ladybugs; no flies.  All spic and span and very welcome.  The meadow is spectacular if a little monotone.  Much beckons, but nothing so invitingly as sleep.

Thursday, 25^th July.

A slow and luxurious start to the day – no internet, no news, no noise, coffee; bliss.

Eventually, cottage life creeps in.  I opened the doors to the basement; they’d been screwed shut for the winter.  Ali stared to cut the lawns; I pulled the big green canoe out of the barn and took it down to Yves’ to launch it.  A fish first cast – cleanly hooked, just too small to take.  A wonderful few hours – I caught up with Stephane and Sylvie and Yves and Lucie; the canoe’s at their place now.  3 in the boat, 1 in the bag.

I’ve decided to try to catch up with the photo books for what might be called “The holiday years”.  I have already written about our first three holidays here when we stayed with Lorne and Audrey (A Laurentian Love-Affair), and there are books for summer 2012 onwards, but there’s a gap between winter 2008 and then.  I have all the photos but it’ll be a long job!

The paint is peeling badly on some of the window frames; maybe I’ll try to get them shell-blasted this time.  I have the porch to panel inside; there are huge gaps between my carefully-cut wriggly edges and the logs of the main house – why?  And the windows there need framing.  The thwart of Little Kate needs some maintenance; it has pulled its bolt-holes and I shall have to reinforce it somehow.

I need to get the re-enforcing down in the screen room – which has done a fabulous job by the way.  From the ground I can’t see any warps or distortion despite the huge snow-load over the winter.  And we need to sort out the question of the letter we received regarding the Septic System – which may well apply to the Camp cabin. 

AND – there’s no internet.  Bliss in some ways but how shall I get this posted without it?

Ho hum; at least it’s written…..

Friday, 26^th July.

Ali’s not very well.  She woke often in the night with a cough, as if she had something in her trachea, and I came down at 6.00 to find her asleep on the couch.  But she struggled on, (of course), firstly helping to get the re-enforcing down from the screen room and then coming in to the village to visit the Mairie about the Septic System.

I had been in earlier to access the internet at the library and then at Giselle’s – where I met up with Yves – looking well – and had toast and coffee (and an egg…..) for breakfast, so I knew something of the purge that was happening in the upper echelons of the government back home.  Even Liam Fox has lost his cabinet post – the commentators say it was for telling the truth about the legality of Brexit negotiations.

So – work on the screen-supports and then to discuss the sewage.

It seems that they still haven’t noticed the existence of the Cabin; what we are considering applies to the main cottage! 
Apparently, three years ago, we should have been told that we had to ensure that our workings were up to code and that we had until the end of this September this year to complete the work.  We honestly don’t remember hearing that.  However, all is not lost.  A very charming and helpful lady, the Inspecteur, explained to us that we may at least have a partly compliant system in that we do not have a simple “box”, which was the old way, but do seem to have a two chamber “Fosse Septique” with a discharge – somewhere.  Of course, that should connect to a weeping field (un champ d’epurage) which we may or may not have…..

But we do need to employ a surveyor to establish exactly what we do have and what changes – if any – may need to be made.  Provided that we do that, and l’Inspecteur can assure her line manager that we have the matter in hand, then we don’t have to rush to get the work done this season.  Which is just as well since I think that the roof has a more urgent call on funds this year!

A couple of hours on the water – two fish hooked, none in the boat.  Home to teriyaki salmon, green beans, rather less than successful skinny fries (limp, oily; tragic really).  Ali’s not much better than she was; bed at ten (unheard of for us!).