Another week in the books

 I can't believe it is Friday already. Where did the days go?

Wednesday I took a run to the town with my dear daughter T and my Pal. We did a little shopping, grabbed an iceCap from Tim Hortons and beat it home. 

Today we bundled the pooch into the car and went to the lake for the afternoon. It was a nice day for a swim. I bought some adult floaties that sure helped my confidence in the open water. We thought about going out fishing with brother in law but it was a little too windy for me, so we ditched that plan.  I get sea sick VERY easily. They are getting ready to host the pilgrims on the way to the shrine at Cornac, so they are busy getting set up anyway.

Tomorrow we are heading to Deep River to see some sights.

Busy Weekend Quiet Day

 Saturday was cloudy, but the smoke seemed to have cleared. About noon, I left M doing some prep work for the event he was hosting,  and headed to the small city to attend the Multicultural Festival. I didn't get to far when I noticed the extremely ominous looking sky across the Quebec side of the river, and a bit of thunder rumbling. It seemed like a good time to get back to Ruby and head out. As I reached for the door big fat rain plops started hitting me. Before I got anywhere there was such a deluge I could NOT SEE!

I had to pick up a couple of things for M. at the grocery store. I got soaking wet, even with the rain poncho! It was just blowing and raining like crazy.

I came home and gave M. a hand chopping and dicing and moving things to freezers and all that. 

Sunday dawned bright and clear. 

M. was hosting a Chinese buffet for Poppa''s 83 birthday. There was a lot of cooking going on in this house. It was a really great meal and everyone enjoyed it with great gusto. Ten bodies were filled to bursting, haha.

M. especially is just whooped after being on his feet for two days cooking up a storm. We are on 'vacation" this week so we're going to enjoy some down time.  We have at least one out of town day trip planned. On Wednesday I'm having a girls day with my daughter T and my Pal.

There is a bit of rain in the forecast so we will probably have to figure out how to work around that. I think the one day trip can probably be okay because it is mostly just a drive by.  I hope we can work a lunch stop in there.

We had the Fifa soccer final on in the background all afternoon. That was one nail biter of a game! We were happy to see Spain win. Some of the spectacle was questionable according to our audience, but the game was fantastic!

Living in the woods

 Or why I live, where I live

My home is approximately half way between the small city and "the Lake".

There is a tiny village just up the way. It has a church and a cluster of homes, a coffee roaster and not much else. There is no store or post office or coffee shop. Just a kilometer up the highway is my road running to the south west. There are 25 households down here so I guess we qualify as a small subdivision.

Most nights we are serenaded by coyotes, owls and an occasional wolf. The neighbouring chicken farm has a couple of lads who herald our wakeup call. There are frequent wanderers moving through the yard. I've seen bear, moose, deer, foxes, and raccoons. Yes, we have seen a wolf and the odd coyote too. We had a wolf sit and watch a worker tune up our AC unit one summer afternoon! He wasn't aggressive, just curious. Once he was satisfied with what he was doing he wandered across the front field and out the lane.

 

It is very peaceful here. It's usually a few degrees cooler than up at the highway where the heat radiates off the pavement.

My home is at the very end of the road, so frequent power and internet outages are a fact of life. We cope. We learned how the hard way.   

Time and Time again

 Once again we are deluged by smoke from northern fires. This is the second summer in the past five years that we have had the issues. In my 70+ years of life I can never remember this before.

I'm staying indoors as much as possible.

I was reading a piece in a Toronto publication about folks going on vacation. It continues to baffle me that having spotty cell service is worth anxiety. I would think folks want to get out of the city and leave that crazy umbilical cord detached. Once upon a time we would take a computer device so we could check in with our home and pet sitter once in awhile. It baffles me when I see the folks wandering around the features, not paying any attention to their surroundings - unless their connection drops, sheesh.

What a headache

 Yes, I was awake about 5AM with a real pounder and one side of my face feeling numb. I usually get two migraines a year, during an extreme cold spell in winter and the opposite in summer. 

I watered my gardens and took a quick run up to give my Pal some paperwork I'd copied for her. Her house was lovely and cool with no AC! It is very hot today but tomorrow looks worse!

It's usually nice and comfortable here early in the morning, then again late afternoon. Not quite today though.

My hanging baskets are doing great. I'm not sure what kind of petunias these are. The flowers are very tiny, maybe the size of a nickle. They don't require deadheading like regular petunias. Tomorrow morning I will give them a touch of fertilizer in their morning drink.

What a Day

The 40th Annual Artisan Market/Fair happened today in the nearby hamlet of Barry's Bay. 

(Unfortunately my computer or blogger is giving me grief about adding photos)

This was my first trip into the wild blue yonder without M., my daughter or my Pal by my side. I'm still figuring out some of the geegaws on Ruby so it will be interesting. Getting the CD player to play before I even left the lane was the biggest head scratcher.

It was quite a nice drive. There was little traffic until I got quite close to B.Bay when it all seemed to be coming to a near halt as I drove down the hill into town. It was a slow crawl to get through the main shopping area. I managed to snag a parking spot right in front of the lovely Madawaska Coffee Shop.  I had to make a pit stop and get caffeinated! 

I parked there and wandered up the other side of the street. Stop one was a run into Afelskies Shoes for a chat with the proprietor Sean. He knows I'm trying to snap a certain pair of Birkenstock SHOES. He hasn't had any luck yet but he pointed to another line he just brought in that are VERY GOOD (and CANADIAN!) knockoffs called Viking.! They are also about half the price. Sean says the footbed in this product is identical to the Birks, which is what I need.  I'm going to head back in a couple of weeks when he has most of his fall stock in to see what is available.

Stop two was a run through Stedmans V&S looking for a sundress. They had a nice selection marked down, so that was a score! We have an extremely hot week coming up and I need something to wear that isn't a muumuu. If you ever watched the TVs program Threes Company and remember Mrs. Roper, she always wore long loose cool dresses called muumuus. I think they originated in Hawaii though.

By that time, I needed to hit the Artisan Market. It was SO CROWDED. There were so many crafts and lovely art on offer.  I didn't buy anything there. I had a quick few words with my pal Teresa, who is the proprietor at the yarn shop in the town. She was at the market cooking up blooming onions. They sure smelled good. Unfortunately I'm allergic to onions so I had to pass. Her hubby Jason tried his best to convince me they were some delicious, but I tried my best to convince him they weren't for me, haha.

Teresa told me there was some delicious hand dyed yarn with my name on it across the street in her shop so off I jogged, dodging the traffic in the crosswalks. Barrys Bay has well marked cross walks with prominent signage. Unfortunately the tourists don't seem to be able to read very well.

I snagged my beautiful scarlet yarn and scurried back to the car. I decided to skip the traffic jam and headed up one of the well known back roads out of town. It was a pretty round about road, but a relaxing drive. I did get a little bit "lost" when I thought I was taking a shortcut. Instead of turning right off the first side road, I managed to miss it and turned on the second, which turned out to be a logging road with a gate at the very end. I had to drive a little further out of the the way then I anticipated. Yes, I got lost wandering around the Wilno Hills! It was no big deal in the end because all roads lead to the highway eventually. I even stopped to take some photos along with way.

When I left town my eyes started bothering me. They were itching and burning and my vision was a bit cloudy. I was getting concerned until the radio announced we are getting smoke from Quebec wildfires northeast of us.  Well that was a relief, of sorts.

Refreshing

 We had a couple of hot hot days, but it broke overnight. This morning we are getting a lovely rain.

The deer flies are horrible. We don't seem to have as many dragonflies to take them out. Where are you dragonflies?

My Pal and I are hitting the town today to get her business taken care of. This is her first trip in Ruby. She is excited about that.

The heat is back

 Our temperature was over 30C again today.

We had to make a trip west past Deep River this afternoon. There is a lot of highway paving happening. We were quite uncomfortable sitting there waiting for our turn to proceed through the construction zone. I can't imagine how brutal it is for the workers. M pointed out that the guy sitting up at the controls of the hot mix machine would really be in the hotspot. He had a big umbrella but there was steaming asphalt below him. The fumes alone would be horrible!

A glorious day and a food review

 Saturday dawned sunny and bright but the humidity had left the scene!

After M finished repairing the S.B. We loaded the Princess Pup, water bottles, towels and sunscreen and headed south west. We stopped in Barrys Bay  for ice cream first. M enjoys fruity types so he had a peach something or other. I've been wanting to try Kawartha Dairy (our favorite brand) flavour called Tragically Chip. They finally had some! It's a mixture of maple, whiskey, cherry and chocolate. Any of these flavours individually I would love. The cherries seemed to be soaked in the whiskey flavouring. Too big of a chunk of that bit was almost bitter. I had it, it was interesting, but I wouldn't buy it again. There was just TO MUCH going on flavour wise.

Kawartha Dairy is located just a bit south in Bobcageon, Ontario. They are known for the unique flavour combinations in their ice creams. In the summer they roll out some interesting offerings for the season. We tried the butter tart a few weeks ago. Again it was interesting and tasty, but not for us. Our favorite so far has been the blueberry cheesecake.

Cones in hand we drove through town and headed up Paugh Lake Road. This lovely country lane meanders through the forest just south of Algonquin Park. There are a couple of side roads that run up either side of Paugh Lake. I forget the name of the road we took, but it's on the east side. There is a small natural beach next to the boat ramp. It's a nice sandy bottom. We can't deal with weeds! The water was really warm for the beginning of July. M and the pup enjoyed a swim while I just waded to my knees. (I'm a good swimmer but have a fear of open water after a near drowning as a youngster.)

We had a nice leisurely drive home. Yes, it was a grand day.

Terry

 Terry was my first cousin.

He died in 2010. That is 16 years ago. 

We've been looking for him about 20 years.

He was always at lad with wanderlust. As a young teen he disappeared and was found some weeks later in TEXAS!

He would show up at our place and take my sister and I on adventures. It was always great fun.

His son didn't know where he was. I don't know if he particularly cared because they were estranged.

We were a group of cousins who loved him dearly and wanted to know he was doing okay.

The last know contact was an art exhibit at Nathan Philips Square in Toronto. After that the family seemed to lose all contact with him.

We recently discovered he had died when a mutual cousin was photographing headstones in a cemetery in Toronto for the Find A Grave Website. This gentleman also looks a the registration books and saw Terry's name. His surname is very unique. There are only maybe a dozen people in all of Canada with that name, and they are all related. He immediately contacted me for Terry's full name and to verify his birthdate. It came as quite a shock. I had to contact his son to give him the news.

My daughter works with homeless people. I shared the information we had found and she is going to get more details next time she is at Beechwood Cemetery. The charitable organization she works with bury all of their indigent people there. With the given information she thinks Terry was indeed indigent himself. She is going to attempt to find out the details of his passing and hopefully shed some light on where he was the past years.

Rest In Peace Cousin. 

You were loved.

You were remembered.

Well doesn't that beat all

 Ruby passed her checkup with flying colors. The mechanic said she is a real gem and we did well buying her. 

We were ready to leave the garage, me driving Ruby and M driving the S..t Box as it is affectionately known....but it was not to be...the S.Box would not start!! The starter went belly up! The saga of our vehicles is to be continued. Ruby got us home again in air conditioned comfort.

I have several years of posts archived out of this computer. I don't think there was anything of great importance on the 37 posts I managed to delete.

The terrible thunder storms have continued to hit many of us.  The only damage here was to my poor peonies. They were so late blooming this year, then the rain beat them to death. 

We are laying pretty low in the extreme heat.

Happy Canada Day

 I managed to delete my blog posts!!!

Starting over

Our back thermometer was reading just shy of 40 C just before the sun dipped behind the pine trees!