Monday, October 20/2008

Last leg. Stop for lunch at Thunder Bay. Then refuse to pay the diesel prices at Ignace. Should we go in to Dryden or just go home. J is for Dryden and points out that we can also check to see if the pellet stoves have come in, so we go. Diesel, bread, milk, fruit, and over to Canadian Tire. The pellet stove (SINGULAR) has just arrived. Did we want to take it? Well no, wrong vehicle, but we'll pay for it now. Then notice Ron S. at the counter. Does he have his truck? So change of plans. The girl at the cash says that we got it by ten minutes. As we were waiting for the boys to load it, a woman phoned in looking for one and offered to pay for it on the spot. So J's instincts were good. Home for supper by the fire.

Sunday, October 19/2008

Off around eight, stopping for diesel on the way out of Brampton. We're too early for the Globe and Mail. The roads are pretty clear. Very few transports and no "travaux" so we make good enough time we start to wonder about the likelihood of a ticket. At Sault Ste. Marie we're also too early for the Globe - "depends on the who's driving" [and how fast]. Stop for the night at White River, same motel we usually use. Sixty-eight dollars including tax and they have a fridge and microwave.

Saturday, October 18/2008

Saturday, so everyone is around, including Mike who came in on the last bus - after we had gone to bed. J and Barb do lots of reminiscing. Out to dinner at a little diner with home-cooked meals. Check online for the voucher for the hotel we booked in Tunisia. There is actually a button to click asking them to resend the voucher. Non-reception must be a frequent problem, but fortunately the solution works.

Friday, October 17/2008

Gary and Barb at work, and we wake to a blaze of gold from the oak tree in the next garden. Slow breakfast over newspapers - the ultimate luxury for those from print deprived Sioux Lookout. B&G are back in mid-afternoon, so lots of time for chat. Mandy's boyfriend joins us (B,G,J, Shannon, Mandy and me) for dinner.

Thursday, October 16/2008

A morning visit with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Donald. Aunt Ruth has so many memories that she alone possesses now in the family. It's a lovely visit, chat and reminiscence. Talk of family and travel.
By noon we're gone, off to Toronto. Despite the hazards of the 401 we're there before supper. Barb and Gary are both home and the girls come in later. Shepherd's pie and kapusta - and more talk

Wednesday, October 15/2008

Leisurely start in the morning, as we're only off to Kingston. We take the autoroute through Montreal, but once in Ontario we leave the 401 at Long Sault and take the river route. The old towns are beautiful, and the leaves still at their best. Picnic lunch at a park at Long Sault. We spot Crysler's Farm, site of an 1813 battle, near Upper Canada Village as we drive and stop to look. A beautiful sunny spot overlooking the St. Lawrence, scene of a Canadian victory over an attacking American force more than twice their strength.
At Margi's by dinner time. Maddie is off to rehearse for Phantom, in which she will be playing the lead, but the rest of the family is there. We sit in the living room where a wooden box has centre place - the box in which our great grandmother, Catherine West, brought all her possessions from Ireland. So nice that Margi still has it.

Tuesday, October 14/2008

Election Day. And the end of our visit. We're off early. We'd meant to take the scenic river route, but there's so much fog along the river that there's not much point. The trans-Canada is quicker and the visibility better. At Riviere-du-loup we leave the trans-Canada and take the route along the south bank of the St. Lawrence, a string of lovely little villages with huge churches and the ancient strips of rich farmland along the river. We cross at Quebec City and take the autoroute in to Trois Rivieres, then head up to St Etienne des Gres. Dinner with Patty and Don - chicken done with onion, apple and maple syrup. Then the election results - a sad but predictable Conservative minority.

Monday, October 13/2008

True Thanksgiving Day. And more beautiful weather. We all go for a walk downtown and over the walking bridge to the north side. Katy is hoping for ice cream, but the place isn't open. Not much is, but there are plenty of families out walking. Dogs and babies and cyclists.

Sunday, October 12/2008

Thanksgiving Sunday. We've been invited to Thanksgiving dinner with Faith and her mother and friends at a camp they rent on the lower Miramichi. It's an annual tradition, with lots of people about at a beautiful spot on a salmon fishing river. I make cranberry sauce with the wild cranberries and Rachel makes dilled beans and a pumpkin pie. A beautiful drive up the Nashwaak River, with the leaves at their red and gold best and the sun on the river. It's warm enough to eat outside at a long table on the lawn overlooking the river. Potluck, but it works out perfectly with enough of everything from turkey and moose pie to farm pickles and desserts. All kinds of space for the kids to play bocce and football, and tea and whist after dinner. A lovely time

Saturday, October 11/2008

Kieran is at a sleep-over but Dave and Rachel and Katy and Joe and I head out to the farmer's market. I buy wild cranberries from an older man who explains how he harvests them using a hardwood comb. Dave buys samosas, and we sample them while they're still warm. J buys aged cheddar. This is where we've joked about setting up Katy and Nana's perogy stand.

It's Dave and Rachel's anniversary, so they go out in the evening. Katy and Kieran are both at sleep-overs, so it's just the old folks at home in the evening, watching qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Friday, October 10/2008

Sunny again and we go for a walk with Rachel. The Fredericton houses are so compelling; painted wood, with welcoming front verandas and endless additions behind, serving generations of large families and student boarders in this university town. Then there are the elm trees, and the river, and the cemeteries in the centre of the city. It's so lovely and unmodern. The oldest houses here date to the 1780's, and many people know their family history for generations before that.

Thursday, October 9/2008

Rainy, and a stay in day.  Still plenty to read, though.  I get about half way through Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy.  It goes nicely with our trip to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, covering, as it does, the dispute over ownership of many of the best paintings, a dispute between the gallery and Sir Maxwell Aiken, Beaverbrook's grandson.  I moved to Fredericton shortly after Beaverbrook's death, and during the time of much of the manoeuvering and controversy, but have little memory of it.  Probably, with adolescent egotism, I was simply too absorbed by my own little student world.

Our trip to the gallery is a pleasure.  Kieran, who's lately taken quite an interest in art, has been wanting to go, in part to see the Turner and the Freud at the heart of the dispute (because of their financial rather than their intrinsic value).  There's the hugh Dali, Santiago El Grande, in a space not quite large enough to do it justice, and a crucifixion by Tristram Paul Hillier that fascinated me as a student, set as it is in the fifties, with fifties costume and tools much in evidence, rather in the manner of Stanley Spencer.  It too has disputed ownership.  There has been a recent court hearing, we're told, with Judge Bayda now preparing his judgement.

Wednesday, October 8/2008

Down to Saint John with the morning sun in our eyes.  The highway is beautiful, and fenced on both sides to keep moose and other wildlife separated.  We think of friends who would still be alive if our roads at home were fenced like this.  Past spectacular autumn colours and down to Saint John, where we spend five and a half hours at the dealership, as they investigate a shimmy, diagnose worn tires, break for lunch and come back to put on the tires - all after the scheduled maintenance.  The tires seem pretty short-lived but we're assured that we've had longer than most (40,000 km).  J isn't impressed, but there's not much option.  The man in charge is overwhelmingly like John Cleese's Basil Fawlty in height, clipped speech, and general angularity of movement, a distracting similarity.  It's not a bad place to wait, though, with comfortable chairs, Globe and Mail, a television tuned to CBC Newsworld, an impressive range of coffees and a computer connected to the internet (albeit with the window light behind it, making it almost unreadable).  I decide, unsociably, to do the crossword puzzle on the grounds that it will probably remain undone if I politely leave it for someone else.  There are other customers waiting, though none for as long as we wait.  One man has only two teeth in evidence and chuckles and grunts a fair bit - in sympathy with our difficulties with the coffee machine or in disgust over the speech Harper is making on television?  I find myself wondering if he can really be driving a Mercedes.  How's that for snobbery?  What has it to do with teeth or articulation?

It's three o'clock by the time we're finished, but we drive to St. Andrew's by the Sea to have our first look at the old Loyalist town.  It's even more charming than we'd imagined.  Frame houses, in pastels and brighter, the oldest of them dating to the 18th century.  It's a pretty harbour - and there's good business in whale watching in holiday season.  Even now, though, the shop fronts along Water Street, featuring pubs, and hardware, and clothing, and souvenirs, are as appealing as candy.  We wander the street and then stop for a bowl of seafood chowder at Elaine's Chowder Restaurant.  Nice, but unevenly distributed - I have far more shrimp and scallops than J - and the bowls aren't big.  There's still time before dusk to look at churches and more houses, including some that were rafted across from the American side when the border was drawn farther north than the owners had expected.  Time for huge ice cream cones and then we're off home, finishing the drive back to Fredericton (about an hour and a half) in the dark.

Tuesday, October 7/2008

More lazy reading.  But J makes an appointment for the car's scheduled servicing in Saint John for tomorrow, so there's an outing planned.  The kids have, for the third day been selling the apples they picked at Ivan's camp.  Small table, big sign advertising organic apples at 50 cents apiece and lots of cute kid appeal.  Katy sings her wares.  They've made over thirty dollars each at the enterprise, rather to our surprise.

Monday, October 6/2008

I'm trying to shake laryngitis, so we've mostly been in, which is a shame in view of the spectacular leaves.  Even without the leaves, Fredericton is such a pretty city.  It's been non-stop reading time for both J and I, though.  Within any random hand-span here there are at least two books I'd like to read.  Reading Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love.  J is reading Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919, which would also be on my list if I had time.

Sunday, October 5/2008

Dave's breakfast special - eggs, bacon and pancakes.  I love this house (1920's) with its beautiful proportions, hardwood floors, and french doors, but I like the warmth of the paintings and photographs everywhere.  Why don't modern houses have windowsills?  Libby's house had such deep window sills in the bathroom that there were huge pots of geraniums on them.  There's a friendliness in beautiful things jostling for room.

Saturday, October 4/2008

Dave's fortieth birthday, so teasing about old age, etc.  We go to the market in the morning, one of Canada's best.  Wander about happily and buy samosas to eat from the paper bag and some to save for later.  Very quiet without Katy's bounce - she spent the night with Fiona.

In the afternoon we drive (two cars) up to Ivan's camp.  A lovely hour's drive up the Royal Road to Woodland.  The kids and J pick apples while Dave barbecues steak - butter tender meat that comes from Peter's Shop, we're told.  Well worth remembering if we're ever here and buying meat.  Rachel's brought birthday cake with her, a carrot cake.  There's a fire on in the woodstove, Ivan still burning wood his father cut over ten years ago.

Friday, October 3/2008

A lovely start to mornings here - organic coffee and TWO newspapers waiting. We of the northern Ontario wilds, being used to having the Globe and Mail available a day late if at all, are like cats stretching in the warmth of the morning sun on the hardwood floors and a news fix for the day. Katy's done school at two but Kieran not until four. Their friend Fiona, Faith's daughter, comes back at three as well, to wait until her mother is finished work. So Katy gets a little time to show us what she's been doing before the others are back. Kieran demonstrates his sax playing - quite impressive for only having had it two days.

Thursday, October 2/2008

Another full day's drive, and another time change, so we arrive in Fredericton at quarter to seven.  Dave and the kids are off at cubs, but Rachel makes us some spaghetti and pours the wine.  We're home.

Then Kieran and Katy are back with Dave.  The kids are off to bed - it's a school night - but we have time to admire their uniforms, their school work, Kieran's new saxophone, before we start catching up with Rachel and Dave.

Wednesday, October 1/2008

Breakfast and we're off.  This is our easy day, so we've slotted in a visit with Libby Toop, a fourth cousin I've never met, and her husband Ron.  Through the Perth area villages, so mellow after the raw angularity of the west, and past farmland nearly to the village of Toledo, where the Toops live in a house that has been in Ron's family for a hundred and sixty years.  It's opposite a cemetery where his ancestors have resided for even longer.  A lovely meeting in a room full of books.  Libby does have Manning ancestry, though it's back a bit, but even better she has years worth of knowledge of the Loyalists families that travelled with them through New York, Vermont, and Quebec, as well as southern Ontario.  We have to tear ourselves away at noon because it's still more than six hours drive to St Etienne, north of Trois Rivieres.

We take the Queensway through Ottawa but miss the trans Canada exit.  Must be poorly labelled, as we've done it before, though not recently enough to remember the mistake in time.  But we decide to go with it and take the older route along the Ottawa River, lovely and no longer, but not four lane.  Cross the river at Hawksbury and Don's directions work well, so we follow the north shore of the St. Lawrence to Trois Rivieres and take the Shawinigan route north to St Etienne.  It's a far better highway than it deserves to be, the Shawinigan route, not long but a royal road north to former Prime Minister Chretien's old seat.

Dinner with Don and Patty and a sampling of the local beers.  And the treat of the French language  pre-election leadership debate from a Quebec vantage point.  Dion and Duceppe are at home in the language, of course, but the French of the others is surprisingly good - surprisingly to me at least.  There's a fairly comfortable feeling to the round table format.  Less comfortable for Harper, perhaps, but then I have an admitted bias.

Tuesday, September 30/08

More rain - in fact mostly rain, though not always heavy.  Away by eight, but it's close to seven in the evening when we reach Heather and Doug's place at Perth.  Warm welcome, dry house, wine, dinner, talk, and family photographs, including one of my grandmother and her younger sister as children.  Doug and Heather tell us about their three months in Tuscany - happy enough that they went back for two weeks this year.  We're reluctant to call it an evening and go to bed, and not simply because of the Laphroaig, though that's a special pleasure.

Monday, September 29/08

Up at 6:15 but it takes us two hours to get away.  It's getting cold enough at night that J wants to freeze proof the house, draining water and disconnecting the pump as there will be no heat on.

Cloudy start and a good drive as far as Upsala, where traffic comes to a dead stop.  We're queued for three quarters of an hour, passed by ambulance and police cars but unable to see the cause of the trouble.  A man with two young boys from the car ahead do go on a recce though, and the daughter-in-law tells us that there's a back road - we can follow them.  So we detour round on Pipeline road, missing Upsala entirely.  Eventually the news catches up with us.  The police had set out a spike belt to catch a thief and apprehended him when he ran for the woods.  His female accomplice, following, was in a head-on crash.  Surprisingly little human carnage, but arrests and drama.

And past Marathon a single car - or to be accurate, truck - accident.  More ambulances, at least four police cars, and two fire rescue units pass us.  vic tims still in the truck.  As we pass, things don't look good - backboard and oxygen in evidence.  

Darkness after Wawa, and rain.  We stop for the night about thirty km short of Sault Ste Marie.

Wednesday, September 17/2008

Stop at the lake on the way back, but Ian and Susan and crew (Susan's mum and William) out fishing, so we're on our way, happy to get back before dark.  Stop in Dryden where there is a satellite electoral office for the district and are told we can vote right now.  Opt for a half hour to discuss the options.  Then vote.  Seems strange, with the whole campaign still ahead of us.

 

Tuesday, September 16/2008

Car servicing at the dealership - so we have them drop us off at the Charleswood Mall and pick up some candy to take over to Mum.  Her relationship to the sweets so much simpler and happier than her relationship to people these days.  Over to Subway with Trev for supper.

Monday, September 15/2008

Off early, accidentally taking James's house key with us.  Ian and Susan are at the lake, but we stay at the house in Winnipeg, sharing it with Trevor.

Sunday, September 14/2008

Sunday breakfast.  Tess helps James make cinnamon buns.  Giggles over the secret, trying to mislead us when we say that something smells wonderful.  We take a long walk with the kids, past the legislature gardens and down to Wascana Creek where we feed the ducks and geese.  Then over to the Natural History Museum.  Tess zips past exhibits but both kids take a while in the children's activity area.  We remember the last time we were there with Malcolm several years ago when we were unable to see the enormous mechanical dinosaur because the room had been closed off for the Chinese opera - Chinese and steamed buns in evidence everywhere.  Nobody expects the Chinese opera.

Back home we go out and pick up some Chinese food from Peking House.  Laura comes to pick up the kids, so hugs and good-byes.  J has a meeting with Palliser Conservatives and we head over to visit John Kutarna. We begin by admiring the Wilf Perreault over the couch - an enormous painting of John's own back lane - and eventually have the tour of all the art works, including more Perreaults and some Thaubergers.  Some lovely ironic and whimsical works in Vicky's den.  Miss seeing John more often - and really miss Vicky, the most happily positive friend I've ever had.

Saturday, September 13/08

Swimming lessons.  Malcolm has to be torn away from his WII.  Tess is the most enthusiastic splasher of the salamander class.  We're the cheering section on the bleachers.  Tess's dance class is cancelled but she puts on a performance with the help of scarves, then teaches school for her dolls: "You count to five in Spanish, and you practice your flute."  Malcolm and more of his WII.  J still clearly totally psyched on his job as policy advisor to the premier.

Friday, September 12/08

On to Regina.  Windy enough prairie drive that the car's stability system light comes on, distressed at the steering wheel angle required to keep the vehicle going in a straight line, though the Smart does well enough.  

First stop to renew passports.  No problem with mine, but J is sent to line B.  Problem: he wants to renew it two years before it expires in order to rid himself of the dread Israeli visa stamp.  I have the same stamp, but my passport is due for renewal.  The upshot of line B is that he can't renew two years early.  He could pay full passport price for a one year passport good only for countries that are problematic - like Syria.  But that would take time.  J suggests that Ottawa might be more accommodating.  The girl is offended and insists that those are Ottawa rules.  But she's spent considerable time consulting with someone not visible - is there room for discretion or is she just unfamiliar with the rules?  No point in asking.  We call it quits.  Syria some other year.

James and the kids are waiting at his new house.  Tess shyly peeping, but warming up quickly.  Malcolm less shy but more reserved.  James makes pizza.  Tess gives us the grand tour:  the new bed, the "fancy" toilet seat - a child's eye view.  Malcolm takes top bunk in the spare room while we have the bottom.  Tess shares with James.