Our Message Archive
March 2024
Wednesday March 20
A bee enjoys our winter aconites
Spring has arrived so here is the requisite picture of our winter aconites in the back yard along with a bee who is also, no doubt, glad that winter is over. We also have a few crocuses in bloom, with more on the way, and we are looking forward to the tulips and daffodils that we planted in profusion last fall.
Ann and I spent the past couple of weeks in Ontario helping to get Gran's house ready to put on the market. We left Dartmouth on Monday morning driving as far as Rivière du Loup where we stayed at the Quality Inn and had a relaxing dinner at Resto-bar le 171 in the Hotel Levesque. The next day we drove to Ottawa where we stayed with James for the night but went over to Morgan's for a take-away Indian dinner. On Wednesday, Ann, Morgan and I drove to Sarnia arriving in time for dinner.
We spent the next few days painting. Ann and Morgan worked on the basement whose faux wood panelling was changed to white. I prepared the bathrooms on the ground floor and upstairs for painting then helped out in the basement. Martha cooked us meals and John popped in most days to give us moral support.
Morgan and I left on Sunday so that he could take the train to Quebec City on Monday. We filled the car with items from the house to be dispersed among the various members of the family and stopped in at Renfrew on the way to drop some of them off. Ann stayed behind in Sarnia where she and John finished the painting over the next few days.
On Monday afternoon, I dropped Morgan off at the train station then stayed at his place to look after his cats, Rex and Echo, while he was away. Echo is delightful but Rex and I had some difficulty coexisting. As well as taking up more than his share of the bed and stealing both my food and Echo's, he managed to spill his water bowl twice and he broke the automatic beanie dispenser trying to get inside at the beanies.
On Tuesday, I met with Bodo and Jim for lunch. Jim is an old colleague from DRDC and Bodo is a propeller manufacturer (ex-boss of Morgan before he left to work at InnovMetric) with whom Jim and I have worked on research projects over the years. That afternoon I went for a pleasant walk along the river before going to dinner with James at Silk Road, a Persian restaurant close to Morgan's.
On Wednesday, I drove to Titchborne to spend the afternoon with Nick and Annette. It was a very nice day, so we sat outside on the deck and chatted.
On Thursday, Ann took the train to Ottawa from Sarnia. I picked her up at the station and we went for a late dinner at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. We stayed at Morgan's that night, then moved to Renfrew on Friday (Morgan returned that evening) to spend the next couple of days with Katy, Ben, Andrew and Alex. On the way we stopped in Arnprior at the Mighty Fine Bake House for lunch and also checked out a couple of other cafés in preparation for a bike tour that we will be running in the fall. When we got to Renfrew, I dropped Ann off, then went to check out the route of one of the rides on our bike tour returning in time to partake in take-away Chinese food for dinner.
On Saturday morning Ann and Alex made us all waffles for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day playing games, going for walks, reading stories and finding things in an I Spy book.
On Sunday, we were off on the long journey home, stopping in Ottawa to drop off a few more things with Morgan, then continuing as far as Rivière du Loup. We arrived home at 6:15 on Monday, just in time for Ann to attend a meeting of the church Truth and Reconciliation Committee at Mark and Shirley's.
Yesterday we had dinner with Ingrid and Mike at The Resolutes Club then went to Neptune to see Addicted. It was not bad but was not a style of play that I like much.
Sunday March 3
Après Adventure Chalet
You have probably heard of the flooding in Sussex, NB, last Thursday. Well, guess where we were all week? We went for a ski vacation with our friends Kim and Glen to a chalet across the street from the Poley Mountain ski hill which is just outside Sussex. We left on Sunday morning and drove to Wentworth where we stopped in for a few runs. When we arrived, the parking lot was full almost to overflowing, so we thought that the hill would be very busy. However, it turned out that there were races being held and most of the cars were for those who had come to watch: the lifts and the runs were almost empty. It was a lovely day and, with all the recent snow, the conditions were perfect. We left at around 3 pm and drove the rest of the way to Sussex.
We skied at Poley on Monday and Tuesday morning. On Tuesday afternoon, Ann, Kim and Glen went on a hike to a waterfall (underwhelming I was told) while I stayed behind and continued skiing until the lifts stopped.
On Wednesday, the temperature rose and the rain began, so we went into Sussex for a skate at the arena followed by lunch from Taste and See eaten at the Sussex Ale Works. Our hosts at the chalet had been in contact all day suggesting that we might have to clear out since the chalet is on low ground and, while they didn't think that the chalet itself would flood, they suspected that the driveway would become impassable. They offered to give us a refund if we wanted to leave early, or to move us to another B&B just up the road but on higher ground. We opted for the latter option, moving in there with essentials in the late afternoon. We moved back into the chalet the next day. Ann and I spent that day relaxing in the chalet but Kim and Glen went for another hike up to Sussex Bluffs.
The photo above was taken on Tuesday, the day before the rain began. When we returned on Thursday, the snow was replaced by a pool of water and the bench and chairs had been washed away. The owners told us that they had checked at about 3 am and the water was up to the first step on the stairs up to the deck. By the time we returned in the morning it had subsided enough that we could walk in easily without getting our feet wet. Unfortunately, the town of Sussex has not had it so easy and will take some time to recover.
We left for home on Friday morning but stopped in at Wentworth for a few runs on the way. It was quite cold and very windy, so we didn't stay long before returning home.
In our absence, Dartmouth also had warm weather and rain, so the two feet of snow in the yard when we left had all disappeared by the time we got back. A few weeks ago, I reached into my pocket for my car keys but they weren't there. I always keep them there so I was perplexed. We looked everywhere that we thought they could be, but with no luck. But on Friday, when I was taking a tour around the garden, there they were in the front flower bed. I must have pulled them out of my pocket by mistake when shovelling snow, then thrown them into the drifts in the front yard. They still worked fine after spending nearly a month under a drift.