Three Weeks Later.....

I guess I should have realized that summer time activities are not conducive to keeping an online blog updated. Oh well. Our boating time has been sparse lately, so we need to make take advantage of any sunny day/evening while we can.
Alright, where did we leave off? We went back to work after our 10 day holiday together and reveled in the fact that we managed to spend a lot of time together and didn't fight. We have become complacent in our old age, I guess!
On Friday night, August 12th, we acted like tourists and hit the patio at Stoneys for an early dinner. This just happened to be the same weekend of the 1000 Island Poker Run ... otherwise known as PartyWeekend in downtown Kingston:) This would explain why there was 4 or 5 very large cigarette racing boats parked in the middle of Ontario Street.
Here is a picture of our view from our dinner table that night:

After dinner, we went down to the basin...Bill went to check out the boats and I sat out in front of the stage to watch Emily Fennell and Nancy Slater sing the National anthem's:


Emily was next up on the stage to play a one hr set @ 6 and I didn't want to miss it. After we hid under the eves of the old train station, (and it became obvious that the rain won over the show & all the equipment was being packed up) we decided to take a run for it and hit the patio at The Holiday Inn. What a great venue this place is for a show. As coincidence would have it, we knew the guys in the band who were scheduled to play at The Slip & the first set was starting in 15 mins:) Even thought we were soaked to the bone, we had a great time with a table of old friends that we hadn't seen in a while. Steve Cheeseman & the Heaters took the stage & I actually got Billy up on the dance floor for a waltz.

After 2 sets, we left The Slip & I dragged Bill into The Merchant McLiam to see if Emily Fennell was playing there. You can imagine how delighted I was when I saw Emily up on the stage with her band setting up for their first set:) I managed to catch her attention and told her how disappointed we were that the rain stopped their show in the park. We struck up a quick conversation about people in the music business that we both knew. Afterwards, she took me over to meet Piper, her 2 month old daughter. I bought a CD off of her, after she went off to feed the baby before she had to work. What a trouper she is! This child was born 48 hours after she left the stage on her last night of work.

As we were leaving, I ran into some people I hadn't seen in 5 years. What a treat it was to catch up with these fine ladies! After sporting a TimHortonArmour, we headed home. Man, that was one late night for us old folks. We didn't get home till after midnight.
The next day we went over to the cottage for the day. Our friend Lawerence brought his little dog Ted. Here is a picture of Ted Bundy, trying to give Bill a kiss:

After dinner, we retired to the living room to play another game of trivial pursuit. Unfortunately it rained all day, so this wasn't our first game of the day. What a crappy weekend it was, weather-wise.
I took this picture of Lawerence, and after viewing the picture on my camera, it appeared that I had just been to a puppet show. What do you think? The effect is worth posting the picture.

Fast forward to last friday night. I had asked Pa (Harly) if we could do the brakes on my car at his place. Harly has a hoist, and friday nights are often spent hanging around in his garage that we have so lovingly renamed Possum Lodge. Here is a picture of Bill up on the hoist. Dont worry kids, he wasn't drinking and driving, even though he had a beer bottle in his hand.

Simbah (SteveFrench) was in the house...he never seems to be amused with the antics of us crazy folk:

On Saturday I went to my Aunts husbands 50th birthday party in Napanee. Gawd I hope no one does this to me in 5 years:

On my way home, I stopped along county road 22 and took this picture of a barn that has intrigued me for years:
When I downloaded the pictures, it almost looked like I had taken a picture of a painted picture. And the black and white one I took turned out even better:

The many times I have passed this barn over the years, I felt like there was a story to be told just by the many unique characteristics of this stately building. How do you explain a love for a barn? I cant. But the pictures are worth a thousand words, in my opinion.
This coming weekend is the last one in August. Man where did this month go? This is my second last Friday off and I don't have any more holidays (after a 4 day labour day weekend that is)till Christmas. Boo Hoo!
Oh yea...this Friday night I am off to Stages Nightclub with my friend Grigg to see Betablokka, Mystic Caravan and Chris Koster. Whoooo...I cant wait.

Back to work :(

Yes, the day finally arrived; we had to go back to work today and it wasn't quite as bad as I had anticipated. Last week went by so fast...Lets see if I can recall it with pictures.

Monday (the holiday) was spent at the cottage, hanging out, swimming and boating. Tuesday was market day, so we took a trip downtown to buy some supplies for making dill pickles.

I tried a few macro shots while I was there:


The sun was so bright that day, it made even the oldest buildings look great. This is the old Whig Standard Building that will soon be the new home to The Keg Restaurant.

We were meeting up with a friend for lunch at Stoney's patio. It was hard not to be tempted by the beauty of City Hall while we waited.

On Wednesday, we took off in the boat after lunch and went for a cruise to the back beach. It was so humid and smoggy, it looked like this ship that was escaping from the cement plant was a 'ghost ship'.

After dinner, we went to Sue and John's for a visit. When we got there, it appeared we had arrived too late:

Here is a picture of Sue's flowers by the door. Notice how the hue of the blossoms bring out the honey colour of the logs:

On Thursday, Bill spent the afternoon making pickles (a summer-holiday ritual) while I cleaned the house. That evening, we attended a family BBQ out in Glenvale at my cousin Linda's house. It was such a beautiful evening till the food came out, then the skies opened up and poured buckets on us.

Bill took this picture of one of the kids diving into the cake, amongst the arms of the adults.

Obviously the 'vacation mode' was evident in our household this past week, as even our buddy Jethro thought he was on holidaze:)

On Friday, we brought the boat home so Bill could vacuum it and give it a good bath as there was quite a bit of green scum stuck to the bottom of her. We wanted the vessel to look good when we took out friends out for a day-trip on Saturday.
And what a beautiful day it turned out to be. Shayne and Steph had a fantastic time 'doing nothing' on the boat:) We dropped off dinner at the cottage before heading around to the back beach. The winds were minimal, so we decided to travel all along the south side of the island, for a change. After Bill discovered we had left the lunch meat and all the fixings for wraps back at the cottage, we decided to have a liquid lunch. Here is a picture of Shayne and I, yapping away, as Stephanie looks on.

This is Billy, up to his old tricks. I still don't know how he drives that boat backwards:)

We ended up at the cottage for the afternoon, and ended up staying for dinner. Our friend Jimmy was kind enough to show us his new trick. Her can pull a beer bottle out of a coffee cup. GAwd I have some amazing friends:)

By the end of the day, all the guys had bonded. Here is a picture I call the three stooges:

As the sun went down, I snapped this picture from the dock...Through the railing of Rogers boat.

On Sunday, we headed back to the cottage for the day. I cant even keep track of how many times I was in and out of the water. We stalled at leaving as we knew that our holiday had finally come to a close. Once we got back to the marina, I thought I better take one last picture with the camera I had borrowed from work for the past month. This is the view from our dock.

Next weekend we will be traveling down to Confederation Basin to see the Poker run boats. Hope the weather is as good as it was this past week.

What a beautiful week for a holiday!

I started our holiday a day before Billy and that left me with a whole friday with nothing to do. Seeing as it was a gorgeous sunny day, I took off in the car and drove out some backroads to take some rural-themed pictures. My first stop was at our friend Mike's farm. Can you tell I am envious of his property?

I cant believe how well the corn has been doing this year. Thank God for all the rain we have had in the past few weeks!

I love this building. It tells a tale of many years of use and even more of 'retirement'.

On my way back, I found a little roadway created by the demolition company who has been ripping out a large area of cedars alongside the county road, just North of the village. They are making way for a group of townhomes being developed beside the golf course. I thought it would be appropriate to take a picture overlooking the village. To the right, you can see the back of the united church where we were married 25 years ago.

On Saturday, we went over to the cottage for the day. In the afternoon, we took a ride in Roger and Roberta's boat to check out the scene at Tink's house in Amherstview. Most of the crowd had left by the time we got there as it was Puck and Ball weekend and the gang had a game to play. Isn't this an impressive place? It must be so nice to wake up to a beautiful sunrise over the lake every day.

On Sunday, we got the tube out and pulled a few people around the lake. Here is a great shot of young Robbie doing a faceplant & Christine giving us the Victory sign!

As the sun was going down, I took this shot of Shelley swimming with the ducks.

Naturally I had to snap a shot of the sun as it slipped below the horizon. This picture has not been touched up. The sky looked like it was on fire.

Monday went by in a blur...sun...water...friends. Does it get any better?

Holidays and MORE Holidays:)

I cant believe I haven't had a chance to update my blog since mid July. My excuse is that I spent a week on holidays, by myself, and all I did was basically run the roads. On the first day, I spent time with my friend Mandy and her Mom in sweltering-hot Napanee. Its amazing how I very rarely see Mandy but whenever we get together, its like life has stood still for us. How blessed I am to have a friend like Amanda:) Can you believe that I didn't take any pictures AT ALL that day??? I'm telling ya...it was one HOT day!
On Tuesday, I traveled to Lansdowne to visit with Joan who was my mothers best friend when they were teenagers. Joan was here from Florida for a week, visiting with her daughters. It was so great to see her as all I ever remember of her was through the pictures I have sifted through that once belonged to my mother. We figured out that we had not seen each other since I was 3 years old. I took a bag of old black and white pictures for her to look at and see if she could tell me who some of these strangers were. What a great time we had reminiscing about my grandmother and some of the silly things my Mom did as a teenager. Joan was very helpful in answering so many of the questions I have had over the years. Thanks Mrs. Thompson for making me smile!
Seeing as I was traveling on the Parkway to Lansdowne, I stopped on the way home to take a few pictures of my favourite abandoned house:

Wednesday morning I took a trip into Value Village to do a bit of shopping. I found a few things for Billy and a book for me. As soon as I got home, the bathing suit went on and beer bottle was opened. It was lovely in the backyard...No kids screaming, a nice breeze blowing and the perfect amount of shade to enhance my reading environment.

On Thursday, I decided to go down to the farmers market for some peas. On my way over to the market, I naturally had to take a few pictures of the historic buildings in the area. I have always loved this Masonic Building on King Street.

Due to the revamping of historic market square, the farmers market has been moved over to Clarence Street. Here is a side view of the Customs House on the corner of Clarence and King Street.

That night, we went out to the Lodge for a visit. I couldn't believe it when I say Harly loading up the farmall into his friends trailer. Man I'm going to miss that tractor. At least it has only moved as far as Camden East. I would hate to think of the poor old thing spending its remaining days in a city environment!
It was funny to see the Love Shack back in Pa's driveway again. The bumper sticker that we put on it a few years ago was still there...Friends Dont Let Friends TOW Junk!

On friday, I took a trip to Picton beach. It wasn't a very nice day however I wasn't about to change plans because of a few clouds. Once there, I was amazed to see this guy land his parasail right in the middle of the crowd.

I love the beach....its so relaxing, especially when there were no screaming kids near us:

On Saturday, we went to the cottage for the day. This was after we took a sidetrip down the Napanee River. Damn I cant believe how green the water is in that area. Here is the evidence. I took this picture as the abandoned building caught my eye. You can certainly see how different the color of the water is compared to the lake water in front of the cottage.

After we got to the cottage, I couldn't wait to jump in the water and have a cold one:

A family of ducks has recently moved into the area. They love us as we feed them all constantly:

As we were having dinner that night, a deer appeared in the field:

Dont you love colourful sunsets on the water?

The next day, the girls were in the water most of the day. Here is a picture of myself, Judy & Cheryl. Dont we look like professional synchronized swimmers?

When we got home Sunday night, I noticed that my mystery plant had finally bloomed. This weird plant just appeared in my flower bed a few years ago and has since multiplied.

As well, it looks like my vine has not completely taken over the West side of my house.

Thank God I only had four days to work and then I was on holidays again. This time with Billy:)