Restarting September 2018

Life is certainly interesting. Usually wonderful, sometimes not. Occasionally frustrating, sometimes shocking. Always interesting. This summer has been interesting at Chez Boss! As Andrew said when he struggled with how to respond to a colleagues query as to how his summer was, “It was the best summer ever. It was the worst summer ever. It was stressful. It was super relaxing. Sometimes all in the same day!” Life is certainly interesting!

Now as summer draws to a close is a great time to pause and take a breath and readjust. We are doing just that as we head north to watch the leaves change. For me, restarting my blog is an important step on that journey back to centre. I found it far too difficult to write this summer, even about all the wonderful things that happened. Blogging for me is a very personal thing. It allows me to relive, reflect and fully appreciate all of the experiences in my privileged life. It provides clearer memories, the satisfaction of appreciation and as I’ve learned over the years, a way to share with those friends and family to care to come along for the ride.

As a nod to the summer I want to record the wonderful memories I will hold dear. I will resist detail here since I have always chosen to blog in a timely way to more accurately reflect the experiences and thoughts and feeling of the moments in my life. Detail at this point would be altered by time, perspective and just plain old lack of memory! With that in mind in the summer of 2018 we:

• Went for traditional ice cream on the last day of school with the whole gang. A new location this year in Waterdown.
• Celebrated our traditional Canada Day party at Jeffrey and Nancy’s.
• Spent much time reconnecting with friends, sometimes planned sometimes serendipitous.
• Celebrated Tim and Bess’s wedding.
• Rejoiced in the birth of new babies with friends.
• Celebrated Andrew and Michelle’s wedding.
• Met a whole new bunch of wonderful, fun friends through Probus.
• Camped for a week at Bissell’s with Ceci and Stephen.
• Explored Niagara wineries.
• Took full advantage of the summer music scene.
• Visited the CNE.
• Appreciated NOT going back to school for the first time in years! With a small four year break before Jeffrey started school, I have been influenced by September school start one way or another for the last 53 years!
• Were reminded of how blessed we are with the most amazing children, a loving family and the best friends anyone could ever hope for.

Afternoon tea with the ladies!

A familiar site...entertaining friend and family.

Old and new friends - party hardy!

Countless summer concerts - The Ennis Sisters at RBG

Cruisin' the 1000 Islands

Peace on the St. Lawrence

When in rains, yoga in the trailer while Grandma cooks supper

Ready for the Roce

The bride and her ladies enjoying champagne on the deck

A night downtown at Ed Sheeran

Whisky tasty, as well as wine tasting in Niagara



One of the things that I really wanted to do on this year off was to appreciate fully the change of seasons. I am one of those rare, weird birds that actually enjoys change. I love to reset, restart, anticipate and adjust, and the change of season is a visual, practical and lifestyle opportunity for all of that. In school the change of season is observed, discussed and acknowledged in various ways. Truly though, when you “work” in education, the business of doing that for others often means you don’t truly appreciate the transition. This is especially true in September! This year I figured one of the best ways to do that would be to head to the wilderness and watch the leaves change!

For years I have seen ads for the Agawa Canyon Train Tours. Never able to take advantage of that, this seemed like a great opportunity so we booked train tickets and began planning a trip to Lake Superior. A check on past blogs reminds me that 2011 was the last time we visited Superior. We vowed at the time to return we so loved the magnificent landscape. Life has a way of intruding, and there are so many magnificent places to explore, here we are seven years later finally returning!

We decided a good way to approach this might be to travel though northern Michigan. This would give us the chance to spend a few days at the Pinery, a long-time family favourite destination, and to visit our dear friends Mary and Larry who have been missing in afore mentioned work business!

We had a bit of a rough start! We arrived to get the trailer a little late after a night of dancing! A wonderful reason to be late but left us in the middle of a terrible highway backup. As we always do, we reminded ourselves that someone else’s day was a whole lot worse than our “delay” and we finally arrived at our trailer to discover that our battery had died, meaning the fridge was off, the food was spoiled, the food we had brought on ice was in jeopardy (it takes some time to cool down a fridge), and our electric crank to lift and hookup the trailer was useless…oh and it was stinky hot! Nothing to be done but to solve as we went and continue to move forward. Back on the road again we discovered the highway backup was still a big issue. We crawled along to repeated warnings that the trailer connections to the truck were failing! A pretty big deal since that means reduced brakes, interrupted signals to folks travelling behind us and overall reduced safety! Not okay, so in addition to traffic delays we were stopping repeatedly, while David ensured safety!

Successful camping requires some flexibility, patience and creative problem solving. Fortunately, I married MacGyver! Although somewhat delayed, it wasn’t wasn’t far beyond our original timeline when we were set and ready to go with all problems either solved or well under control! The Pinery is as great as we remembered. Sites have only electricity but with MacGyver, we hauled water, filled our tanks, and are well set with a functioning bathroom and shower. Camping at its best! Once set we left for Grand Bend, eager for our visit with Mary and Larry. Our friendship goes back many years, since before Mary-Kate was born. They retired from Dufferin-Peel and left Mississauga for a spot of heaven on earth in Grand Bend. Their beautiful home is built on what amounts to a really great campsite. A perfect location and site of many happy memories over the years. The last few years and my work schedule have seen less frequent visits. One of my priorities this year to is make up for that tragic loss of connection with friends so what better place to start than right here.

Larry was literally waiting on the road at the end of their driveway, watching for us to come! Now that’s a welcome! We hadn’t gotten out of the truck before Larry was leaning in for a hug! So before we made it inside the house, it felt like we had never been apart. Good friends are just like that! We spent the evening catching up, sharing a meal, enjoying fine wine and playing games. Such a fabulous night!

We returned late to a, though full, completely silent Pinery. Our windows open to allow a cool, gentle breeze, we fell asleep to the hypnotic sound of the last cicadas of the summer singing us to sleep.

We were up early to enjoy our coffee (and fresh peach muffins Mary had sent home with us) and then down to Lake Huron to enjoy a walk on a mostly deserted beach. We enjoyed some great picture taking but one of the coolest things we couldn’t seem to capture. There was a Kaleidoscope of monarch butterflies flittering through the dunes before heading out over the water on their migration to Mexico. A few of my shots included a few of the beautiful creatures but I wasn’t able to capture the essence of the sight. It’s actually kind of nice to be reminded that sometimes, some things just have to be experienced.

Despite the date on the calendar, even the early morning sun was HOT with the lack of shade so after a time, but long before we were done, we headed into the woods to appreciate one of the many hiking trails. The Heritage Trail weaves through an oak savanna forest and provided some shade so we could continue our rambling.

After a light lunch we went back to Mary and Larry’s to pick up where we left off yesterday. Today ended with a trip down to the beach to enjoy what may be the last ice cream of the summer and watch the sunset on the lake. Truly blessed to have spent the last two days here. This little holiday may have been off to a rocky start, but if ever there was a lesson in the rewards of perseverance, this last couple of days was it!

Early morning Lake Huron

Water was clear and warm

Hi Larry!

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