Happy Father's Day!

I still feel the importance of acknowledging this special day, because I still know lots of great Dads worth celebrating. In honour of my own wonderful, late Father Mum and I dined on a juicy T-bone steak with fried onions and red peppers. As Mum sat down to her portion the first thing the said was "he would approve". Esteemed praise considering his great love and appreciation for a well cooked steak (or any other form of meat).

It's still a bitter sweet day as I watched family taking out their Dads or showering them with lawnmowers and power tools, and feeling like I'm missing out on something wonderful. My best course of action to brighten the day is to make sure that every Dad I see gets a smile and a "Happy Father's Day!"... you'd be amused to see how surprised most of them are.

Daddy with his three girls c. 1989/90

Canoe Restoration

The old family canoe is among the many things I have inherited from my dear old Dad. A piece of equipment that was enveloped in a certain amount of intrigue and respect on my part. We had two canoes growing up, the "ancestral" canoe (as I've come to call it), and the Sponson. The Sponson seemed a little more durable and was able to withstand the trials small humans learning how to paddle in it. Meanwhile, the elusive ancestral canoe remained at home. It was almost epic; hanging in the garage, never coming down from it's ropey hammock, gathering dust and staying just out of reach. I can remember when Dad said he was taking it down from its resting place on a Summer's afternoon when I was 14, as he and I were planning a trip to Algonquin Park and he wanted to take the ancestral canoe his feeling being that the Sponson was too heavy. He ran several tests, putting the canoe in water to test its sea-worthiness. First test revealed it needed a bit of patch work... and by "a bit" I mean almost re-canvasing. It must be said that the ancestral canoe deserved to need a bit of repair, after all it was rough 90 years old at the time.

As I can remember being told as a kid, the canoe was made around the same time my Grand Dad was born, 1914. I now know that it arrived in the Conway family when it was presented to Grand Dad as a thank you from the Montreal tanning company in the 1950's. After being carted up to Algonquin several times with the Conway boys, and eventually making its way back to Montreal to be with our family, it continued its journey heading over the Atlantic to live in the Vicarage's garage in another ropey hammock and again to Bloxham, and finally coming back home where it's being kindly looked after by my Uncle Paul.

After Dad made it adequately sea worthy when he and I took it up to Algonquin, we put it through its paces; tracking and chuting rapids, going on a 25km portage in Dad's old stomping ground, bringing the epoxy with us as needed. The evidence of this trip is still visible on the body where the grey epoxy scars rest on the scraped forest green paint. Seeing these scars, and watching the gunwale wood slowly rot made me sad knowing how much care Dad took to make it sea worthy 10 years ago. Now that it's safely ensconced on this side of the ocean, I've decided it's time to restore it to its original state. Therefore I have taken on the epic task of repairing the rotten wood, stripping the old canvas and replacing it with new and giving it a new coat of green paint. With the loving help of my Uncle I've set out on a symbolic journey; Every moment I'm spending with the ancestral canoe, is a wonderful reminder of the trip with my dear old Dad and
how much he loved Algonquin park and everything it stood for.

These are a few photos of how this journey started and I will post more as more progress is made.

Uncle Paul strapping down the canoe for its journey into Ontario.

All ready to go!

On the "operating table"

The Algonquin scars...

The rotting wood I'm facing.

Removal of the gunwales, thwarts and rusty screws...

...therefore exposing the rotting ribs.

Once the gunwales have been removed, the canoe want to become a "wooden door mat". So in order to prevent this, we keep it held together with webbed strapping.

Stripping back the canvas revealing the cedar planking underneath, which luckily is in pretty good shape!

Tools of the trade.

June Hamilton Visit

As a little treat for me, and to give Allie some company on her drive back to Hamilton, I came back to visit for a few days. ("Wasn't Morgan in the car??" I hear all you observant readers ask. She was, indeed in the car but not in a keep-Mum-company type of mood. That's where I came in.) I helped pass the time by singing along to Destiny's Child, John Denver, and Hannah Montana (nothing random about that selection).
Throughout the week Allie kept apologizing that the schedule was so busy, but I enjoyed just following everyone around and fitting into the normal family schedule. Plus Allie and I had the change for some "Sistor" time, going to a movie, and also meeting up at Catherine and Mark's house for dinner. It's true, it was a busy week but Allie had everyone so organized that it all moved smoothly. And I loved seeing the girls at school, and doing all their normal activities. So often when there's a guest staying in the house the routine changes, but I was happy to just slot into the rhythm of the house and be a fly on the wall... or in the car.

Ella and Jack chilling out in the car. They were holding hands just before this, but they got shy!
Morgan, Paige, and Nolan playing hockey at Nolan & Dillon's house.
Ella and I sneak a quiet moment together.

Ella showing she's a big girl on the scooter.

Ella and Jack playing nicely in Nolan & Dillon's back garden.
Morgan practicing her violin.
"Honey"...
...and her best friend "Jaxie".
Jack, one of Allie's extra kids.
Paige taking a water break at her soccer practice.
Soccer star!Paige as a "Strawberry Shortcake" ballerina.
Paige is second from the left.
Again, Paige is second from the left.
Paige is the one almost in the center within the gap, with her arms out to the side.

When Allie and Morgan Came for a Visit

As Mum and I are enjoying seeing Allie almost monthly, we're going to get to see the nieces also! This visit Allie brought Morgan with her so we had lots of fun things planned for her while she was here. We were hoping for better weather so Morgan and I could plant some seeds or go for walks around the island however due to foolish rain we had to go to plan B. On the Saturday, Morgan and I went to our friend's Church sale and picked up a few interesting items. On top of the muffins, cookies, and fractions game we got, we also bought "mall madness". For those who have never encountered this game and know someone who shops think seriously about getting it for them. For $2 we had a good few hours of fun as "the voice" told the people on the board where to shop and where all the sales and clearances were. Just as with Monopoly you have paper money, but to step it up a notch you also have an ATM card for making purchases and getting money out of the ATM. The only thing we had trouble with was getting started. Upon opening the box we learned that the $2 purchase price didn't include instructions. Not deterred, I headed to the internet to search for and print off a copy of the rules, despite Morgan insisting she knew the rules though never having played it (the confidence of a 9 year old!!). Now with rules in hand we laid out the game and played at least 2 rounds!
The original plan had been for Morgan and me to go swimming, but alas I learned that in the Summer timetable the pool is closed during the weekends. Nana came up with a great solution: "go for a swim in the bath!" That's exactly what Morgan did. She donned her bathing suit, my cap and goggles and proceeded to "swim" in the bath. Again, to be 9!! Morgan and I also stretched our artistic wings and painted miniature bird houses for her sisters.
The next niece to accompany Allie will probably be Paige, and I hope Paige enjoys herself here as much as Morgan did... I know we'll love having her here.

Nana playing the fractions game.
Morgan building her pizza also.
The "pool" is filling up.
The "Olympic swimmer".

Mummy's "Garden"

Coming from England where the whole country is a garden, we had to have something of our old life here on Ile Bellevue. But when Mum bought the condo one of the appealing aspects of it was the fact that there was no garden to maintain; no grass, no weeds, no over grown trees, etc. But something was missing. Our white wicker chairs seemed lonely. But instead of going over the top, Mum kept it contained and only filled her blue pots and a few hanging baskets. Something new she added to her garden was a hanging basket of cascading strawberries that have found a home in our bird bath. So Mum got her bright, happy flowers, but no weeds, or grass to cut!
We love looking out onto the once plain balcony and admiring Mum's hard work. The morning sun shine warms the plants but they aren't scorched as the sun moves around and out of the direct line by the time it heats up. We especially love watching the grass and begonias resting on the air conditioning unit, dancing when ever the unit turns on.

This is Mum's side of the balcony, she sits in the left hand chair with her feet up on the foot stool (the orange and yellow things).

This is my side.
One of the hanging baskets with geraniums, and lobelia, and ageratum.
Another hanging basket.
The Hanging basket, that's not hanging...
The strawberries! You can see a nice fat, juicy one growing just above the right hand rim of the bowl.

The dancing grass and begonias on the A/C unit!