Summer 2022: Oh, Canada!

We landed back in Canada in mid-May, already missing Spain but looking forward to our next travel chapters.

We had been planning on almost immediately heading to Northern Ontario for some camping and hiking, but in the end we decided to spend six weeks at the family cottage a couple of hours north of Toronto, resting and recovering and readying ourselves for our East Coast adventures starting in July.

Six weeks sounds like a really long time. And maybe in the olden days it was, but as we all know with Global Shortening the days have only been getting shorter, which meant the time absolutely flew by. We had a shopping list of chores we wanted to get done in that time, and then a bunch of DIY jobs that  suddenly appeared as any good 35 year old house is wont to throw at you. We did manage a few satisfying completions.

First off was our end-of-season party at our curling club. We literally got off the plane and went straight to the club. The civilised couple of pints and a BBQ rapidly devolved into sliding down the ice on empty kegs or the more challenging / requiring more alcohol – sliding down the ice face first balanced on three curling rocks. We had heard about this previously and though it sounded insane, but suddenly there we were throwing ourselves down the ice. Must have been the jet lag…

 

Some emergency day surgery for Feathers, who (like all of us) is feeling his age.

We finally managed to get the old rusted dock crib freed from the end of the dock and out of the water (and up the stairs and up to the garage where it was spirited away by the junk fairies along with a garage full of other ‘stuff’).

We fixed the fridge (four times), which was determined to show us how good it was at freezing stuff, especially ice on the bottom of the freezer. And being loud about it.

We fixed a leaking tub/shower on the second floor, which was dripping on the new couch. Funny story – when Al pulled the ceiling apart trying to figure out where it was leaking from, he pulled some insulation out which was (of course) covered in mouse poo. But not only was there poo, there were four or five crayons that the mouse had obviously found somewhere and dragged up to his secret hiding place to feast on. And then clearly decided he didn’t like the taste of crayons and just LEFT them there. He could have at least put them back where he found them – we’ve been looking for those things.

We repaired the internet cable running to our Starlink dish after a mouse chewed through it (of course) and laid down some conduit to protect it in the future. Even if the Starlink is utter crap. You suck Elon.

We repainted (almost) all of the rooms in the cottage.

We bought a new barbecue. Man, there were a lot of parts in that thing. Funny story! Al had it almost completely together and had accounted for all of the many nuts, bolts, washers and screws remaining in the blisterpack when... a wind gust took all of the remaining hardware over the edge of the deck and scattered it in the leaves and dirt below. MIA were several bolts, necessitating some last minute 'alterations to the original design'...

Al caught a fish! First time in over thirty years. Which was the fun part, and which took a grand total of about 10 seconds. There are so many fish in the lake at the moment that it was literally one cast and the fish jumped on the lewer. Now, I'm not gonna lie - there were elements of the 'Marion, I caught a fish' in this experience. (And if you haven't seen the guy catching a fish with a drone, do yourself a favour, stop everything and watch this video right now). Alas, the gutting and cleaning of the fish was extremely traumatic for all parties involved (and you might be thinking that it was more traumatic for the fish, but you would be wrong).

‘We’ cut down a big dead tree right next to the cottage. And by that I mean we hired a guy to cut it down for us, which required him donning the climbing gear and cutting it up into lots of little pieces. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see him in action as it all happened when we were down in Toronto – but the leftover stump is cool!

We saw a moose! And lots of ducks.

We went to a play! It’s called ‘& Juliet’ which re-imagines what would have happened if Juliet hadn’t killed herself at the end of Romeo and Juliet. Featuring a whole slew of songs written by Max Martin, who is the most famous Swedish producer you’ve never heard of, except you have. Look him up and prepare to be astounded.

We played our fair share of golf, tennis and crokinole*, sat on the dock, swam etc, and caught up with lots of friends and family.

We got a couple of speeding tickets from Spain. Ah, memories!

And we put a new flag up in the middle of the lake.

 

All while pulling together our plans for the summer. Between now and October, we’ll be doing a big loop of the Eastern part of Canada, including spending some time in Quebec, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland (and tacking on Boston/Cape Cod at the end). Drivers, start your engines!

Join in the adventures with our first post, Bonjour Hi! Bienvenue a Quebec

*Crokinole is a disk-flicking dexterity board game, possibly of Canadian origin, with elements of shuffleboard and curling reduced to table-top size. Our board is courtesy of a neighbour, who in a moment of insanity put it on the curb for free. Yoink!