The World is Diminished

We lost one of our finest this past week, my grandmother Lillian. She survived the Depression, the Second World War, and losing her youngest child at forty just a few years back. Born and raised in the rugged Ottawa Valley near Renfrew, ON, followed by over sixty-five years of rural existence in Prince Edward County, she was easily the wisest person I have ever known.

Rest in Peace, Grandma.

Lillian Cole (Byers)

1925 - 2010

A lifetime to remember

Winterizing?

Fall weather spells winterizing around here, if only because we know what's coming. Plastic on the windows, moving the bedroom downstairs, and generally battening down anything outside that might blow around when the fabled winds of Wheatley REALLY start whipping.

Finally even got the septic tank closed. In the end, we went and bought the biggest frickin' metal bar we could find and sunk it in the ground. Give me but a lever, and I can move the Earth....or at least the many hundred pound concrete lid of the septic tank.

Having said that....it's getting towards late November and still beautiful. We've barely had any frost (first frost Nov.1st), and double digits and sunny all this weekend. Still need to winterize in anticipation, but awfully nice to have great weather to do it in....

Tucking the Hyundai in the barn for winter

Thank you, Giant Metal Bar!

Filling the septic tank back in

November 20 - still good BBQ weather!

November 20 - they just never stop

Riding the Rails

A recent trip to Kingston allowed me to step back in time a little and ride the rails eastward from Chatham, with a brief layover at Union Station in Toronto. As much as I enjoyed the trip from a cultural perspective, and even managed to get lots of work done along the way (Via offers wi-fi on board these days), I could not help but reflect as we approach Remembrance Day that many men once headed east on trains, bound well beyond Kingston.

As the train arrived in Chatham from its origins in Windsor, the first leg of my journey included stops in London, Woodstock, Brantford, Aldershot (Hamilton) and Oakville before arriving in Toronto.

The second train, after a transfer at Union Station in Toronto, was literally full, involving reserved seating and relatively few stops at Whitby, Belleville and finally Kingston before the iron horse continued on to Montreal without me. Special thanks to my sister for not only picking me up at the train station in Kingston, but also suggesting a dinner of hoagies at a local landmark near the Queen's University campus.

All in all a very introspective voyage. Perhaps I should have been concentrating on writing fiction on the train instead of work-related matters.

Eastbound from Chatham

The 10:21am train from Windsor, right on time

Southwestern Ontario scrolls past

Dinner at a Kingston landmark