A Special Holiday Visitor

Enjoying our Christmas morn, and what to our wondering eyes did appear? Or maybe, "WHO to our wondering eyes did appear?" would be more accurate.

HOO! HOO!

He/She just sat there on the front lawn and stared at us for a few hours. Extra creepy when you're already in the middle of a Supernatural marathon.

I Always Feel Like, Somebody's Watching Me

'Owlin Mad Murdoch

Tell me this wouldn't creep YOU out!

Looks like a little feathered person, like an Evil Ewok or something.

Thornley and Big Wreck Wrock Norma Jeans!

We took advantage of the annual trek to London area for Coxmas festivities to line up a show at Norma Jeans. Luck was with us, as not only was Ian Thornley playing on the night in question, but he was also jamming with his old band, Big Wreck.

The place filled up fast for the sold-out show, but we had gotten there early and snagged the best seats in the house. The first set consisted of all Thornley Band tunes, while the second set featured all Big Wreck material.

Perhaps most impressive, I managed to drink the bar completely out of Labatts 50, despite the brewery being just a few blocks away. It's one good way to ensure that the waitress never forgets what you ordered.

Coxmas provided its usual holiday treat the next day.....though I gotta say, a Coxmas without porn is like a Christmas without snow.

A sold out Norma Jeans

Ian Thornley sizes up his fans....

....and then rocks them!

Tidings of Automotive Issues, Comfort and Joy

The poor old Honda seems to be having a tough time of things lately. Yes, our little girl is almost 12....they grow up so fast! Despite Jane's colourful corrective action regarding window issues, following a chilly recent drive home from Kingston, now the engine is acting up. We're limping around on three cylinders, and had to make the age-old decision - how much money do we spend on a 12-year old car with 240K on it before it just makes sense to get a new one?

They make such interesting duct tape these days!

We opted for the new one. We may fix the Honda in time (read: not until spring at least) as a second beater for local runs, but in the meantime we have ordered a shiny new Nissan Juke. Likely won't get it for a month or two, in order to get the exact colour we wanted ("root beer") and in a manual transmission, so we limp along a little longer.

Since we couldn't fit that actual CAR under the tree.....

The cats have fully adjusted to the annual winter rite of passage, whereby we live in the downstairs for a few months to avoid heating all of a large old farmhouse. Rather than moving the bed to the living room as usual, this year we opted for the dining room!

There's a fourth cat around here somewhere.....

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

Random Stuff

Hadn't posted in a while, not many pics taken lately despite a bunch of travel around the province. Keith and Kevin also made the trek down recently to catch a UFC event at a local beverage room, as we watched Lesnar get Brocked Out. Yes folks, that goes down as a TBO or Technical Brock Out on yer score cards.

Figured some random pictures would suffice in the meantime until our lives become more entertaining....

Autumn weather spells chili goodness!

Jean survives a harrowing hawk attack!

Autumn weather spells grapey goodness....wait...wasn't it chili goodness?

Fill in as necessary. Laugh. Repeat.

More vacation miscellany!

A few more random pictures from our recent sojourn to Prince Edward County and the Ottawa Valley....

Rural Splendor

Uncle Kevin's homemade BBQ

Abandoned mill - ghost town of Balaclava

The truly disturbing Kinmount Shoe Tree(s)

Bonnechere Caves

We opted for one day-trip away from the cabin, to the nearby Bonnechere Caves between Douglas and Eganville. The Caves flank the Bonnechere River, and run about 100 feet underground into limestone and water.

The main passages are at least dimly lit and laid out with boardwalks. From there you can (and we did!) venture down side tunnels, some of them becoming quite low and narrow, to become a true spelunker. Adding to the experience were stalactites, stalagmites, and a few sleepy bats.

Well worth a visit if you're ever in the area!

Bonnechere River outside village of Douglas

Bonnechere River grotto action near the Caves

Enter if you dare!

Descending....

A Spelunker says what?

Residents of the Caves

Chillaxing at the Cabin

We opted for a cheap vacation this time around, essentially amounting to the gas money it takes to drive a wee but laden Honda the length of the province to the Renfrew area of the Ottawa Valley. There stands the old Byers family log cabin, the very building in which my great-grandfather (on my paternal grandmother's side) and ancestors before him were born.

No hydro, no running water....just an outhouse and a whole lotta peace and quiet on 67 acres of majestic looming pines in Canadian Shield country.

The Cabin

New sleeping area at rear - added by relatives that hunt!

Waiting for that first cup of coffee....

Wild turkeys could not drag me away from this place

Shores of Erie Wine Festival

The weather cooled off just in time for the annual Shores of Erie International Wine Festival, prompting the mental switch from "beer weather" to "wine weather". The event is held in Amherstburg on the idyllic shores of the Detroit River, on the grounds of the Fort Malden national historic site. Yes folks, yet another strategic locale where we repelled American invaders enough times that they eventually stopped trying.

Good enough reason to celebrate with a wine festival?

About a dozen of the local wineries representing the Pelee Island and Lake Erie North Shore VQA designations were on hand for sampling, as were many fine restaurants from Windsor to Leamington providing culinary delights for food pairing.

This year's musical entertainment on the Thursday "rock" night were Steven Page (formerly one of the Barenaked Ladies) followed by the headliner, east coast rockers Sloan. Both were excellent, as were the wine and food! All on a peaceful autumn evening on the banks of the river...

Random Old Man and the Detroit River

One of the historical buildings at Fort Malden

Wine booths - so many wines, so little time....

Steven Page rocks some Barenaked Ladies classics

Sloan

"....I know that I'll be livin' it in Canada!"

Deep Thoughts

Thought to be used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural address speech in 1994 to end apartheid in South Africa, but actually quoted from Marianne Williamson's "A Return to Love":

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Tomatofest

This weekend was Tomatofest weekend in Leamington. While we skipped the obligatory tomato stomp and Miss Tomato pageant, we did go check out some of the events, including the classic car show. A few notable participants:

'66 Chevy Chevelle Malibu SS

'66 Plymouth

'65 Cobra

'67 Pontiac Beaumont

'61 Ford Falcon

'69 Chevy Camaro