Out with the Old....

....and in with the new!

A visit from Mother and Burt came with the opportunity to renew a few items around the house and property. Gone is the old dishwasher, which was still valiantly plugging away but clearly in decline. Our fridge is now properly hooked up for the dispensing of ice and water.....after a few dusty trips through the crawl space, including one rather urgent voyage.

It's hard to correlate "urgent" with crawly slowly on your stomach with a flashlight through a curtain of spider webs over a bed of damp clay in search of a shutoff tap of unknown location....but when the water was supposed to be shut off and clearly wasn't.....I believe urgent still applies!

Most notably, the off-kilter and decaying "roll-up" door on the Man-Garage that threatened my back every time I opened it....is no more! Gone is the door and the clunky metal apparatus, replaced by swinging barn doors complete with exclusive cat entrance. All that remains is to slap a few coats of paint on things, which we are plugging away at as weather and humidity permit.

Overall a great visit and very productive weekend!

The dishwasher that came with the house....in 2007

This garage door has seen better days

Time for a new one!

Don't forget the cat door....

Entry is barred

How about.....red?

Nearly complete!

A sky so perfect it begs to be captured

Pennywise approves this post

Fork and Cork

We attended our first Fork and Cork festival over the July 4 weekend, taking place at the Windsor riverfront and just across the water from our neighbours celebrating Independence Day.

The main draw for us was Ian Thornley and his reformed band Big Wreck, headlining a large contingent of live bands amidst the food and drink. They did not disappoint, as we were graced with wonderful weather and even better music.

Windsor Festival Plaza - Fork and Cork 2015

Big Wreck guitarist Brian Doherty

Big Wreck brings Big Wrock!

Ian Thornley offers up his usual magic

Caesar's Windsor 

July 4th in Detroit - the red, white and blue

Low light means cool camera effects!

Summer Lovin'

Some random scenes of Summer, now that The Rains have stopped. We had a very wet spring. Farmers are JUST planting their fields in early July!

Enjoy your summer! That is all.

Raspberry Delight

Down on Mulberry Street

Cold drinks and great food on the lakefront patio at Freddy's

Amherstburg Ribfest

Canada Day dinner in the back yard

Two Dudes in Massachusetts

Not since the "Two Millenia, Two Idiots Tour" of 2000 have Mike and Keith hit the road together. The impetus for the trip in the first place was to see Noel Gallagher play at the Boston Opera House....which quickly spiralled into an excuse for a good road trip in a six-speed Mazda with a Darth Vader gearshift!

The trip began with a relaxing drive along the north shore of Lake Erie from Wheatley to Fort Erie, before crossing over at Buffalo. Some drizzle chased us across the width of New York state, before we arrived at our first destination a little ways into Massachusetts.

We spent two nights "glamping" in an old train caboose in Chester, as a great base camp to explore the rugged and scenic Berkshire hills of northern Massachusetts....in between guitar-mandolin jams. We moved onto the Boston area, first exploring the Cape Code shore, Plymouth, and the beaches of Nantasket to the south, then through Boston and onto the Salem and Gloucester areas to the northeast.

Gloucester is the quintessential fishing town....even more so than Wheatley! Of course, they also have their own brewery, their own castle, and a great Italian restaurant (The Causeway), none of which Wheatley can compete with. A whale watching tour out on the sea under blue skies and fascinating cloud formations completed the visit.

On to Beantown! We stayed at the Farrington Inn near Harvard, and took the streetcar downtown to bar-hop and sight-see before the show. We even got a local bartendress to play several Noel Gallagher songs when the crowd thinned out....the perfect lead in (accompanied by a few pints of Sam Adams Brick Red Beer of course) to the show at the Opera House.

Noel Gallagher and his lads were incredible, at a fabulous venue for live music. He even threw in a few Oasis classics. There was also this moment of amusing banter with a fan who tried to give Noel some music to check out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHEpyehguO8

We wrapped up the trip with a ballgame at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon. The Red Sox trailed all game 4-0 before throwing up seven runs in the bottom of the 8th, then shutting down Oakland in the top of the 9th to send their fans home happy. Only the long drive home remained, punctuated by a stop for the night in Utica, NY before meeting Jane in Guelph for the ginger hand-off.

Call it a road trip!

(p.s. - not sure why the thumbnails are screwy and can't seem to fix, but if you click on the full size pics everything is fine!)

Glamping in Chester, MA

Night Train

Primitive accommodations

Mayflower II

Plymouth Rock

Chatham....Cape Cod!

Nantasket Beach

Boston from across the Bay

Old Burying Point cemetery in Salem

Thar She Blows!

Fin Whale

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Hammond Castle just outside Gloucester

Memorial to Gloucester Fishermen lost at sea

Noel Gallagher - you delicious bastard!

Noel and his High Flying Birds at the Boston Opera House

N

Iconic Fenway Park

Best Seats in the House

Homeward Bound

After a quick and drizzly shuttle to the airport, we bid a sad farewell to Prague, boarding a short Air Dolomiti flight to Munich, Germany. We were very impressed with our first experience with this Italian airline.

A short layover in Munich gave us time to grab a more substantial breakfast, before boarding a larger Lufthansa plane for the long flight over the Atlantic. Jane watched movies on her seatback while I listened to several albums on mine. As with the flight over, they were not shy with the food and drink.

We finally landed in Toronto - twice. As we touched down the first time, they suddenly powered back up and shot straight up into the air. The seasoned German flight attendant assured us that this was normal, and promised to get us more details as we made a wide circle over Toronto for a second attempt. We were then informed that a "sudden gust" had prompted the last-minute wave off. The second attempt was flawless.....our theory being that the (very young) co-pilot got to try the first time and then the Captain took over.

Once we claimed our baggage, our late afternoon arrival put us firmly in the midst of Toronto rush hour. We arrived home while daylight waned, to gardens full of daffodils and tulips, and a house full of needy kitties.

AWESOME TRIP!  

Farewell to Prague

Air Dolomiti was great!

Short flight Prague to Munich

On the ground in Munich 

Lufthansa to Toronto

Circling for second try to land in Toronto