I've settled into a sort of strange mental cave, driven to spark a change but still physically restricted.
I'm learning to let my brain & my fingers help me imagine what I will do once my knee gets better...
Let me share some of my wishful thinking.
D and I wish to go out into the country to roast a turkey on an open fire for Thanksgiving (for my American readers, Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend!)
The venue yet undecided, I just want to see trees. I have no stipulations, just nature & more nature. And a comfy chair by the fire & cozy blanket ;)
The fewer humans the better (other than our immediate posse).
I wish my parents would want to roast a turkey with us. I'll leave it at this. I'm not even going to open this can of worms during this post.... lets leave the family drama outta it......
But more than that, I wish that we had a family of our own to take.
I long to see vibrant autumn reds, smell the smoky crisp air, feel the fingertips of October chill on my cheek & snuggle in warmth of my cozy fall layers.
I long for hayrides, corn mazes, face painting and apple bobbing.
I long for a tradition of picking & carving pumpkins, striving for the most ghoulish, glowing gaze. Roasting seeds. Pies.
What do you long for? What are your family traditions for Thanksgiving?
One other thing I long for? Sharing. Caring. Togetherness.
I'm not sure what to write.
I'm not even sure I know what I'm thinking about anymore.
The past weekend has been a whirlwind - it's almost Tuesday and I can hardly remember Friday - Sunday.
But I'll try to recap it. It's the only thing I can think to do to try to keep my brain from whirling out of control and winding up in a dark place.
Friday - was s'posed to leave early to go and visit D's sister up north but when I called my Mom she said that my uncle was doing really badly. We decided to go to the hospital and decide for ourselves if we should go anyways. Things had not changed substantially since we had been there on Sunday, however they were not good. I decided that I needed to go and get @sarahnryan ready for phone calling because when he does pass away I'm not going to have any time or inclination to do any work requiring me speaking to people. The show must go on, so it's better if she is ready ahead of time. We are getting her to take over most of the customer calling for work so that I can focus more attention on bookkeeping and records management.
And I also wanted to get really really sloshed on a Friday night for a change. It's been a loooooong time since I've partied and really let loose. D doesn't really drink and I don't want to drink alone, but when we go up North we sometimes partake. I didn't get totally wasted, but was drunk enough to think that sleeping on the floor was a good idea once we realized that we didn't have the plug for our air mattress with us. But not drunk enough to sleep through the night on an un-inflated mattress. BOO.
Saturday - LAZY day, LOVELY day, burning movies, chatting, went for a walk to the 'downtown' core of Thornbury (two streets, lovely little clothing & art shops, little deli's and restaurants and bakeries). We picked up some yummy homemade sandwiches and returned back to @sarahnryan's for the rest of the afternoon of laziness. Set out to go home at around 5pm.... took the route bypassing Barrie again, driving along Airport Rd. to 89, then 89 to 400 and 400 to 401. Took some scenic pics, but not many came out...
Sunday - polished silver with my Dad, set the table for Passover Sedar, then to hospital for a few hours. Really draining. Came home and slept for like a zillion hours - aka. 'till 11am on Monday morning. Gotta love the self-employed life! Really needed it, D even saw it, and stayed super quiet, keeping the animals out in the living room with him so I could sleep. Still feel like I could sleep and sleep and sleep...
Monday - groceries, cooking, then to Mom's house to finish cooking, get ready and do the Sedar. It was good to be together, but there's a cloud over our family. Our close family friend always comes to our sedar and this year her presence was even more needed, welcomed, appreciated and cherished as it allowed for a sense of 'normalcy' to return to our lives, even if just for the night.
My poor parents. They are completely worn out. I wish I was better at handling death, I wish I could take over for my mother at caring for my uncle, but I just can not. It took so much out of me just being there for so long on Sunday, watching him suffer. I do not know how she's been doing that for 9 months straight - day in and day out.
And that's that - Oh.... I think there's something wrong with my iPhone, it doesn't seem to be charging properly, and we got 'lost' several times 'cuz the GPS kept losing us on the way up to Thornbury, and it keeps getting really really hot.... really hoping it doesn't crash on me now, 'cuz it's my lifeline to you all! (thus, sanity) <3
Yesterday was a terrific day - despite the cold and clouds that drifted back in Toronto after a few days of glorious sunny spring (summer!) weather.
D and I used to frequent the beaches of Toronto quite regularly, more in the winter actually, to walk the dogs. We would go more in the winter because of our dogs inability to get along well with other dogs, as you may or may not have read in my fur-baby posting.
Thus, the cooler weather yesterday was perfect.
We had the whole beach to ourselves...or so we thought!
As we walked down the beach on a side that we haven't actually ever walked on before, we came upon this interesting structure:
We walked to the end of the beach and discussed what it could be. In the end, our curiosity got the best of us. We had to go and find out what was going on over there!
Was it an extremely impressive beaver dam? A beaver dam with seating?
So we meandered over.....
And met the friendly beach dude!
I'm going to keep the details about the friendly beach dude pretty sketchy, he requested specifically that I maintain his anonymity and keep his location under wraps. I was so impressed by his positive attitude, his eco-friendly lifestyle and his down-to-earth sensibilities so I asked him if he minded if I took some pictures of his creation for my blog. He said, with a smile, that his door is always open to friendly strangers.
We could all learn a lot from the friendly beach dude.
Friendly Beach Dude's Welcome Sign
Friendly Beach Dude's Welcome Mascot
The Nice Chilling Spot - aka Beach Hut
*you can't tell, but the bottom left corner of the hut was rebuilt because a few years back the local coastguard/fire dept. boat came by and had to put out a fire that was started by a couple who were found in a compromising situation in the nice chilling spot!
Being sprayed by 450psi musta been a rude awakening to say the least!!!*
We stood and talked with the FBD for about an hour. He was so intriguing! He built the beach hut from wood that had fallen down the cliffs from the top of the hills that you can see behind the hut. There are huge piles of debris all over the beach showing evidence that the cliffs are really tumbling down.
Here's an example of a pile of trees that started at the top of the hill.....
See the trees at the top that are awaiting the same fate??
After talking for a while (and essentially losing most of the sensation in my legs 'cuz the wind got BITTERLY cold) we started the walk back. Here's some pictures that I really liked from the day...
Friendly Beach Dude told us that he frequently sees Coyote's quite often....
These prints were HUGE compared to Bronx's!
LOVE the bits of red that show up every so often.
And, just as we were leaving, and I thought the day couldn't have POSSIBLY been any more perfect, we ran into another lovely creature while walking back to the car...
Can you spot him?
I couldn't believe how close he let me get!
And that was the happy day - we had such a good time, re-connecting and being outside... I just can't wait for summer and our next trip into the wilderness!
Feelin' nostalgic this morning and I felt like reminiscing on some of our past camping trips.
Come along with me for the ride!
OOH D still had his long hair in some of these pics. :D
These two pics are of the same house, taken from different angles & 3 years apart.
Yes, we are creatures of habit!
D first thing in the morning - my sleep lion roars!
I'm gettin' hungry! Better start cookin'....
yum. Food tastes much better than Frogs.
I love windmills. Wave of the future. I HOPE!
Pictures do not do the nighttime justice.
It was breathtaking.
Quiet early mornings...
perfect for fishing.
I love sleeping with the tent fly off....
This shot took about 2 hours to get - we were on an inflatable raft, floating around in the lake trying to get a shot of us kissing under the harvest moon. We kept drifting further and further away... took about a zillion shots because we would spin out of position the second the moon was behind us... It was quite fun! ...............................
This particular trip was VERY VERY RAINY. Hence Shanty town.
BUT we ate VERY VERY well....
Ahhhh.... our canoe... which sprang a leak on this particular trip.
These pics sum up my love for Canada....
and demonstrate the reason we should really just pack up and go live in the woods.
I hope you enjoyed the trip! Please let me know if you like the photo-post! Not sure if this is a popular idea, but if it is, I have TONS of home-zoo (etc.) pics to post!
