May to August 1st - Serious Catching Up to Do!!!

Tastings dinner with friends Cathy and Ron at our
favourite restaurant in Midland - The Explorers

Jen and Rob Reader are international guides who returned to Canada (Rob continues to guide in the Arctic and Antarctic) and opened The Explorers Restaurant in Midland.  The food reflects their guiding careers, from South America, India and Thailand.  The theme of this, their final tastings dinner of the season, was Ontario and every item except the wine was sourced within 100 km of Midland.  The wines were all from Ontario and matched the 5 courses perfectly.  Rob is a big bear of a guy while Jen is a petite little thing and they bring such joy in their creativity and humour with Rob's great delivery, that we do our best to enjoy at least one tasting between September and June.

Then out to anchor at Chimney Bay...and what is
that in the background?

Our favourite pair of....

...loons comes by to make certain it's really us

Haven't seen this boat for 2 years and since North Channel,
miles and miles to the north.

We explore pretty little channels in the dinghy

Leanin' tree on a tiny island

Uh oh!

Yes indeedy....a storm swoops in and we hunker down...

We spend a day hiking on beautiful Beausoleil Island

Discover a First Nation cemetery 

The forest trails are fabulous

The children love it and I just stand back

Back to the boat to celebrate Canada Day.  Some boats
were completely decked out in red and white

Captain Canada wears a flag around his shoulders and flits
about the bay

Saluting Canada Day are many Inukshuk's on the shore

Pretty moon huh?  Actually, it's the sun...perfect
sun in a dark sky in tribute to our country's anniversary.
As darkness fell, we were surrounded by fireworks
and floating Chinese lanterns that floated up, up and away,
accompanied by cheering crowds and boat horns.

Next day - our annual portrait of TULAW, seemingly suspended
between water and sky

Mommy Canada goose and youn'un

On July 9th, our three grandson's arrived to spend the week with us.  What a treat!  It was the first time for Ben and Matt to spend several days on the boat and they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

First up - FISHING!!!  This is Matt, fishing
off the swim platform

Ben fishing on port side

and Sean on starboard

All three fishing from the bow

Sean and Ben having a rest while Matt persists

The boys take turns helping Grandpa set the
stern anchors in shallow water

Then into the water they go and off to the beach

Fooling around on the giant stone chair on the island

Silly sods at breakfast the next day

Cute little wooden sailboat behind us with an even tinier
tender

Games and foolishness at night

Fishermen heading out to bring back something to
eat for dinner....alas.....not one fish was caught

Off we go to Picnic Island at Honey Harbour, for
lunch, ice cream, ice and supplies

Gorgeous water lily at Picnic Island

Cute little barn swallow eyeballing us

More silly ice cream faces

It must be a "boy" thing

One of the requirements for children onboard, is that they
be able to swim around TULAW with Grandpa.  All of them
were star swimmers and left Grandpa puffing

Each of them took turns learning life-saving
with a throw bag....

Saving Grandpa

Back to the beach to dig water holes

And they never got sick of fishing!

I spy this unusual wispy insect with it's li'l buddy on the hatch
over our bed.  

Back for ice cream at Picnic Island, we watch the Canadian
Coast Guard arrive...probably to buy ice cream

 

Beauty!

Our friends, the Waddell family, arrive and raft their boat
to ours.  The boys immediately hop onboard their boat to
meet the family and Bella, the smallest dog in the world

Big boy Brent (17 yrs) takes the boys out for a spin
in his much faster and bigger dinghy

Then Brent challenges each of the boys to a swim match

Brent and Matt

Brent and Ben

Brent and Sean.  They all did well against this champion
swimmer who won first against all the high school swimmers
in Ontario.

A week after swimming with our boys, here is Brent (red cap lane 6)
in Montreal competing in Nationals

Silliness in the aft cabin

Brent readying the dinghy to take the boys tubing

Matt says he'll go first but looks a little apprehensive as he
waits

Ben and Sean discuss technique while waiting their turn

Matt

Then Sean, who got dragged face first through a huge wave

We watch the great action in the anchorage while waiting
for Ben to return

...and here he comes!

Brent with sister Dana and little Bella

Heading back to port and the parents.  It was a wonderful, fun-filled
holiday with our terrific grandboys

Dinner at the dock and my sincere apologies
for cutting off 2/3 of Sean's face!

Next morning as we head out of our slip, we
watch this monster harvest weeds from the channel.

After 4 days at anchor, the marine weather channel warns
of severe squalls and tornado's.  Dark skies seem far away,
then suddenly this appears quickly over the island in front of us.
We batten down the hatches and wait, counting on our
heavy anchor and chain

The boater anchored next to us (the only other one in the bay)
hauls his anchor and sits behind us in the channel....engines running

As the tail of the tornado hits us, he disappears into the water that
is lifted up and flung at us

Our trusty anchor holds and we survive.  Our neighbour did as well.
He returned two days later.

Mother Merganzer duck and her chicks float by

There are so many of them (I counted 12) that they keep sliding
off her bum.  Then they scramble back up again.  In shallow waters
the tiny chicks run across the surface of the water, just like Mom
but in deeper water they know they are safer from predators if they hitch-hike
on Mom's back

We move on to the gorgeous First Nation Islands of Beckwith, Hope and Christian, a two hour boat cruise north of Penetanguishene and a 20 minute drive by car.  The water is Caribbean turquoise, clear to the bottom and about 10 degrees cooler than at Beausoleil.

"Dragonflies on my shoulder make me happy", sings Bob 

More to come but we are headed out from port once again, to anchor in remote bays.

Happy long weekend everyone!

Mother's Day to Midland

Celebrating Mother's Day with Mom

...and Bob

Loved the food!

Next day...Mother's Day with Aunt Dorothy (left), Bob and
Jack with their Mom Helen at Jack and Barb's home
in Ingersoll

By May 16th, the house was spotless, the van and car packed and we were off in our convoy of two, to Penetanguishene and our boat TULAW.  We have missed her and were very excited to be back on the water.

Our welcome party included this little barn swallow, perched
on the rail

The rest of the greeters in the channel in front of our boat

Always something going on here.  This is the remote-controlled
travel lift taking a boat to the launch area and past our friends,
Linda and Warren's boat 'Hectic Day', sadly still on land getting
a few repairs done prior to launch.

 We were thrilled to have my sister Jan and husband Elliot visit us for a fun, albeit very short visit.  They drove from Miramichi, New Brunswick to visit Mom and Jan's daughter Tara and son in law Tom.  On their way home they came to see us, on their way to visit other rele's and friends along the way.  We really appreciate them taking the time to stop by.

Out on the water highway, headed for the town of Midland
in the next bay, we find increasing activity on the water

.....and in the air.  This guy is coming in low for a landing and did
so, right behind us.  He keeps his plane parked right
outside his home on the bay.

Nice!

Pretty views from Central Marina in downtown Midland

doo, doo doo, doo doo...keep that chin flat!

Always perfect sunsets

There are gorgeous walking paths around Georgian Bay and as we
take one of our strolls by the water, we find this curious fellow.
I took this shot with my telephoto, expecting him to leap at any second

But no, he just sat there as I got closer and closer...probably a rabid rabbit

Beautiful parks and wildlife areas.  Love this Inukshuk 

Private gardens as well with interesting driftwood
creatures.  Recognize this as a meerkat?

Fabulous peonies!

We are off and out to anchor for a couple of nights.  Let the good times roll!

Performances to Celebrate

Mom's friend Agnes, a writer and music composer, decided last summer, to write the lyrics for a song about Valley Vista, the retirement home where they live.  Mom talked to us about it for months and called herself "the cheerleader" who took it upon herself to encourage Agnes to tell the General Manager and Activities Director about her accomplishment.  While we were away in the U.S. early this year, Mom said that Agnes' talented and musical daughters, had matched music to the lyrics and that it might be performed at the Valley Vista 4th anniversary some time in April.  Mom and Agnes were almost afraid to believe that it might happen.  On April 28th it did happen and in front of a huge audience, Agnes, Mom and their dear friend Kay, along with Addis, one of the staff, sang this lovely song called "Home Away from Home".  The video recording is pretty bad because  I was attempting to film with my tiny camera while mopping my eyes.  It was such an emotional experience and the applause from the residents and guests, deafening!  Further evidence that we can continue to reinvent ourselves, no matter the age.

Congratulations to three great women!!  A huge "thank you" to the wonderful and caring staff of Valley Vista who celebrated the accomplishment by including the performance in the 4th anniversary celebrations.

Left to right:  Kay, Mom and Agnes ( Chef Toni in the background)

Getting ready:  That's Addis, dining room hostess who sang with
the trio.

In the next video, you will notice that Addis began to sing as soon as the music started instead of after the usual lead-in that Mom, Agnes and Kay were used to.  We found it amusing that Mom looks up at Addis and asks "are we starting?", then quickly composes herself and performs as though nothing had happened, professionally, just as she has since she began public appearances as a 3 year old child, 91 years ago.  A lovely afternoon.  A wonderful celebration!

Second Performance 

Our grandson Matthew was selected from the Grades 1 and 2 classes, to recite a poem to the school population   Another star in our midst.  Way to go Matt!