Canada Day; a day set aside for us to reflect and appreciate this wonderful country in which we live. We parked at Doug's store on Wharncliffe and walked across the bridge to Harris Park.

There was an aura of excitement, pride and enthusiasm in our midst; the reason for my new-found patriotism I guess. My niece Sarah, and her husband Calvin flew all the way from South Africa just for today's event. As a scheduled part of today's celebrations 40 or so fortunate immigrants, including Calvin, were sworn in and became Canadian citizens.
 

Native Canadian dancers as well as representatives of a local dance academy entertain the crowd.
 

Politician Deb Matthews seizes a photo op with a native dancer. Politicians are all the same!

In the past, listening to hypocritical politicians dispensing their Pablum to the masses never appealed to me. But this Canada Day, more than any before, had more meaning to me and I actually felt the emotion of the thing. 
 

Erin dyed her hair bright red, especially for the event.

During the speeches, on cue, an impressive display was put on by four, vintage, Harvard trainers.  As they flew over a cannon was discharged and there was a very festive atmosphere. What a great setting for Calvin's "swearing in" ceremony!
 

Calvin raises his right hand with the other proud new Canadians as they take an oath and pledge their compliance with Canadian laws and obligations.
 

 Calvin signs and proudly shows off his new citizenship papers.

Calvin and Sarah pose with two Mounties at the colourful event.
 

Later we all drove out to Thorndale to the lovely home of Wendy's brother Doug and his wife Daphne's place where we all enjoyed a fine BBQ/dinner.

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Happy, Happy...

Erin bought me a new hat to keep the sun off the dome. What do you think? The red maple leaf kinda goes with my rosy cheeks. I'm told I look several months younger. Right on! Party time! Have a great Canada Day weekend.
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Our Condo Has Gone Live On MLS.

You can CLICK HERE to see the listing on the MLS. If you know anybody looking for a great vacation home, pass it on.
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Spring Drudgery Continues.

Sorry for the delay in posting to the blog but there is not much interesting in my latest project, ie. cleaning out the garage. This has proven to be a monumental job. We have been visiting the condo on the weekends to show it to potential buyers and hope to hit the MLS real estate listings next week. The pool house re-roofing project has been stopped as we await the proper screws and I still need to replace the back brakes on the Rendezvous. I've repaired the leak in my dinghy so I might have some pictures later in the weekend as we are heading down to Point Edward on Friday..

April brought cool, crappy weather so we didn't even get started on our projects until mid May. This has held everything up. Oh well, check back. We may emerge from the doldrums at any time.
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Drew Flashes Some Leg.

I was going through some of my pics when I came across this one. I confess, I completely missed this one at the time.

As usual, click on any picture to enlarge it.

Jarrad and Pete chuckle as Drew gives a "come hither" look and lifts his kilt for the camera. Taken at the Backus-Page "Battle of Culloden" reenactment last month.
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MullBain Lodge in June

It's unusual to have such perfect summer weather in early June but that's how fortunate we were to be invited to Wood Lake near Bracebridge in the Muskokas to visit John and Cheryl. John's cousin Mark and his wife Louise  are the other half-owners of "Mull Bain Lodge". They came all the way from Tanzania Africa on a 2 week visit. You may recall we had a great time with them before Christmas on our Caribbean cruise aboard the Oosterdam.

Good photo ops are easy to find in this northern paradise. The morning mist on the lake gave a feeling of great solitude, with only nature all around us.

Perfectly calm, the lake reflected the sky above.

Captain John took us out for a ride around Wood Lake. Surprisingly we didn't see anyone else on the whole lake. We had it all to ourselves.

I provided ballast to the bow for a nice smooth ride.

My donation to the cause was 4 mosquito net hats, which came in handy for the yard work. Mark models one for us.

John cooked up a dynamite breakfast.

Food always tastes better in the oxygen-rich outdoors.

Packed for travel. I took a 9 lb.pork shoulder to spin on my Ronco Rotisserie. I injected it with smoke and spices the night before and iced it for the trip north. Cheryl and John's daughter Jess and her husband Tyler came by for dinner on Thursday. With Holly and Barry it made a total of ten of us.

Three hours on the rotisserie and three more in the oven at 250F and the pork turns so tender it falls apart.  Pulled pork is the result. Mmmmm! We ate every last scrap but I think everybody had their fill.

Barry wanted to try out the new chain saw.

Cheryl's first ride on the ATV.

My "Indian guide hat" actually kept the mosquitoes off my neck.  I don't know if Holly knew what to think.

It would be hard to find a nicer place.
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Bracebridge Visit With The Nimmo's.

After we left Mull Bain Lodge we drove 20 miles or so to Bracebridge to visit with my old friend Bill. He was up north visiting at his daughter Meghan's place on the Muskoka River, right in Bracebridge.

We met Bill at around noon and went down to Gravenhurst for a lovely lunch on the water at Boston Pizza. We sat on the upper level where we had a good view of the harbour and I savoured a cold beer and chicken wings.

 How nice to have a boathouse right at your back door!

Last fall Bill purchased a 24 foot pontoon boat which is perfect for the river. He took us for a ride.

After a tasty meal of barbeque spare ribs prepared by Judy, we stayed overnight at the Quality Inn just down the street.