Hey Steve

My son Steve, the intrepid traveller/carpenter is on the west coast right now.

I know he will return some time because his tools are in my basement; I am banking on this.

Have you noticed Steve that west coasters grow moss on the north side of their bodies? It's a known fact.

Oh sure, there is still some magnificent forest that the loggers and politicians haven't managed to destroy yet. And everywhere you look there are beautiful mountains, some of which have not yet been strip mined.

But think of what you're missing in the east. Here is your favorite jogging trail as it looked this morning.


And here's my favorite spot, the swamp.


Well, yes, the swamp is bone dry at the moment and the geese have temporarily left for wetter accommodation, but it does have its own hardy beauty.

We miss you Steve.

Happy birthday Mike

Number five son has a birthday today.

Right this minute he and Lorrie are taking turns driving from Kitchener to Hafford, Saskatchewan where his in-laws have a farm. Hafford is an hour or so west of Saskatoon.

They have this summer trekking down to a science. At 2am the first day, they load the three comotose kids into the van and get in as much driving as they can before breakfast. In mid afternoon they stop at a pre-booked hotel and work off all that pent up energy in the pool.

Next morning, they're up before dawn and on the road again.

We had his birthday celebration before he left and gave him a car fridge for the trip. Here he is with his number one son.


I'd tell you about his adorable childhood but he will return and I'd have to face him.

Happy birthday Mike. You are a treasure.

I'm On Dry Land

I'm rapidly going into swimming pool withdrawal.

Over the years I've bought and sold a few houses with pools and I'm used to having one around. I don't swim but nobody's perfect.

There's no pool in my new back yard; just the hippo,in drydock.



When I moved to this smaller place last fall, I had in the back of my mind that somehow I could manage to get an above-ground but I finally got the hang of the word, "downsize." That means forget the pool. It's much, much cheaper not to own a pool and probably you live longer not having to worry about what will go wrong next.

Instead, I have the garden to play with and there is the fishpond with five quickly growing little sweeties. At least there should be five; these days I only see four at a time. He's probably there unless the millions of neighboring rabbits are fish-eaters.