July 2015
Sunday July 19
Kale in our garden going to seed
Since we got home from our Ontario trip we have been trying to get the house tidied up a bit. We had six of our windows replaced about a month ago and several of the rooms are still in disarray. I spent most of today moving bookcases in the office and last night Ann and I watched an episode from the latest season of Foyle's War while starting to sort through large piles of stuff in the TV room to decide whether each item should be kept, sent to the Salvation Army for re-use, recycled or put in the trash. We only put a small dent in the piles but we have several more episodes to go as well as some early episodes of Death in Paradise.
James will turn 18 tomorrow but he has already started celebrating. We gave him presents a month or two ago and last night Carl, with whom he shares the birthday, and Roxanne came over to have some strawberry pie. Then today several of his friends came over for a party. They hung out upstairs playing Rock Band, came down for pasta followed by chocolate cake and ice cream, then went to the playground at the local school to play Grounders.
Tuesday July 14
James and his friends at the sculpture by the old Greenvale School on prom night
I'm a bit overdue in updating you about our goings on. Part of the reason is that our computer spent a weekend in the shop due to its habit of shutting off at arbitrary moments. That was traced to a faulty power cord and all now seems well. The other reason is that Ann and I have just returned from a couple of weeks travelling to Ontario and back. But let me first back up to the week before we left.
Friday June 26 was the Dartmouth High prom. James went with a group of his friends but they steadfastly refused to pair up into couples. We started out by taking pictures of everyone in their finery at Sullivan's Pond. In past years it has been traditional to go over to the Halifax Public Gardens as well, but this year one of the large Halifax high schools was also having their prom and the Public Gardens were already overrun. The prom itself was at the Best Western hotel in Burnside. A good time was had by all though James is not very fond of dancing (unlike his younger self). Ann went to pick him up some time in the middle of the night.
The following Monday afternoon was the Dartmouth High graduation ceremony at the Sportsplex. Ann and I went along to watch, of course. James graduated with high honours and got the Euclid Prize for the highest mark in a mathematics competition as well as a DELF B2 diploma in French and Advanced Placement credits in music and chemistry (he has just learned that his marks in these courses were very good). After the ceremony we went out for dinner at The Wooden Monkey with James' godmother Jenny.
On Tuesday, both Ann and I went to work but as soon as we were done we headed off for Ontario getting as far as Oromocto, New Brunswick that evening. On Wednesday, Canada Day, we pushed through to Ottawa arriving at Katy and Ben's around dinner time. Emily and her boyfriend Noah were also there. Although there were various festivities downtown, we were all happy to stay put and enjoy Ben's barbecued food and Katy's strawberry pie, though we did watch some of the musical acts at the Parliament Buildings on TV.
In fact, strawberry pies became somewhat of a theme of our trip: Ann made a couple just before we left (we ate one and left the other behind for James), Katy made one, Ann's mum (see below) made several, and we also had one at Nancy's (also see below). Neither Ann nor I were complaining: strawberry season is far too short and it's necessary to take advantage of it while it lasts.
At the Pardoville Cemetery
On the weekend the whole Dent clan began to congregate at Ann's mum's in Sarnia. Ann and I drove down on Friday, leaving Ottawa mid-morning and arriving near dinner time. Katy, Ben and Emily followed the next day, stopping in at my mum's on the way. Martha, Thom, Hannah and Rachel also arrived on Saturday. The reason for the gathering was to inter Ann's dad's ashes at the family plot in Pardoville Cemetery near Merlin, the town where Ann grew up. We all drove down on Monday morning, had a short ceremony presided over by the minister at Aunt Carole's church, then all went to lunch at Molly and OJ's in Erieau. Katy, Ben and Emily headed back to Ottawa right after lunch, Martha, Thom and the girls left for Brampton, while the rest of us returned to Sarnia. Halima and John had us over for dinner that evening.
On Tuesday, Ann and I drove to our friend Nancy's in Barrie. We stayed the night there, visiting with Nancy and Lauren, before driving to Mum's place in King City on Wednesday. We had a nice lunch at Bijoy's, a small family-run restaurant in Aurora, then went to see an art show in a school that has been converted into a gallery. We stayed at Martha and Thoms's for the night but returned to King City the next day to take Mum to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, fortifying ourselves first with lunch at Chartreuse, a restaurant on the main street. The gallery had a very interesting show of seven aboriginal artists: well worth seeing if you are in the area.
We returned to Brampton for the night, then began the homeward trip by driving back to Ottawa stopping off at my brother Nick's place near Sharbot Lake on the way. We all (Ann, myself, Katy, Ben, Emily, Noah and our niece Liz) went for dinner at Trattoria Caffé Italia.
We stayed in Ottawa the next day (Saturday) having brunch at the Mill St. Brew Pub before Ann took Emily shopping for some items for her apartment. Our friends Claire, Paul and Max came over from Gatineau for a curry dinner as did our nephew John.
The next day we began the final drive home, stopping in Grand Falls, NB for the night and arriving around lunch time on Monday. I had to go into work immediately as I have a deadline on Wednesday, but Ann spent the rest of the day getting things sorted out on the home front. James, who had stayed at home so that he could work with a local house painting company, had kept the place in reasonably good order, but there was still laundry to be done, grass to be cut, groceries to be bought, and so on. Ann returned to work today.