We leave sunny and warm Niagara on the Lake today for a 3 week trip to Scotland. It will be a touring trip without golf, although we will stop in St. Andrews. The current plan is a week stay in and around Edinburgh and a self driving tour through Spey, Inverness, Western Highlands, Isle of Sky, and Glasgow. This is our first time in Scotland and we’re looking forward to the experience A friend and neighbour, Doug Gibson, who immigrated from Scotland a few years ago and still has the accent, has been giving us some language training and other advice. He loaned us a book, “How the Scots Invented the Modern World” by Arthur Herman. It is highly recommended for those interested in Scottish history. It’s amazing how influential tiny Scotland has been over the ... read more

Outside our house in Noosa Springs there is an abundance of birds, some of which provide a melodic symphony of songs in the morning (around 5:30 am) and in the evening at sunset. One species in particular has a very unique sound. The Kookaburra sounds like a tree full of laughing monkies! If you go to Wikipedia ( website attached) you can hear the sound. Australia has such a broad array of birds that are unique, colourful and interesting so it’s understandable the attraction by amateur birders and professional ornithologists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra Also in the ponds around the golf course there is a family of Black Swans. These are a rare species (i.e therefore the meaning of a Black Swan event). At the Dragon Fire Golf Course in Carlisle (just north of Burlington, Ontario), they imported a ... read more

We return to Australia for the 2019 ”winter getaway” and to the same house in Noosa Heads that we rented in 2017. Noosa Heads is on the Sunshine Coast about 1 1/2 hours drive north of Brisbane. Our last stay at the Noosa Springs Golf Community was very enjoyable and included in our rental is full access to the championship golf course, fitness membership and the use of 3 pools. The facilities suits our lifestyle and we look forward getting full use of them. The flight on Dec 31st to Brisbane was through Vancouver as opposed to a route taken through Hong Kong in 2017. Total travel time was about 25 hours, which is less than the previous flight to “down under”, but still a bit challenging. With the time zone change, we actually arrived on ... read more

We were looking forward to a visit with our friends Susan and Harry who live in Carlux, a pretty village near Sarlat-la-Canéda in the Dourdogne department. A few years ago, they retired early from their Canadian jobs, bought this former bakery and converted it into a residence and a guest house. They did a fabulous job by renovating the wood and stone structure into a very comfortable home while maintaining much of the original design. On one of the stones, the year carved was 1752 (I think). Unfortunately it was quite rainy the 3 days of our visit and we were unable to get the full enjoyment of the beautiful gardens and grounds surrounding the property. Susan and Harry did give us a good overview of the area which has a long medieval history and dramatic, ... read more

France is a Republic and divided into Regions. Many Regions are famous for specific products. For example, the Region of Champagne is famous for this iconic Brut (sparkling wine that develops it’s bubbles through natural process). Other wines, cheese etc that are well known come from other areas of the country i.e. Bordeaux (not a region but it is a city), Camembert Cheese etc. We travelled through the Normandy and Brittany Regions which are on the North West coast of the country, both of which have an interesting and varied history. Most of the towns we visited would be medieval or older and the youngest of these would still be older than the oldest community in Canada. After staying in Arras for the night, we’re off to Mont Saint-Michel which after Paris, has the most visitors. ... read more