Counting Chickens - report on my last week.

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From Brantford Ontario.
Well, who would believe it but I have been lying in the sun by Bev and Peter’s pool -
26 deg here - blue blue skies and it was so tempting that I actually had a dip in the pool - Peter did warn me about hypothermia - but I took no notice till I got in. Took my breath away - swam up and down VERY QUICKLY and go out. It did cool me down though. This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada - and to top it all it was my host’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary. So we have been celebrating.
This has been a really lovely week here - relaxing and chilled out enough after the hectic Rockies part of my trip - but also a lovely time to catch up on what our respective families have been up to in the intervening years. Bev is a great cook and so I have been amassing recipes to try out on the folks back home and I have had a lesson in how to make muffins ( always been a failure when I tried them at home so I blame the English flour!!) - so be warned I’ll be cooking / baking and inviting you round for grub.
Peter plays guitar so I have been enjoying his playing in the evenings and a bit of singing along too - Richard - we found the Geoff Buckley song on the web and have been practicing Hallelujah all week. Also a bit of a car enthusiast he has a great 1975 Triumph TR6 - in which he took me for a spin yesterday. There we were zooming along the back country roads in Brant county, wind in our hair, sunny clear blue skies and the trees with their autumn colour against golden brown fields of maize -it was the stuff good memories are made from. There are displays of scarecrows and pumpkins and colorful gourds decorating the front gardens and porches of the houses and it all looks very festive for Harvest times and thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving we were invited to one of their friends’ home - Tina and Roy - and she had combined having a Baby Shower for her son’s expectant wife in the afternoon with a Thanksgiving Dinner in the evening - for about 30 people. Well done Tina - there was turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and sausages and squash and other veg and followed by pumpkin pie, cheesecake, Mississippi mud pie and all sorts of other goodies.( I may have put on weight by the time I get home). It wasn’t just the food that made this a great event - but everyone was so friendly and kind and it was lovely to see the range of ages mixed here form babies and 3yr olds to a wonderful 95 year old lady. So big thanks to Tina for including me and making this another memorable happy time in my holiday.
So this is my last day and thinking back to the last week the other things we have enjoyed were walking by the Brant river (Brought back a memory of Suzanne and Andrew toddling around on a day back in the seventies, picnicking by the river and trying out water skiing with Peter’s boat - I managed to get up for a few seconds I remember. We made a visit to Port Dover on Lake Erie - these lakes are so vast here you think it’s the sea and a memorial reminds you how many lives have been lost by fishermen in these waters….bought lake perch from fishing hut to each for supper later. Another day we walked on a trail - part of the Niagara escarpment to see a gorge and waterfalls and stunning autumn trees filling the gorge….who need to go to New England for that - the sides of the road are filled with bright scarlet sumacs - something I always think of when I think of living here in Ontario - I must get one for my garden.
I hope this rambling isn’t too long today but I want to catch up to date as tomorrow I leave these lovely friends and take the train to Toronto. I will be staying there for a few days and then rent a car and drive up to the Kawartha Lakes north of here and then by next Sunday I will be in Kingston.
Oh and the title what has this got to do with chickens you ask.???!!!! Well add to my list of experiences - we called in to see Peter’s friend and he is a chicken farmer - so I went into the shed to see 7500 baby chicks running around - they were so cute but I am sorry to say that in 6 weeks they will be on their way to MacDonalds - no more chicken nuggets for me ( not that I ever ate them anyway). Always there is something on my travels to surprise me - helping with calf castrating and olive picking in Oz, collecting the wood and stacking logs for the winter in Sweden and now chickens!!
So bye for now and - good news Cherri about the exchange contracts on the house- hope all goes well there. John and Marilyn - there are plenty super golf course here to keep you busy!!
Love to all
Lynne xx

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