Slept like a baby then downstairs for coffee and toast, the great outdoors beckoning. Much enjoyable milling about of people, cats and dogs.
Toby and Romy have commissioned some stained glass for their front door from a nearby award-winning business. Joan drove us off to the big converted barn on a ridge. Inside was a showroom and studio combined. Toby and Romy's windows, which they had designed to copy an old English pattern, looked great. Very friendly people and I was fascinated by the hundreds of sheets of various glass they have stored there.
Then into the small town of Markdale where the ideal Tilley hat was waiting for me. Hemp Tilleys (not available in the UK) are naturally more breathable than the cotton one owned by Anton. This one has a wide brim and is worn by people who enjoy wrestling bears in the wilds.
After this we popped into a cafe in a shop where everyone knew Joan. In a burst of knife and forkwork we ate enormous scones, soup and exemplary home made chicken pies. Then along more empty roads to another shop behind someone's house to get Joan a watchstrap. This shop was full of antique clocks, ornaments and the propeller from a WW2 Avro Anson aircraft. The owner was a very chatty woman, and there was a cat to be stroked and a dog to be patted. The pace is so much slower and more civilized out here. It gives people the chance to find out about each other.
Home again and we set off for a walk accompanied by Maggie the Jack Russell and Pinky the cat. Naturally I sported my Tilley. Walked past the donkey-filled barn, down the side of the bright canola fields, across other fields so thick with dandelions that each step felt juicy underneath. Very funny watching Pinky wading through this. The Jack Russell preferred kangaroo jumps to pop up and see where she was. Then into the forest. Joan and Toby were on the lookout for ferns to take back to Toronto and collected several varieties. In the forest were a few rather rain-battered examples of Ontario's provincial flower, the white trillium.
We were walking for an hour and a half, perhaps more, and never left Joan and Dick's land. It is immense by UK standards.
Back indoors we played The Settlers of Catan and drank a couple of bottles of beer. Catan is fun, and I'd never played it before. Romy, known resentfully by her adversaries as "The Sleeper", won easily.
As we played it became very sunny outside and after I went out with my camera for another short walk accompanied by dogs. This was followed by a three way badminton game with Toby and Romy with one of the shuttlecock's lives being cut short by the larger dog Nico however.
Then a big feast, and a game of euchre (played to the correct Guernsey rules) and then I ended a lovely day by watching The Big Lebowski, which was great, with Joan.
Feeling more relaxed by the hour. Below canola fields, and me lurking in the forest.
Toby and Romy have commissioned some stained glass for their front door from a nearby award-winning business. Joan drove us off to the big converted barn on a ridge. Inside was a showroom and studio combined. Toby and Romy's windows, which they had designed to copy an old English pattern, looked great. Very friendly people and I was fascinated by the hundreds of sheets of various glass they have stored there.
Then into the small town of Markdale where the ideal Tilley hat was waiting for me. Hemp Tilleys (not available in the UK) are naturally more breathable than the cotton one owned by Anton. This one has a wide brim and is worn by people who enjoy wrestling bears in the wilds.
After this we popped into a cafe in a shop where everyone knew Joan. In a burst of knife and forkwork we ate enormous scones, soup and exemplary home made chicken pies. Then along more empty roads to another shop behind someone's house to get Joan a watchstrap. This shop was full of antique clocks, ornaments and the propeller from a WW2 Avro Anson aircraft. The owner was a very chatty woman, and there was a cat to be stroked and a dog to be patted. The pace is so much slower and more civilized out here. It gives people the chance to find out about each other.
Home again and we set off for a walk accompanied by Maggie the Jack Russell and Pinky the cat. Naturally I sported my Tilley. Walked past the donkey-filled barn, down the side of the bright canola fields, across other fields so thick with dandelions that each step felt juicy underneath. Very funny watching Pinky wading through this. The Jack Russell preferred kangaroo jumps to pop up and see where she was. Then into the forest. Joan and Toby were on the lookout for ferns to take back to Toronto and collected several varieties. In the forest were a few rather rain-battered examples of Ontario's provincial flower, the white trillium.
We were walking for an hour and a half, perhaps more, and never left Joan and Dick's land. It is immense by UK standards.
Back indoors we played The Settlers of Catan and drank a couple of bottles of beer. Catan is fun, and I'd never played it before. Romy, known resentfully by her adversaries as "The Sleeper", won easily.
As we played it became very sunny outside and after I went out with my camera for another short walk accompanied by dogs. This was followed by a three way badminton game with Toby and Romy with one of the shuttlecock's lives being cut short by the larger dog Nico however.
Then a big feast, and a game of euchre (played to the correct Guernsey rules) and then I ended a lovely day by watching The Big Lebowski, which was great, with Joan.
Feeling more relaxed by the hour. Below canola fields, and me lurking in the forest.
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