S-N-0-W!

Well it was just a whiff actually, but as we headed out this morning, there was definitely white stuff blowing into the windshield.  And as we headed south from Meaford, there was more, until the ground looked white.

And guess where the greatest accumulation was?  Right at our old house in the 'Highlands'.  Yes, we always believed there was a cloud that sat right above our house and dumped a little extra!   It's true!

But it was only a trace actually, and soon it changed to rain, so we were in and out of rain, sleet and dark grey clouds, and patches of sunshine, all the way to London.  Since we've moved to Meaford, the drive is really 4 hours, allowing for stops and a few minutes leeway.  And that makes it four hours back again, a ten hour day with the medical apt. itself and stops to eat.

I'm not going to bother you with details of the planned surgery, but one in December, and one later in the winter.  And we now have great confidence in our two surgeons having met them both and got their explanations.  I'll let you know later how it all goes; keep your toes crossed for the next four months in the meantime!  It's actually encouraging to know that we live with a great health care system, and we're at the cutting edge of modern medicine.  Now I'm looking forward to more hiking, paddling and biking, and travelling, next summer and for many years thereafter! 

Long drive in the Rain

We're nearly finished the first half of this chaotic interlude in our life, but the move is not all that's been happening!  Our son and daughter-in-law have moved down from distant northern Ontario to a village an hour plus west of us (and thereby been the recipients of several bits of furniture, tools, etc.).  But 10 days ago when our son was coming south with a trailer of more stuff, his car died - as in totally died.  He ended up having it towed to our house, and it was finally towed away to a junkyard today.

So we were on a long rainy drive today to drop off our second car to loan them for awhile.  We've been thinking of doing without for the winter anyway.  This was after taking a final very large load of garbage and recycling to our local dump from the old house.

There were some pretty dark clouds at times, and the rain constantly varied from spitting to heavy, but never actually quit.  It was a cold wind too, only a few degrees above freezing.  These are all just iphone shots.

Lots of wind turbines near the Lake Huron shore.  And tomorrow we'll be off for 7 hours of driving to London and back for an apt. with one of my surgeons.  Then we'll learn more details about what's ahead, and the timing of it all.  Meanwhile here at home, the boxes can just sit and wait!

Meaford harbour

I did find a few minutes to explore Meaford Harbour the other day, in between all the other chaos of the last few days!  Tomorrow is just a clean up day, and then we'll be finished at the old house.  Met the buyer today and gave him a tour, and it sounds like he will appreciate the gardens and trees we've enjoyed too, so that left me feeling good.

Here in the harbour a lot of the boats are now out of the water, up on land for the winter.  Just a few left to go.

I wandered around searching for new viewpoints, wondering how I'm going to provide pix of the bay without too much repetition!

This guy had walked out to the end of the breakwater to contemplate the bay.

Over in the industrial corner, these cranes were parked, two of them holding up a huge mostly submerged object of some sort.  No idea what it is.

As usual I stopped by the Coast Guard corner to see if they were in.  The Cape Providence is the Coast Guard ship that patrols Georgian Bay over the summer.

And off in the distance is the shadow of this island.  I'm going to have to bring down a good map and a compass, and try to figure out for sure what island this is.  I suspect it's Christian Island, over in the southeast corner of the bay.

One more day to go, and then we can turn to our forest of boxes here and get moved in!

We got moved!

After ten days and two trips by the movers, we finally got moved.  We kept the main floor livable, but the basement and garage are forests of boxes and surplus furniture.  I'm threatening to start throwing out boxes without even opening them.  And I'm thinking it will take us about two years to get settled in.  Meanwhile, we're not moving much tonight.  Funny as you get older, sitting down for a rest doesn't refresh your energy, it just gives the body a chance to sieze up!

See you tomorrow.

Sunset

Two or three days after we got here we walked out on the golf course to watch the sunset.  It was a good harbinger of the sunsets I hope we'll get over the years, with a good view to the west.

Hopefully tomorrow is the last busy day of our move, and our life can start settling down to a more peaceful pace!

Shaggy Mane Garden

Suddenly, two doors down from us, a garden of Shaggy Manes popped up through the grass.  They're located along an old fencerow, but it's all golf course on one side and grassed lawn on the other now.

Don't think I've ever seen this many Shaggy Manes in one place today. 

Still busy moving stuff here.  Movers come for their 2nd trip on Saturday, so we need to be ready.  Meanwhile our phone is still not working, nor has the washer and drier been set up.  But it's a nice peaceful place!

Fall Colours - Orange!

The colour of the year is orange, often just a pale yellowy-orange.  Not many reds in the leaves at all (except for those Sumach and Burning Bush).  But there have been lots of orange leaves, subdued compared to most years, but pretty never-the-less.

Lots of nice yellowy-orange leaves.

Most of these shot around our old house over the last few days.

In places I think you can say the leaves are actually orange.

And the leaves outside our new back window are definitely orange, perhaps even a tinge of red.

And the weather has changed dramatically, though it's still typical for fall.  Cold, windy and rainy with the grey clouds scudding across the sky.  I think we've seen the last of that nice warm weather.

Welcome to Meaford

Well, we finally have internet after waiting for 5 days for it to work!   So I can welcome you to Meaford.  Our new home is 25 minutes straight north of the old one, in the town of Meaford, a town of something over 5000 population on the shores of Georgian Bay.  It's certainly going to be different living in town, and on a tiny lot rather than our 2.5 acres in the country.  But we're looking forward to it.

I'm not the type to post pictures of the house; to me it's just a "base of operations".  With a tiny lot, I'll be out exploring elsewhere every day.  But this is the view out back from the chair where I sit with my morning coffee reading blogs, over the Meaford Golf Course.  I'm sure it will be interesting to watch it change with the seasons.

And I will show you our red front door, since its reputation seems to have preceded us, at least among our friends here - as in "Just look for the house with the red door".  We like to think it portrays a sense of adventure!

And we will be getting some sunsets here. This photo was taken 100 feet out on the golf course behind the house the other night.  Expect to see more.

But what attracts me about Meaford, after our friends, is the landscape.  Above all, we're on Georgian Bay, and I anticipate spending lots of time along the waterfront.  You'll probably get tired of pictures of the bay.  This was last Friday.

The geology of the area is interesting, and I'll be trying to learn more about it.  These are the claybanks just east of town where we went paddling this summer.  You'll can also hike in to the top of the slope.

It's the Bighead River that flows into Meaford harbour, and Trout Hollow Trail extends along both sides of the river.  Trout Hollow was the location of a sawmill in the mid-1800's, where the peripatetic John Muir spent 2 years working (in between his botanical explorations).  I'm certainly going to be spending more time here.  This is the view that Muir would have had out the front of the cabin he stayed in during his time in Canada.

Finally, I was down at the harbour today in between errands, and spotted this Jolly Roger pirate flag.  A good omen for our new life here I thought.  Hope you'll continue joining me.

Changing Weather

The weather is changing dramatically, temperatures down to half of what they've been, and rainy days taking over from all the sunshine we've had.  Not looking forward to it much, but it's normal for this time of year.  At least it's not snow, which will come soon enough.

No improvement in phone or internet service yet, but if what the technician told me is true, we now know what's happening.  Apparently Rogers has a network programming error somewhere, and no one making any changes to their service (like moving!) can connect.  It's a national level technical issue, and thousands of people are in the same boat.  A team of engineers and technicians is working on it, but so far no solution.  Trust modern technology.  And they think we'll all have driverless cars!  Nonsense!

Settling In

Hello out there!  I'm trying to do this post on my ipad, import a photo and see if works. ..................  Well, after several tries, it doesn't work - import a photo that is.  I even went out and took a photo on my ipad for the first  time ever.  No luck.  So first thing tomorrow I'll be on the phone to  Rogers.  They promise 24 hour service, and it's been 60 hours now!

Meantime, I can't believe the continuing mild weather, which has been a huge bonus for our move.  We usually get a week or more of 'Indian Summer' at this time of year, but never like this.  With movng trailer loads of stuff, it's made a big difference.  We had planned on a two week overlap of homes to give us a chance to move some extras like fragile things, artworks, garden stuff, and potted plants, soI'm busy with that every day.  It's going well, though I'm more or less exhausted.  Looks like a change to rainy weather tomorrow though.

I have been back to at least a little photography, so I do have some posts planned, once I have access to post them!  And we're settling in, getting things organized, getting used to the neighbourhood and the town.  All is well.

Glitches!

We're at that frustrating stage when we want to get on with new things, but there are so many things to be organized, unpacked, put in place, and set up.  And while we do that, there are the little glitches and changes in routine that arise.  From figuring out which switches control which lights, to the big one, finishing the move.

Our mover under-estimated how much stuff we had, I guess because I didn't explain it well enough, so they have to come back next week and move the rest of our stuff, mostly the boxes.  So we're sort of in between lives.  As well, our internet, phone and tv were hooked up today, but only the TV actually works.  Apparently Rogers can't connect the other services for some reason.  We're hoping it will get resolved soon, but no chance for a new blog post beyond this until it does.

If you wonder how I'm doing this much, we have a data plan on our ipads that we can turn on when needed.  It'll cost us a little, but it keeps us connected in situations like this.  Unfortunately I have never figured out how to do a proper post with pictures on my ipad beyond typing a few lines like this.  So this is all you get.

It can only get better from here!

Last Sunrise

A sunrise seems an appropriate symbol as we start the next chapter, in a new house, and a new town.  On the last morning of our canoe trip I caught a few nice shots across the water.  We're still here, emjoying our new house.  Internet should be set up tomorrow.

Hopefully our internet will be connected soon, and I'll be back with you.  Take care!

Last Paddle

I'm activating this post from my ipad, sitting in our new house in Meaford.  We got successfully moved and are settling in.  Glad this long day is nearly over!

On my last evening on the French, I headed out alone down a nearby channel, just puttering slowly past the rocky shoreline.

Into the bay in the evening light.

More interesting rocks.

And Red Maples.

So nice to paddle very close to the rock, as slow as I want, visiting with the moss and lichen!

The next morning I watched my buddies head west for another long paddle, but I had to leave a day early to make an important medical apt. the next day.  A wonderful 5 days for me!

We probably don't have internet service at the moment; don't know if this will even publish.