Sights, Sounds, & Echoes

Common Tansy

Casting a few before sunset.

Pinot Grigio on the deck while the lads swim.

The Mapleglen heading for the Iroquois Lock

The Mapleglen gliding through.

I love holidays...it doesn't matter whether they are long or short.   I'll take them.

I should share that we've been white water rafting on the Ottawa river and all survived.   We stayed at Doran Bay Resort, a rustic little spot we've stayed at several times over the years.   Home of the original two cup coffee maker!   We rafted with OWL Rafting, in Forrester's Falls and highly recommend them!   Their facility is tops, their staff are all so welcoming and open, and the adrenaline...well that's free.    The whole adventure was first rate, from beginning to end!

We drove up on wednesday, our anniversary....and drove to OWL on Thursday morning for our afternoon adventure.   It almost didn't happen as our original trip was cancelled.   But we were able to join up with another group only missing the first chute...and looking at the video, that was okay because lots of rafts tipped there!   We went through class I to V rapids and all had an awesome time!   The general consensus is that we'll likely do it again....and the next time stay at OWL and go for two days....

Holidays always have three parts:  Anticipating the fun, having the fun, and remembering the fun.    These are the things we saw and heard and want to remember.

The sights:

• looking across the St Lawrence at the American shoreline.
• having my first coffee of the day on the deck watching Ray fish in an anchored canoe.
• seeing a freighter, that you've been hearing for miles, glide into view.  
• seeing Joe and Ray in whitewater kayaks learning the fine art of the "wet exit".
• my blue finger, crushed and sprained when it got rolled between the raft and the buckles of my life jacket, after my "wet exit" on the river.   It still blue-ish.
• the incredible smoothness of the black water before it hits rock and turns into white froth.    (I love the accompanying feeling of gleeful dread as you stare the whitewater right between the eyes, and attack with your paddle "double time".)  Rafting is NOT a spectator sport.



Ray and Joe in class.



Ready for action.



Joe's kayak is belly up....the "wet exit".  Travis has it under control!



Joe in his "skirt!

The sounds:

• four voices laughing in unison.
• waking up to the sounds of the pounding of a freighter's enormous diesel engines.
• the trees rustling through by the open bedroom windows.
• the splash of the boys jumping into pool apres-rafting.

Highlights:

• brekkie in my pj's on the deck watching Ray go fishing and hearing about the awesome fish he fought.   He is still talking about it.
• wearing jeans, socks and a fleecy because it was we got cold in the wind, after rafting!  
• the tug boat and pontoon ride back to the dock.
• making our guide Kari's day by giving her a blueberry-strawberry muffin out of our snack stash.   We gave her a tip and a muffin and she said thanks for the MUFFIN.   
• being surprised by my beautiful diamond pendant necklace anniversary surprise....and knowing Ray is equally thrilled with his gift...our going to Wabikimi together this week.....STOKED!!
• returning to Doran Bay at this totally different stage in life.   
• Anniversary supper at Swiss Chalet, and shopping at IKEA and the Bass Pro Shop on the way up.

Sporties on top.  Below are the 12 person rafts....

The echoes:

Craig & the pontoon boats that took us back to OWL.

• ....this is the after-part of vacation.    Think and drive.   It's what I do.   It happens on the way home, during a great tune or lyric, or the 18th time you've heard the stock market recap on AM980.    Driving after days spent together with your beloved ones...it sure is close quarters in a Sonata, for teenagers.   It was different fun when they were toddlers with short arms strapped in car seats:)   I came to the realization that being a family  is quite a ride....very similar to being out on the water.   Some days it is smooth sailing,  you can take time to do some relaxing, fishing...you don't have to work at it.   Then there are days when you're tripping or trekking.  It's work and you have to invest regular constant energy to keep things moving forward.   There are even whitewater days where you find yourself in the fray and froth paddling double time just to stay in the boat, or if you fall in...keeping your head above the water and the paddle in your hands.  But if you have the right equipment on, and the right Guide, you know you'll get through.   If you don't equip yourself, or condition yourself , even the smooth water will be strenuous.   
• I love paddling with Ray...we happen to be a perfect compliment....he paddles left and I paddle right.   It's good to have that difference.... among others.    It wouldn't work well if we were both lefties!!  One of us would be very unhappy a lot of the time, and Wabikimi would probably turn out to be a solo trip. 
• Part of the secret is learning to find contentment.  When getting what you want becomes less important than giving what someone else needs.   It's about  the offering  of yourself, not because you want to please the other person, but because you love the feeling of making the other person happy.   It's very satisfying.  It's not about giving and taking, it's about offering and receiving.   "Learning how to bend not how to break." -Jon Foreman. 

Blah

I'm glad to tell you that today is blah day.

It's really nice to have nothing exciting happening.   I might even be skirting the edges of boredom.    I know...say it isn't so.    I do feel a bit restless as there some very exciting things on the horizon....maybe that is why I don't feel like starting anything new right now and feel like having the kitchen counter clean ALL the time.   Weird obsession.

Made some cards.  Baked some muffins.  Checked email and FB.    Planted some seeds.   Pulled some weeds.   Changed the CD's.   Did some research.  Made some phone calls.  Checked email and FB.   Did not like making said phone calls.   Crossed phone calls off the list.  And now I'm listening to drums being tuned.   Oh yeah, we have a new set of drums in the house.     That's new.   Made mac'n'cheese.   Ate said mac'n'cheese.  Should burn some of this protein off.  Wrote blog post.   Bored some readers.  Checked my favourite blogs.   Deleted some blogs I don't check anymore.    Ran out of things to write....

Blah is much better than blech.

Maybe it's not so much blah as it is... a lul....and I'm not really used to those.    I think I'll just enjoy it for now.

:)

$2.95 Will Get You The Story of A Life

If you've ever borrowed a CD from me, and the liner notes are all wrinkled and water stained....it just means that it's one of my favouritest favourites.     I'll put the liner notes up on the window sill by the sink while I do dishes, learn all the words,  and inevitably it falls in the dishwater.   So now you know.

It happened again the other day.   I found this awesome CD at the second hand store and I just LOVE it.  (But it is audio torture to Ray and the boys so I only play it when they're out.)  The average 'joe' might have passed over it, a Gino Vanelli CD with the innocuous title "canto".     This ain't your momma's Gino(well, actually it is....)   Not even remotely close to the 80's Black Cars or Wild Horses Gino.    It's more of a "CBC Radio" Gino who Josh Groban would LIKE to sound like when he grows up (...and maybe he'll get there when he has 11 or 12 albums under his cummerbund).

So Gino's liner notes fell into the dishwater.    This shows three things: the dishwasher is not working, Joe, my hired gun, is supposed to be doing the dishes (why am I at the sink?), and this has become a favourite CD.    As far as liner notes go, this one is awesome.     Gino (because by now we're on first name basis!) wrote about the inspiration for each song.   I think it's neat when you are allowed a glimpse into someone else's head, I know it's carefully  plotted and penned , but still.... He wrote the lyrics AND the music, and quite a bit of the orchestration. Multilingual....some in Spanish, some in Italian, one in French and two in English, figurative translation included.     Really beautiful, introspective songs, about life, love and loss (like reading a blog).  There is a song about hope composed in the days following 9/11.   He writes a song about his dad, which he doesn't provide translation for.   I love how he writes about his dad, and his wife and how much he loves his own son.  You get the feeling that amid the musical wasteland that was the 80's,  people sometimes lose their way and the artist is very much content at this stage in life...someone who has lived life, come out the other side and likes(maybe even loves) who they are and thankful for the company he is keeping.   Not bad for $2.95.  If not for my friend PK, who always has his radio tuned to CBC Radio 100.5,  I might never have known about this side of Gino.   I also met Glenn Gould there, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Molly Johnson,  the Wailing Jennies, as well as the regulars: Ravel, Dvorak, Chopin, Schuman...I could go on. 
 
A  very interesting selection on the turntable  today...very mellow, very instrumental, and very mellow...   Dinner party music:

1. Gino Vanelli - Canto.  Faves - "Canto", and "Mala Luna" dark song, but beautiful sound.  Dark things in real life are sometimes really beautiful on the outside.   Perhaps that's what makes them so dangerous.    
2. Phil Keaggy - Lights of Madrid.   I love classical guitar and this album is all instrumental, with a Spanish feel to it.  Faves - "Allegria" and "Picante"( I think Julianna likes that last one too!)
3. Leona Boyd - Camino Latino.   Also classical guitar with Latin influence, with a bit more of a pop sound. And wow...still such a beautiful, sexy,  lady at 60!!!  Faves - "Morenita" and "Torbellino".
4. Yo Yo Ma- obrigado BRAZIL.   Really great album, especially if you're inclined to like Brazilian influenced jazz.  The whole album is great.  I like the pieces with vocals, all Portuguese. 
5. Chris Taylor - down goes the day.   I am still wishing he would make a second album but like Chris Rodriguez, and Burlap to Cashmere...it's not to be.   Lovely mellow album for the wee hours, when you're making cards all by yourself or having some friends over for a glass of wine.  :)  Faves - "down goes the day" and "the right shoes" and "already forgotten the name".

And that's what's on today.....