This past week has been a slightly different one for me. I came up to Canada on Tuesday, by myself, no dogs, no cats, no people, just me. I have not had any time alone for four years and I loved it. A couple of days just catering to what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Bliss.

To be honest, my brother and I were tasked with helping out with a luncheon for our Men’s and Ladies’ groups as the original organizers were unable to be there. So I did have a reason to come up here other than a purely selfish one. We had a gorgeous day for the luncheon and were able to sit outside under the trees and shade umbrellas with 30 members of the Men’s Breakfast and the Grace Ladies. There was no lack of conversation with either group.

Update on Jenny Lane

John did not come with me as, miracle of miracles, the plumber and the electrician were both able to come and do their part on the bathroom project. Without their input we weren’t going anywhere. Plumber did his piece putting in the pipes for the shower and sink and the drains. Nice shiny copper as seen in the first photo. Once he was done then “Uncle Bill” our electrician came and put in the lights and the exhaust fan. Nothing could really be done until these two pieces were done. Now we wait for Jason to come and put in the spray foam on the outside walls and then the fun stuff will happen. We are putting in a heated floor and tile similar to what we did in our bathroom. We have discovered it is a wonderful luxury and we don’t need any other heat source. It really is amazing how many steps there are to this project.

Tree Update

Six days later and the trees are recovering. These pictures were taken at the same point on the Rail Trail in Andover. What a difference. The first one looks as if it is fall, the second is spring. I was really pleased to see that the trees really are going to come back. The brown was just so depressing. The dogs and I had a couple of good walks out there on the days I was in New London. Now we are back in North Hatley we are enjoying our lake walks and pretty soon we will be out on the hills again too.

Jack of the North

Jack is in his happy place. He left on the 11th to drive with friends up to Lake Temagami where he will be working as head staff this summer. Part of going up early is getting the canoes ready for all the campers who arrive on the 26th of June. Camp Wabun uses bright red canoes as you can see. They always need some prep work and probably a little paint too. Happy faces.

Get Ready, Get Set and Almost Go

So many things have to happen to get Lakeside ready for summer. One of the first and to us most important is to get the dock in and the boat on the water. The first was accomplished a few weeks ago by the very efficient duo of Jonathan and Tom. The second, with a little help from our marina friend Steve who takes the boat out of the garage and gets it sea worthy, and third, John goes and picks it up and does a slow ride up the shoreline checking on all the changes since the prior summer. Then we have to go for the inaugural requisite booze cruise which is always such fun. Lots of changes with new houses and repaired boat houses and sea walls. We also opened up the hot tub and naturally had to try it out at the end of the day. All systems are go at this point as we prepare for a BIG birthday party over July 4th.

You Need Another Guest Room?

We are going to have a very full house over the 4th of July which means we needed to find a couple of extra spots for people to sleep. John and I will move out and stay with my brother next door but we were still short at least one bedroom. So, my sister and I decided that above the garage was the perfect place to create an extra room. As we started to clean it up we discovered my brother’s old bed from growing up, frame and head board and foot board and spring. We had two possible air mattresses and one of them actually fits pretty well. We found a couple of rugs, some stools, some lamps and started to pull it together. We needed John to make a screen door so we would have some cross ventilation but wonder of wonders I found an extra screen door that fits perfectly. Our goal was to do this without having to spend a penny and I think we have done it. Now, who is the lucky couple that get to make this their home for a couple of nights? Looks cozy doesn’t it?