July 2014
Ginger
September 2005 — July 31, 2014
Cats don't beat themselves up about not working hard enough. They
don't get up and go, they sit down and stay. For them, lethargy is an
art form. From their vantage points on top of fences and window
ledges, they see the treadmills of human obligations for what they are
— a meaningless waste of nap time.
— Helen Brown
Cats don't beat themselves up about not working hard enough. They
don't get up and go, they sit down and stay. For them, lethargy is an
art form. From their vantage points on top of fences and window
ledges, they see the treadmills of human obligations for what they are
— a meaningless waste of nap time.
— Helen Brown
I mentioned a month or two ago that Ginger had been ailing. Although he had good stretches, his health deteriorated steadily. Over the past week he ate nothing at all and was obviously not enjoying life very much. On Thursday we decided enough was enough and took him to the vet. For a cat, he was unusually gregarious, always ready for a cuddle with us and eager to make friends with our visitors — when he wasn't napping. He will be sorely missed.
Monday July 21
James with some of his presents
Yesterday James turned 17. We celebrated in the morning with our traditional birthday breakfast, then in the afternoon Glen, who shares the birthday, Kim and Toni, one of Toni's friends and James' godmother Jenny came for an al fresco dinner in the back yard. The last couple of years Gene and Carl, both also July 20 birthday boys, have also joined us but this year Gene was busy elsewhere and Carl was called away to a family funeral. The rest of us enjoyed the food and wonderful weather. James also had a few of his friends over to celebrate a couple of weeks ago before everyone dispersed for the summer.
Sunday July 13
Emily and James sailed on the boat on the left
This week Emily and James went on an adventure with the Nova Scotia Sea School. Katy and I drove them down to Lunenburg on Monday morning and they spent the rest of the week sailing up and down the Nova Scotia coast in a 30 foot ketch with eleven others. At night they anchored, rigged a tarpaulin over the boat, laid the oars across the gunwales and slept on top of the oars. Needless to say, there was a lot to learn simply to get along for five days with thirteen people in such a confined space, but they all survived and, for the most part, had an enjoyable and educational time. This was the last element that Emily need to complete her gold Duke of Edinburgh award, a significant accomplishment. Ann took Friday off and she and Katy spent the afternoon wending their way back to Lunenburg slowly to pick them up again. Emily was not home for long as she left agan today to go to the Cape Breton cottage of one of her buddies for a few days.
With Emily and James away and Katy staying with Ben's family for part of the week, Ann and I had a foretaste of the empty house that will become the norm after next summer (presuming that James follows through with his current plan and goes elsewhere for university). Neither of us felt like making dinner on Thursday, so we went out to Edna's, a fairly new restaurant on Gottingen that we had not been to before. The food was good but it is quite trendy and consequently loud; the painted concrete walls didn't do anything the absorb the noise.
Ginger watching the World Cup final
Other than working, I spent most of the rest of the week watching the World Cup. I was disappointed, though not particularly surprised, to see Brazil flame out in spectacular fashion to first Germany and then the Netherlands. Today I was rooting for Argentina but will concede that the best team won. And the winning goal was a very nice one. Ginger was rooting for Germany so he wasn't disappointed at all.
Our neighbour Brenton took Ann and I and our other neighbours Barb, Colette and Carl and Roxanne to lunch at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. It was a gorgeous day so we started with a glass of wine outside on the terrace overlooking the Northwest Arm before heading in to the dining room for a very nice meal.
Sunday July 6
Canada Day fireworks
It has been another week of celebrations for us. Tuesday was Canada Day, of course, and we celebrated in our traditional way by inviting the neighbours over for refreshments and a game of boules (also known as pétanque; very popular in the south of France; like lawn bowling except that the balls are thrown through the air). This year, as well as Barb, Carl and Roxanne, and Jim and Valerie, Katy and David's old baby sitter Tobi dropped in for a visit with her kids Jake and Erin (she now lives in Atlanta Georgia but was back to visit her parents). There was also a big concert down by the ferry terminal, so that's where Emily was to be found from aboout 4 PM onward. I went down to see the fireworks at 10 PM and met up with Emily afterwards.
Yesterday, we all went to Pier 21 to celebrate Chris and Dave's daughter Alison's wedding to Ted. Katy and Ben flew in on Friday evening and stayed in our guest room. The wedding was at 3:30 followed by a break for pictures, which we used to get some refreshment at the Garrison Brewery across the street, then a nice dinner, a few obligatory speeches, and a dance. My friend Mark and I played a waltz for Dave's first dance with Alison. We all had an excellent time and were hardly bothered at all by post-tropical storm Arthur despite warnings of doom and gloom on the weather reports. Other parts of the province did not fare so well, particularly the Yarmouth area where the storm first touched land. The track of the storm passed north of us along the Annapolis Valley, so we had very little rain too, that being felt north of the track in southern New Brunswick.