Jaunting off again

The trouble with starting things, like blogs, is that if you don't keep them up-to-date it's a bit hard to get going again; too much has happened in the interim. I suppose that’s that ‘inertia’ concept that Mr Boyer tried to teach me in grade 8 science. It was something about it taking less energy to keep something moving than to start from a standing position. Whatever…which was probably my reaction to the concept at the time but I do understand how it extrapolates to the non-physics world. If you get tired of not hearing from me and want to follow a blog that is fun and interesting and well written take a look at http://muckybootsfarm.blogspot.com/ the creation of a very good friend who, with her partner, quit her teaching job, bought a small-holding and is living the dream. There isn't anything they don't tackle.


So here I am back in touch after about 5 weeks of silence. Yikes.

We are on the eve of going to Windsor, Ontario to visit some dear friends, Sally & Alan, who used to live here. I know, why would anyone leave Victoria to go to Windsor, not known as a hotbed of migration. Well you would be surprised. First of all Windsor is way south of anywhere Canadian, in fact it is south of Detroit, Michigan, its very close neighbour (about ½ mile away), which is kind of disorienting when our entire culture is built around being north of everything. And being south of anywhere the climate is not too bad. Sure they get a few weeks of winter and some brutal heat in summer but lots of the time it’s kind of nice. And they have the Detroit skyline, spectacular, and all the cultural diversions of the big city without the hassles: opera, art centre, shopping, Red Wings, Tigers (do they still exist?) etc. On the Windsor side there is a fabulous park/garden/walkway along the Detroit River with interesting sculptures, and there is Hiram Walker’s distillery, and the Big Three car factories, and wineries, and farmland, and a nice university, and I could go on… I have to admit it is a titch FLAT, but nevertheless it’s a good place so we are glad to be going.

But we aren’t going together.

A few months ago I suggested that Jim go for a week to help Alan build a deck. They live in a 100 year old row house, and that long ago people didn’t build decks. There is a concrete stair and stoop and the space is narrow and there are other issues and it just seemed like Jim would enjoy having coffee with Alan again, something they used to do regularly. After some hemming and hawing and fussing with flights Jim found a reasonably inexpensive one and booked it. A couple of weeks later I decided I was wasting too much time being tied to my studio and announced that I wanted to go too. Which is why we aren’t travelling together. We could have, at great expense, but thought it made more sense to save $500.00 and go our separate ways, both flying into Detroit, on different airlines, leaving and arriving an hour apart. Crazy.

We are back in a week and are amazed at how simple it is to go away for that short a period. It seems our travels are often long and complicated. And did I mention how glad I am that we aren’t trying to go to or through Europe this spring? What a mess that continues to be and it’s not like you can just put a cork in a volcano.

Meanwhile is is spring, and beautiful in Victoria!
Lots more to catch up on and I'll get back to posting somewhat regularly on our return...