dancing shoes

Sunday was a beautiful day for a drive in the country. Destination? A heritage stone house property just outside a village 50 minutes from here. Kirsten is thinking about moving back to Canada so we are helping out by being her eyes and ears on this side of the world.

We left our house early, with plenty of time to stop for breakfast and to drive around the village nearest the farm before our appointment time. Breakfast was good; the village was plain with a lumber store and an LCBO - the important things! There must be a grocery store in the village in the other direction. It was fun seeing the property and the ancient outbuildings. A huge barn towered, a low grainery stretched out. The cute ice house was being turned into an adorable guest house. There were a few other buildings to see. I guess that over 160 years a person would tend to need more and more outbuildings… perhaps to store all the stuff that accumulates when you have a farm ;-)

Now I’ll backtrack to Wednesday when we had Pat over for supper, and then Thursday’s visit with Trudie & Leo. Friday I rushed to get ready for a trip to Montreal to see Freya’s dance recital. I met up with Mom & Dad at the highway and then we raced to meet Olaf & Tammy at a restaurant for supper. The recital wasn’t far away - it was an entertaining ballet version of Alice in Wonderland - so cute to see the little kids (seriously cute), and lovely to see the older, more accomplished dancers. Freya, of course, was as cute as can be and did a good job with her part. I was glad that I went.

Saturday we drove home and Carm picked me up around 2pm. Whew… I was exhausted and collapsed on the sofa to recover.

Monday night Trudie & Leo joined us for supper. It had been a beautiful day which almost tempted me to set the table outside, but alas, the mosquitos were out in full force.

Bella had a visit to the vet today… a month or so ago she was diagnosed with laryngeal paralysis, followed by bloodwork showing elevated liver enzymes. Bella has had periods of heavy, laboured breathing which pass, but last night she was really bad, scarily bad. Hence the vet visit. Dr. Cardi was thorough and very informative… we’ve decided to forego surgery and just continue with palliative care. She’s suddenly turned into an old dog… cue the tissue…

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.”
~Milan Kundera