Summer

Ah, summer! There are peonies in the garden and swim suits on the clothesline; it doesn't get much better than that.

Yesterday we went for our first outdoor swim of the year. It was heaven; warm water and even a heron who landed near us, to provide visual entertainment. What a perfect way to celebrate the first official day of summer.

The summer solstice always reminds me of our time in Exeter, Ontario. We lived there from 1976 to 1979. Those three years, in small town, rural Ontario, were a special time. The friendliness of the people more than made up for some of the  big city  conveniences that we missed.

On June 20th of 1977, I was a desperate teacher in need of a movie. We were nearing the end of the school year and I was trying to keep my Grade 7 and 8 class occupied. In those days you could order movies from your local public library. The order went to a much bigger branch library, (probably Stratford) and they sent it out. The movies were on those big metal reels and were shown on the school projector.

I had placed my order but had forgotten to pick it up. At the end of the school day, while writing my daybook for the next day, I suddenly realized my mistake. I had been counting on showing the movie the following morning. It was almost 5 pm, closing time at the library.  Thankfully, the town librarian, Elizabeth Schroeder, answered my frantic phone call. She assured me that my movie reels had arrived. I told her that there was no way I could walk over to the library before her closing time.

It's funny what my small brain forgets and remembers. Somehow I can still recall her cheery reply,
"Don't you worry about that. Isn't it the longest day of the year?  Surely I can stay here until you arrive. Let's just make the most of this long sunny day."

Here's to friendly folks, summer and long sunny days!

Ottawa Citizen Article

After quite a hiatus I'm happy to have a piece in today's Ottawa Citizen. I wrote it to try to promote the idea of Ottawa's Giveaway Weekend, which takes place this weekend. It's a great recycling idea that needs more publicity. I was also happy to promote a couple of Ottawa charities which deliver furniture to needy families. In the piece I mention my prize from last year's  Giveaway Weekend. It's a great camp kitchen that was in this battered box.

Here's a link to the piece.

http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/kot-dont-throw-that-useful-item-out-its-giveaway-weekend-in-ottawa
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Great Glebe - the 2016 version

In June of 2014 I wrote about the Great Glebe Garage Sale. Here's this year's recap.

The Great Glebe is the granddaddy of Ottawa garage sales and always takes place the Saturday after the May long weekend. It is immense and you would be foolish to try to drive anywhere near there that day. Thousands of people descend on the area to buy, sell or volunteer. This year's weather was hot and sunny so it was a perfect day to go for a walk among the lovely houses with their gardens all in bloom.

My favourite quote of the day came at 7:30 am, when I overheard a young child ask his Dad, "Is it later yet?" I wouldn't actually recommend bringing young kids to the Great Glebe. It's a very crowded event.  Some folks seem to think this is a fine time to show off their dogs. We even saw two dogs strapped into strollers. Now that's what the Great Glebe doesn't need...more dogs in strollers.

We didn't eat breakfast before we left the house. We were counting on finding last year's house that sold tasty breakfast sandwiches. However healthy food seemed to be in short supply this year. By 10 am we gave up looking for the breakfast sandwiches and settled for a hot dog. There were plenty of homes selling cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. We did enjoy some fine fruit kabobs near the end of our morning.

The shopping itself was the usual interesting recycling experience with plenty of  surprising finds.  Perhaps our best buy of the day was a folding double stroller for $20.00. Avery and Eliza were thrilled with the little dinosaurs I brought home and proceeded to chase us with them, complete with scary dinosaur roars! Nothing says fun like having a twenty month old chase you with a tiny plastic dinosaur!

It seems nuts to say bring a cell phone but with that crowd it is so easy to get split up. The three of us were constantly texting our new positions. "Hey I'm at the corner now. I'm going to turn right on Fourth."

As usual there were so many good folks volunteering or working for good causes like Ecology Ottawa.  My favourite Great Glebe musicians, the Swampwater Dixieland Jazz Band,  were there again, raising money for the Ottawa Food Bank. I was most impressed with a group of young boys, about 10 years of age. They had a  bake table with a handmade poster explaining that they were raising money for fire victims in Alberta.

Here's the best part of the day. We walked around in that throng of thousands of people for four hours. In that time I never heard one angry word. I never heard an argument or any raised voices. Cars were crawling along, looking in vain for a parking spot or trying to pick up their purchases. Never once did I hear someone honk their horn. People were friendly, polite and accommodating. I came away with nothing but good feelings. How lucky we are to live in a city, where you can have so many people in such close quarters and they treat each other so well.

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