Happy Thanksgiving, 2006!
This is our annual web letter. I almost didn't write one
this
year, because we didn't have much to talk about...but it is a
diary as
well as a travelogue, so I do it every year.
In December we sold our house on McIntosh, privately, to a close
friend, and downsized into the house we'd been renting out since
'91. It
is a bungalow, about half the size, so a lot of our belongings
from the
other house are stored in a large room in the basement here until
we
can figure out how to dispose of them - or in Deborah's case, how
to
part with them...
There was a lot of work to do, much of it maintenance that former
tenants had agreed to do in lieu of rent, but it just never got
done.
With the help of a friend around the corner, Ian Sortwell, we
spent
many summer mornings digging up and restoring the garden,
repairing the
eavestroughs,
waterproofing an outside wall, pruning and tree trimming,
reshingling
the shed, painting and cleaning windows, and many other jobs of
that
nature. It's a cute little bungalow, incredibly
well-insulated,
and Deborah loves it because she doesn't have to climb stairs and
it is
easy to clean, although I find it cramped at times. I remind
myself that it isn't as cramped as a sailboat, and I intend to
live in
one of those for a year or longer in my retirement.
This is a close-up of the stained glass items in the front window
that
my Uncle
Robert made for us a few years ago - they sure suit this little
cottage:
Here is one item of many items in our garden this year, the
Datura, or
Angel Trumpet Flower -
one of the nightshades, a hallucinogenic plant with a fascinating
history.
It was a good summer to stay home and work on a house, because
Maxie is too old to go sailing anymore, and she appeared to be on
her
last legs last Christmas, until I started feeding her my secret
anti-aging formula. She has recovered much of her former spunk
and energy, at the age of 12 and a 1/2 - two years past her due date
for a female Great Dane. Her weight is dropping by about a pound a
month, and we never did let her get very heavy in her younger years
(should've taken the same care with my own food intake!). In spite
of
slightly cloudy eyesight and
dubious hearing - mind you, she always had somewhat selective
hearing,
anyway - and a weak back end, she is constantly in motion, and
anxious
to go for walks or prance around in the backyard. When her
legs
betray her, she might walk on her back knuckles for a few seconds,
or
sit back unexpectedly on her haunches, but she gets up immediately
and
continues her play with nothing more than a bemused look on her
face. Here she is watching friend Clare and I play at his
cottage
home in Uffington:
and out for a walk with Clare's wife Pat at the Bala Cranberry
Bog:
For one week at the beginning of the summer, our friends Sean and
Adrienne took care of Maxie while Deb and I visited my family in
Alberta. We camped out, I got to canoe a bit with Peter and Dylan,
and
see the new houses of siblings and nieces and nephews. Here
is
the cute, odd, quaint story-and-half that Kenton and Erika have
just
bought (it looks terrific inside, by the way - but who's that
clown
inside the screen door?)
We got out now and again to do a few other things. I played
tennis three times a week through the summer, and we attended a
number
of social events at the yacht club, and had friends over on
numerous
occasions to serve them "Garden Bounty" - a real novelty for us:
tomatoes, zucchinis, basil for pesto pastas, and mint, parsley and
chives, etc, from our own garden, for the first time ever, in a
number
of interesting recipes that we discovered using these items.
For
the last twenty years we lived in a house with lots of shade and
tree
roots from mature maple trees, so we had no garden.
Pat invited us to ride a steam train at Tottenham to celebrate
Clare's
birthday:
And of course, we got out day-sailing about a dozen times.
Wish
it was more...maybe next summer. This is our friend Robin
McKim
on one of those days, one of the nicest days we got out on the
water,
with boats from our club behind him participating in a regatta..
In September I transferred to a new
school, Robert
Service Sr. P. S. I have to update their website for them,
when I find the time. I'm 1/2 time VP, 1/2 time grade 7 core
language
teacher and computer lab guy for the school (seven computer
classes per
week, plus AV and computer maintenance). I end up working
for at
least one day out of every weekend to stay caught up even after
long
days at school, but it is close to home, and I like the students
and
the staff. Deborah is teaching grade 4 for
another year at Oakridge P.S., and reports that she has a lovely
class of 24
kids. I have 33 - par for the course for intermediate
schools in
Ontario now that there is a primary class size cap with no
additional
funding - you squeeze the bottom end, it comes out the top
end...politics...yecch.
Everyone in our families seem to be doing very well, all healthy
and
happy, and many of the younger generation are embarking on new
adventures - beginning new careers, travelling overseas, etc.
Here's wishing you all a great winter and a Happy New Year,
Steve and
Deborah Gilchrist
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