I like to see it lap the miles...

I have, thanks to my innate laziness which has prevented me from putting away the winter boots which still congregate in at least a minyan by the door to the mudroom, an enormous bruise on my left hip and a smaller bruise accompanied by an abrasion on my left elbow. While unloading the car last night, I tripped on a pink rubber boot and one of Hubby's running shoes, trying not to drop the shoebox full of CDs which I was attempting to carry into the house, landed on said elbow and smashed said hip into the lower step, letting out a cry of pain and waiting for said Hubby to help me up from the most unladylike position I found myself in on the garage floor. It meant a poor night's sleep, since I tend to lie on my left side, and it was just too painful, and lying on my right side means facing into my husband's snoring face (well, not always snoring, but exhaling in any case) or lying on my back or front, and the fan upon us was loud, which prompted me to turn it off several times, only to waken later with it going full blast again. There is something to separate bedrooms, methinks.

When we last met, I was in need of a pee, which I had and which was quite a relief. Hubby went off to his two-piano concert and the kids and I left the B&B a bit later to walk into the bustling metropolis of Parry S0und (population 65,00 [winter] 35,000 [summer]), patronising the Christmas store (I bought four scented votive candles: blueberry muffin, cinnamon, candy cane and fruit cake; and three hand-made greeting cards). We also wandered in and out of other gift stores on James Street before the rain began to fall again. The choice was to walk back to the B&B or continue on to the concert hall where Hubby was probably still engaged in after-concert schmoozing with the artists and hobnobbing with his fellow wizards. We chose the latter, and as the rain got heavier, we got wetter, at least the front parts of us did. We arrived at the St0ckey Centre and B0bby Orr Museum completely soaked, my daughter and I looking like candidates for a wet T-shirt contest, and were hit with the air conditioning as soon as we entered, which made the wet T-shirts even more interesting.

Luckily Hubby was still there (with the car!), so he drove us back to the B&B where we dried off and spent the rest of the afternoon reading, playing cards and drinking tea with our hostess. Wednesday was supposed to be our beach and hiking-along-the-shoreline day, but we never did get to do that. The other guest at the B&B was Bert from Belgium, and he took the cruise on the bay that afternoon, poor guy. He was from Antwerp, where they still speak Flemish (which prompted a lot of throat clearing on my part), a language which is almost indistinguishable from Dutch, except that the accents are totally different.

The concert that night included the Mozart clarinet quintet, an absolutely gorgeous piece of music, and the Schumann piano quintet, which wasn't as good as the former. We ate afterwards at the only open restaurant (where we had taken the harpist and her mother the night before), but which I found to be rather unsatisfactory as far as food was concerned. I had meals at two places which I would consider flavourful in that town: a blackened grouper sandwich at the restaurant just down the road, and at our B&B. Why is it so difficult for cooks to add a little seasoning to their cooking? Susan, our hostess, prepared gourmet breakfasts every morning, and they were all different. Each started off with fruit salad and yogurt (different fruits daily), and then there were asparagus with a cheese sauce and apple/plum compote in crepes, eggs poached in an Italian tomato-puree concoction, and an omelette with all sorts of fun stuff inside. She also made her homemade biscotti available at all hours, and even gave me the recipe.

I would like to be able to describe my feelings about rocks in general, the Canadian Shield in particular, as I experienced more of that sense of wonder and delight on our trip south. The parts of the highway where the bedrock has been blasted to allow the roadbed access expose the many layers of sediment transformed into the metamorphic rock that makes up that part of Canada. Seeing the strata of old seafloors occasionally interspersed with veins of igneus extrusions brings a little catch in my throat as I contemplate the immense age of the planet. The vegetation unique to that area is beautiful as well, mostly pines, birches, scrub scrambling to gain a foothold wherever a thin layer of topsoil allows. It's magnificent countryside.

We stopped in Toronto for lunch, feasting on pizza with my brother and his family, observing the dynamic when my mom got home from her dentist appointment. Very interesting. I think I shall have a lot more to say on that later after they've been here and we've had our whale-watching adventure. Then it was eight hours of driving due east before we arrived at our own stable door at approximately 10:30, a whole 12 hours after we bid our wonderful hostess adieu. Little Princess gathered the mail from the box and in it was a reminder from the S0ci�t� des Assurances Aut0m0bile du Qu�bec that the registration for the Subaru, which had just travelled 2,200 km, is past due, which meant a quick trip out there this morning (they charged me a $2 penalty), coupled with a visit to Costco where I decided not to buy dental floss. Talk about will power!

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