Our next-door neighbours have just returned from a trip to Newfoundland and Labrador on an ocean liner. They're fond of taking these trips and this is the first they've indulged in since the start of the pandemic. They had a rip-roaring great time, really enjoyed themselves. Three years ago, their last trip was to Iceland and that was a treat too. Dan is always smiling, always good-natured with an impulse to be kind and thoughtful. Several years ago, he and Lynn, presumably because of our advancing age, decided to shovel our porch and walkway one winter. We thanked them and said it was all right, we could manage. 

 

The following summer they watched us do the usual things that require energy to maintain the exterior of a household and they realized we were still good to go. They've been retired about five years or so and have been travelling now and again, widening their horizons, so to speak. This trip also included a stop on the north shore of Quebec, way up there. They loved the quaint fishing villages with their colourful little houses pitched on solid rock in Newfoundland. They went whale-watching in Labrador.

 

It was cold up there in the north east coast of Canada, and they developed heavy colds in Labrador. While on the trip it was revealed that there were a number of active COVID cases discovered on board. When Dan and Lynn returned home they decided to get tested; Dan tested negative, Lynn tested positive. She's resting now. But the trip was well worth it, Dan assured us, and we believe him.

 

It rained here all day from the word go. Go, we did, early morning to do our grocery shopping. And while we were out we stopped at the pharmacy for a prescription renewal, went to a nearby Dollar store for a birthday card for our daughter-in-law's 60th birthday, then on to Farm Boy for fruit and some vegetables we weren't able to get at Food Basics. Each time we exited one of those places it was raining.

 

And continued to rain all day, with brief breaks. When we thought we'd make a run for it and try for a short circuit in the ravine, by the time we prepared to get out, the rain had picked up again, so we just set that idea aside for the day with Jackie and Jillie's concurrence. They know something is missing in their day, a day that was miserable from the start since they were left alone in the house while we shopped, but when given their 'druthers they prefer not to venture out into the rain.

 

The rain, just incidentally. has done a masterful job on the garden, nicely lacquering all the colours of the flowering plants, depositing little fat glistening pearls on foliage, and generally cleaning things up. And because we have lots of things to take our attention we don't mind the occasional day when it turns out we're better off staying home for a change.

 

 

Our younger son just returned from a five-day kayaking-camping trip in the Broughton Archipelago off Vancouver Island, where he saw and heard Humpback whales blowing. The sound so intense that at first it seems that they're right there, beside you, and not off in the visible distance. For the three nights he camped in that area before paddling on elsewhere to camp for several more days, he heard the blowing all night. Among the photos he sent us was one of a huge whale-watching expedition slipping through the passage.