These days

It's been about a month, so I must have something to say... no? We've had a few guests and we've gone some places, so I suppose I best report these things.

Around mid-July we were graced with a visit from my eldest sister and her husband and kiddies. They left the comforts of the farm for a weekend and decided to put up with the busy-ness of traffic & city. A sacrifice we appreciate (since we never make it out their way...)

We made a visit to Mackenzie King Estate, the country retreat of Canada's 10th prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was prime minister for 21 years (though not consecutively), longer than any other. This was in the 1920s to 1940s.

He donated the estate to Canada, and it's now open to the public. It consists of several lots totalling 570 acres. Lots and lots of room to run around, trails to hike, gardens to enjoy. His main residence there can be toured as well; it's not much to look at, but shows what cottage life was like half a century ago (and still should be, in my opinion).

Homes on the estate:



Awww... (of all my nieces named Megan, this one's my absolute favourite)


Mackenzie King was a creative sort. This is from a facade of an old Ottawa bank, transplanted here as his own Arc de Triomphe.


The Abbey Ruins. They're not ruins at all, just built to look like ruins.


We took a trail to Bridal Veil Falls, also on the grounds somewhere. In the photo below, the boys seem to be looking for evidence of the falls; I mean, it's been dry this summer, but c'mon, not even a trickle? Well, it turns out (upon reading the plaque there) that ever since the source upstream was dammed sometime in the '40s there really hasn't been much of a falls here. Really!? You couldn't tell us that a little earlier? Sigh... back we all trudged.


It was a nice but short visit; hope all that driving was worth it!


Montreal

The following weekend we went to Montreal just for the Saturday. Friends of ours have just moved back to BC and this was to be their last chance to hang out in la belle ville. So we drove out together and spent the day walking our feet off.

The primary target was the Botanical Gardens. The Biodome would have been nice to see too, but there's a strike going on so it's closed. Just as well, since the Gardens themselves took a few hours to walk through.

The park where the gardens are is right beside the Olympic Stadium, so a lot of my pictures have its lovely leaning tower poking into the scenery.


There were lots of miniature/stunted trees (under two feet tall), and not just in the Japanese section either. These things are incredible; without a reference item in view some of them might be mistaken for a 50-foot tree.


This white cedar is about 450 years old.


The Chinese section. Not sure how they made the water so blue, but it ain't natural.



Lots of crazy landscaping.


There were also vegetable gardens, which were about the least thrilling part. For me anyways.


Our friends' young'un. She did very well all day. This little lady knows me as Opa. Why, you ask? Why not, eh?


We weren't planning to do any real sightseeing in the city. We've all been to Montreal before (16 years ago for me) so we could say we'd already seen the sights. It was just nice to walk in the old town and enjoy the ambience.



We had to visit the clock tower in the Old Port to look for a penny. Our friend had thrown a penny from the tower during a previous visit, and the penny had landed on a ledge. This penny is going to be a reason to visit the tower every time we go to Montreal from now on... at least until it disappears. It was still there this time.




Camping

For the long weekend, a bunch of us went camping at Fitzroy Provincial Park. It was a civic holiday, not a stat, so some of us had to work on Monday; we ended up camping only for two nights. The weather cooperated... a little too much, maybe. The campground is situated on a river, and the water level was so low that one of the two beaches didn't really even exist. Which only matters if you like swimming... pffft!

Well, back to the old grind for a few weeks. We have a wedding to attend in Nova Scotia at the end of the month, but Carrie's work schedule is not going to be very friendly in that regard; guess we better work out some plans. She also has to go to Geneva in a month or two, and it's up to me to convince her I don't need to go with her on that trip. I'm sure I'll keep you informed...

Winter yet?

Okay it's warm enough. Today was a piddly 34 degrees with a humidex of 44. Yesterday the humidex hit 46. I should really move my office to the basement during the summer but that's a ton of work.

On an unrelated note, I have a question for I.H. and K.S., two people who recently wrote me cheques. Why aren't your cheques washing-machine-proof?! The quality is sincerely lacking... not cool at all.

On another unrelated note, my wallet is sparkly clean. As are my $5 bills. And my credit cards. And my driver's license.

Sigh.

Camping

We took our first camping trip of the year this past weekend. The place: Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, which is about 300km west of Ottawa and north of Algonquin Park.

The Canada Day holiday didn't really make for the traditional long weekend, but we turned it into one anyway. Three couples made our way up Thursday and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

Last fall, Carrie and I had bought a massive 13-person mansion of a tent, upgrading from the little dome tent we've used forever. 13-person is hardly an exaggeration; this thing is huge! We didn't quite realize it when we bought it, and we hadn't set it up yet before now. So the 17'x21' dimensions (minus some cutouts) mean that this baby can't be set up just anywhere. (Although I think I can leave some wings down to save space... yes, this building has wings!)

Three wings to be exact: two side rooms and a mud room, centred on a main square room, together forming a T-shaped tent.

Oh, and I can stand in it (probably the clincher when we decided to buy). At the centre it's 6'11". I can't remember the last time I stood upright in a tent... at least without pulling up all the corner pegs. What a luxury!

Of course all my tarps are too small to go under or over this thing, so we're waiting for a good rainfall to test the waterproofness. It did rain a little bit on Thursday, and all six of us took our chairs into the monster tent and sat around quite comfortably.

The tent was like one big Tetris piece, fitting nicely between some trees.



We got to the site first and set up our stuff. I didn't take many pictures, so I don't have a shot of all the tents set up (the camera remained elusive amongst all our junk).



On the drive up I noticed the car was sitting rather low so I took it easy. The considerable number of beverages and ice didn't help. Neither did the table I managed to cram in. Nor the various appliances we took just because we could (the bane of having an electrical site).

I wanted to take firewood but Ottawa is a regulated area, from which firewood of any kind may not be transported. Since firewood is ridiculously expensive at the parks, it's a good idea to hunt around locally for wood. My brother-in-law and I did the same last year while camping in Alberta and got a load of free wood that way.

As we neared the park on the drive up I kept an eye out for homes with firewood piles. Once we'd emptied the car later on, one of the guys went with me and we drove just five minutes before seeing a stack of wood on a front lawn. We drove in and asked for $10 worth of wood, please. We struck a deal with the homeowner who looked less than sober and smelled like pee. But we're not the discriminating sort when there's a good deal to be had, so we filled the trunk and the back seat with enough wood to last the weekend. That amount would have cost over $50 at the park.

We all had a great time sitting around, enjoying the mosquitoes and the sun. We hit the beach a couple of times. The first time we had the dog along and had her on the sand and without a leash; on top of that we may or may not have been enjoying a few cold ones. The park warden caught us and could have had a heyday with all these infractions but merely warned us on all counts. The personnel were fantastic overall, genuinely friendly, apparently liking their jobs; I don't think I've ever been to a campground where all the employees were quite this congenial. A real treat indeed.

Mosquitoes weren't the only critters we enjoyed. Aside from the occasional chipmunk appearance, we discovered a massive insect in our campsite. A bit of research leads me to believe that this is a giant water bug, also known as a toe-biter. Apparently a delicacy in Thailand. Not to judge or anything, but EWWWWW gross! Consider yourselves judged, giant water bug eaters!



We tackled a couple of hiking trails. The one we did on the last morning was done without any bug spray, as we'd run out of the stuff the night before. Not pleasant. I happen to attract bugs fairly consistently; it seems to have something to do with dark hair (maybe I should go grey). I've discovered that, apart from simply not stopping to let the bugs land, covering head and ears does wonders for one's sanity in such a situation. Perhaps I'll pack my toque next time.



Next camping trip: next weekend. Yay, I don't even have to pack away all the gear! Sister and her family are camping near Ottawa and we'll join them for a couple of days.

earthquake

We experienced a nice little earthquake a little over two hours ago (here). Epicentred about 60km north of Ottawa, its estimated magnitude is 5.0.

Fittingly enough, I was sitting at my desk reviewing and tweaking some earthquake procedures when it happened. My home office being well above grade, the movement was considerable, so I scooped up the dog and headed for the basement. The shaking lasted at least 15 seconds.

I recall my only other earthquake experience (as far as I can remember). I was at work, sitting in the Langley BC office on the 2nd floor of a building of crappy construction. The place swayed like the dickens. To discourage us from running around or doing anything else untoward, our boss yelled at us to get underneath our desks. (I wonder how many people did that in Ottawa today?!)

The 2001 quake was 6.8 in magnitude, which on the logarithmic scale is 60 times greater than a 5.0. However, it was epicentred an hour south of Seattle WA, and at the distance from which we felt it, it was around a 5 for us. It felt worse than today's, but it definitely makes a difference what kind of building you're in and on what floor.

Ottawa is in the Western Quebec Seismic Zone, which actually has a quake every 5 days or so but they're not usually too big. Between 1980 and 2000, only 16 quakes were 4.0 or greater in magnitude. A 4.0 is 10 times less powerful than today's quake; it might be felt but is unlikely to cause any damage.