The Old and the Restless

On Friday, Paul's former partner Charles, from Barbados, and his wife, Linda, invited us to visit them and their friend, JoAnn, who lives near Creemore.   A view of JoAnn's house from the pond. When JoAnn bought the property 35 years ago it was all field. Now there are two ponds, several gardens, many varying trees and wind-breaks. Frogs leaped away when I put my hand in the water. Earlier in the week, Linda went swimming in the pond The second of the two ponds had a spectacular view over the Nottawasaga valley. The waterlilies were an unusual red colour. JoAnn has many gardens on her property, some dedicated to important people in her life. A close-up of one of the sunflowers. Paul and Charles appear to be having a very serious discussion. More relaxed now? With such a view, why hurry the discussion?  After lunch we planned to do a hike on the Bruce Trail. Here, Linda and JoAnn are in the kitchen, almost ready for the hike. JoAnn is an artist. Her drawings and paintings are th...

Paul is swimming through a cut. We came up to this opening at the end of the cut. Fortunately, the salt water crocodile was not there that day. I wonder what we would have done if we had met him? Janet signalled that she had lost her buddy. I didn't understand so I took her picture. Buddy found (looking rather startled). Richard and Janet "together again". I had to take a day off because of ear problems. Paul dove with Janet. After the dive, hard at work on their logs. On several mornings, before the first dive, Janet went trolling. No fish today but notice the size of the lure and the reel. Note also, that there is no rod. Success. Janet caught a Wahoo which we enjoyed for both sashimi and dinner. The line cut through her glove as she was trying to pull it in. Glen and Norma in the middle waiting for the show that the villagers were going to put on for us. Glen has a bag of school supplies to give the head man after the performance.  Hmmm. A lot of grey hair in the dive ...

If we were near a village, people would come out to see us, I think that we were the entertainment. At every village we stopped, people came to sell their fruit and vegetables. The dive boats had given them seeds years ago and guaranteed that they would buy the crops or sometimes, the fish they had caught. This was the largest floating market. The shell jewelry was intricately made. Kellie, the dive master, bought armloads of orchids from the floating market. As we came ashore to visit this village, the children were there to greet us with their flowers. They also hoped to sell them. The Solomon Islands are known for the carvings that the people do. Villages that we visited knew we were coming and had the carvings laid out for us to buy. I really liked this table but could not figure out where I would put it in our house.  Paul is obviously pleased with the carving of the manta ray that he decided to buy. This village put on some entertainment for us. These boys are preparing to do a w...