The Old and the Restless

A week after the storm, Sandra and I walked a mile south from Hiles Avenue to look at the damage to the dunes protecting the expensive houses on Van Kleek Drive (New Smyrna's "millionaires row"). Paul is standing in front of the first house south of the Hiles ramp (in the background). The dune has been eroded back about 15 feet closer to the house forming a "sand cliff" about 8 feet high. Sandra is standing in front of the eroded dune sand cliff (?12 feet high?) that protects a huge house. Sandra is standing in front of a damaged beach stairway very close to another Van Kleek house. The dune just south of a sea wall has eroded 20 feet right back to the swimming pool foundation. While the municipal beach walkways were better built and withstood the storm better than private walkways, our "favourite" municipal walkway to the south end of Van Kleek lost its side railings in the storm. The huge house in the background is under co...

At the end of the first week of January 2018, the authorities declared a "double red flag" alert for 3 full days. This level of alert, which prohibits all driving and walking on the beach, because of strong undertows and very high waves, has apparently only been declared during hurricanes before. After spending 3 days strengthening off of New Smyrna Beach, the storm "bomb" continued to strengthen as it moved northwards leaving inches of snow in Savannah and even more snow in Charleston SC. Since neither city has snow removal or salting equipment, their streets and airports were closed for a couple of days. Then, the storm strengthened to about the same level as Hurricane Sandy as it moved north up the coast creating blizzards from Chesapeake Bay to Canada's Maritime provinces. On January 5, Daryl's 70th birthday, the winds dropped enough that Sandra and I decided to go for a "beach inspection" walk north from Castle Reef to the 27th Avenue park...

This year Paul and I flew back from Florida for the Christmas celebrations. Megan hosted a birthday dinner on December 24th at her house. Ella is almost as tall as Margot Megan preparing the ham Paul N. and Tom made airplanes. This time Tom let me try to fly one. It flew like a boomerang. Birthday dinner. Ella did not want to sit at the boy's table because they were too noisy. Christmas dinner at Mark and Margot's. Mark's parents, Bob and Dolores were there. Under the table were two of the three dogs snoozing. After dinner Ella in her sweet voice sang one song while Margot accompanied her.  Then she played the piano. Joshua played Rio, a jazzy piece pn the piano. Then he played Home on the Range on his guitar.

After the two weeks of cycling we visited Bryn and family in Wavre, Switzerland. Alicia was performing in a voltige demonstration. Before Alicia's group, there was a "musical ride" in which Bryn was participating. Alicia mounting the horse, while it was cantering. Next there were two, and another girl was preparing to join. Three on the horse, Alicia at the bottom. A gymnastics display at the end. After the performance there was a barbeque. Upper picture from the left: Gisele, Jean-Louis, Hervé with Brandon opposite. Lower right: Hervé. Bryn and Alicia on a Sunday ride. I rode a bike. We met Paul and Zucco. This weekend it was Bryn and Alicia's turn to muck out the stables in the morning and to take the horses in at night. A final bike ride the day before we flew home. It was beautiful, clear weather.

Because we needed to get the weeds out from around the dock at the cottage in order to sell it, we went there with Brandon and Maggie, Megan's dog. Paul, working on the weeds. Note the green weeds. What do you think Brandon is looking at? The cottage did get sold. Visiting Margot and family in Barrie. They are standing in front of a sculpture called the Spirit Catcher which is on the Barrie waterfront. This sculpture was originally created for EXPO 86 in Vancouver. We also went Tree-Top Trekking. In the foreground is Joshua. I took Brandon and Brendan who lives next door to Wonderland. It looks as if they are praying before the ride. I guess it went OK. We went on a Sunday bike ride with the Toronto Bicycle Network... ...and we went on a Tuesday ride with lunch at the Brickworks.

This past weekend Paul and I went to Kingston to check out two rides that I will be leading, and he will be sweeping in the Kingston area. Along the country roads, it was a lilac scented ride. However, the Rideau Canal was a torrent of water. This spring has had too much rain causing flood damage and many other problems. We had to walk our bikes around an area where the road was out because of the spray from the water flowing down the canal. Luckily this road closure did not affect our ride.

Easter dinner was again at Megan's, but was held on the Saturday rather than Easter Sunday. Before dinner we went for a walk to the local playground. Joshua talking to Margot and Mark. Ella...about to try hanging upside down. Tom, in a rare moment of sitting still. At the top. Ella's boots made the climbing a challenge.