poll: garlic?

Remarkably, the heat wave that reportedly has hit Toronto never fully reached us at the cottage. Yesterday, I even ended up wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt AND fleece jacket in the evening to keep warm!

We've settled into a bit of a ritual here now. I'm first up around 6:30 a.m., head down to the boathouse (the main cabin) to work on my daily Market Watch column, Blatherings, and my novel. I have cereal with blueberries and milk. The others come down a short while later, make coffee, have breakfast, go read books on the dock or in the boathouse. JBR comes down with a cup of coffee to chat. I go for a long swim in the lake, usually my main exercise of the day.

When Jeff wakes up and comes down, I retreat to our sleeping cabin and work on my novel for the rest of the morning. Unless he decides to cook up a big breakfast with everyone, in which case I have a second breakfast (oink). Yesterday he made pancakes, which optional blueberries for those who wanted them, with real maple syrup, yum.

Around 11 or 11:30, I take a nap. Sometime in the afternoon, we all do something together. Yesterday we went for a hike on the Rainbow Lake portage. It was somewhat buggy, but a good walk, with lots of steep hills. I ended up coping with the bugs by spraying a bandanna with Muskol and wearing it under my cap, Lawrence of Arabia style. Worked like a charm, too. :-) We saw another moose, female this time, as well as a muskrat swimming across the river.

As you might have guessed, my favourite cottage activity these days is napping. After napping, however, I like swimming. I'm not the greatest swimmer, but I'm confident enough to swim a fair distance from the dock. No sign of the snapping turtle during our visit. I do some workout-type swimming (I can't do any running here at the cottage since there's nowhere to run) but take breaks by floating on my back with my face to the sky, arms outstretched, eyes closed.

It's incredibly relaxing, floating out in the lake like that, and something I can never do in the city.

One of our guests made a delicious mushroom risotto last night, with a garlicky broiled vegetable dish appetizer. I'm a big fan of garlic, but tend to avoid it unless the friends I'm with are eating it too, just so we can all be stinky together. I love garlic cloves that have been baked a long time in the oven, and spreading the resulting mush on toast. My mouth is watering, just thinking about it.

Poll: are you a garlic fan?

Do you like the smell? The taste? Do you like eating baked garlic cloves? Do you like cooking with it? When you and your partner or close friend are dining out, would you hesitate about eating a garlic-heavy dish if he/she isn't?

Hey, only a couple of weeks until Conchord! I've been practising on my guitar every day. Can't wait to visit with Scott and Amanda Snyder before the convention, and to finally meet Zoë. :-)





Today's Blatherpics

ScottD gave me permission to take and post one photo of a fish he caught off our dock. He ended up throwing the fish back into the lake because it was too small.

The second photo is of a Lola, a frozen treat I mentioned in Blatherings a while back and that some people were confused about.

poll: favourite casual restaurants?

Best wishes to Graham Leathers, whose new show opens on Friday. Gray recently bought a new digital recording set-up, by the way, and once the Fringe Festival is over he says he's going to work on his solo filk CD, aiming for a FilKONtario release date.

Today's photos were taken at Webers, on the way to the cottage. Webers is a fast food joint that has long been a traditional rest stop for many families on the way to and from the cottage; they serve up to 6,000 people on a Friday in the summer. My family used to stop at Webers when we went camping every summer in Algonquin Park (correction: Ruth says we never did this as a family! I must be losing braincells.)





The first employee ever hired by Webers, Michael McParland, still works 3-4 shifts ever week in the summer. He wears a headband and a button that says "KEY MAN". He was there when we visited, looking pretty cool.

The ordering process at Webers is remarkably efficient. While in line-up, someone comes to take your order, rings in into the cash register, then gets your payment. By the time you actually reach the serving counter a few minutes later, your order's usually ready.

The cookstaff are enthusiastic, friendly. Sometimes they sing, and not even with a "this is part of our job description" attitude, but like they're actually having fun.

Sometimes we take food in the car, but most often we choose to dine in the grassy picnic area, or (if it's raining) in one of the train cars converted into an informal dining area. I love the hamburgers, but I confess I can't be entirely objective about it; for me, they are associated so strongly with wonderful childhood memories and past/present excitement about going to the cottage.

So what about all of you?

Poll: What are your favourite casual restaurants?

What are or were your favourite casual eating places? Beloved greasy spoons? Why are they your favourite? How often do you go there? How about places you've really enjoyed outside of your hometown? Here are just a few of my favourites in places other than Toronto:

- fish & chips place in the UK that Lissa and Phil know about

- milkshake place in Winnipeg that Graham & Dave & Tom know about (honey-cinnamon was my favourite, I think, yum)

- Indian place in Buffalo that Rand and Tanya know about (chicken malai to die for)

I'm sure there are others I can't recall now, so I reserve the right to add to this list over the next few days. :-)

adaskin's bay paddle

Went for a canoe paddle to Adaskin's Bay yesterday afternoon. Perfect paddling conditions: sunny, cooling breeze, calm waters. A bull moose was grazing in the bay as we arrived. He gave us a suspicious look, then slowly sauntered off into the bush with a "I'm not scared of you, I was just just leaving anyway" attitude. We also spotted a blue heron.

We took out cushions and books, settled in for an hour of drifting in the bay, talking, reading, snoozing (okay, so maybe it was me doing some snoozing), feasting on chilled wine, cheese and crackers, and fruit. A perfect way to spend a lazy late afternoon, really.

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Today's Blatherpics:

Russell, the son of friends of ours whom we visited on the weekend.

poll: photos?

Another short Blathering. Face it...these are likely going to be lean until we get back to Toronto.

Photo-taking has become such an essential part of my day-to-day life, and I enjoy browsing my digital photo archive for Blatherpics and just for the heck of it.

And after having lost several family members and friends over the years, I've also come to value photos for far more than just a fun way to record an event.

But I think I've been spoiled; I've always assumed that most of my friends don't mind having their pictures taken and sometimes posted on my Blatherings, and probably shouldn't have made this assumption.

So a sincere question to all you out there: if you'd rather not have me post photos of you, please do to let me know by private e-mail and I promise to honour this request in the future.

Poll: photos?

Do you mind having your photo taken? Do you loathe it? Do you own a camera? Do you keep your print photos well-organized in albums or in random piles? Do you have any photos in your wallet or purse at this very moment? If so, what are they photos of?

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Today's Blatherpics:

The front door of University College, my college at the University of Toronto.

curiosity

We arrived at the cottage today.

I haven't had much time for writing in the past few days, but hope to do some at the cottage this coming week.

Dead tired right now, short Blathering today, hopefully more tomorrow.

Today's Blatherpic

Scott, Anita, Parki and Jeff at brunch in Curiosity on the weekend.