Back to Reality

I didn't blog at all in August, but that was because August was pretty event filled:

1 - Our friend Annalee arrived on the first Sunday in August. I picked her up from the airport, while Jill, Michael, Kate, and Sherry conducted a tech writing seminar in the back yard.

2 - A couple of days later, we all headed out to Anticipation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal. We used a rental van, and with six occupants (the three of us plus Annalee plus Michael and Lorna), luggage, and several cases of wine for the Friends of Merril/SF Canada party, the van was pretty packed. In the leadup to departure, I discovered that my driver's license had expired last year. My renewal letter had likely gotten lost in the mail, and I never noticed.

3 - After seven days sampling the delights of the Worldcon and the city of Montreal, we returned to Toronto on a Tuesday. My driver's license renewal was a priority. Annalee returned home to the US a couple of days later on Thursday Aug 13. On Friday, we packed the car, did some final household maintenance, and on Saturday morning headed off to northern Ontario, to our usual spot just south of the town of Temagami.

4 - At Lake Herridge, we had two weeks with friends -- 26 of us the first week, 16 the second. Two weeks later, rested from fresh air, sleep, swimming, starwatching and satellite spotting at night, many fine meals, and an unending array of wine and cocktails and beer, we returned refreshed and renewed. The experience was marred somewhat by Corwin getting sick a couple of days before coming home. His cold escalated to fever, nausea, and vomiting, although after two miserable nights he was on the the mend by the time we began our return trip. The drive home was not the nightmare that I expected it to be - in all, a good thing.

5 - Back home in Toronto, we ended the month of August and moved into the first week of September with unpacking, doing laundry, coping with the aftermath of the garbage strike, getting Corwin ready to start school (which happens tomorrow!), going to the Exhibition and generally getting life organized.

6 - My cousin Cindy got married yesterday. She and her fiance (now husband) Alex had announced their wedding months ago. The wedding took place on a perfect summer day, but unfortunately Jill was sick (still is) and didn't make it. I went with Corwin, and took hundreds of pictures yesterday. The downside of all those pictures is that I will have to sort them. However, the last time we had a large family gathering was for David's funeral. It was good to get together with the family on a happy occasion.

7 - And of course, there are photos from Worldcon as well as Temagami that need to sorted as well.

That was my summer -- how was your's?

Cobalt

In response to Mick's comment on the first Temagami post, I looked through the photo collection for photos of the town of Cobalt. Interestingly, I have none in digital format, although there are undoubtedly some in actual photo-on-paper format. (But those are hard to search through).

The best I can offer are a couple of photos of the Highway Book Shop, which is just off Highway 11, fairly close to the exit to Cobalt.





This whole region is quite lovely, and we visit whenever possible. It doesn't hurt that the Highway Book Shop is there -- a drug calling to the addict.

Photos from Temagami - 2

The following frames show various parts of Lake Herridge. These places are accessible by boat or canoe.

Photos from Temagami - 1

These pictures were taken at Lake Herridge in August 2003, and August 2004. The 2004 visit coincided with the week that ended with the great power blackout.

Lake Herridge is about 11 km south of Temagami, Ontario on Highway 11.

The first two photos show the view From the beach area of Lake Herridge Lodge, looking to the southwest -- on a cloudy day, and on a bright sunny day.





The third picture was taken from farther away from the edge of the water.



Looking back up at the cabin, you can see that the beach is at the base of a gentle slope that rises from the water's edge up to a gravel driveway, not visible beyond the cabins.

The underlying geology is shield rock. The topsoil is a fairly thin layer over top of that, so you can see the tree roots. Despite the thinness of the soil, the trees are solidly anchored.



Although not shown in these photos, there are large rock hummocks in the immediate area. The lake is just off Highway 11.



This is the view from the bay, looking up at the lodge. Approximately 20% of the lodge is visible in this view. There are portions hidden by trees in this photo, and a substantial part of the lodge is off the left edge of the photo. Toward the left in this photo is also a small hill with a recently renovated cabin at the top.



The interiors of the cabins are clean, but they are pretty basic -- this is, after all, a cabin experience. The cabins all have running water, showers, electricity. Laptops will run here :-)



There are opportunities to interact with wildlife. The chipmunks are fearless, although the squirrels are skittish. On previous visits, whiskyjacks have been sighted. There is usually a family of loons (the winged kind) out on the lake.