Welcome to Our Web Page
When this web page began more than twenty-five years ago, it described most of the activities of our whole family. Now that most of our children have flown the coop, it is mostly about what Ann and I (Dave) have been up to. I update it most weekends. We save all the messages over the past year in an Archive along with links to what we were doing ten and twenty years ago.
You can click on the pictures above to get a bit more information about each of us.
Monday July 6
Ramblers on West Petpeswick Rd. today
I started this page last week and had it mostly done but not quite by the time I had to go to bed. Since then biking, gardening and World Cup games have conspired to keep me from finishing it. It happened again last night when I had a good chunk of it finished to document the goings-on of last week but had to stop and still only made it to bed by 11:30 pm.
Last Monday, Ann and I biked out to Shearwater to join the Railers in Shearwater for the ride to Lawrencetown Beach where we had a picnic lunch. On the way back we had planned to stop in at Cottage Café for a coffee but the access to the trail along Lake Banook was closed off for the junior world canoeing and kayaking sprint championships which went on all week (we didn't partake even as spectators). We biked the same route today, this time as far as Fisherman's Reserve Rd. with a lunch stop at Rocky Run, and managed to get to the café for a coffee and butterscotch roll on the way back.
On Tuesday, while Ann was volunteering at the food bank, I rode with the Roadents from the 5k Café to the Bike & Bean in Tantallon. On the way back, we stopped at D & Jo's Country Farm Market for an ice cream cone. I noticed that they were selling strawberries for a very good price so, on the way home, I backtracked to buy a flat. Ann has since made most of them into strawberry pies, one of which I decorated as a Canada flag using whipped cream.
When I got home, Paddy and Marilyn were visiting, ostensibly to play Mahjong, but they lacked a fourth so had to make do with one person playing two sets of tiles.
I was on the bike again that evening leading the Ramblers Tuesday evening ride along the Shearwater Flyer as far as the first bridge on the Cole Harbour Salt Marsh. It was a beautiful evening, so a very enjoyable ride, but I was quite tired by the time I got home having ridden about 92 kms over the course of the day.
While we were away in PEI — more on that below — the garden got quite overgrown so there has been a lot of weeding to be done; it's not over yet (is it ever?). On Wednesday (Canada Day), I also finally tackled a job that is probably a couple of years overdue: trimming the honeysuckle hedge between us and our neighbours Connor and Beth. It only took one afternoon to do the trimming but it took until yesterday to chop up the branches small enough that they can be put out on the curb in the green bin.
While I was dealing with the hedge, Ann went with Carl and Roxanne to see the Nova Scotia Tattoo Parade in downtown Halifax. In the afternoon, Carl, Roxanne, Jim, Valerie, Ingrid and Mike came over to sit on our back deck and eat the flag pie and other goodies.
The heat dome that plagued Ontario and Quebec early in the week drifted our way and brought very high temperatures on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Yesterday it was 32°C, hotter than it had been on July 4th since the late 19th century; we were thankful to have installed a heat pump a couple of years ago. There was a Ramblers ride scheduled from Martinique Beach around the coast to West Petpeswick but it was postponed to yesterday due to the heat and forecasts including the possibility of thunderstorms. Instead, I spent the morning weeding, until it got too hot, and then watched the Canada-Morocco World Cup match. I thought the Canadian side acquitted itself well but its lack of real class in finishing showed in the end. Ann and I joined the postponed ride yesterday morning and had a picnic lunch and a walk along the beach after it was over.
Sunday June 28
Oyster fishers with St. Patrick's church in Bayside, PEI
Ann and I spent last week in PEI riding with the Ramblers. We left on Sunday morning, stopped in Amherst for lunch, then drove to Cape Tormentine to cross the Confederation Bridge. There we came to a stop for half an hour while we waited for on-coming traffic to get past the construction crews repaving the road surface. Once we got going again it was clear sailing to the AirBnB in Summerside that we shared with Kim and Glen. I spent the rest of the day watching World Cup matches while Ann prepared chili for dinner for the four of us as well as Glen's son Sam who now lives in Summerside.
The first Rambler ride wasn't until Monday afternoon so, in the morning, we drove to Miscouche and rode along the trail to Wellington, then took the roads to Mount Carmel and back to Miscouche. Ann and I then joined the Rambler ride along the Confederation Trail to Kensington where we had ice cream at the Frosty Treat Dairy Bar followed by coffee at The Willow Bakery & Café before returning to watch more World Cup games.
On Tuesday it rained most of the day but we did manage to get in a short ride around downtown Summerside. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching the World Cup, and working on a jig-saw puzzle.
On Wednesday, most of the Ramblers did the ride that we did on Monday morning; meanwhile, the four of us decided to do the ride that was originally scheduled for Tuesday from Alberton to Tignish. When we got back we watched the Canada-Switzerland World Cup match.
On Thursday, we joined the Ramblers on a ride starting in O'Leary and looping through Cedar Dunes Park back to O'Leary. After the ride, many of us went to the Canadian Potato Museum for french fries. That evening we went to the Ramblers group dinner at New Glasgow Lobster Suppers featuring all-you-can-eat seafood.
On Friday, there was rain forecast to begin around noon, so the ride started a little earlier than usual at 9:30 am. Even so, the ride, from Miscouche up to Green Park on the north-western coast of Malpeque Bay, was nearly 60 kms so we decided to truncate it a bit by turning around just past St. Patrick's Church and returning on the road through Arlington. That was only 45 kms and got us back to Miscouche shortly after the rain started so we didn't get very wet. Those that went all the way to Green Park ended by riding the last 20 kms in the rain. That evening Kim drove the four of us into Charlottetown where we met Marya and Darke at their place, then went for dinner at the John Brown Richmond Street Grille followed by C'Mon In: An Island Kitchen Party at The Mack.
There was a ride scheduled on Saturday morning but it was cool and threatening to rain so we decided simply to pack up, visit the Summerside farmers market in search of new potatoes (we didn't find any there but did at the Arlington Farm Market in Miscouche), have brunch at the Starlit Diner, and drive home.
As you will have figured out from the descriptions above, I have been following the World Cup since it started. At home we can only see the games on CTV and they only show a limited number of them. That is probably just as well as I wouldn't get anything else done. Canada's loss to Switzerland was disappointing but the 6–0 win over Qatar and the win over South Africa were both great to see.
The week before last, our good friend Nancy was in town. She and Lauren drove from Ontario to Cape Breton then, while Lauren stayed there with the car, Nancy took the bus to Halifax. Ann picked her up at the bus terminal on Tuesday morning. Since it was a beautiful day, we relaxed on our back deck for most of the afternoon until Ann and Nancy left to have dinner at The Canteen. Ann then took Nancy to stay at Kim's for the week.
SailGP practice runs: Brazil makes a bad mistake rounding a mark.
Last weekend weekend, SailGP returned to Halifax. We had already left by the time the actual races started but I went to the waterfront on Friday afternoon to watch some of the practice runs while Ann went to Kim's to spend more time with Nancy before she left.
Last week was also not devoid of biking. On Monday, we went, as usual, to join the Railers but only four others showed up and then they all bailed because it was cold and drizzly. Ann and I braved the elements as far as the start of the Salt Marsh Trail. On the way home, we stopped in at Shelby's Bunker on Cole Harbour Rd. for a coffee. On Tuesday evening, while Ann and Nancy were at The Canteen, I joined the Ramblers for a ride commemorating 20 years of the Ramblers: the first ride was on June 14, 2006. On Wednesday, we rode with the Roadents from the 5k Café to the Bike & Bean and, on Saturday, we rode with the Ramblers from Hantsport to the Bent Ridge Winery where we all had lunch in their tent. Before the ride we stopped in at the Essentially English Bakery for a coffee.