Wonderful flight home today, filled with beautiful Dutch babies, toddlers, and their happy parents who were delighted by the smooth trajectory and their well-behaved children. I don't think I've ever seen so many bouncy blond heads all in one place before.
My wonderful sister came to meet us at the airport and kept Whiskey at her place so we coud do a bit of luggage off-loading and house organising. She also very kindly vacuumed and cleaned up so we could be ready for our friends who are flying in today from San Fran to see us for a few weeks.
A few lovely surprises: the basement reno is 99% done, and all the important bits are completed so we can now start hanging paintings and organising things down there. We have stairs, and a railing, and everything else is in place! It also looks quite beautiful, which I'll post once I have it all fixed up. The cats are delighted to have us back, no moodies have been thrown, and of course Creemore bolted for the yard once I opened the back patio door. All is well in the cat universe. I am expecting equal gratitude from the dog, who is apparently coming over later with his two canine cousins for dinner once Antoinette and Autumn are settled as well. All the animals will be happy to have some carnivores in the house, as they always appreciate a scrap of real food tossed their way.
Austin has run off to the airport to get them, as their plane landed a few minutes ago, and then will likely stop off to restock our very empty fridge. The weather here is warm and sunny, and we are apparently heading towards another heat wave, which has been the story of everyone in Europe and eastern Canada this summer. Fine by me, as I think surviving Italy made me a pro. My big plans for the next few days is to get over some jetlag by lying around on the deck, or near a pool or beach. No more museums, long walks through cobblestoned streets, or visits to thousand year-old sites, although I must say this was my favourite vacation ever in a long time. I think the last time I felt so pleased with a trip was our 2001 visit to Scotland, which was just spectacular.
Summer, Part Two will be about relaxing in the glorious weather of the Canadian summer, doing nothing more difficult than hopping into the lake to cool off, reading and hopefully writing, and hanging out with friends and family. Given that we left for Europe the day after school ended, despite how much I thoroughly loved our time away, it is good to be home and it will be good to put my feet up and just chill.
As July comes to a close, I wish you all a great end to the month and continued good times for August.
5 comments:
As they say over here "what lovely" Anne Marie. I now rather wish we'd joined you on the trip over, because you make the rest of your summer sound very tempting!
What did you miss today? Apart from some heavy showers, and me working this morning, the market was good and colourful as always and we had the pleasure of watching famous Philip sail his lovely old tug boat under its own power for the first time time in 15 years. I'm so glad you met him. He is very special.
That aside, I've now started demolishing things again on the Vereeniging to paint them properly, and am doing all the cupboards, the bed and the woodwork before going over the floor again. So, it's business as usual, but apparently the weather will warm up again tomorrow so the business will be fun again too. Lots of love to Austin and Whiskey and hi to Antoinette.
Sounds like your vacation is continuing at home Anne Marie. A nice relaxing week ahead, more visiting with good friends. I bet Whiskey is going to be so excited to see you later!
xo
Welcome home my dear friend. Get a good rest with your new troop. Your summer sounds idyllic. Yes, the last coolish day we've had here was the day you departed. Since then it's been, well like today with rains coming mostly overnight. I chuckle at Erica the spanish girl here who was told how cold Toronto is! She certainly hasn't had a chance to wear the coat she brought along.
My summer so far has been low key. I'm an injured old fart that has to keep off her left foot as much as possible for the next six or more weeks. Looks like that's a perfect recipe for a week-end at the beach, which I'm sure you know that I'm planning to do!
Hope to see you soon.
Lesley
xx
Welcome home! Enjoy the rest of your summer. Glad to hear that your renovations are coming along.
volkommen (I think it's right) home.
rest, my goodness. xo
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