The summer that was.

My good intentions of updating this blog more frequently seem to have come to naught! It's like a diet. You are gung ho for a while and then the resolve weakens, oh well. However, I do promise to update more frequently as we leave for our trip across the US.
It's not as if I am so busy every day, but we are now starting to think about what we will be taking with us to California.
We are now in fall. my favourite season. The weather at the moment is just like Durban in the winter. Cool nights and sunny days. We are seeing some of the leaves starting to change colour and I am always reminded of the Keats poem, Ode to Autumn:


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Casa Seneca

From the other side

 The summer was really fantastic. We based ourselves at Cedar Beach Resort in Stouffville. We found this resort last year when our friends, Tom and Sunita, very generously allowed us to use their seasonal site. It is fantastic as it is only a 45 minute drive to see our kids in downtown Toronto and also a 30 minute drive to our doctors and dentists in Pickering. We have 2 swimming pools, a hot tub, a splash pad, tennis, volleyball and acres of lovely parkland. So we were back here in the Spring, having reserved a seasonal site for ourselves for 2011. The site we ended up with is in the Adult Only area up in a section called Hilltop. It is a small site, facing directly onto another site which is very noisy. We are squeezed onto the site and have our gazebo half under the awning, which does not really work, so at the end of this season we are moving to a bigger site on the same loop, which has come open. We are very happy about that. We have so many great new friends here, that I am happy we are staying on the same road.
I have enjoyed pottering around in our "garden" and even grew some tomatoes and peppers. Michael has a tiny patch of grass to cut too. 

My first crop of tomatoes

The visits with our children and grandchildren, of course, were the highlight of the season. 

Noah watering the herbs

Owen loves anything with wheels.

We did a few trips away, dry camping at Valens in the Spring, Lake Huron Resort and Galvin Bay Resort. Lake Huron and Galvin Bay are Coast to Coast resorts and as we are members of the organization, those stays only cost us $10 a night. We have already covered the cost of the membership in 3 weeks of camping.

The beach at Lake Huron resort

Our first campsite at Lake Huron

Bear carving at Galvin Bay

Entrance to Galvin Bay

We stopped over at Nith River on the way to Lake Huron, thereby missing the tornado that hit Goderich on this day

Sunset over Lake Huron

Lake Huron

Our second site at Lake Huron

Beach at Kincardine

Point Farms Provincial Park beach

Now we are planning our trip across to California, We are going via my sister's house in Keedysville, Maryland. Then we will probably take the I 81 to the I 40 and go straight across, dipping down at Phoenix. We hope to stop at free and low cost places on the way. We recently joined Harvest Hosts. This is an organization where we can stop at wineries, orchards and farms overnight, parking in their parking lots. Beats Walmart! Take a look at the web site and if you decide to join, please put our names (Michael and Daryl White) onto the form and we will get a month added to our annual membership.  We are looking forward to the trip across and I promise to blog as we go, depending on the availability of internet access.

Twelve days of bliss

We had our daughter and grandchildren with us for 12 days! What started out to be a 4 day visit, turned out to be a lovely long visit. We spent as much time as possible swimming and Noah, the older of our two grandsons allowed me to give him some swimming lessons. He was amazing and learned the basics in just a few days. What fun we had.

Noah tries out Papa's recliner

Suzanne and Owen looking out of the Motorhome window

Owen in the small paddling pool. 

Golfing at Atherton Golf

Yesterday we spent the day with friends up at Atherton Golf, near Clinton. It is a real duffers course, which is just as well, because we were all duffers. It was great fun and reinforced the knowledge that I am no golfer. We had a BBQ lunch, birthday cake for Yvonne's Dad's 70th. The weather was perfect. We had a good time.

Today is our last at Lake Huron Resort. We have not been able to get into Goderich, so tomorrow we head back to Cedar Beach. No more trips planned until we head down to California at the end of October or beginning of November.

August 2011

I cannot believe that August is almost over, and with that the summer is drawing to an end. The highlight of August was the 12 day visit of our daughter, Suzanne and our two lovely grand sons. We all fitted into the motorhome very well, with Suzanne and the two boys sleeping in our bedroom and Michael and I slept on the hide-a-bed in the living area. It was a wonderful time. I got Noah (the five year old) well on his way to swimming. We spent every day, except for one rainy one, in the pool. The weather cooperated and Noah and I had a ball spending the days together, either in the pool, the sand pit or playing games on the iPad. He was a delight. Owen is a very mischievous toddler and thoroughly enjoyed spending a lot of time outside with his Papa running or kicking a ball. He was not so sure of being in the pool and would only go in with his mommy. His smile lights up the whole room especially, when he is in the "monanone".

We are presently in Lake Huron Resort, just 8 kms north of Goderich. Last Sunday at 4 pm, Goderich was hit by an F3 tornado, which devastated the downtown core. All roads to into town are closed and we have not been able to get in. We had to make several detours just to get to this resort. We would have been in Goderich on Sunday afternoon but could not get a booking for this resort until Monday evening, so instead stayed at a Passport America campground, just outside Kitchener, called Nith River. While we had very heavy rain there, we did not know anything about the tornado until later that evening when we watched the news. Yesterday we went up to Kincardine to do our grocery shopping and met up with our dear friends, Russ and Trixie, for lunch at Erie Belle restaurant. Lovely steak and kidney pie and chips. There goes the diet again. I wish I didn't like eating so much!

Last evening there were tornado warnings again as severe weather swept in from Michigan over Lake Huron, but we had nothing but high winds and a short rain shower.

So, we are here until August 29th. On Saturday we will be golfing (ha) with South African friends near Clinton. Monday, we head back to Cedar Beach. No other trips planned for the rest of the summer but we may make one more trip, perhaps up to Galvin Bay. Photos will be posted once I get back to Stouffville as the Internet here is very slow and sometimes non-existent. Stay tuned!

The campground is FULL!

This morning we woke to the sound of thunder. The rain came and it teemed straight down for about 10 minutes, then cleared up. Apart from a few more light showers, it has now cleared up completely. My thoughts went to all those tent campers in the field. As the sun started coming out, I picked up the camera and took a stroll outside and photographed the tenting area and the "transient" RV area.

Tents and dining shelters jammed onto each site. 

Taken from across the playing field. This rain is needed so badly, the grass is dying.

Transient RV area. Still a couple of empty spots!

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