Ireland 3

Probably the last post from the Emerald Isle. We are doing laundry in Clifden, which means waiting for someone else to do it for us -- there is no "automatic" laundromat. It's OK. The weather, after being fabulous for a few days is now what they call "grand soft" (warm, windy and misty). So we've been hunkered down in a cute cafe and are now getting our email and blogging fixes.

As I said in my last post, we had a good visit to the village of Roundstone, our favourite area so far and where we'd look for a cottage in the future. The hill climb was just the right size for us. I didn't mention the spectacular header I did off the top of a 6 foot cliff landing on my back in a huge gorse bush. Thank god for backpacks otherwise I would have been a human pin cushion.

We didn't end up going to the Aran Isles yesterday as planned. We decided to stay closer to home and rode our bikes down to Cleggan where we caught the ferry to Inishbofin Island. It was about 30 minutes on the most beautiful, sunny day yet, making our way across the waves and being reminded of being in a much smaller boat on Georgian Bay.

On the way to the ferry, the thing happened that you'd think would happen more often. Just after a bus had passed us, we came around a corner and there it was, stuck trying to pass a truck. They were thoroughly wedged. We couldn't wait so we lifted our bikes into the neighbouring field and road around them -- keeping a watchful eye on the single cow and calf in the middle of the field hoping it really was a mom and not a dad!



The island was small enough that we easily biked all its roads in the 5 hours we had, even with an hour and a half on the beach (with a vicious sunburn to show for it). Small but beautiful, it was especially nice not to have too many cars about. The ferry is only for pedestrian and bike traffic. The cars are all very old and they obviously keep them going as long as they can, and mercifully there aren't many. So we have the roads mostly to ourselves, except for all the hikers. We even had about an hour riding off-road on sheep tracks. Very wonderful. We came back quite exhilerated.

Enjoy the photo album or slideshow.

Ireland Post 2

We just reached the end of our second week in Ireland. We're currently in a cottage in the Connemara region of County Galway. Just 10 km outside the town of Clifden (where there is a charming video and Internet store where I'm writing this post).

We finished off our week in County Kerry with a wonderful bike ride in Killarney National Park. There is a nice 10 km ride through the woods and the estates of an old abbey with a place to get lunch and tea looking out over the lake. Killarney is wooded and has several lakes linked together by meandering streams and is very reminiscent of the Canadian Shield landscape. The day was cool but mostly sunny and we had an easy but fun ride on a trail without cars -- gently undulating and curving like a good croos-country ski trail.

The following day we woke to grey and rain, but fortunately we were travelling. With windshield wipers engaged for most of the way we fought our way out of County Kerry and headed north for the Connemara. It is about a 4 hour drive but with traffic jams, lunch and shopping it took us about 7 hours. The traffic in Ireland is hard to believe. It seems as if the infrastructure is a bit overloaded. We took over 30 minutes to get through a small town that was a juncture for 2 major highways. We were lucky. The guys coming into the town from the opposite direction were lined up for miles. They must have taken over an hour.

The new cottage in Connemara is quite unlike the one in Kerry. It is relatively new, which means bigger and more windows. It is spacious and has lots of natural light, but not much in the way of charm. And the beds are hard (sore hips).

The first day we took it slow and mostly just walked to the beach and lazed the day away. Monday, we were more adventurous and drove over to Omey Island, only reachable by low tide across a sand bar. The day was glorious, the best yet, with lots of sun and almost no wind. We took a long walk out onto a peninsula into the Atlantic and found a sandy place to even go swimming. On my god. Very cold. Think Georgian Bay in early June.

Tuesday we went to the famous Kylemore Abbey (photo at top of today's post). For 33 years I've been looking at a photo of the Abbey on the wall of our cottage. I think it has finally rotted away. So I had to go and see it, if just to take a photo to replace it. The Abbey was actually built in the second half of the 19th century and is a bit of Victorian neo-something. From outside, up close, it's a bit overbearing, but it is quite nice inside. Now an abbey for Benedictine nuns, it was originally build by the heir of a Manchester cotton fortune. They had a lot of money, and even blasted a space out of the rock where they planted a formal Victorian garden that the state has been restoring since 1995. It will need some time to really fill in. I find it interesting the way the modern democratic states now fund the restoration of aristocratic follies. The place is now a major tourist center and probably provides local jobs and helps keep the nuns in cash, but it is a bit of an oddity all the same.

Today we drove across the "bog road" from south of Clifden. It is a vast bog littered with small lakes and very desolate. Lovely on a sunny day. We then went to the picturesque village of Roundstone where we climbed the local hill (3 hours with lunch). We had a lovely sunny afternoon and enjoyed it a good deal more than Carrauntoohil. But you'll have to wait for the photos until my next posting cause they're still in the camera.

Off to the Aran Isles with our bikes tomorrow.

See the photos or the slideshow.

Ireland Post 1

It’s taken us a long time to get to Ireland. For Catharine, who left over 30 years ago, it was a long overdue homecoming. For me, it has been a much-delayed return to my Irish Hamilton roots. And so, after 18 years of marriage, our children safely away in Canada – one working at camp (Alexander), the other doing the tour with relatives and a 2-week stint at the same camp (Charles) – we are here.

The trip from Paris was potentially fraught – an 18-hour ferry crossing from Cherbourg to Rosslare that could have been difficult if the weather had been bad – but everything was remarkably easy. The weather was sunny, the sea, calm. Other than a gentle sway to the boat and the vibration of the big turbines driving it, we could have almost been on land. We enjoyed a lovely evening and sunset from the deck; a good night’s sleep in a cozy little berth, and we woke the next morning to sunshine and big puffy clouds over the Irish coast.

Our first stop was Waterford, the home of the world famous crystal. Not a usual destination on the tourist’s itinerary, but it was lunchtime, we were hungry and it was a place to stop. As it turned out, it was an ideal starting point for our trip. There is an award-winning museum in Waterford that we visited, after a lunch of Thai fish cakes (a strange choice for our first meal in Ireland, perhaps, but much has changed here and it is as prone to international lifestyle trends as any other affluent Western country).

Waterford played a very important role in the early history of Ireland. Its key moment perhaps being during the reign of Henry II (husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Richard the Lionhearted – 12th century), when the overthrown King of Ireland, Dermott MacCourragh, invited Henry and the Normans to help him re-take his thrown. The key Norman knight who helped accomplish this was from Wales and named Strongbow. In exchange for restoring the Irish King, he wed his daughter in Waterford, and thus the Normans were established in Ireland, a century after they had conquered England. The Irish weren’t too keen on Dermott after that.

Our first day ended at a B&B in Cobh (pron: cove) on the Great Island at the mouth of Cork Harbour. This is where Catharine spent 5 formative years, leaving when she was 14 years old for England. Although she lived in Portugal, France and England before coming to Canada – now her home and native land – Catharine’s strongest childhood memories come from here. It was a very emotional experience for her to be in Cobh for two days. Especially with a visit, the first day, to Libby Heckett’s beautiful home, where she and Libby caught up on over 30 years of comings and goings of people that both had known in the early 70s when Catharine lived here.

We left Cobh the following day and took the circuitous route along the southern coast through Kinsale (quickly, because packed with tourists) and onto the Head of Kinsale where we peered over cliffs hundreds of feet above the ocean and watched the seabirds reeling and swooping in the air below us. From there we wove and wound our way over to Bantry where we had lunch and then did a quick tour of Bantry House. An 18th-century aristocratic home with a small collection of interesting European treasures, including some large Gobelins tapestries made for Marie Antoinette’s marriage and mismatched pieces of furniture that had been collected from all over Europe. The house was really the major attraction, with a magnificent view of the bay and some really lovely big rooms.

We then set off for our destination, Kilgarvan, outside of Kenmare, where we had rented a cottage for the week. We made the classic mistake of trying a shortcut on the map, which turned into a bit of a nightmare, as the road turned into a mountain track, barely one lane wide, with no guardrails and took us almost 3 times as long as we had planned. Of course, we survived without incident, but needed some hot tea and freshly baked scones (prepared by the cottage owners for our benefit) before we recovered our composure.

The cottage is delightful, a small stone structure that the owners restored. Low beamed living room with fireplace, a small but efficiently appointed kitchen, and two bedrooms and a bath (with shower) upstairs. All modern amenities and fittings, but with the stone showing here and there, it is a nice combination of old and new – and very cozy.

Since then we’ve spent our first three days hiking in the area. The first day, just up above the cottage, the second on the Beara peninsula, and yesterday, being very ambitious, a windy climb and eventually rain-soaked descent on Ireland’s highest mountain (Carrauntoohil, 3,000+ feet). For me, this was the completion of the four highest points of the British Isles, having done Snowdon (Wales), Skargill Pike (Lake District) and Ben Nevis (Scotland) 30 years ago on my first visit to the U.K. For Catharine, this was her first mountain ascent. It was the most difficult of the four, with the weather being nearly as bad as on Ben Nevis (in November). The wind knocked us off balance several times and we saw some water spouts on one of the lakes we passed. Fortunately, this time I had polar fleece and Gore-Tex, so it was much more comfortable. But after 6 hours of walking on shifting, wet rocks and mud, we were happy to arrive back at our cozy cottage for warm baths, hot tea, Guiness and several hours of Harry Potter – which we’re reading to each other.

The world has a way of reminding you that you are part a larger community, even when you’ve struggled to the top of a lonely, wind-swept aerie, far above it. We arrived to find an Irish couple crouching in the lee of a stone shelter, eating a snack before their descent. We chatted as the clouds blew in and the wind howled around us; they too were on a hiking holiday (although they were much more ambitious hikers, trying to bag every moutain over 3,000 feet in Ireland in one week); he too was testing out his new GPS navigation gadget (we compared notes); their children were also older and on holiday somewhere else; and both couples were reading the new Harry Potter book during our evenings. It was a bit like looking in a mirror, albeit an Irish one.

Watch the slideshow or look at the photos.

Tyson, Skateboarding Bulldog

This little guy was featured during the promotion for the iPhone and I had to do find out more. He is the star of the skateboarding bulldogs but, as with all stars these days, there are a number of me-too bulldog skateborders that are hot on his heels.

Here's another one of Tyson:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The dream came to Paris last week. It wasn't quite midsummer's eve but almost. The students took this on without any help from the teachers. They directed it, made costumes, choreography, etc. It was very impressive.

Alexander was definitely one of those on stage who was actually acting and not reciting lines. He played a very dignified Duke of Athens with several long speeches delivered with obvious understanding of the English -- not always easy with Shakespeare -- and it made it much easier for the audience to understand as a result. We were very proud parents and heard many complements from friends who saw the performance.

See the photo album or watch a bigger slideshow than above.

Who's On First?

For those of you familiar with the famous Abbott and Costello routine, the title of this post will be immediately meaningful. For those of you who don't know it, you can see it on YouTube, because everyone should know who's on first.

But nobody knows it better than Charles, because he had to perform it live for three nights in a row when the Middle School of the American School of Paris put on their spring musical with Charles as one of the stars in a great ensemble cast of young actors. You can watch the first few minutes of it above.

They sang, they danced, they did comedy routines and commercial jingles from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

The first act was the 40s and they started with a radio show sponsored by Winston cigarettes ("singing "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should"), a Marx brothers routine, excerpts from War of the Worlds. We also heard the Chicita banana jingle and the Andrews sisters sang "Boogie, Woogie Bugle Boy," as well as Charles and Max doing "Who's On First?" (photo above).


Then we went to the 50s where Charles and Max sang the Everley Brothers hit "Bye, bye Love" (with Charles doing harmonies) and backed up a boy doing a credible imitation of Elvis, doing Blue Suede Shoes (the backup duo in photo above). A girl in Grade Six with a huge amount of poise and a great voice did "Teenager in Love." Charles and she later danced the jitterbug. We also saw Lucille and Ethel replaying the candy factory scene (also on YouTube if you've forgotten) and we had an impressive performance of "Johnny be Goode."


Then it was on to the 60s where it was all Woodstock, peace and love. We heard Deja Vu and several numbers from the musical Hair, including the closing number "Age of Aquarius" and "Let the Sunshine". The costumes were fabulous as you can see above (spot Charles in purple with the beads). Watch the final number on YouTube.



We had a great time watching him and, despite some nerves, he really enjoyed doing it. And now we can have a performance of "Who's On First?" whenever we want with Charles doing both parts.

See all the photos on Flikr or view the slideshow.

An Afternoon at Chartres

Dawn split her visit this spring between her extended family in Paris and a week-long visit to Chartres Cathedral where she joined a group of like-minded souls in an exploration and meditation on Chartres. We were lucky enough to join her there at the end of the week and partake, if only briefly, in some of her energy and enthusiasm. It sounded like it was a wonderful experience.

For me it was the first time to the Cathedral and it is truly impressive. With the boys to goad me on, I climbed from the labyrinth to the spire and here are some of the photos I took -- none of which adequately capture the majesty and the mystery of the place, but nonetheless were my way of engaging with it as best I could.

View the slideshow or the photos.

The Roses of May

For the second year in a row, we have visited the rose and iris gardens of the Bagatelle. This year with Dawn during her visit to us -- and one month earlier than last year. And it was worth coming earlier! The roses were magnificent and the irises as well. These gardens were built by a Scot (of all things) named Thomas Blaikie, who began them during the reign of Louis XVI working closely with the Comte d'Artois (the funder), brother in law of Marie Antoinette.

The photos speak for themselves (view them or the slideshow).

Le Fief at Easter

In France, it seems that the Easter Bunny is not responsible for distributing the chocolate eggs, but rather the Bells of St. Peter's in Rome. However the magic happens, there was a garden full of colourful, foil-covered confections at Le Fief when we returned from Church (accompanied by some hurried scurrying about by Irena and Catharine) and we all got more than our fill of chocolate before Easter was over. Not to mention lamb, roast potatoes and champagne.

This year my mother joined us on our yearly pilgrimage to the Limousin to join with Michael, Irena and family. The weather was warm and sunny and felt far more like summer than the beginning of Spring. We all enjoyed as much time as possible being outside at the table or taking walks on the surrounding lanes and walkways.

Here are some of the photos I took and a slideshow of our weekend.

Dean-Day in Normandy

It was my pleasure to lead Dean back to the beaches of D-Day, where his uncle had landed and where so many fell. It was an emotional journey for us all, not without some fun along the way, but in the end a sobering reminder of those who gave their lives to free France and re-instate the values of fraternite, egalite and liberte to the land that first made them law.

See the photos or watch the slideshow.

Warbling in Warsaw

Charles' school year started with an exciting offer from his music teacher to join five other boys and travel to Warsaw, Poland and sing in an international boys choir. The American School of Paris joins with 12 other European-based American and International Schools to bring students of diverse nationalities together to have fun and make music. The Association is called AMIS. This was their first event of this school year. Charles had never sung in a choir before and it took him a few days to "get his head around it" but in the end decided to go for it -- and had a great time.

Kids from grades 5 to 8 came from Moscow, London (2 schools), Warsaw, Paris, the Hague, Antwerp, Aberdeen, Düsseldorf, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich and Ankara. They arrived on Wednesday and rehearsed 3 times a day until Saturday evening when they gave a concert to a packed hall in the American School of Warsaw.

Catharine and I flew over on Friday morning, a 2-hour flight from Paris to Warsaw. Using the Internet, Catharine had very cleverly found us a stylish loft apartment on the top floor of an old apartment building in the very heart of historic Warsaw. We took a bus from the airport and dragged suitcases over cobblestones for about a kilometre. We met Thomas, a young architect who owned the apartment. He told us that under the communists the old area had been inhabited mostly by very poor, disadvantaged people. However, the area is being bought up by the new middle class and renovated. Thomas's building was still mostly older people but it was beginning to change-over.

His apartment had a spectacular view of the river Vistula, which runs through Warsaw, and the older part of "new" Warsaw, which is old by North American standards. It was situated on a height of land above the river's flood plain on top of the old fortifications, which have been partially restored. He had decorated it in Ikea, so while it was "cool," it had no real character. Nonetheless it was comfortable and familiar. The halls and staircase, on the other hand, were dingy and looked like they hadn't changed since the communist era. In the halls, we met a mixture of well-dressed middle-class people and old Babushkas with scarves tied around their grey heads, hunched and shuffling up the four flights (without elevator).

We spent two days sight-seeing, eating in Polish restaurants and did some clothes shopping. The Zloty is worth about 4 to 1 Euro and yet prices are roughly the same (meaning about 25% of what we pay in France). Catharine got about 5 new things including a velvet skirt that she wore to the choir performance. Our favourite meal was in a Pierogie house where we spent one afternoon drinking beer and eating Pierogies shoulder to shoulder with the Poles.

Saturday evening came and Catharine managed to order us a taxi which sped us at terrifying speeds (especially considering the mechanical condition of the old Skoda) to the outskirts of Warsaw, where the school was situated behind the gates of a heavily guarded compound. We were greeted by 2 intimidating security guys who had to check our names off a list before letting us in.

Inside it was a beautiful facility. The concert hall was especially impressive. We took our seats and chatted with the people around us. To our right was a family from Munich. The father had grown up in Germany but had spent some years in the States and in Moscow and had returned to work in Munich. Like the Polish family that Charles was billeted with, they had put their children in the American School because that is where they saw the future -- learning English and working internationally.

The boys finally came out and we were introduced to the choral director, who was the music director at the Moscow school. The accompanist was Russian. They had together arranged about half of the songs in the program. The boys sang an interesting mixture of traditional ballads, folk songs, classical pieces and a fun rendition of Route 66.

Charles really enjoyed himself. And judging from the way the boys were moving on the stage, they were enjoying themselves as well. We celebrated afterwards with lots of good Polish pastries and cakes, and went home proud parents.

We're back home again. Charles slept for four hours this afternoon from sheer exhastion. But he made some good friends and I think if he has the opportunity he would sing again.

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story. View the photos or the slideshow.

Summer Visit to Canada

Two weeks goes by quickly, but we saw all our family, some friends (never enough) and got a well-needed rest on Norgate Inlet. Not that we sat around a lot. There were the inevitable carpentry and restoration projects, as well as lots of canoeing and sailing. The trip began with a great long August weekend at the cottage, joining my Mother and my brother David and his family. We visited with all our parents -- Tone and Grammie joining us at the cottage at different times -- and a side trip to Dorset to see Hugh and Pam. We finished our visit in Guelph with Bill and Mimi. We squeezed in a surprise lunch on Whitefish Lake with Kate and Scott the day we picked up Charles from Kitchi. And Alexander managed to find 48 hours away from his young charges at Camp Kitchekewana, where he was a counselor, to join us for our last 2 days at the cottage and a final summer supper with Tim and Anna Zuck. Short but sweet, especially this year when for a while we wondered if we would get any time at all.

View the slideshow or the individual photos.

Charles Rocks

Charles decided this year to switch from piano to guitar. He showed enough devotion that we bought him an electric guitar this spring. Doesn't he look cool with it? Tonight we are just back from his second recital.

He played two pieces, one with a group of five others. They called themselves the Black Stones. Unfortunately the group will be disbanded after this stellar performance. They played Paint it Black by those other stones. Charles than bravely played Stairway to Heaven solo. His left hand got a bit fluttery on him but he made it through and we were very proud.

Bravo Charles!

See the pictures or watch the slideshow.

Last Sunday Dinner

We celebrated Catharine's birthday (Lila helped blow out the candles) and the boys and I said good-bye to Diana, Mitch, Lila and baby Anna. They are off to London to begin a new adventure. Mitch's employers, Fortis Bank, have been really impressed with what he has done in Paris and are moving him to the center of the financial universe.

With our recent change of plans -- staying in Paris -- it wasn't as sad an occasion as it could have been. We will all be on the same continent and, with the Eurostar, just a short train ride a way. Still, Sunday walks in the park followed by dinner probably won't happen again for a while. We'll miss them.

View the photos or slideshow.

Gaudy and La Pedrera

I did an overnight in Barcelona last week. I was speaking at a conference on the benefits of search engine marketing and instead of the 2 days I was supposed to have to enjoy Barcelona, it turned out I had to be back in Paris that evening for a meeting. So I cut out at lunch, grabbed the nearest taxi and told him to take me to Gaudy's famous La Pedrera, a building right in the heart of the city not far from his famous cathedral the Sagrada Familia .

I took a fascinating audio tour and learned a great deal about Barcelona's most famous architect. La Pedrera is an apartment building and one of his last works. It has his characteristic art nouveau styling with some really inventive roof decorations. Besides his predilection for organic stylings, he pioneered some interesting techniques used today by modern architects. I loved his emphasis on light, which was always his priority. One floor of the building was done in period furniture and the apartments were wonderfully open and well lit.

I tried to take a bunch of photos with my mobile phone but there are actually plenty on the web that are much better. Here is a link to a good site if you are interested in knowing more about Gaudy. View photo site.

The Loire Valley

Our friends Barbara and Jeremy kindly lent us their beautiful country cottage in the Loire Valley for the May 8 long weekend and we jumped at it. As you can see from the photo above (and more below), it is a gorgeous spot. Inside it has loads of character: huge, ancient beams, enormous fireplace, all nicely modernized where it counts -- bathrooms and kitchens. And it sits in the middle of a woods/garden that was in full springtime bloom. A little bit of heaven that they call "La Folie".

If you like the look of it, they will be renting it out and we would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to spend some time in the Loire area.

View the photos or the slideshow.

Chateau Chenonceau


We had intended to see a number of chateaus in the area, but this was the only one we managed. We weren't disappointed. Catharine recently read a book I gave her for Christmas on the love triangle between Dianne de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici and Francois II. Chenonceau features Dianne's garden and Catherine's garden. I preferred the latter garden but from the sounds of it would have preferred the former in person (as did Francois). Catharine kept us all well informed of the history as we toured and admired the beautiful building.

View the photos or the slideshow.

Skiing in Tignes

Imagine skiing on the first of May in the French Alps! That was the dream that Catharine and I were fortunate to live 3 weeks ago. The company employee organization books a hotel every spring in Tignes -- one of the highest stations in the Alps -- and 150 of us spent 4 days skiing our buns off, eating good French food and even racing each other down the hill.

We couldn't have been luckier with the weather. It was sunny but not hot. The snow was very skiable and, except at the very bottom, didn't turn to soup until the end of the day. The mornings were icy but by 10 am things would soften up enough to make it really fun. On my last run, I dropped 1350 meters (over 4,000 feet) in 10 minutes and covered close to 3 miles (and only stopped 4 times to catch my breath). What a rush. (Click here to see an interactive map for the ski buffs -- my last run started at the La Grande Motte, Glacier de la Vanoise).

My photos begin with a view of the station itself, which is quite ugly. It is all built above the tree line, which makes the skiing spectacular, but the village feels like it is built on the moon. And everything is modern. However, our room was charming and the view from the heated swimming pool was of mountains only.

See the photos or the slideshow. Look for the photo of Jean-Claude Richard coming in 19th of 120 (playing it too safe).

Easter at Le Fief

Easter is a special time for us, because since we came to Europe it has been a ritual to join my Uncle Michael, Aunt Irena and assorted cousins at their lovely country place in the Limousin. Le Fief has become our second home.

This weekend was especially poignant because we thought it was to be our last Easter with them (since then life has taken a lurch and we are staying after all). So there was a certain sentimentality to the weekend as we quietly said our good-byes. We ate and drank sumptuously, which is to say, occasionally to excess but never with regret. Katherine's children, Felix and Sophia, are growing and becoming more and more part of the social life. We enjoyed a rousing game of Pictionary -- Felix contributing some wonderful drawings of pirates ships and kings and queens. And we took lots of walks through the blooming fields with Max.

Le Fief and the surrounding countryside provided, as always, inspiration for my camera. Hope you enjoy the results. View the photo set or watch a slideshow.

Goodbye to Spots

This weekend we had another canine visitor. Sally the Dalmation came to stay. We all had fun adjusting to each other's peculiarities. Friday night we discovered that when Sally gets cold, she climbs up on the master bed and snuggles in next to the first warm body she can find. Sally was fascinated with how we operated around the apartment following each of us and watching intently as we did such mundane things as opening the mail and folding the laundry. She was interested in everything -- especially food preparation, of course, being a dog.

Catharine also had some learning experiences: such as having two dogs on the same leash (one at either end) doesn't work so well when they decide to wrap themselves around you in the middle of a Parisian intersection.

Tonight after 3 fun days, Katrin came by to pick her up and we had to say good-bye to Sally and her spots.

Speaking of spots, this was the weekend that I had to say good-bye to another kind of spots. No more spotting chess pieces or points in ping-pong to my sons. Charles beat me in 2 out of 5 ping-pong matches this weekend and I'm just glad to escape with the rubber.

Then tonight Alexander put his ol' Dad through his paces on the chess board. It's been awhile since I've played with Xano, but he's become somewhat keen lately. Being over 16, no pieces were spotted and I barely escaped his right-side Queen-rook attack on my King. Fortunately, the hubris of youth played to my favour -- whew! I side-stepped his pressing attack and found myself one rook to the advantage. Then it was only a matter of playing the careful plodding game of the elderly, until mathematical advantage defeated the wiley maneuvres of the more nimble mind.

Good-bye spots, hello strange transitions.

Sutton Ski Week

We're just back from our ski vacation and Reynolds-Coats family get-together in Mt. Sutton, Quebec. As you can see from the photo above, taken on the last day, we all had good time and, despite some of the difficulties of living in close quarters with 3 small ones, the week was very successful. My thanks and congratulations to Laurence and Odile, and Gord and Prisca for their parenting of the wee ones.

The weather was remarkable in every way. We started off with very normal winter weather. Then, on the Tuesday, a whopper of a snowstorm dropped at least a foot of powder on the mountain. The skiers were in heaven! But Wednesday dawned to the sound of dripping. The sun was out and spring was in the air. Someone said it got to 10 C. Then Thursday, more snow and some freezing rain. Friday dawned wet, wet, wet, followed at noon by huge winds, snow and dropping temperatures. A couple of us dared the chair-lift in late afternoon but nearly froze. They had to shut down the chair because of the winds. Finally Saturday came, our last day, and it was below -20 C with a wind that cut right through you. Time to scuttle back to Paris!

We shared everything from cooking to cleaning, to shopping and child-care. Everyone pitched in, from the smallest to the biggest. Lots of games were played, we were entertained many nights by the Canadian perspective on the Winter Olympics in Torino and otherwise kibbitzed and shared our experiences and stories.

In photo: Front row: Charles Reynolds, J. Richard Owen, Tabbatha Owen, Catharine; Second row: Odile Bancod-Reynolds with son Samuel in lap, Laurence Reynolds with son Matteo in lap, Dawn Reynolds, Prisca Reynolds Wiley with son Findlay in lap; Back row: me, Lucy Coats Owen, Francis Reynolds, my two sons, Charles and Alexander, Gord Wiley and Archie Owen.

Click here to see slideshow or view photos separately.