I love summer. Everything is in bloom. Even on a chilly day you can still feel the warmth of the sun hovering in the air. I love my little garden, which is very private surrounded by cedars and a canopy of large trees. The burbling of our fountain, the music we like played by Alexa ( she is so clever), and the joy I get sharing our table and dinner with friends. However, summer is also a time when I visit our children and grand children outside of Toronto, go to the Stratford Festival, and play golf at my lovely club, a five minute drive away. Our close friends, LIz and Wouter are down the street and my sister is a 30 minute drive away. All this is good.

Before summer officially started I excitedly watched the Coronation of King Charles 3. I am a Royalist. I did watch the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, well almost watched as we didn’t have a television in those days, but at school we took part and were given special commemorative gifts in honour of the Queen. Our singing of the anthem in the morning at the start of the school day changed from ‘God Save our Gracious King’ to Queen. Now we are back to King, but I am sure no children now at school start their days with the anthem. At any rate I woke about 5:00am and watched every minute of it, and loved it.

a few people turned out to watch

May was also the month of Liz’s special birthday, and I decided a while back to celebrate this at our home with an afternoon champagne reception for her many friends. I had so much fun planning this and her Mom, Mary, and dear Wouter, her husband, wanted to be part of the event as well; he sponsored the champagne, and Mary the fabulous cake, and wine. So it became a family affair. I hired a wonderful caterer, Yum Yum, and was very specific about the one bite appetizers, and helped design the spectacular cake which was made brilliantly by Cakestar, an amazing specialty bakery near here. My garden was prepped in case the weather turned good, not always the case in early May, rented the flutes, wine glasses, small plates, cutlery etc. I did most of this while in Florida so that there wasn’t much to do when we arrived home at the end of April. I also designed the invites and Liz and Wouter mailed these out. Our excitement was palpable, and the weather was glorious so we could expand into the garden as there were 60 people expected. The caterer supplied two waiters and everything went smoothly, perhaps everyone was having too good a time as people started to arrive at 2:30 and the last left at 10:00, after some pizza was ordered. We all had a terrific time, and the cleanup was negligible thanks to the wait staff.

waiting for our guests to arrive

tour de force cake

in the garden before the guests arrive: Liz and her Mom and me

Oscar entertaining, the guitarist wasn’t jealous

some goodies

The Stratford Festival opens the end of May every year, except for Covid times. We were slated to go to the opening King Lear and stay for a few other offerings; Rent, Much Ado About Nothing and Spamalot . We always stay at The Bruce Hotel. It is well situated to the festival theatre and we walk to the performances. The dining room is mostly excellent, and I like the swimming experience, a small wave pool and large hot tub. We did not like King Lear, even though we found Paul Gross who assumed the character of Lear, compelling and committed. The direction was sophomoric, and it was all round disappointing. Rent was well done, not a show I like, but it was not targeted at me. Spamalot was great fun. I surprised myself by laughing out loud at the over the top buffoonery, and I really enjoyed Much Ado, particularly the leads, Graham Abbey and Maev Beaty. We always attend Stratford. Most years we are involved in sponsoring a production, particularly if Donna Feore is directing, but this year she was absent. We will return in August to see three more shows.

Opening night at Stratford with the Ouzounians

Much Ado with the brilliant Maev Beaty and Graham Abbey

Rent

and fun with Spamalot

popular with the critics

I attended a stellar performance at the Canadian Opera Company of Macbeth starring the incredible full voiced baritone, Quinn Kelsey, a riveting performer with an enormous presence. Mathew Cairns stood out as Macduff. I see a big future for this young tenor. He has a wonderful ringing voice and amazing stature. Sadly, my favourite soprano. Sondra Radvanovsky cancelled.

brilliant Quinn Kelsey as Macbeth

young tenor, Mathew

The other musical offering this summer was Sondheim‘s A little Night Music directed by my good friend, Richard Ouzounian, in a semi concert performance at Koerner Hall. This production simply sizzled from the very first moments of the romantic love story, till the end, and of course included the famous ‘Send in the Clowns’ sung very touchingly by Cynthia Dale. The orchestra was comprised of students from the Glenn Gould School and they played brilliantly under conductor David Briskin. It was a wonderful evening.

Eric McCormack and Cynthia Dale: stars of A little Night Music

terrific conductor, Briskin

Fun times at my golf club included a fabulous Australian wine dinner featuring foods and wines from that down under country, and a member guest with the theme of California Dreamin’ where a bunch of crazy old broads dress up after golf and have a good time. We have an excellent very creative chef in Johnson Wu who delighted us with his inventive menus at both events. Lucky us.

Crazy fun broads at Golf club

definitely enjoying wine dinner

beautiful tables at wine dinner

Will’s creativity: what an artist

fun with friends at June and Will’s

James’ dog Scooter

Every summer we try to visit our children and grand children who live in Quebec and British Columbia. We start in Quebec and this year James picked us up at Montreal airport and took us to see his kids who live with their mom and step dad in a small town called Tres St. Redempteur. Lara made a delicious lunch of fajitas with all the accompaniments, and we visited there for most of the day. June looks good and is in fine spirits, and Will has become a very trendy dresser. They do well at school. Will is an excellent artist, and will most likely pursue that. However, they are both teens and do spend a lot of time online, but their hugs made our trip worthwhile. Around five Lara dropped us all off at James’, and we spent some time with him and his dog, Scooter, a greyhound who is very dear. James is proud of his garden. After the house visit we headed toward our hotel in Vaudreuil and to a restaurant called La Belle et la boeuf, a play on Beauty and the beast, Beauty and the beef. Good dinner of burgers and onion rings and conversation, then to the Chateau Vaudreuil, our renovated hotel for a drink in the bar, and bed.

The rooms are quite charming and we slept well until we woke early for our flight to Vancouver, and I found a lovely personal note from Air Canada telling us our 7:30 am flight was cancelled, but they could put us on a flight at 7:00pm. We had a small plane to catch in Vancouver and appointments etc. So after trying to figure out how to get there on AC, Charles suggested Westjet, and there were two seats in the front of the plane that was to leave at 8:15. We made it, arrived in Vancouver in time for lunch with Corby, and then after a delicious meal at Joe Fortes, including crab cakes, Caesar salad with salmon and shrimp cocktail, we headed to the check in for Harbor Air’s flight to Gibsons to see Niels. We had a a few hours in the lounge, and that was a very good thing, as I had to call Aeroplan and make sure that our booking home from Vancouver was not cancelled because the outbound flight was. I remembered that if you don’t go on the outbound flight, the return one would be cancelled. Not a pretty thought. I had booked the whole itinerary on points. I spent one hour waiting on the phone to get this sorted, and did. However, I would have to apply to Credits.com at Air Canada on our return to make sure we got the points put back in our account, about 150,000, as we were travelling business class. ( after a month and a half of trying, sending documents etc. etc. to Air Canada, I finally reached them by phone this week and managed to get the points restored and the taxes returned. This exercise is not for the faint of heart or the impatient)

little plane to Gibsons

gorgeous B.C

love this simple bus stop in GIbsons

breakfast spot

Greeter at Air B&B

above views in and at Air B&B

Our seaplane flight to Gibsons Landing was just fine and we landed to see Niels waiting with more hugs. Love those hugs. We actually landed in Sechelt, a small coastal town about a half hour from GIbsons and drove to a Mexican restaurant called Lunitas, https://www.lunitas.ca that was outdoors and terrific. Then Niels took us to our Air B& B that was extremely gorgeous, with magnificent views of the mountains and sea, and decorated with excellent taste, top of the line appliances, and a very comfortable bed with a deck and fire table. The living room and dining room and kitchen all had views. We didn’t have a car so we walked down into the town to find breakfast at a small cafe called The Black Bean. Had a yummy breakfast, and then went walking towards the town of Lower GIbsons and we found an amazing shop where I bought quite a few unique tops. I was thrilled. Then we headed to a small store for soup and spring rolls to take back to our place with a few basics for dinner on Thursday, fresh fish, and just out of the ground carrots. We waited for Niels to pick us up.

in the park see above

After our glorious nap, some champagne on the deck with Niels, we headed to a restaurant called Drift and ate outside. We shared ceviche and had some yummy entrees. The next day was our anniversary and Niels picked us up for breakfast at the Gumboot Cafe in Roberts Creek. It was delicious and very vegan. We sat outside and looked at the hippies it seemed from a different era; our era. Then what was the tour de force of our day , a visit to Niels’ favourite forest, The Cliff Gilker Park. This incredible land had two marvellous waterfalls, many trees, that Niels told us about, and we learned that dead trees keep on giving in a forest. They are called snags. Much forest life keeps growing on dead trees and adding to the environment. ‘Dead trees provide vital habitat for more than 1,000 species of wildlife nationwide. They also count as cover and places for wildlife to raise young in the requirements for Certified Wildlife Habitat designation.’ We spent a few hours in this park and felt exhilarated.

restaurants by the marina in Gibsons

referring to trendy Yaletown in Vancouver

After we were back at our place I had the brilliant idea to walk from our fairly high spot down to the beach below that we could see, except that you couldn’t access the beach. It was hot and we had to walk back up a very steep incline/hill, but we made it and relaxed before dinner out at Smitty’s Oyster This was our dinner a deux and we had a super time. The place was on a pier by the water. The food scrumptious, and we were offered some bourbon as an after dinner treat. We had come in a sort of Uber called West Coast Rides, but didn’t book a return. Thankfully Niels came to the rescue as there are few taxis in Gibsons. Wonderful anniversary although Charles fell out of bed during the night . Apparently, he was in some sort of crazy dream. He wasn’t hurt thank goodness.

The following morning I did some laundry and used washing soda for the first time and marvelled at its efficiency. I also had laundry envy as this duo was on the main floor. I really wanted the same in Toronto. Just how to figure that out. We spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing and particularly enjoying the view. I made dinner and of course Niels was invited. We had fresh tuna barbecued, with baby carrots and wild mushrooms on the side and some ling cod. Cookies and wine, and then time spent around the open fire on the second deck talking. I left the guys alone at some point. Always nice for a father and son to have their time.

Our final morning I really screwed up by not realizing that our little plane had changed its departure time. I only saw the outgoing time from Vancouver not this return flight. There is nothing quite as deflating as being told your plane has departed when you arrive at the terminal, and there was only one seat on the next flight. My bad. About the time I was thinking about taking the ferry, Niels suggested just that, and there was one in a few hours so we headed to his fave breakfast placed called Mad Hen. What a fun spot and what good food. It was fashioned as a real diner. Then dear, patient Niels took us about a half hour a way to the ferry terminal and we walked on with our carry ons. We didn’t have to pay as it was assumed we were on a return trip. And amazingly when I wrote to Harbor Air and told them about my stupidity they actually refunded our fares. Actually they had tried to text us, but had written down the wrong number so they said it was their fault. Amazing!

a real old time diner

We arrived in Vancouver, checked into our hotel where we always stay, The Rosewood Georgia, and we were upgraded to a small suite. I actually preferred our original choice of room, but accepted this thoughtful offer. We did a little shopping for the girls and went to their house. There was no one home, but the door was unlocked so we relaxed and waited, and the wait was rewarded when Sway rushed in and threw her arms around us with great joy. Then we ordered in from The White Spot, the iconic Vancouver family restaurant, and enjoyed dinner with the girls and their parents. Big memories for me as Carrie and I always ate at this restaurant. I love their fried chicken that I smother in honey.

The next morning we had a pretty awful breakfast in the famed Hawksworth restaurant. The service was poor, the food even worse, and all they could come up with was scrambled eggs. Hardly first class. The family soon arrived, we went swimming all morning, then Kate and I shopped for dinner that I was going to cook, our tradition when we visit; salmon, corn, potatoes, cheese, wines, all good. Our final day we spent watching the kiddies, having lunch at White Spot, watching kiddy tv, my favourite, and hanging out on their porch. We took Kate and Corby to a restaurant called The Farmhouse that they suggested. It was very good, but the best was our visit and a chance to see the girls, Sway and Neve. They are adorable. Sway is now 6 and Neve 18 months. Both are strawberry blondes. Neve is just starting to talk and is terrific at climbing. Sway keeps getting more interesting. There are no pictures of them as I promised their parents I would not post their images online, and I have stuck to that.

Our flight home was excellent, no cancellations or missed trips. Whew.

Now, as you know I write my blogs often months after the adventures occur, but now I want to tell you about something that is recent: the death of our dear friend, David Wilkes on July 2. His funeral was this week and it was quite a send off, deservedly so. David and Charles had been friends for over 60 years. I met David when I moved to Toronto to marry Charles. Both he and his wife Cathy took me under their wings. I will always remember three things connected to David. First of all, he suggested I join my golf club, Islington. I was a fledgling golfer and he said I would be most comfortable with the women there. He was right. He taught me a bump and run shot that he said left little room for error when approaching a green, I use it all the time. He was right. And he advised me to be very careful when swimming in the pool on a cruise ship ( we went on our first cruise ever with David and Cathy). He said if it is rough in the sea the waves will roll in the pool and I could hit the sides. He was right. I have never forgotten that. Of course I will never forget his hearty laugh, his turns on the dance floor, and his excellent guidance as our broker. He was a fine man and will be missed.

David Wilkes

I look forward to sharing my adventure on a Globe and Mail trip that we took this past July.

Stay safe and be happy.

Riki