Last Friday my husband, Don, and I took our trailer 100 km north to Baptiste Lake to spend the weekend with my friend, Lorraine, and family. It was her 60th birthday. We were the first to arrive and the first hour was spent maneuvering the trailer into a parking spot in and amongst the small forest that covers the back of their lake lot.
Don does the backing-in. My job is to stand well back of the trailer where he can see me in the mirrors. I am to signal or shout when he gets too close to the trees for comfort.
Keith and Lorraine arrived an hour later and we had barbecued Smokies around the camp fire. Keith’s favorite evening pastime is to sit well into the night with a Rum and Coke in hand watching for satellites. When he was younger he would not turn-in until he had seen 20. Now he is satisfied with 1 or 2.
Their daughter, Colleen, and her husband, Stuart, were the only other couple to arrive that night. They rolled in around 8 p.m. after a long drive from Calgary.
The morning at the lake starts in the hot tub with a coffee, well-laced with Bailey’s After a breakfast of bacon and eggs you are good to go.
Keith and Lorraine put on a Slow Cook Roast that was easily 15 pounds. The trick is to cook it at a low temperature and do not peak during the cooking time. By the time supper rolled around at 6 P.M. The roast was done to-a-turn. That, along with many different salads, roast potatoes and veggies the meal was delicious. Colleen, who is taking a cake decorating course, made a beautiful 2-tier cake with sculpted candy-iced Lilies on top. Wonderful!
The rest of the guests started arriving around 10 A.M… In attendance were the Wilson’s sons, Daniel, Sean and Leighton whom is married with 2 adorable little boys. By the time everyone arrived there were approximately 25 in all. The neighbors on either side joined in the festivities.
The day was spent boating, hiking, playing games, eating and visiting. After the feast we sat around the camp fire waiting for 2 things. One, for it to be dark enough for the fire works provided by Daniel and Sean. Two, the delivery of a new pontoon boat. This was being delivered by Chris’ (the neighbor on the right) son who works at a marina and was driving up after his work day. The boat arrived around 10 P.M. Those who were brave enough to tear themselves away from the fire went for a maiden voyage, I wisely waited until morning.
Sheila, thank you! It was great weekend, yeah? 😉 I hope, one day we’ll go to the lake either
Hi Angel,
Nice to hear from you. A weekend at Baptist Lake is always fun.
Sitting around the camp fire listening to the call of the Loons is an unforgetable experience. If you visit Alberta my friends, the Wilsons, will be glad to have you visit them at their cottage.
Take care,
Sheila
Sheila, thank you for your invitation! Who knows, may be one day… Me and my husband will be glad to see you and your friends 🙂
Sheila, your story is very fun 🙂
and I`m happy that I have understood all your story:)
Hi Андрей
I am glad that you found the entry ‘fun’ and that you understood it.
I do hope you and others are finding my English language entries somewhat understandable and interesting.
Yeah, Sheila, this topic was easy for me, but I scare that next topics will be more difficult to me 🙂
but I`ll try to do best 🙂
(P.S. Андрей it`s like Andrew)
Андрей
When writing I am trying to keep the level of my writing to a recreational reading level, therefore I think that you will have no problem reading future entries. Thank you for taking the time to read my entries when I know it must not be easy.
Hi, folks,
Sheila, it is an immense pleasure for all of us to have you here writing for this project of Victoria. Thank you very much for taking a great part in it.
Certainly, we’ll keep doing our best to develop it into a recognizable site for the truly inter-cultural exchange.
We’ve been knowing each other for quite a long time, and all over the time we are fascinated with your family, — which we see as a ‘model of genuine Canadian family’, — no less! By the way, among our greatest ‘cultural discoveries’ here in Canada has been so far the fact that Canadians are actually the ‘same people’ as Russians — i.e., they share the same ‘set’ of virtues and values in respect to human life. Now it looks just incredible that there might be some grounds that would justify a ‘big fight’ between two nations, — as was actually the case during the ‘Cold War’ years. I think we should start laughing about that (hopefully) ‘by-gone era’, — and our ‘good laugh’ will help finally ‘fix’ that residual ‘itch for a good fight’ some politicians are still trying to reinstate in all of us.
I know your ‘sweet rub’ — you like creative writing. And so do I! I even started publishing short episodes of my ‘future James Bond book’ here 🙂 It is in Russian so far, but we may step up and write an English language version of it working together. And this joined effort could be our modest input into our ‘great-laugh-over-the-near-past’ affair.
James Bond goes to Russia to resolve newly emerged mystery looming over recent activity of a few ‘Arctic nations’ around the North Pole.. How that sounds? 🙂
I’m sure it’s gonna be fun.
Say ‘hello’ to Don, I recently talked to him on the radio while approaching Calgary.
Take care,
Sergey
Hi Sergey,
I have yet again been reminded that all life’s choices have a plus/minus. The plus to being in Edmonton is spending more time with family and friends (I have a wider network of family and friends in Edmonton as this is where I grew up and I come from a large family.) However, the negative aspect to living in Edmonton is that I miss seeing my Calgary family and friends.
In terms of human aspiration, over the years, through travel and reading widely I have discovered that all humans (however, lowly their birth) all over the world, today and throughout history, have had the same aspirations and desires. All people want, and in a perfect world would be guaranteed, their basic human rights.
(Human rights refers to the «basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.»[1] Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.)
It is sad when governments go to war and force their citizens to kill one another. If the individuals were to meet in another time and place instead of killing one another they, in all probability, would become the best of friends. But such is life and that never changes either.
Yes, Sergey you and I share the same passion; writing. I like the premise of your novel. I would be interested in reading it if it is ever translated into English.
I am working on a book that draws loosely on my family history. Here is the blurb:
Despite all the opposition to stay clear of the White citizens in the new homestead community of Willowbrook the loudest dissension coming from his own father, Royle realizes that the only future for the Black man is through assimilation with white society and through education. Royle knows it is too late for his generation but it is the road to success for his children and children’s children.
Good luck to both of us in one day achieving the ultimate writing goal — writing a best seller.
Take care,
Sheila