HALFWAY TO THE NORTH POLE

We finished our Toronto sojourn last Thursday with more walks, including past the big and splashy new Ripley's Aquarium (2013). Bad luck ---- I was 3 days early for the Ukrainian Festival but I probably would have gone over my limit on cabbage rolls anyway. The consolation prize?? --- eating a lemon meringue pie on the steps of a church. Holy egg whites, Fatman!

This week also brought major family news. First we got an ultrasound of the boy who will (all fingers crossed and prayers for his healthy delivery in February) be our great-great-nephew. And in Toronto we had an unplanned rendezvous with a second cousin who has become quite an accomplished computer graphics wizard (and recently engaged!). On the negative side, a brother-in-law was kept in hospital with painful complications from surgery. As for me, the recovery is coming along quickly. On the outside, the worst evidence is my arm scar fading away slowly but surely. On the inside, I still have some tightness in my chest but that too is fading.

Pat's Master Gardener group had their annual fundraising plant sale. But in the past week, wasps have built the grossest nest I have ever seen --- in the barn! It looks like an alien pod that could burst out with creepy scaries. So to get far enough away we went halfway to the north pole ---- the 45th parallel runs through the nearby pretty village of Lion's Head. It's Canada's annual Terry Fox Run for cancer research, an event we support every year in honour of all our loved ones who have been besieged by this disease. Go Terry Go!