A Weekend Away

So, this weekend we drove up to Lac Simone (Lake Simon) to spend some time with "Auntie Fox" or Aunt Carolyne, Dave's aunt. The drive was about 2 hours north of Montreal, and we had to pass into Ontario for a bit and then cross the Ottawa river to get back into Quebec, before taking miles of twisty up and down roads through green soft mountains to arrive at the cottage.

The landscape was beautiful, the lake calm and rippling, her cottage perched pretty much on the edge. From her house you could take a series of steps down towards the water where you could seat yourself on a rock and look out over the water.

There was one ... icky, ishy, annoying surprise, that asaulted us the moment we got out of the car, and, had it not been for the rainy and cold Sunday, would have annoyed us ALL Weekend.

In French they call them "ba-bits" in english?

Black Flys

Now, I had heard about Black Flys, and how they are icky and they bite, but I was not prepared for the scope, or amount of these little things. Apparently May is "Fly season" and there are THOUSANDS of these things. They look like normal flys, but they bite, they draw blood, and there is no way to get away from them, except to stay indoors -- or lavish yourself with stinky bug spray and hope to heck that you don't get eatin alive. I would venture to say they're worse than mosquitoes, except that I guess they only last for one month and that's it for the summer.

The blessing was the peace and quiet, the AMAZINGLY huge meals that auntie Carolyne cooked for us, and Sunday when the weather was wet and cold (near freezing ... in the low forty's for the American's reading this) and there were NO black flys. Yay!

So, I relaxed, watched movies with Karen, Carolyn and Dave. Played guitar by the water and sang to myself and God. I ate a little too much, watched hummingbirds flit amoung the trees, had my first "Poutine" (French Fries, Gravy and Cheese) in Fassett (a small french town) and bought a Cranberry candle on our way back.

We're now back in Montreal and the holiday Monday here in Canada is almost over. I have to say, the first thing I did when we got back to the house was turn my laptop on and check email...I guess old habits die hard.

Anyways, less than a week left here for me. I'll blog at'cha all later.

love, a.