The Crow and Gate

I hope the road from "turkey stuffed with bread" to "you stuffed with turkey" has been a wonderful trip, full of family and friends, and almost as importantly, pumpkin pie, which is the inspiration for my site design this month.

It has been a time of family lately for Bruce and I lately, with our trip to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago, followed by a visit from nephew Brad and his clever wife Kristen.  They reside in Richmond, Virginia and are up here for a trip to see her parents, a well-timed visit that coincides with Kent and Ilana's brief return from Singapore. 

Brad is a Geek, with a capital G, and he loves it.  It's hard not to become enthusiastic about his subjects as we sit and chat about random things .. internet memes, underlying differences between Canada and the US, his work, their activities, and various bits of geekery.  Kristen is the fairy in the family, full of mischief and good humour, flitting from subject to subject, but hitting all the important topics ... like how much cocoa is the precisely right amount for a chocolate bar.  She is the rememeberer of the two of them, bearing little gifts that might mean nothing, but in actuality, mean everything.  Your hazelnuts will find a home in our backyard somewhere, Kristen :)

I thought we'd take a walk around the area in Cedar around The Crow and Gate, but we arrived in time for a huge growl from Bruce's stomach, so we settled into a ploughman's lunch and more importantly for me, a pint of Smithwick's ale.  Mmmm.

Over lunch, we talked about the activities the two of them had been up to and discovered that Brad has been biking and went out for ride recommended by a bike store owner.  As it turns out, the group leader was our friend Cécile who, until this summer, worked part-time for the store.  The ladies in the group made sure he got a good workout, a rather exhaustive effort for a man who, although fit and a regular cyclist, hasn't been on a mountain bike in a few years.  He admitted he had to pack it in early, but he was going to be off with them again on Saturday, so he has resilience going for him.  Bruce and I had brunch with Cécile and Richard on Sunday, so we heard about the ride from her as well.

The parking lot edges on a duck pond where the Mallard pairs happily
cozy up on the bank when they are not demonstrating their
rather impressive swimming skills.

Nothing says English cottage garden quite like a pergola
of rambling roses. This is the entry to the Crow and Gate pub.

We talked about Kristen's spinning for a bit and when asked if she sewed, she ducked her head, looked over at me with a grin and said, "Not really, but I recently did have my apron-itzvah."  For the menfolk who may be reading this, in school where you get to take some version of home economics electives, the apron is usually the first thing you sew, making it a rite of passage for fledgling designers. 

Autumn is only just beginning to be sketched in chalky hues
across the countryside

We discovered there wasn't really so much an area to walk as to meander and take pictures of the vignettes carefully crafted by the owners.  So we strolled the grounds and Kristen attempted to get Brad to actually smile for a picture, Bruce jumping right in to assist her with the project and I grabbed some blog photos. Brad declined to be featured in my blog and since my photos of them include Kristen, I'm sorry I can't share pictures.  I could remove Kristen from the background, but generally, photos of her make more sense as a context of the two of them.  You might think her mentally deranged in at least one of them where she's attempting to get Brad to smile.  I'll save that one for a 50th wedding anniversary retrospective for you, Kristen.

The dahlia beds provided some stunning color and contrast against the emerald lawns.

Blue on blue on blue on blue ...

We have a stand of this grass in our yard, but its not nearly so impressive
as this.  The pampas grass towered over me.

I love old pathways, maybe because they remind me of visits to Granny Gideon in Bently.

Confession:  I added a blue layer to give the skies some more
dimension.  I loved this shot of the weather vane.

 

The late afternoon sun provided a bit of drama in the reeds alongside the stream.

I'm not sure if these were waiting to become dessert at the pub or are being saved for Halloween
jack-o-lanterns.  Either way, they showed the bounty of the large pumpkin patch we spotted.

On the way home, we stopped at the waterfront and strolled down to the crab dock where Brad chatted with one of the fishers hauling up crab traps.  We'd been watching them try to capture the crabs scuttling sideways after being released, which was a bit comical and not without its element of danger to fingers.  Most of the crabs ended up being under the catch size and released back into the water.

Its rare to see the ocean this calm, so this shot of Cameron Island
and the harbourfront docks was begging to be preserved.