 |
| Happy 40th Anniversary |
As 2014 signs off, we extend year-end greetings from our home to yours. For those who have already sent us cards and greetings, thank you. It is a treat you hear from you and count you as friends.
So, what happened this year?
*** [CLICK ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE] ***
The MAIN EVENT was that we reached our 40th year married! Same wife, same husband! That’s a milestone of which we are proud. Onward to the next 40.
 |
| The Happy Couple 1974 |
We celebrated with a small group of close friends at a luncheon party at the lovely Les Fougeres, just across the river from downtown Ottawa in Chelsea, Quebec - transported by limousine also to nearby Champlain and Huron Lookouts where we marvelled at the beauty of the area in which we live.
 |
| Expansive view from the Gatineau Hills in Quebec |
 |
| Jake & Sue have celebrated all our big events |
 |
| Your limo is waiting... |
 |
| Les Fougeres Restaurant Carrie, Graham, Yvette, Jake, Sue |
As we all know, the world really has gone mad - or at a minimum the internet has brought all the madness instantly to us, and fostered the insanity in individuals and groups around the world who just want to do others harm. These kind of events were huge stories this year, feeding the world’s insatiable appetite for NO Peace on Earth, and NO Good Will to Men, (… and for the most part, it was men):
§
Depravity in Ukraine, Syria, and in a Pakistan
school just the other day
§
A Malaysian jumbo jet missing, without a trace
of its 300 passengers
§
The rise of ISIS, the Independent State of Iraq
and Syria, which has targeted - with beheadings - anyone not of their fervent, radical beliefs
§
Massive racial riots in Ferguson, Missouri
§
An unarmed Honour Guard assassinated at Ottawa’s
National War Memorial monument and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -
Yes, Ottawa! Where the 3 year average
for homicides is 7, in a city of a million.
How blessed we all are to be removed from these terrors, but how troubling
that others have to live in their grip.
Then add to that list the specter of Ebola – foreshadowing an
even more potent virus one day - as well as the potentially devastating blow that will come to the N American economy with a $20
barrel of oil, as Russia continues to destabilize, again.
So take this year-end opportunity to reflect, and to say thank
you, again, for living another year in civilized comfort and relative security. Most adverse events and stresses in our lives pale in comparison to what
some others must endure.
Well, for Colleen and Don, 2014 was our 13th and
8th year of retirement, respectively, and we are grateful to say yet
again that we continued to have the health, energy, resources and time to be
able to travel and explore our world for new adventures, and to encounter
like-minded new friends around the globe.
Life is indeed a Conveyer Belt moving not just our luggage but Us through
airports and adventures of our choice – for now. But like our banged up
luggage, we too will all ultimately spin through some final revolutions on
Life’s pick up carousel, and these adventures will then be but memories of our
lives. So onward we charge!
2014 opened with our annual winter migration to Palm Desert,
California, an oasis of loveliness 2 hours inland from Los Angeles. |
| Our Marriott Desert Springs' view |
We have encamped for 3 to 6 weeks in each Jan-Feb since 2004, the year we first bought Marriott timeshares.
Now, when you have accommodation in Palm Desert, visitors come - and that's wonderful.
 |
| LA friends Stuart & Barb |
 |
| San Diego buddies Lynn & Steve |
We enjoyed 5 weeks, but the weather was so exceptionally perfect - while
the rest of the continent was in a savage winter - that we tacked on another month
when Colleen found a suddenly vacant condo rental in Rancho Mirage, a very
short relocation.
 |
| Our view at Desert Braemar |
 |
| New friends Diane & Dave |
 |
| World travellers Rhya & Bill from Victoria |
but we did see a cloud one day…
Our black panther-like cat, Ebony, had lost significant
weight during the previous Nov-Dec while we were in Europe.
There had been insufficient
December time on our return to get to the bottom of why, so we packed him up with
us to California, while his “brother”, Zorro, stayed back in Ottawa with our
wonderful caregiver and next door neighbour, Linda.
Ebony loved the warmth and received caring
and kind veterinary attention over the next 10 weeks.
It was discovered that he had a malignant tumor on his duodenum,
which was skillfully removed by a nearby vet surgeon in a resection operation that gave us back a
happy-to-be-alive cat once again.
April and May were spent in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where we have a house.
It‘s summer in SC by then and the azaleas are bursting with color and everything is fragrant.
 |
| Slightly drugged cats await their connection in Washington Dulles airport |
We flew south this time, instead of driving, and both cats accompanied us.
Of course, Ebony whispered to Zorro that flying was easy, having recently flown back from California.
 |
| This sand makes beautiful castles (not exactly as illustrated) |
Life is easy in HH, there are no crowds yet on the beaches or in the many excellent restaurants.
 |
| Winning the race down the beach |
When we are at the house, we always have endless repairs to make, and projects to research, as well as the on-going business of vacation rental requests to negotiate, but we do wonder each evening, ‘Where did that day go?’
 |
| Aiken, SC, friends Rich & Betty |
We have a number of friends in HH
now, and visitors, and for an island measuring just 5 miles by 12, there is much to savor
including a 10 minute bike ride from our house to the beaches with hard packed
sand where you can ride for miles, sometimes with a few dolphins in
accompaniment just off shore.
 |
| Emeil & Elizabeth, HH amigos |
 |
| Judi & Dave, pals from home |
While there, suddenly and sadly, at the end of April, Ebony died. After doing so well, post-operatively, his
body ceased making sufficient red blood cells, and he was gone from us. We had rescued him from Ottawa streets on a very cold night years ago. We miss
his happy, warm presence; the hole he has left is huge.
Back home, we had a major tenant hassle during the summer at
a rental townhouse we have owned for 30 years.
Legal proceedings are still on-going, but we took the vacancy opportunity
to do a minor renovation of the property, with the aim to sell it, but the reno
evolved into a major one once we saw how nice the “minor” upgrade looked. In the
end, we did not sell, but found a very agreeable tenant who we believe will protect
our investment until the selling market improves.
 |
| New wall of mirrored cupboards |
 |
| New ceramic floor |
 |
| Doreen celebrates the big day |
Don’s Mum turned 88 at the end of June, and in spite of
having moved for years by wheelchair after her stroke, still lives in
her own Toronto home due to the constant good care from Don’s sister, Jan.
They
are Christmas-ing in Florida, as they do annually, with Don’s other sister, Pat.
 |
| Making waves on Christie Lake |
June, July and August were not the Dream Summer months
Ontarians deserved after the winters they suffered – better than the 2013 Rain
Summer, but not sunny or warm enough many days.
So Cottage time was less enjoyable than usual. The unusual amount of snow melt caused flooding in our boathouse and mainland docks, but the cottage was safely high above it all.
However, we did start late there due to the inconvenience of this flooding and the Ottawa responsibilities we had with the reno work.
 |
| The hardest part of our Meetings |
The Giffin Gang of 10 - in now our 34th year, we reckon - did convene twice in the summer with most of our members - once for
our annual canal boat trip and once in Kingston at Ed and Shirley’s lovely new
home. Always fun.
 |
| One of many beautiful structures in Niagara-on-the-Lake |
We motored off in September to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, for our regular
tradition of attending the Shaw Festival
- a live repertory theatre experience situated in “The Prettiest Town in
Ontario”, or so proclaim the street signs.
This year, Colleen advertised for a house exchange and quickly found an
amenable couple seeking a cottage getaway.
In exchange, we obtained the full use of a lovely 3 bedroom Bed &
Breakfast house they operated, and …
 |
| Our exchange home |
the house came with 4 cats! Purrfect for
us! We had a happy 8 days of biking, theatre and fun in what turned out to the best 8 day run of summer weather for our
island cottage visitors.
After that 8 days, when Fall was truly upon us, we closed and winterized the cottage, and flew again for 4 weeks at Hilton Head - 2 of which were at our house, and another 2 at a big beach condo using our Marriott timeshare weeks, since the house had been long ago committed to a rental.
 |
| Hilton Head companions Ed & Eileen |
 |
| HH friend Janet |
And the beach weeks had no work involved – yeah!
In fact, on several occasions, we visited the very pleasant couple
renting our house – who ended up buying a home 2 blocks away, emailing us to say, “…
we won’t be renting from you anymore – we’ll be neighbors!”
 |
| George & Margaret from Vancouver |
With increasingly inclement weather back home in Ottawa, we took
the opportunity to fly directly from South Carolina to Palm Desert again, when 3 weeks of last minute timeshare
availability arose. We knew Vancouver
friends George and Margaret would be there then, so we surprised them by
joining in.
Our entire Desert experience began in 2003 by George and Margaret
inviting us to join them in Palm Desert, after we’d met on an Alaskan cruise
the previous year.
 |
| On the trails above Palm Desert |
While California’s ongoing drought is scary, and new means
of distributing water will need to be built, the certainty of nearly perfect desert
weather there from October until April is a strong lure, along with the beauty
of the mountain valley in which it is positioned.
Many mornings in early
winter, the mountain tops are dusted with snow cap as we are having breakfast
in our shorts many feet below. And with so many hiking trails, Joshua Tree
State Park right out of a John Wayne movie,
the whole mid century interest in Palm Springs, wonderful stores and
restaurants, endless golf courses adding to the open space and beauty - while
using an outrageous amount of the diminishing water supply - there is something
here for everyone. This coming year we are buying bikes since there are lots of places
for pedalling.
Zoom. Another year gone and an oddity for us to have had no
international travel including no cruises – the first time in 12 years. Yet we
had a wonderful year, and were gone most of the time. We had earlier planned on
making Israel our focus for Fall 2014, but with the heightened tensions there
and so much hatred raging worldwide, we kept our horizons set within a safety
zone of pleasure.
We like to close each newsletter with a
Christmas reflection. You may
have heard about the famous WW1 Christmas Truce of 1914 - it was even in Queen Elizabeth's Message this year. On Dec 25 - 100 years ago – a group of German soldiers started singing Silent Night in their
trenches. British and French soldiers and
other Germans picked up the initiative and for a few hours they stopped
shooting at one another and crossed into no-man's-land to shake hands and
exchange small tokens. The war was very
young and the true slaughter had not yet begun, but for a few moments, there
was Peace on Earth.
Sainsbury, the large
UK grocer, has memorialized the incident in its 2014 Christmas season
greetings, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM.
We close with our wishes for a genuinely Merry Christmas and Happy and Healthy 2015 - and for our Jewish friends, Happy Hannukah.
Colleen and Don
 |
| A furry friend, on our deck at home, exhausted after eating too many hand-fed organic grapes |
 |
| Ottawa skyline from the Quebec side of the river |
 |
| In Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario NY State in background |
 |
| Zorro playing Can you see me yet? |
 |
| Twins Carrie and Colleen |
 |
| The long driveway in Hilton Head |
 |
| Let the celebration begin! |
 |
| Zorro in the freezing cold on the still running1983 Oldsmobile |
 |
| Miles of beaches |
 |
| Hilton Head at dusk |
 |
| Hilton Head's Skull Creek |
 |
| Heading for another 40years |
