Father's Day weekend
Dock and sky
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
This weekend was absolutely brilliant. I went home for Father's Day and had a brilliant time up in the Muskokas Kawarthas. You see, my dad really enjoys fishing, so this weekend we decided to go up to the lake and try our luck. We've been going to Rice Lake for many summers now. My little sister has gone there before she was born, so it's been almost two decades of camping and fishing there. We have a little RV parked on a campground on a Native reserve. We have a little boat moored to a dock. And every weekend in the summer, my dad likes to go fishing.
Now normally, fishing is a rather miserable endeavour. You go out in a boat into the hot sweltering sun, or the bitter cold wind. Then you stand around for hours and nothing happens. For the true fisherman, this is merely a temporary setback: "I know that there are fish lurking down there; they're just not hungry right now." "Another cast of the line and I'll get one." "This time for sure." They are hopeless optimists.
Campfire
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Unexpectedly, we actually did catch fish this weekend. Small fish, big fish, sunfish, perch, and bass. Bass isn't in season right now, so those got returned to the lake, but we took our earnings and froze some of them. Frozen fish are nice, but fresh wild fish is particularly good eating. After a filling dinner, we sat around a fire and watched the flames shoot sparks into the air. I sat there for a while enjoying the plasma dance and then pulled out the camera and tried my hand at capturing some photographs.
We set out the next day for some more fishing and caught a few more fish. Then it was time to pack up our things and return home. I slept in the car for most of the trip, which is pretty good since I've been pretty tired lately. I think we stopped to get some groceries some where, but this was a little hazy to me.
餃子
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
At home, we made some food and I gobbled it down. Then I had to dash down to the train station, but some bags and boxes in hand. Mom had dug out some slacks that I used to be too fat to fit into; then I shrank by several kilograms and they were too wide. She altered them over the weekend and now I have a wider range of grey pants. Huzzah! I got to the station with a couple of minutes to spare and got on to the train with a smile and a skip. On the trip back to Montréal, I got a pair of seats to myself so I took advantage of this fact to curl up and sleep. The sunset woke me up for a while, but then the trees blocked it out and I was able to pass out again.
I arrived in a dark station with no-one to greet me on the platform. Bucking up my spirits, I dragged my things off the train, into the métro and onto the St-Laurent bus. St-Laurent is still blocked off for the last night of Fringe, so I had to do a little more walking than I expected. I passed by quite a few cheap jewellery hawkers that were trying to sell things to tourists. I also passed by several food stands. Once I got to Duluth and l'Esplanade, I noticed that the people on the corner were having a garage sale. It turns out that all four roommates were moving out, which was sort of sad, so they were basically selling everything off. I managed to pick up two Kate Bush albums that I'm converting to FLAC right now. Oh, and a book of cookie recipes that I'll have to try out.