My in-laws purchased the Catalina 22′, which they named the Minnicog Queen* [because the Queen did come to Minnicog, well Penetanguishene which is close enough, and my pop in-law wrote a book called The Queen Comes to Minnicog, and it all seemed to make sense to them at the time] in 1979, just when hubby and I were reacquainting, having known each other as kids, and reuniting when I was 17 and he 19. We took the Catalina on our honeymoon in 1986 and for a wonderful 25th anniversary trip, and for many trips in-between, sometimes with all three kids and a dog. But sadness at its passing is very muted, as that is just the sadness of time passing, and as we cleaned out the mouse nests and opened the hatches under the seats for the last time, I couldn’t help but wonder at the beauty of our new boat
and think about where we might take it, and it us, for our 30th anniversary this August, which I promised my daughter we would elope for, avoiding all notions of a party.
But the old Minnicog Queen was the inspiration and proof of concept in many ways and she took us to many a particular harbour.
Thanks.
*I have a problem with boat names, and we always called it the Catalina, just as my parents had the Big Boat, the Whaler, and the Tin Boat. Indeed we have been unable to actually name our new sailboat, because it is just “the boat” and all names seem silly or ludicrous and many boats have terrible puns for names or are named after wives, two things which I have kind of nixed.
And good morning. It is a peach of a day and I think I will attack my forsythia with a saw. It is perhaps not the right moment but it is very easy to spot the dead wood at the moment and the thing is a beast! I am attempting to espalier it but it has ambitions to invade the entire planet.
Good early morning.
May! Whoa ….
Seedling update:
Basil: fine but slow to develop, not much of a photo op;
Marigolds: maybe a little leggy but more magnificent than the picture shows
and the Nasturtiums are truly fabulous, but a little too early to put outside, and they don’t much like transplanting so turning into a quandary, but here they are in all their nascent glory:
Good foggy morning …
And happy Wednesday. Will there be another frost? This is the question. Says 3 for a low on Sunday … and that is as low as it gets. The nasturshalums are much on my mind … I know it is early. The rule of thumb in Ottawa is the May 24 weekend, which is always the weekend before the 24th, literally, guaranteeing that the holiday is never actually on Queen Victoria’s birthday, something I have definitely ranted about before. But I am tempted to break that rule.
Good morning. In the exciting gardening news we find that the begonias I put outside yesterday were totally fine over night, and I think I will just risk the nasturtiums.
One of the too many podcasts I like listening to is called Still Buffering, that started out as two sisters, fifteen years apart in age, one of whom is the doctor half of Sawbones, and is now all three sisters, yaking about teenage-hood, then, now and always. They are really finding their feet and I find it somewhat charming. Anyhoo, it has a cool intro song, that has been infecting me:
And while re-recommending and recommending podcasts, I have to say that the Judge John Hodgman Podcast is a perpetual winner in my eyes, and while it has been on for such a longtime that to suggest you go back to the beginning would seem crazy, unless like me you are both obsessive and love listening, it is pretty easy to dip right into. And the reason I bring it up was just a passing comment by his bailiff, when asked whether he objected to the phrase “dog owner” instead responded with a question: “Who rescued who?”. Yes, a fine question and I often thank Mouse for taking me out for a walk ….
Today he is passing judgment on ice cubes and how to make them, amongst other things. Nothing is too trivial for his attention, and his affection for the hipster generation makes the whole thing a treat.
Good sunny morning.
Thinking about a friend, and hoping for the best.
And the boat is in the water. Mast not up, leg not broken …
Boats in the air … commercial launch day at the club. I am rather glad we just backed our boat in off the trailer.
Good Monday morning. Although it feels a bit more like Monday moaning …
Good Wednesday.
The boat is in the water, the mast is up, leg still not broken, and here she is, at her new mooring (which is a heck of a long walk) but where we can leave both amas out where before we had to fold them in to squeeze in, so it will be lovely for sleeping, not to mention less work landing.
And another “good” morning to all.
Good Monday. It was a chillier and chillier weekend, with Saturday down at the boat and “learning” how to splice a rope, but Sunday too cold and windy so huddled at home hoping the huge branch doesn’t fall before the tree guy can get here. We (as in hubby) are usually do it yourselfers, but this branch is about a quarter of a tree, and it is hanging over the neighbour’s fence and our internet and cable, twenty feet up, and hanging by a creaky thread.
Marigolds, nasturtiums and hydrangeas seem to have survived the transition to outdoors, aided perhaps by the chilly dampness, which has not aided me! Exciting photo updates to follow, no doubt.
Been a bit of an absentee landlady lately, just life and a bit down in the dumps. But the sun is literally beginning to shine again, and soon metaphorically as well one truly hopes.
Have been entertaining self with Cooked, Michael Pollan’s entertaining Netflix documentary based on his book, of the same title.
That and Restaurant Australia, for which I cannot find a useful link, but which is also on Netflix (at least in Canada, that is). Sort of reminiscent of Chef’s Table.
Good morning. Wonder if I can somehow post a tune from my phone…probably not.
https://youtu.be/pSQ1akE2CcM
If this posted then the answer will be yes!
Good morning. Well that didn’t exactly work … there is a copy link button on the mobile youtube, but I guess it is slightly different …. hmnnn
So I wonder what the link looks like if I get it from the computer?
It was slightly different:
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQ1akE2CcM”
Ok I think I just got closer, do you think you could walk me through it on an I-phone?
I opened the youtube app (do you have it? it is free from the app store) on my iPhone and noticed a little curved arrow next to the like/dislike thumbs. When you touch the arrow a screen appears that offered “copy link”, so I did, and then pasted it into the comment field. But I haven’t found the answer to getting the full link that would display rather than just show the link … but if you put up the link it occurs to me, I could then easily edit it to be the full version.
Oops, I left out the part about searching for the song and playing it, to get the arrow to appear. It is just to the right of the down-turned thumb below the video.
But wait! I have found the right link button … after you press the arrow, do not use the white copy link icon, press “more” and then a second copy link icon appears, a black one. This one appears to copy the full watchable link … let me experiment on my phone …
Fine except I thought I picked a different song ….
It worked! So find the black arrow, press it once, press more, press the black copy link icon and then open the comment field, press and select paste, and bingo, we hope!
I don’t have it loaded as an app so maybe that’s the problem. I’ll work on it.
Thanks
Forgot to say, we were on our way to and are now at Penetanguishene, for pop-in-law’s 87th birthday, which was on the 19th.
It is a free app, just search for youtube after you click on the app store icon on your phone, the big A …
And again last night, when there was actually a breath of wind, and we watched the fleet races, and then hubby ran the course in our fleet of one, so we were first, last and right in the middle. And then tomorrow we are off to Toronto for the wedding of a child of a cousin of mine, and then probably boot up to Penetang just for the one night and day and a second kick at getting the in-law’s old Grew a little more reliable as it seems to suffer, like many a mercruiser, from “hydro-lock”. Of which no more will I write.
But good morning on this somewhat sultry Friday.
And good Tuesday morning …been a silly whirlwind with attending a cousin’s child’s wedding in Toronto and then a quick swing through Penetang and now finally collapsing back at home.
And somewhat wordless lately … but a storm is gathering especially around the stupidity of those unnecessary and violent pot busts in Toronto. Listening to an excellent book, Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana, and the duplicity and horror of the war on drugs has never been more apparent. Stop the madness, legalize pot now!
Please.
A beautiful good morning to all. It really is a peach of a day and I am working on counting blessings, like getting to walk the dog on two almost sturdy pegs.
Gack … year-end for the business and I really do find that paper involving numbers makes me go crazy. I have trouble nailing them down, it seems. But mostly done and yeah for accountants and boo for complicated government tax laws.
Good morning. We have been out sailing the past two nights, which is fun, exhausting and a little challenging, but I am getting used to being able to clamber about. Still mild panic jumping onto the dock when we are landing, but so far so good!
Philosophy taking a back seat apparently to continuing to put one foot in front of t’other, and I appreciate your patience as I natter on.
Good morning, following a beautiful evening …
Good Sunday … it has rained like billy-o, and the basil looks a little worse for wear, but it is a very pleasant change in the weather.
Hello Monday.
Good Tuesday. Taxes almost tackled to the ground.
Did you know, btw, that it is going to take two years to settle my mum’s estate because of insane tax laws? A perfectly simple will, non-contested, and all well-managed before she shuffled off her mortal coil. But first the dead person has to pay their taxes for the year in which they died, and then the estate has to pay the next year’s taxes … and only then when the government is content that they have gotten their pound of flesh do they release the remaining pennies to the bereaved. Nuts in a blanket. Now we are lucky people and the wolf is far from the door, but imagine if that weren’t the case? But yes, at least two years. Seems pretty darn cruel and keeps the wrong memories alive.
But good morning all the same.
Good Wednesday.
And now we have a dinghy. Which you will have trouble finding used unless you remember to search for a dingy dinghy. But this one is not dingy and washed up nicely. Thanks kijiji.
Good Morning.
Good Chilly Morning! The furnace is on … and mice have been attempting to move in to our house. But they will lose, sad to say. We only like one Mouse in the house.
It was the Commodore’s Sailpast on Saturday, a chilly day that started out wet, but was much fun and we slept on the boat only to be woken by a raging wind, and then spent a happy cold day getting the boat quite truly shipper shape. Even the toilet, or now I must say head, even though it is a midships, works! Fresh water, river water … the refrigerator! Mysteriously not the little sink in the head, but hey …
Here are some pictures of the hardy sailpastors, and the angelfish who somewhat astonishingly accompanied us on our honeymoon on the Catalina in 1986. Sometimes sentimental hoarding is just fine.
But even the tools and electrical stuff are organized and put away … maybe the boat can impose an order that our characters have failed to do. But my list of things to take to the boat is turning into tea towels and balsamic vinegar, rather than Mr Erasers and muriatic acid. An excellent trade.
Good Afternoon. I will write about this a bit more fully, but am happy to say that I had a follow up appointment with the lovely sports medicine doctor who had ordered another MRI of my right side and gotten me the cortisone shot into my nether regions and she believes and so do I that I also have a torn adductor, and she had a new word, avulsion, to describe it. And she has made an appointment for me with a fellow who has a couple of injection treatment options that just might help. So happy to have a confirmation and happy to have a prognosis, even if it will only be a slow help versus a miracle cure. But wahoo!
Well what can I say? We went out sailing on Friday afternoon, planning on sleeping out at anchor for the first time, and ended up coming home this Monday morning. We did make a Sunday pitstop but it has been so hot that we just went straight back out. Too hot everywhere and too much sun but what a hoot. All systems seem go, pretty much, and clever hubby swapped the bottom end of the motor and cleaned and re-gasketed the top end. Fridge stayed cold, toilet functions, and most important test of all, we were able to pump out the tank. We are getting much more comfortable with putting sails up and down, anchoring, and all that peripheral stuff. And the boat just leaps along.
A little break from the roar of the city … and good afternoon.