A brisk day!

Early this morning upon awakening and before my constitutional ablutions and gruel I casually intimated I would not be tricycling today. The carefree announcement was recognition of what I understood to be a popular scheme for balanced exercise; that is, one day on, one day off.  The off-hand dispatch had for the moment anyway the sustainable allure of moderation. I should have known it was an unworkable alliance. This not only because I traditionally haven’t any truck with avoidance of excess (a well-documented limitation, I regret to say). Rather in my defence the ineffable blue sky and clear dry air trumped my plan. I am easily persuaded by fine weather! This however was before I had opened the garage door and relocated outside. It was a brisk day!  I should have known to expect the uncommonly cold air after having previously seen ice patches on the balcony. But the clarity of the sky distracted me from the indiscernible temperature of minus 9° Centigrade or 16° Fahrenheit. Afterwards when I hadn’t been pedalling on my tricycle mere moments (though admittedly riding directly into the wind along the river) I regretted not having worn my beaver fur hat instead of a modest tartan cap.

When we first nestled in our current digs last May I particularly liked that adjacent Spring Street parallel to Mississippi River is flat. After my left knee replacement I understandably preferred sea level to mountainous ranges when cycling.  Unexceptionally the land on which we reside is higher than the river; and the surrounding area becomes progressively higher as it approaches the Appleton Side Road and the successive concessions within which are delimited the neighbouring farm properties.

Lately I have extended the scope of my tricycling to include higher levels of land than those along the nearby river.  Among the distractions is my burgeoning acquaintance of residential roadways which were hitherto beyond my familiarity partly because I didn’t know anyone on those streets and partly because some of the streets are dead ends so traffic is not usual in the immediate area.

The collateral advantage to the geographic education is exposure to charming dwellings, distinquished by isolated instances, in-filling, ancient relics of prior era and entirely new builds.  This side of town constitutes some of the earlier residential developments. There are naturally many homes which have insinuated the local fabric so extensively as to afford what now are singuarly attractive and picturesque views. Because Almonte was originally a woollen mill town, the mill owners and immediate subalterns congregated in one area of town in particular.  Those mansions are predominantly located nearby Rosamond Woollen Mill across the Channel on Union St N. I mention this especially because a longstanding friend owns one of the quaint small homes on Coleman’s Island formerly inhabited by many of the mill workers. I have today succeeded by my tricycle ride to discover new charming residences.

By utter serendipity today my first volume of Country Life magazine arrived in the mail from England. The central topic on the November 15, 2023 edition is “The Great Thatching Renaissance” (seconded by “Bats: the law and how to deal with them”). This magazine subscription is a reinvigoration of one which I had allowed to lapse years ago when we spent the winters away from home. Now however I greedily anticipate fulfilling my delight in the stories and photographs.