I haven’t yet succumbed to long pants. But the summer is definitely over.  When bicycling today upon my usual route about the neighbourhood and along the Ottawa Valley Trail I saw a maple tree entirely of yellow leaves. It shone vividly in the slanted early morning sunrays. Many others are on their way from verdancy to collage. The canyon of sheltering trees on the erstwhile railway right-of-way shall soon abbreviate its mantle until exhausted to the flat grey solemnity of November and impending winter.

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We haven’t escaped the mention of COVID-19 since we first heard of it in March of 2020.  As late as March 15th, 2020 we were having breakfast on a brilliantly sunny Sunday morning at the Green Zebra in downtown Sarasota; and only three days earlier on Thursday, March 12th we dined with our friends, Dr. and Mrs. G from Maine. A Democratic leadership debate took place about the same time. Precipitously following the notice on March 16th of impending closure of the Canadian border we scurried home to burrow in our northern foxhole. The gravity of the pandemic was largely lost among the ensuing summer duties relating to hearing tests, blood tests, eye exams, birthdays, income tax, dental visits, social calls with family and friends, insurance renewals, Lanark Historical Society meetings, library lectures, breakfast at the golf club and arranging to have the clocks cleaned.

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Conveniently I am spared the indignity of incremental physical immobility by having preserved throughout the past 45 years an undying fondness for the North American passenger automobile. It gets me going when almost nothing else will. The opinion of my physicians and specialists is that I am in decline but as yet the front sight of the shotgun is only on impending doom not current or complete failure. The inescapable additive “old age” is proving to be the more common though equally dismissive diagnosis. The implication naturally is, “Live with it!”

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Top US General Mark Milley has warned al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan could threaten the US in as little as 12 months.

The Taliban had not broken ties with the group responsible for 9/11 and themselves remained a terror organisation, Gen Milley said. BBC September 28, 2021

The Muslims vs the Christians!  The east vs the west. Republicans vs Democrats. I have solved the world’s problems. The constant bickering has to stop! Listening to CNN, CBC, BBC, FOX, The Atlantic or Al Jazeera is nothing but a parade of insults traded between hyper-constructed opponents whose only apparent profit is entertainment and undivided self-interest. The vernacular has led to saturation and disappointment. There has to be a better way.

Muslims (Arabic: مسلم‎, romanized: Muslim) are people who follow or practice Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. The derivation of “Muslim” is from an Arabic word meaning “submitter (to God)”. Muslims consider the Quran, their holy book, to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet and messenger Muhammad. The majority of Muslims also follow their own versions of compilations claimed to be the teachings and practices of Muhammad (sunnah) as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith).

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After last evening’s rollicking rustic foregathering and superb al fresco dining in the Village of Ashton for Her Ladyship’s 31st birthday the initiation this morning of my routine bicycle ride was perfunctory. I did however first soothe myself with J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion performed by the Monteverdi Choir. The descent from pâte de foie gras, triple chocolate mousse and a squadron of youthful regeneration and manifestly indulgent old fogeys must of necessity provoke one’s desire for expiation.

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The constancy of today’s bliss is indescribable. Indeed so animated have I been throughout the day that I began to question whether I had not by inadvertence taken a codeine pill as prescribed yesterday after my endodontic surgery. Narcotics – apart from their constipating effect – are a confirmed game changer in addition to being an analgesic. Most likely I’ve just a hangover from yesterday’s meds during and after surgery.  Whatever is going on I have felt decidedly improved throughout the day!

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The enthralling stimulus this dazzling sunny morning in Mississippi Mills in the County of Lanark is the celebration later this afternoon of Erin’s 31st birthday. The dinner foregathering is at Heron House, Erin’s childhood home in the Village of Aston along the Jock River. The event is especially gratifying for us as longstanding friends of the family including the former alliances as legal advisor (for my part) and family physician (Erin’s father Franz). Over the past four decades we’ve been acquainted as well with Erin’s mom Karen, her brother Marco, her husband Julian and their daughter Sofia. Considering that the familiarity spans as many decades and extends as far abroad as the South Pacific where Erin et famille now call home, it is understood to be a singular and in many respects paramount familial relationship.

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It would appear that the ready secret to successful weight loss is nothing more inventive than deprivation. By contrast in this overall dieting scheme there is a less impoverished point to which one may succeed where quantity is not an issue.  Basically any vegetable dish (which I predominantly prefer to serve raw unless minced into a plain soup with chicken broth, white vinegar and fresh basil). The avoidance of cream, butter, cheese, oil, peanut butter, bread and sugar constitutes the next essential in any diet other than the Atkins Diet which I found to be a prescription for unwelcome and irremediable constipation.

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It is no accomplishment to descend into a paroxysm of mockery concerning certain retail productions. The cause of the sarcasm is commonly directed more at the article’s appearance than its functionality. The miscalculation does however seldom belittle the exponent of the product. The hard truth is there are some who prefer the publicity and who are at the same time capable to discern quality notwithstanding a perceived vulgarity. The champion is thus left with the satisfaction of both design and manufacture.

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The consequence of diminishment is not merely a lessening of size or things; it is also a detraction of prestige. In the process of down-sizing there is inevitable diversion from the resplendence of the patio umbrella; the aura of the carriage lamps on the brick entrance posts; the singularity of the Steinway salon grand; and the amazement of the number of rooms and salons. For the most part transitioning from full-throttled existence to one more economical or functional is no hardship. But there are ramifications. Certainly the lawns needn’t be attended; nor the garden cultivated; nor the removal of the snow in the winter; nor the repair of the windows or the roof in the summer. What however ought to be replaced is one’s private corner.

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