Today was for us the last day of the season at the golf club. And what a magnificent day it has been!  The ideal autumn day in the country, brilliant sunshine, mounting warm temperatures and glimmering blue sky! We’re not golfers (indeed I’ve never been inclined or tempted to try the highland sport except a few times many years ago when the Chiarelli family opened the Cedar Hill Golf Course in Ottawa West). But here in the Village of Appleton at the ancient Mississippi Golf Club along its namesake meandering river I’ve regularly enjoyed going up to and getting into the trough since my introduction to the original club house in June of 1976 when occasionally after dinner (no doubt stimulated by a whiskey and soda) I played the erstwhile upright grand piano. Since then the Mississippi Golf Club has been the apodictic venue of choice for professional, social and family gatherings in addition to regular casual outings to celebrate the weather or inadvertence generally. We’ve entertained guests here from Toronto and Ottawa, travel agents and immigration specialists; lawyers, judges, artists and commoners; it has been a place to conduct friendly business associations; and countless family birthdays and other anniversaries.

Today is again one of the many glorious days we’ve had this season. In recognition of this, the last of our seasonal outings to the golf club, we ordered the Chef MacDonald special; namely, the “Big Breakfast “. It is the only breakfast I know which requires a degree in mechanical engineering to navigate. It is reminiscent of what I believe were the substantial productions of the acclaimed Klondike kitchens in the north for the gold miners and the lumberjacks, those robust and hardworking outdoors men returning to the hearth for nutritional recovery.

And satisfy is does!  The incomparable bouty of the meal has propelled us to a level of dietary restraint hitherto seldom entertained; namely, the only meal of the day! A large glass of water – perhaps a redeeming espresso – sufficiently attracts from this now replete perspective! By way of convalescence from the industry required to complete this morning’s gastronomic undertaking, I settled upon a pacific drive in my General Motors automobile, windows open, landau roof withdrawn, along the esteemed Appleton Side Road into the urban periphery and back, duly cleansed and purified.