As an unrepentant obsessive personality, I don’t hesitate to proclaim the attainment of perfection. Though I am quick to add that perfection is a sphere peculiar to each individual. This seeming universality and commensurate ambiguity does not however diminish for an instant the scope or achievement of whatever we chose to identify as perfection. It isn’t only flawlessness and sublimity or the best. Perfection is also refinement and improvement or polishing. As an adjective, “perfect” apparently also denotes “a way of binding books in which pages are glued to the spine rather than sewn together”. What however is common to the attribute of perfection in my experience is being faultless as possible; and, more significantly, the sensation that one has achieved that height of refinement.
I am having one of those perfect days. It is the Victoria Day Weekend and today is the holiday Monday.
In 2024 the Victoria Day holiday is on Monday, May 20.
Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the Monday preceding May 25 in every province and territory. It honours Queen Victoria’s birthday.
In Quebec this holiday is called “National Patriotes Day” (Journée nationale des patriotes or Fête des Patriotes).
“It should remain Victoria Day. She was the Queen when we became a nation and is considered ‘The Mother of Confederation’. It was her actions that led to Canada moving from colony to nation and she should be celebrated for that”.
Victoria Day is also commonly referred to as the “May two-four weekend” or the “May long weekend” and it marks the unofficial start of the cottage season where cases of beer are consumed by hard working Canadians. That’s what we heard anyway. Or maybe it’s called May two-four because May 24, 1819 is Queen Victoria’s birthday.
Note: Prince Edward (1767–1820) after whom Prince Edward Island was named was Queen Victoria’s father.
Seeing flat-bottomed boats on the river is an indisputable mark of perfection. If nothing else it celebrates the “perfect” weather we’ve had for the past several days. And in addition to opening cottages there are those among us who are marking the perfection of the day by hiking in Calabogie.
Calabogie Peaks is a ski resort in the municipality of Greater Madawaska, Renfrew County in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Ottawa, and was founded in 1969. Although the resort is named after the nearby community of Calabogie and Calabogie Lake, the mountain is called Dicksons Mountain. Calabogie Peaks Resort offers the highest vertical drop among public ski hills in Ontario, 238 metres (781 ft). In addition to the beginner hill, Calabogie offers the longest beginner trail in Ontario, as well as plenty of intermediate and expert runs.
For my part I am content to have enjoyed moderate tricycling this morning followed by an always gratifying drive to the city and back. Altogether it has been a perfect day! And I have yet to fulfill my scheduled visit with Suzanne later mid-afternoon.