Getting On With Living

Today my husband and I decided to drive to Westport, Ontario with our daughter and two of our friends.  It was a record-breaking hot day but we set off on our trip at 9:30 a.m. with the hope that we would get there before it was unbearably hot.  Now that I'm starting to feel better, I find that I experience little details throughout the day with more clarity and intensity.

The drive to Westport took us through the south part of the Canadian Shield.  I loved the rolling hills which are covered with a variety of vegetation.  You can see scrub bush, woods, hayfields with the rolled bales of hay sitting in them and corn fields.  It has been a very dry, arid summer so far and the corn is showing signs of stress.  The leaves are furling in on themselves as they try to conserve what little moisture is in them and the corn stalks are shorter than they normally are at this time of the summer.  As we continued driving, the hills would dip down into valleys where there would be surprise sun-speckled lakes filled with water lilies.  Every once in awhile we would come across a public boat ramp which would be busy as people were either putting their boats into the water or pulling them out of the water.  The road was full of twists and turns which would provide us with surprising views of water as we came around a sharp bend in the road.

When we arrived in Westport, we parked down near the waterfront.  We started up Bedford Street and stopped in to browse through various boutiques and shops.  Westport is a very quaint village and I love visiting it for a day.  My daughter found a beautiful sundress at one of the boutiques.  Myself, I have four favourite stores that I always drop by when I'm visiting the village.  I had such fun introducing these stores to my friend and watching her reaction as we came across unique, one of a kind stock in the different stores.  I'm hoping to find a bench to put under my apple trees so we can enjoy the shade of the trees.  I haven't found what I'm looking for just yet but  I was hoping to find something in the stores we visited today.  As we meandered through the village, I recognized that there were more new stores this year.

By the time it was getting close to lunch, we were all very hot and feeling the heat of the noon sun.  So we decided to visit The Cove Pub for lunch.  We thought we might like to eat inside where we would be cooler in the air conditioning.  Because we were a party of five, we were shown to a table in the restaurant side of the establishment.  The air seemed warmer so we decided to move outdoors to the patio where we had a lovely view of the flower gardens and the lake.  The table had an umbrella which provided us with some shade.  That shade and the breeze coming off the water made our lunch very enjoyable.  I had a goat cheese and pecan salad.  In addition to the goat cheese and pecans, it contained mesculin greens, carmelized onions and granny smith apple slices.  It was topped off with a dijon/cider vinaigrette.  It was very light and refreshing.  After our lunch, we wandered down through the garden to the water's edge.  There was an arch and a bench so we took the opporunity to take pictures of our group and the beautiful setting.

Finally we decided to resume our exploration of the village by walking up Church Street.  Just as we were about to leave the back garden of the pub, we saw a miniature bench.  How cute and quaint!!  Needless to say, more pictures had to be taken.  Then we went on our way.  We visited four or five more stores until we were tired and hot.  We made our way back to the van to head home in an air-conditioned vehicle.  We were all tired and wilted.  As we were almost out of the village, my daughter and her friend suggested stopping for ice cream cones.  We wound our way back to almost the same parking spot we had just left.  We climbed out of the van and headed for the ice cream shop.  What a grand idea it was to stop for ice cream!  I love ice cream and the store carried my favourite flavour.  There's nothing like a single scoop of maple walnut ice cream on a plain cone in the midst of a scorcher of a day!!!

After we finished our ice cream, we were back in the van and heading for home.  The drive home was just as beautiful as the drive to Westport.  We were again driving through twists and turns to be surprised by wonderful lake views or pastoral views of the hilly terrain.  I visited with my friend and then realized that the two girls were rather quiet.  They were both sound asleep!

It was a tiring day but what a glorious day it was.  I saw beautiful views, quaint items of jewellry, garden art, one of a kind pieces of clothing and enjoyed the warm company of my friends and family.  I'm so happy to get on with living.  This was the kind of day that makes for lifetime memories.