Summer Vacation

Yesterday was the last day of June and my second day off from school. J. and I went cycling at the Baie Noire section of the SEPAQ Parc de Plaisance. We biked along the Ottawa river to the Thurso wharf and back. I believe that this park has the largest variety of birds in Quebec. Kind of like Ontario's Point Pelee as it is the southernmost part of Quebec. There is even a bike ferry between the Baie Noire and the Presqu'île of Plaisance.

I have a lot of museum, kayak, biking and hiking excursions planned with various friends. Impromptu rose wine or Sangria gatherings are always welcome here.

On my first day off, I cycled down to my secret beach, ate a muffin, completed neglected parts of Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance Companion journal as I watched the glass mirror river split into waves as the first power boat sliced down its middle like a zipper opening a long tunic.

I listened to the village come alive with the 8 o'clock church bells tolling and traffic starting to roll down the always busy 148. We all have mixed feelings about the soon-or-someda-to-be-autoroute 50 which will hopefully alleviate congestion on the old highway and give travellers an alternate route of escape when invetably the police shuts down the only way in or out after fatal accidents or barns blown onto the highway by an unlikely tornado as was the case last Wednesday.