THEY WILL BE ENERGETICALLY TALKING ABOUT OUR PARK'S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

A burgundy van slowly rolled around the corner this morning and stopped in front of our driveway where I was standing.  I opened the passenger door and climbed in.  The driver of the van was my good buddy Richard of course and off we went on another one of our semi-monthly Thursday morning coffee tours.  Our first and only stop was Mcdonalds' in Goderich for two coffees and two carrot muffins to go.  We spent the next two and a half hours immersed in our usual in-depth conversation as we wandered around through some picturesque countryside north of Goderich.

 A TYPICAL OLD FARM IN RURAL SOUTHERN ONTARIO

 A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON AN OLD WINDMILL

 DAISIES ON THE EDGE OF A BARLEY FIELD

Wind currents had shifted again and brought us more smoke from the Quebec wildfires today.  It seemed more prevalent in the morning air but not as bad as this past Tuesday.

 MAMA GRACKLE WITH JUNIOR CRACKLE IN THE FOREGROUND

 'AND THAT OVER THERE JUNIOR IS YOUR WORTHLESS FATHER'

 'AND THAT HANDSOM DEVIL OVER THERE JUNIOR IS WHO I WISHED WAS YOUR FATHER'

 'SO DON'T GROW UP TO BE LIKE YOUR DAD OKAY'

I spent a couple hours outside this afternoon with my handy clippers in our front yard jungle.  Everywhere I looked I could see where things were needing to be either cut back or cut off.  It keeps me busy just cutting off or pulling out all the Sumac shoots that keep popping up everywhere.  Hauled out our easy-to-use battery-operated lawn mower and cut our front yard grass plus the boulevards along both sides of the road out front.  We have a corner property so I do all around the corner as well.  I noticed neighbor Monica's magnolia tree was needing a trim so I nipped over there and took care of that too.  Watered some flowers and a couple patches of newly grass-seeded areas too.  Kelly headed off to Goderich for some groceries and stuff.

THESE TWO SWEET WILLIAM FLOWER ABOVE AND BELOW ARE IN ONE OF OUR FLOWER BEDS

A few of our blog readers are former residents of the Park here so I thought I would mention this.  Long-time resident and our neighbor to the east, Paul Mellor, passed away this morning.  Paul and his wife Judy were here when we moved to the Park in late 2002.  He had been ill for a while.  Paul's death follows two other long-time residents of our Park.  Hank Apfelbeck a month or so ago and Julie Palango a little over six months ago.  If by chance they all meet up on the other side I know for sure they will be energetically talking about our Park's past, present, and future:))   

Al's Music Box:)) End Of The Line by the Traveling Wilburys from the album 'Traveling Wilburys Vol 1.  1988  The Traveling Wilburys were made up of Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynn, and Tom Petty.  Jim Keltner played drums.  Roy, George, and Tom are gone now but their Traveling Wilbury music lives on.

GROANER'S CORNER:  Complaints received by Thomas Cook Vacations From Dissatisfied Customers.  Dumb and Dumber Travelers!!

1. "They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax."

2. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."

3. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price."

5. "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."

6. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow."

7. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."

8. "No one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared."

9. "Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg slicer in the drawers."

10. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

11. "The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guidebook during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun."

12. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair."

13. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends' three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller."

14. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the resort.' We're trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service."

15. "When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish and the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners."

16. "We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning."

17. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

18. "I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes."

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