Brookside Cottage B & B

May 28 - 30, 2010

Went away with Fred for some Mommy and dog time. Researched a lot of places that will allow dogs, Bed & Breakfasts first priority. Some of the chain hotels allow pets but they're not the setting I imagined myself in. So I contacted a few B & B's. One of the ones I found didn't have an Email option so I had to call. The lady I spoke to, Corinne, was so enthusiastic and informative that she won me over.

So on a Friday afternoon, after getting home from work, packing, saying goodbye to hubby and kids, and making the 1 hour journey on the Eastbound 401, I arrived at Brookside Cottage B & B, in Bowmanville, Ontario. I had brought my spliced together Google map. That, with the directions from Corinne, enabled me to arrive without incident at her location. It was dusk when we arrived and we had just enough time to unpack the car, get a micro-tour of the property, and settle in before it got dark.

That first night I saw three large brown rabbits but they jumped away too quickly for my camera. Fred saw them too.

This is a picture of the one room cottage I stayed in. No interior pictures this time around.

I would definately come back, but I am not close enough to anyone that I would want to share a one-room cottage, with simply a curtained off corner where the toilet is. It was very cozy indeed!










There were some (very friendly)resident ducks. Apparently the kind most favoured by restaurants - Muscovite (spelling?). Fred tried to sample the menu on Saturday; he tries to kill anything with a tail. At one point he got a sharp jab to the muzzle to remind him to watch his manners.

CORINNE MAKES GARDEN ORNAMENTS USING CEMENT, 'STAMPED' USING THE BROADLEAF PLANTS FROM HER GARDEN


Most of the time, when I wasn't taking Fred for a stroll so that he could stretch his legs, I sat at a table on the covered bridge that Corinne had built. I got to sit over a rushing, babbling creek that boasts trout and spawning salmon in the Spring time. Bugs were at a minimum, but what there were plenty of were pretty little birds in a variety of colours. I tried to take pictures of the birds but I haven't quite figured out my camera enough and everything with wings turned out too blurry to post here : (
It would be easier to get a nice outdoor shot of this bridge pre-Spring due to how much the lush foliage hides it...

All the while I'm sitting on the bridge doing my cross-stitch, I hear the calls of the birds, the chirps of the red squirrels, the rustle of wind shaking the boughs of the leafy mature trees, and I couldn't help but think, "Who could sit here on a day like today and have a bad thought about life? Wouldn't it be nice if this day could go on forever?" It's the kind of day that is perfect in so many ways...bright, warm, breezy enough to discourage bugs but not enough to send the bits of my project flying. The air was silent of the noise I'm used to in the city, yet full of nice kinds of chatter and chirps.









I'm going to attach a few more pictures that highlight some of the unusual or especially interesting fixtures in the gardens.


A WATERWHEEL, ABOUT 6 FEET TALL

THE TEE-PEE THAT CORINNE'S SON BUILT

THE FIREPIT

Corinne was such a dear, she very graciously allowed me to choose my own breakfast time (she was truly an angel), and check-out time. I took full advantage to spend a 2nd afternoon on the bridge to try to get more of my cross-stitch done. And drink a little more wine.

HERE'S FRED










HERE'S MY BLACKBERRY BUSH/90 LB HURTLING DOG WAR-WOUND

Avatar - The Experience

There are a lot of people who have expressed a wish that they could live on Pandora. I don't share their sentiment. You have to look past the pretty fauna, the breathtaking, okay..awe inspiring and impossible vistas of floating mountains (how exactly could they have waterfalls, and yet no rivers???), the bioluninescent qualities of the landscape.

More urgent, and unequivically important is that little matter of survival. Humans, especially us from the Western civilizations, wouldn't last one micro-minute in that environment. How exactly would our well fed, flabby butts exist in a world of eat or be eaten, where your body needs to react faster than your brain can compute, and endless government/pest control complaint departments aren't at our beck and call to whisk away the unpleasantness. Imagine feeling like a mouse every day, in wildcat country.

Do you know what it would take to survive on Pandora? An attitude of resignation. When you've passed the point of realizing that you've failed in some big way, your life is pointless, and you're willing to give it all up for the sake of the general good. And then you get a little spark of hope. A pin-point of matter at the farthest distance your eye can see. An idea is massaging its way into your sub-conscience that something bigger than you've ever experienced before is bursting to be known. Do you grab at it with all your being, or do you lose the will?

Do you have what it takes to tough it out? Probably not me. There was a time when I thought I was invicible and would have relished the idea of the challenge. Now I'm as complacent, harried, and flabby as the next gal. I need my weekly fix of cute puppy antics off the internet. A soldier might though. They've left behind the notion of soft living and the conveniences they knew at home, to embark on adventures though they know they may be terrified, starved, having to make split-second decisions that affect whether they will get to see another day. Maybe the same way residents of Kabul feel.

So don't fool yourself with your grandiouse ideas of conjuring out of thin air your ability to survive in a place like Pandora. With the yin, there is the yang. Only the fittest, and toughest could stand a chance. And us, my friends, would be the chicken nuggets. See you at the Bob Evans.

Side note: Avatar only gets 8 out of 10 stars from me, if only because of the waterfalls on the floating mountains and the disappointment I felt that Gen. Quaritch in the spirit of the stereotypical, and one-dimensional bad guy that he was, did not have a black stetson and say "Wha-ha-ha" at all. I mean, if you're going to make his dialogue so predictable, why not go all out? In fairness, I really liked his character at the beginning of the movie, but he just..got..worse.

Evil multi-national window and door install company

House # 1 - We paid this company (whose name I could say here, and may yet) to replace all the windows in our house at this property

House # 2 - So far, we've paid them to replace all of the basement windows, and our front door and front storm door. This was October 2008.

By summer of 2009, the bottom latch on the window that raises and lowers was getting stuck. My husband, with some minor wrangling, got the latch to move and was able to get the window raised. Then he looks at me like I've got two heads, "Whaaa?..you couldn't do that yourself?" was what he inferred with that look of his.

By Spring of 2010, the latch is completely broken, I cannot raise the window. I called the company and snarky customer service type person tells me she will call me back with a solution by Monday, April 26. No call. I call on the 28th and leave polite but threatening message about what I will do if I don't get an answer TODAY.

Get a call a couple of days later saying the latch is not covered by warranty and will cost me $50 for them to repair. I told them I would think about it.

The nerve, after we've given them repeat business and spent thousands of dollars!

I called back to get the name of the president so that I can send a letter of complaint but can't get past the pit-bull who answers the phone. I say, fine, I will include my exchange with her regarding the apparant atmosphere of secrecy. She acts like she doesn't give a rat's butt.

I write angry but polite letter to the president whose office is in Long Island, New York, but before I get a chance to put a stamp on the envelope, I get a call from the CSR person doing follow-up. I explain the part about the repeat business, etc., and that I will NOT pay for the repair, but that I appreciate her follow-up (polite to the end, eh?)

An hour later, she seems to have had a change of heart, and now their service people are going to call to set up a time to do the repair for free.

I still won't do any repeat business with them. There are lots of fish in the sea!

Fortunate Frog

Cont'd from random question...

Percivalla was a young, inquisitive frog, quite adept at catching bugs. She also had the rare ability to scowl fiercely. So intimidating was the frightful face she could transform her otherwise pleasant appearance into, that she scared away even the largest predators in the firth - the dreaded storks. Who could possibly enjoy a meal, though plump and tender, that curdled blood just at the sight of?

But Percivella did have the unfortunate weakness of being struck with envy for the squirrel she often saw pouncing and bouncing along in its unending endeavor to find treasures amongst the fallen leaves, grass, and typical forest refuse. How luxurious was the squirrels' fur! And that tail! How perfectly cosy would it be to snuggle up with your squirrel family and wrap that thick plume of a tail around each other for comfort and warmth?

What did Percivella have? Well, she had the best flat rock in the pond, a view of the lily pads that produced the brightest pearly white flowers as far as the eye could see, and relative safety because of the tall slender grasses that grew behind her perch.

In the spirit of what we all tend to do, she herself wished for something different. Her skin was of the kind that no one would actually wish for - green and greasy looking, no matter that it was as healthy and clean as any frog could wish for. Percivella wished for something better.


That squirrel fur was looking better and better all the time. She knew though that if she wanted fur, it wasn't going to happen on its own. The words of her father came back to her about how if you want something bad enough you need to go out and MAKE it happen through hard work and diligence. He had done it himself when some larger animals had tried to make the pond their home. They would splash about, stirring up the mud, and they would crumple the grass he relied on for protection, and often squash the tinier animals with their clumsy feet or when they rolled around scratching their backs. He had taken care of them!, and all on his own because none of the other creatures had enough initiative to try anything themselves.

Well? How could one do this? How could one have fur if you were of the animal persuasion that could not ever grow it yourself?

She certainly had lots of time to ponder this, for her days were mostly about eating, preening, or being mindful of the intermittant dangers living out in the wild sometimes bring a young frog.

On a hot, dry day towards the end of summer, when her thoughts started to go towards the cooler weather that heralded the need for her to start considering her next hibernation, the squirrel happened closer than it usually did to the thicket of grass Percivella dwelled in.

"Uh, hi", Percivella called out, noticing the squirrel making eye contact with her for a split second, a seed stuck just to the side of its mouth.

"Oh, hello", it called back.
"I was just thinking about how beautiful your coat is and how you're probably thankful to have one when it gets cold", said Percivella.

"Yeah, I guess so", the squirrel answered a little absently," I don't think much about it, really".

"Do you think it would look as good on me, if I wore a thick coat like that?" she asked, half in jest, half in anticipation for a suggestion she hadn’t considered yet.

The squirrel thought for a moment and knew it had never seen a frog with fur. But if a beaver could swim and go about its business with a full body covering of fur even thicker than a squirrel's, then isn't it strange that a frog wasn't born to have it's own coat, even if it had to be green.
"Well, if you want fur, then why don't you just go find it?" commented the squirrel, "I find the most wonderous things in my travels. The trick is you have to keep your eyes on the lookout and your nose to the ground".

Percivella looked doubtful. Who would leave a coat of fur just lying around? It likely wouldn't be the right size anyway. If only she had just a small patch of fur that she could place on her head once in a while when the sun was especially intense, to shade her from burning up. That way she wouldn't necessarily have to get all wet by diving into the cool water for some respite. If she had her wish, she would have just a cap for her head with a longer piece that would trail down her back while she sat, or would twirl and spring about her in a pretty fashion as she swam. Hmmm..that was going to be some tall order, she mused to herself.

The squirrel went away, but came back the next day, looking out specifically this time for Percivalla. “I had a thought”, it said, when it spotted Percivalla finishing her breakfast. Percivalla was pleased the squirrel had sought her out and was especially delighted at the prospect of being told how she could get the cap of fur she pined for.

“What you seek is called a ‘wig’. My momma told me this. She also told me that she’s never seen any animal, ever, to actually wear one, although she’s seen male deer that have fuzz on their antlers. It grows there, though, and the deer go to great pains to remove it”. The squirrel continued, “but she did have a suggestion. She said what you need is to find a leaf the size of the cap you want, find something gooey, like sap from a tree…there’s some trees over yonder that produce sap.. spread that over both sides of your leaf and then stick fur on one side. Where are you going to get fur, you are wondering?” Percivalla nodded, lost in thought. “Why, from us”, the squirrel added gleefully, happy that it could place the last piece of the puzzle, and that the frog would be so astounded by what the squirrel KNEW was an astounding idea, if it thought so itself!

“You’re not going to take off your coat!”, Percivalla sounded thoroughly alarmed. Removal of a squirrel’s coat was going just too far.

“No, silly”, said the squirrel. We will be shedding our old summer coats soon to make way for our winter ones, and as the fur gathers, instead of just dropping it out of our home in the tree to fall on the forest floor like we always do, we will gather it and bring it to you. Our little paws will be especially more suited to sticking the fur to the leaf too, you just need to gather the rest of the materials. Let us know when you are ready, in another month or so, and we’ll start providing the fur.

Percivalla was beside herself with joy, and she jumped up, clapping her back flippers in the air. She was deeply thankful for the effort the squirrel family was willing to go to to help a virtual stranger. She would have to think long and hard about some way to repay them.

Five weeks later, the pond water was starting to get the first Autumn chills in the mornings and Percivalla knew it was time to start making preparations for the winter. By now the squirrels would be in full swing gathering their hoard of nuts, seeds, and fruit for their own months of hiding away from the inclement and sometimes dangerous weather.

How to look busy... (of course, when you're looking for stress relief from your normally productive and enjoyable work day)

First, make sure your desk is covered with papers and/or binders.

They'll have to be shuffled every once in a while, to give your desk an 'in process' kind of look to it.

If you're going to be wasting time on the internet, reduce the size of the 'screen' by clicking on the window button in the top right corner.

Make sure you have a legitimate 'work' page underneath the page you are browsing through. This will make the monitor's screen look more cluttered, and thus more confusing to the casual observer, and if you need to minimize your page in a hurry, the 'work' page will be at the ready if someone were to peek.

If you need to get up from your desk, ensure your page is minimized. Advanced option: even minimized, if someone were to glance at the toolbar (which they will have time to do if you have left for any amount of time), they would see the last page you had up on your browser. You need to access a legitimate webpage (ie: Google), and leave that tab as the last one accessed so that it appears on the toolbar below.

You will have to be even more descreet if you've never seen your manager or co-workers browsing through the internet for their shopping or social needs. Never look through sites that are strictly prohibited under your company's guidelines.

Above all: remember...if you've typed it, it is out there for anyone and everyone. Be mindful of your language, slander, or threats of violence to yourself or others.

So. Have I forgotten anything?