Thank You My Friends. I'm Moved.

It’s great to be in my new condo. It took hard work by a lot of people to make it happen but here I am at my imposing front entrance and then showing Pat my tidy new kitchen. I hope I never take my friends for granted!

I’m saying it will be six months until I begin to feel settled – perhaps it will be longer. There’s the ongoing question of what to keep and what to get rid of, recognizing that I will make some wrong choices; the ongoing challenge of how best to make use of every available space; and, a little later, the important and intriguing question of how to make it a welcoming place to which others (though not too many at a time) will be happy to come.

I’m feeling comfortable already, even though still surrounded by opened and unopened boxes, furniture in the wrong places and no pictures on the walls. There are two working TVs, two working computers and three working phones. I must say that Cogeco did a great job in getting me completely set up the day I moved in.

All this said, it’s wonderful to be away from it all this weekend – but what a shocker to wake up to two-three inches of snow and winter looking as if it’s here to stay again – here being the Carriage Ridge Resort just north of Barrie. I arranged for this weekend retreat long before the move was planned but, aside from the weather, the timing is great. What really brings me here is a performance by the Cellar Singers this evening in Orillia of Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass. This piece, which I first heard in the dormitory of St. John’s School of Alberta some forty years ago, introduced me to F. J. H. and has been one of my favourites ever since. Thank you, David Thompson!

Holy Week begins tomorrow and I hope to be attending the Anglican Church at Craighurst. Then on Monday it’s Blue Jays Opening Day. So much to do and so little time!