Tanga can’t wait to get home.

The week at Round Lake was fun. It was no where near long enough. I’m sure we could have spent three weeks there let alone one. There was so much left undone and really it would have been great to have more time to do nothing. The first few days at the Lake were really windy. So windy we didn’t really want to swim. I was certainly concerned the waves would sink the ever-circling-over-protective dog. So we took advantage of the poor swimming day to get groceries on Sunday in Barry’s Bay. It is curious how accustomed one becomes to expecting certain produce, and when it isn’t available you think WTF. The wind continued on Monday. We pretty much chilled at the cottage and drank Pacific Ma itai cocktails. Mmmm. I continued to read Blink.

Monday afternoon we finally found some motivation to get off our asses. We drove over to Foy beach, which is across the lake. It was pretty nice once we finally figured out how to get to it from the road. (It is no longer fully operational… and there is no signage) Tuesday B.’s friend TS came out to the cottage with her newborn daughter Ivy for a visit. TS is always enjoyable to see. I finished reading Blink! I must really enjoy Malcolm Gladwell… for me to finish one book is feat in itself, for me to finish two and begin a third? Unheard of… Blink was another fascinating ride of anecdotal stories. This time Gladwell explored human perception and what happens during the first few moments of an experience or situation. What occurs in the mind in the ‘blink’ of an eye. It is another extraordinary look into how humans perceive the world. More importantly it offers an opportunity for us to improve and review perception and judgment… and this could be revolutionary. To quote from the book: ‘judgment matters: it is what separates winners from losers. …’ Sometimes more information allows one to make worse decisions. ‘We have come to confuse information with understanding. … The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding (my italics). We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.’ The final line of the afterword sums Blink nicely, ‘Once we know about how the mind works – and about the strengths and weaknesses of human judgment – it is our responsibility to act.’s On to the next Gladwell book The Tipping Point!! The Lake is finally calm Tuesday evening.

We went over to B.’s aunt’s cottage (which is just a doors down) to celebrate her Mom’s 65th birthday. Or is her 67th? B. was confused. *smirk* A delicious dinner. Every year we come up to the area we stop in Wilno to check out the art shops. This year was no exception. We also stopped in to visit a mutual friend’s store in Wilno who sells various holistic cosmetics. B. was in heaven with Ingrid’s wares. We did a short walk behind the church but it was stupid hot and within the ‘stations of the cross’ on the church grounds. It was a little odd. That afternoon I watched the rest of Darker than Black – Good series. I liked the lead characters. It was a little hard to follow at times but the production and animation was top notch. BK201 (Hai) was a very cool character and Misaki Kirihara was a lovely series of lines. ⭐⭐⭐½

I started Noein on Thursday. It seemed interesting after first episode. It is some sort of time dimensional travellers in search of the Dragon Torque (whatever that is) which is *of course* a young teenage girl. I’m not quite sure why so many Anime series have teenagers in them. I guess the target audience. Another thought, why do these dark creepy sci-fi anime series have candy-ass girly theme openings? Bizarre. After a few episodes the story is actually quite compelling, with cliff hangers at the end of each episode. Thursday afternoon we drove out to Golden Lake for a hike with another of B.’s friends (Jess). It was a long, hot walk to a lovely vista. After the hike we went in search of an artist we discovered last year in the area by the name of Alfred G. Villeneuve. He captures the essence of the Algonquin region much like many of the famous Canadian group of seven. We were both smitten by his work and we were lucky enough to catch him at home at his studio on Thursday. More than just an impressive artist, Alfred was a wonderful and inspiring person to meet. He is clearly passionate and loves his craft. We talked with him for about two hours about the area, art and of course his paintings. Mr.Villeneuve had his art on display all over his home. We wanted to take home about half of them – it was overwhelming. We decided we would think about the works and come back on Saturday.

Friday we drove out to TS’s cottage on Paugh Lake for most of the day. The road in is a little rugged with lots of loose gravel… and still people were passing on it. *head shake* She has a wonderful setup. She is on an island but has road access within *eyesight* of her shoreline. It is a short boat ride across a channel to her doorstep. Pretty sweet. The cottage and property were awesome. They have lots of property and it is already well worn and defined. We got in a brief visit with TS’s BF who is a stand-up guy. B.’s friend Bonnie&Buck&family also stopped in at the cottage during their whirlwind of a day. We could have stayed there all night… but at this point we were starting to feeling the Round Lake time slipping away and wanted to get back to the cottage. Saturday we woke up early to get to a close out sale in Foymount for Sierra Designs. The place was packed with people. I found a nice deal on a jacket and a fleece.

After Sierra Designs, we returned to buy a few pieces of art at Mr.Villeneuve’s. What a process it is to try to eliminate pieces of art when you like so many. Once again, Mr.Villeneuve was a patient and courteous host as we painstaking sorted through art on two floors of his home. We are very happy with the painting we ultimately selected. I’m very confident we’ll be back for more. Many of his painting we likely were being sent to a gallery in Toronto and others were out of our current price range – there we so many striking options. Phew. Sunday B.’s brother Steve arrived at the cottage. Sunday turned into a drink fest. Her aunt has a ‘floating bar’ which allows you to drink and lounge (while floating) on the lake. Awesome. We spent the day with a bunch of Steveo’s friends and B.’s cousin Allie. Allie dropped the N word (not the slur, the Canadian band) comparing them to Rush. Henceforth from that moment she became a most hated enemy. *smirk* It was kinda dumb for us to drink all night when we wanted to get up to get home the next morning. Needless to say we ended up leaving much later than expected on Monday… It was fun to chill our last night with some bevies and a fire though. Good company. Good times. I’ll proof this later, I’m sure it is a mess.