WITH THE KERRS EN ROUTE TO THE COTTAGE—A FEW DAYS AT LAKE OF BAYS—WITH MARION AND JOHN

On Monday, I began a few days of vacation with my sister Marion Bayfield and her husband John at their cottage at Lake of Bays in the Muskoka Lakes region (about 15 kilometers east of Huntsville, not far from the western edge of Algonquin Park).

Both the park, a magnet for serious camping enthusiasts (of which I am not one), and the Muskoka area boast spectacular scenery and, given this summer’s rain and cool weather, lush vegetation. I’ll be here until Friday evening.

En route, I broke the 350 km journey with a stop about half-way, in Barry’s Bay, with the Kerr family, friends from my years in Halifax: parents Annmarie (from Prince Edward Island, where news had arrived of the recent nomination of Toronto Auxiliary Richard Grecco as the successor to Bishop Vernon Fougere as Bishop of Charlottetown) and Colin (with his newly-minted PhD in Theology from Toronto’s University of St. Michael’s College) and children Isaiah, Sarah Grace, Rebecca and baby Stephen, whom I had last seen shortly after his birth on July 28, 2008.

We celebrated their newly-purchased home, just down the street from Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy where Colin teaches (I performed a house blessing for them, repeating a ritual performed at their other rented quarters on Siberia Road, the extension of Dunn Street where they live now) and getting caught up on news of OLSWA, etc.

I had pictures to post but the dial-up connection seems not to allow these at this time. They may be added later (now done, thanks to the Dwight Public Library's high speed wi-fi internet access).