August 7^th, 2005:

Another perfect day in a perfect week! A bit breezy today, but that’s good when the temperature is in the mid to upper twenties. Anyone who had holidays this week sure picked well!

We went down to the beach last night to see a fantastic fireworks display! Gary Schmidt was the instigator, and got donations from many area businesses. They had a firm from Yorkton run the fireworks, and they did a good, professional job. It was so dark, and I was so intent on taking pictures, that I couldn’t see how many people were on the beach, but others tell me it was packed. There were ten or twelve boats out on the lake, too, and they really had a ring-side seat. Nice display!

I’m sorry to have to report that June Horncastle died last week. Her husband, Don, was Park Superintendent here in the ‘70s and ‘80s; June worked in the Park office. When they retired, they bought a cottage in Uskatik and made that their home. Both suffered health problems so this summer they moved into a house in Tisdale. June wasn’t there two weeks before she became seriously ill. The funeral was Friday at Greenwater Hall, and she is buried in Bells Hill Cemetery.

I read a library book called State of Fear, by Michael Crichton. I found it pretty heavy going until I realized that what it was doing was making a lie of most of the recent “truths” that we have generally accepted - that the temperature on earth is gradually increasing and climate changing due to man’s activities, and that we are all going to Hell in a handbasket as a result. The book quoted dozens of studies and charts that showed no recent unusual changes in temperature or climate, that fluctuations have occurred ever since the earth cooled down, and that there is no such thing as “normal”. The “good guys” (environmentalists) became the “bad guys”, doing wild and wonderful things to intensify natural events and disasters, without regard for human suffering. All to ensure that their research funding isn’t cut off. Interesting! And the moral is: don’t believe everything you see, read, or hear, especially if it comes from the mass media.

Another interesting point he made was that banning DDT resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths due to malaria and other insect-borne diseases. Try telling that to Greenpeace!

The long weekend was another beauty, weather-wise. There were quite a few units in Overflow as the campgrounds were full and the beach was crowded every day. That’s three long weekends in a row with favorable weather. Unheard of!

It continued pleasant all week, so on Wednesday we took off on another little jaunt. We went to St. Brieux and checked into their campground there, and besides a little walk, we didn’t do a thing all day! Just read and relaxed. Next day, we prowled the town and visited their excellent museum. We had been there before, but this time we were conducted by Michelle Horvath, who is an accomplished artist. She had quite a few samples of her work, mostly pencil drawings but a few with chalk pastel coloring. We were quite impressed!

From there, we went to Lake Lenore, took some pictures of the first house built in the area and of the elevators, then went on to Marysburg, which consists of a huge church, a few houses, and a bed and breakfast.

Why Marysburg? Earlier in the summer, Al Gerwing of Lake Lenore had sent us tickets to a series of concerts held in the Marysburg Assumption Church. Thursday night, Rachel Pomedli, classical cellist, was headlined, with Michael Angell (of Archerwill) accompanying on the piano. For the first quarter, it was cello only, playing Bach. With a few exceptions, I am not a Bach fan; his music seems to go ‘round and ‘round and never really gets anywhere, but I love a cello and in Rachel’s hands it was divine.

Second quarter was cello and piano playing some DeBussy sonata, wild, undisciplined, at times bombastic and, Doreen thinks, dark; incredibly intricate at times but, Lord! How those musicians could play!

The third and fourth quarters were Brahms, and variations on a Rossini theme, none of it familiar to either of us (but then none of the first half were familiar either.) Then for an encore, they played a short lullaby, very simple and very sweet. How the crowd loved it!

There must have been 150 people there; the church could have held twice as many.

The only fault I could find with the concert is that there was nothing at all familiar in what they played. I attended a Leona Boyd concert once that was like that and I couldn’t help thinking that they would be more successful selling classical music to the public if they would throw in an old favorite once in awhile. I was tempted to ask for “Great Balls of Fire” for an encore, but Doreen restrained me.

There’s another concert in the series - Thomas Yu, pianist, will be playing at Marysburg on August 17^th and we are already making plans to go.

We stayed overnight in the churchyard, then spent some time wandering around Humboldt, and got home Friday evening.