August 27, 2006:

I am sending this from Carstairs, AB. We drove out Thursday and Friday.

At Hanna, we stopped for coffee and in a corner booth saw a very pretty young girl with a fantastic spiky hairdo. I asked her permission to take her photo, and the others at the booth encouraged it, even coming up with some suggestions of their own. What a delightful group of people they were to visit with! I asked the girl how long it took her to do up her hair and she said about half an hour. I have no idea how she manages getting in and out of a car with it. I gave her my card and told her to watch for her picture on the Internet.

We were away the last part of the week, so I did some checking around on Wednesday to see what the various businesses have planned for the Labour Day Weekend

At seven AM I went to the Beach Café for coffee, and to see if Connie and Gary have anything special planned for the end of summer. Connie says they will have their regular smorg on Sunday, September 3rd, and will be open all day on Monday, Labour Day. After that, they will be closed.

It was gray and cold, and not many people were stirring at seven AM. The campgrounds are almost empty but at the same time the non-modern cabins east of the Beach were all full.

Things are really gearing down after an exceptional summer. Kids are back to school tomorrow, holidays are over and people are getting back into the work-a-day mode. This gearing down used to happen right after the August long weekend; this year it's a couple of weeks later.

In the olden days, we quite often took our holidays at the end of August. There wasn't as much for the kids to do but the Park was quieter, and we were more into relaxing than beach activities. The kids always found their own fun anyway.

Rose Steadman says the Park Store will close at 6 PM on Labour Day, September 4th. In the meantime, clothing is 20% off; sunglasses 30% off; there is a 50% off bin plus other assorted sales.

The Offshore Marina closes after Labour Day, too.

A big wedding has The Greenwater Cove booked up Saturday and Sunday, September 2nd and 3rd. The dining room will be closed Friday evening but people can eat in the tavern. There will be entertainment in the tavern later on. From seven AM Saturday to four PM Sunday only the store and gas bar will be open; after four PM Sunday the dining room will be open to the public for the smorg. It's back to business as usual on Monday. They have some special nights planned for the fall, but we will bring you up to date on them later.

There are still a couple of families of geese hanging around the Beach, likely late clutches that aren't too comfortable in the air yet. They will likely disappear any day now. Let's hope the Park is on top of things next year, and hauls them away before the Park gets busy. Goose droppings all over the beach and peninsula were likely the greatest source of complaints this summer.

There is some construction on Highway #38 south of Perigord. Looks like they might be fixing up that stretch that got missed last year.

It's been a funny year for mosquitoes. We had quite a few for a short period in the spring then basically none all summer. Gary was complaining about being attacked by a swarm of small ones the other day and their bite is as bad as the big ones. We have been painting our front door, which means it has to stay open for hours on end. We haven't got any mosquitoes, but the dozy flies are a real pain.

There was a personal watercraft buzzing around near our place last week. He seemed to be having a lot of fun with it, but the noise wasn't annoying at all. Maybe it's the way they are operated? If they were all as quiet as that one, they may be welcomed back to the lakes.

I went on a berry picking expedition last week, right in our own front yard. It took me about half an hour and I got 1/3 of an ice cream pail of black currants and chokecherries, mixed. Should make a nice jelly. We have a fair crop of cranberries, but last time I checked, Doreen was undecided whether to let the birds have them, or make some more cranberry juice. I think she still has lots from several years ago. When there is a good crop, we tend to overdo it and wind up with shelves full of juice and jelly (what we can't pawn off on the grandchildren!) Maybe it's just as well, because the good crops don't come along that often.