David arrived here with Desre, Chris, and Chris's dog Max, in time for a leisurely Saturday lunch, which was memorable among other things for some very tasty pate that David made. It's very pleasing to me, and to my palate, that David is such an excellent cook. I don't take after him, so I'm always profoundly grateful for nourishment provided by my family, which in this context means Richard or David.
Among the perks of being appointed to the Order of Canada is that one or two of the congratulatory letters I received came with gifts. The CEO of the three 'Science' museums in Ottawa sent me a complimentary family pass to these museums - the Science Museum, the Aeronautics Museum, and the Museum of Agriculture. Despite residence on Ottawa for more than 40 years, I've never been to the Museum of Agriculture. We made up for this lapse on Saturday afternoon, with a visit to this museum, which I've driven past on countless occasions - it's on the road that runs through the Central Experimental Farm. We saw horses, including huge, impressive Clydesdales, donkeys, cows, calves, sheep, goats, pigs, bees, and many of the implements of animal husbandry. I very much like the smells associated with farming. The evening before I had looked at the delightful movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a lovely, loving tribute to life in modern India, which captures brilliantly the atmosphere, manners and mannerisms of India. The only thing missing from the movie was the smells of India. Some of these smells were apparent in the spacious animal stalls in the Museum of Agriculture.
There was time between leaving the museum and getting to Rebecca and Richard's home for dinner, to visit a couple of places where recliners are sold, because I had confessed to the family that I'm thinking of getting myself a recliner. We went on to R&R's where Richard provided as he usually does, a truly superb feast. Eventually Jonathan drove Chris and me back to my pad. Chris stayed with me because Rebecca has a new cat that is nervous around dogs. Max is a well-behaved little chap but he does yap from time to time so life was more peaceful at R&R's without him. And this provided a good reason for Chris to stay overnight with me, which delighted me. It was very good indeed to have some quality time with Chris, for us to talk at leisure about several mutual interests. I think Chris is an impressive young person who has matured considerably in the past year or so.
Sunday morning we reconvened for Brunch - pancakes, bacon, sundry other tasty treats - at R&R's; then traveled across town to a store in the far east end that specializes in recliners. They range in price from a few hundred dollars all the way up to $3000. I don't think my arthritic spine and swollen ankles are worth $3000 but perhaps they warrant an investment of a few hundred. I'll look at a few more, perhaps will buy one for a few hundred dollars.
So finally the birthday weekend celebrations ended, the out-of-town contingent departed for Toronto and Kingston. It was a good weekend. It would have been a near-pefect weekend if Wendy was still here to help me celebrate but in her absence it was about as good as it ever could be.
No photos to post but here's a sketch of my profile that Chris produced whenI wasn't looking
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