Watching the sunlight sparkle on Indian Creek

I've been trying to spend less time with my face in the laptop.

That's why I found myself on the stoop, breathing deep of our forest air, focusing on every precious breath, and all the usual mindfulness verities.

Every year, with the spring melt, the creek will rise enough that we can see it from the stoop. 

Indian Creek originates at Mary Lake. From there, it trickles into Gowan Lake, and then into a marsh just upstream from me, and from there to the marsh at the north end of Bass Lake, from where it emerges as the Indian River, which meets Georgian Bay across the road from the Indian River liquor store.

That joint is one of my great real estate regrets. It sat there boarded up and for sale for two years. Every day when I drove home I'd say to myself, that'd be a great spot for a LCBO outlet, especially after they moved the only LCBO in Owen Sound from the downtown to the east side.

While I was thinking about it, a lovely Korean couple bought the joint and opened a LCBO outlet. I can't help but think the place is a gold mine. There's an awful lot of folks up Balmy Beach Road and out at Cobble who have ample booze budgets and would much prefer to stop on their way home than to drive across town.

Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day here, although a little on the cool side. But what was really cool was, with the creek high, you can see the sun sparkle on the water, right from the stoop!

RIP Joe Szewczyk

I only met Joe once, but I'd heard about him a lot.

I hadn't realized that he passed away just the other week, until I ran into a couple of guys as I was walking my dog on his property this morning. It's the first day of turkey season, and Rick and Tom had the whole hunting thing going on: camo blinds, decoys, an ATV...

Seems I got a couple of things wrong in the hearsay I heard said about Joe. According to his obit, he was born in Canada, whereas I'd thought he was born in the old country. And he was only 82.

Joe's extended clan always come up for deer hunting season, and Rick and Tom were apparently close enough to have been part of that, and also close enough to stay at the main cabin down at Mary Lake while they're up here for turkey season.

Me and the Farm Manager were down at Mary Lake one time, throwing sticks into the water for the dogs. Joe's property manager showed up in short order to check us out. I figure Joe must have had some kind of security camera system set up around the place.

Be that as it may, once he knew who we were, he was exceedingly generous, and made it clear that we could walk our hounds on his property any time we liked.


Thanks, neighbour.