Tuesday 19th June, 2012
Bruce managed to talk to Rochelle on Face book last night before we went to bed. Jeff is struggling to get Rose (our cattle dog) to follow his commands, it’s all in the way you hold your tongue Jeff, perhaps she thinks you should have some goodies in your pocket!!!!! We saw two ladies in a park in Toronto, trying to teach a little mut (Tilly) to ‘come’, each had titbits in their pockets and she was transferring very well between them, until a man in long pants (luckily), long sleeved shirt and a hat walked by, the little sod just went for him, no damage though, but neither of the ladies could call ‘Tilly’ off and had to get her lead in their hand to pull her away, still yapping and bristling, no reprimand in sight. Whatever you do Jeff, don’t turn Rose into a ‘Tilly’.
A really good nights sleep, thought we weren’t tired, but the bed didn’t move until 7.00 am. It is 10.30 am and we have just returned from what could have been a sumptuous breakfast (if we’d been able to fit it in) in a beautiful dining room, bustling with guests and staff. Our room has been serviced while we were away and now we must decide what to do – the sky is rather grey, there has been drizzle while at breakfast and the temperature is only 17 degrees outside, we are back in our jeans again. It threatens to hang around for a couple of days, so the ponchos might even get another airing.

Well, we set of Saint Charles, where Bruce’s mother went to school. We didn’t get there, instead we had found a place on the internet that sold Bee equipment and on their site had a tool for breaking the caps on the honey, if the bees had not built it high enough, we decided one would be very helpful when extracting the honey. We set off on the buses, free to the central city and then $3.00 each to go further, asked questions of the bus driver and managed to get off just two minutes walk from Rosebury Street, but what we didn’t realise was, that we were at the wrong end of the street, we discovered this by asking at a very interesting second hand shop. Crossed the eight lane highway, found a cup of tea, a grocery shop to buy our dinner at on the way back and set off walking. Most we have done for several days, so it was good, especially since it was down a tree lined residential area. Had we not asked, I’m sure we would have given up looking, as we walked three very long blocks through the area. We reached our destination after about a forty five minute walk, quite close to an airport and in the middle of an industrial area. What a shop – we spent a very pleasant and interesting hour and a quarter there. The guys were very interested in the Bees in New Zealand and the Varroa mite, which they too are very aware of, as it is causing devastation with the Canadian bees too. We did learn, that New Zealand is the only country that they can import Queen Bees from. We had quite a little spend in this shop, now the suitcases will need a little more tuning.
We made it all the way back home, almost by ourselves, only one question of the bus driver, although Bruce would have had us almost in the river to get home, if he’d had his way with directions, I’m useful sometimes.
Skyped Rochelle at about 5.00 pm our time, nobody else was on line.

We have just enjoyed our Supermarket salad followed by a banana, fresh raspberries and yoghurt dessert-yum, the fresh fruit is almost as good as Switzerland.

We are going to walk down to the meeting of the two rivers, not far from here, just to see if the water level has risen – there has been heavy rain farther up stream and the level is expected to rise. We could see last evening, where the water level gets to after the Winter thaw, all the pontoons for the water taxis are removed and everything else goes about twelve to fifteen feet under water, all the trees have lost their bark up to that level. It is very close to a huge market area, lots of handmade jewellery and food for Africa from every nationality you can imagine. All looks fresh but some places look a little dodgy, but we did have a lovely Pancake and Raspberry pudding there last night.