Dixon Cousins' Potluck

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When I was young, and even into these "Kate years", we used to gather with my mother's siblings for a "Dixon Summer Picnic". Now all of my parents' generation are gone, there are no aunts and uncles anymore, and the summer picnic petered out many years ago.

A few years ago we were at Casey's funeral in Stratford — Casey is a cousin by marriage to Dianne; Dianne is just a little younger than me and lives nearby.  Dianne and I share many childhood memories — regular Sunday visits to our grandparents in Markdale and much more. 

At the funeral lots of cousins gathered, some from quite a distance, to pay their respects. We don't see one another unless there's a funeral. And I thought, this is feckin' stupid, we need to gather together more often to share memories, stories of family and some laughs while we're still alive and kickin'. Funerals are not enough! Of course everyone agreed. So we started the Dixon Cousins' picnic again and have hosted it now for several years at our home on the Wednesday before the August 1st long weekend.

The idea is for we cousins to gather. If there are children or grandchildren or etc. visiting they are more than welcome of course (that's Teresa's cousin from Uruguay in the photo). But the focus is on we cousins who shared a childhood together. As all of us, save for Gordon who is the youngest, are now retired we decided to do this mid week and leave the long weekend for immediate family events. It's been fun to reconnect and to share memories and updates over an afternoon potluck. The first year everyone brought enough food to feed everyone else; I've tried to encourage that a dish or two is more than enough. And for god's sake, don't bring beer and wine, that would be like "coals to Newcastle".

This year traffic over Toronto and construction on the 401 around Milton made it difficult for some. Frank and Jane got away early, they're in Eastern Ontario, but were nevertheless delayed several hours. Likewise Walter and his family were late but made it anyway. People have that kind of devotion when it comes to funerals; it's good they're able to do the same for "we the living".

Much of my family are far away. Tony & Pat made it one year for Dave and Gail's 50th anniversary. They're visiting here from BC later in the fall. Dave and Gail came from Hamilton; Paul is far away in Thailand; Ellen is getting on for travel; Dale, I have only recently discovered, has relocated near Windsor. And Larry is gone.

In the intervening years we have lost Barry and Nancy. They are missed but I am confidant they would be pleased to see the gathering continue.

See also photos from Dixon Cousins' Potluck (2023); Margaret Quinton - Grandmother's Album (2021); or just search this blog for "Dixon".

Thamesview Farms

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Last evening (Thursday) the local Beefsteak and Burgundy wine club (St Marys Stonetown #227) held it's annual summer event outside at the home of Derek and Amy on the grounds of Thamesview Farms overlooking the Thames River here in St Marys. Our president Claire is pictured, the album contains some photos of the location, some of our guests and the servers. I am a current member and past president.

Stonetown is a men's club, originally formed by Pierre after a sabbatical visit to Australia many years ago, but tonight we had wives, partners and invited guests attending. Kate was feeling a bit tough and couldn't go; I took a mutual friend in her place. I'm told we had over 50 in attendance. Usually our meetings are around 24 devoted pissants (or sometime wine connoisseurs). Some events are just tastings, this event was a much more than a tasting with hors d'oeuvres, a full meal and dessert complemented by wine at every course.

Our wine steward Jere selected an interesting flight of wines to explore starting with a Spanish bubbly (Segura Viudas Cava Brut, LCBO #216960), moving on to a Spanish white (Paco & Lola Albariño, Vintages #35004), then a Cote du Rhone (E. Guigal Côtes du Rhône, Vintages #259721) and finishing with a light Italian frizzante (Batasiolo Bosc D'la Rei Moscato D'Asti DOCG, LCBO #277194). As always there was plenty to drink and good food to share. Some of the dishes were from local produce from Derek and Amy's farm — pasture raised beef rand maple syrup in the dessert. The chef, Eli Silverthorne, who has done this other years, did another stellar job — preparing on site and away from his kitchen must be difficult.

A good time was had by all and the weather held for us. It had been threatening rain all day and even misted a bit while we arrived. But it cleared to become another beautiful night in a lovely location.

Ps. These photos (mostly from my Canon T6i and my cell phone) have been augmented with some taken with my Nikon F4S film camera. I have C41 film developed locally but I scan it.

Ucluelet

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After Gill and Cai's wedding on Saturday July 12 there was a birthday party for Tony on Sunday across Florence Lake at Pat's daughter's home. It was a nice spot, at the end of the road high on a ridge top. There was a bit of a fuss to celebrate the birthday. Noel and Grier, who were visiting with Ellen for the week, were there. We had to duck out relatively early as we had an AirBnB reserved in Ucluelet (we like to say You-Clue-Less but that's a tired joke) for Sunday night. We had hoped to spend the day travelling there but the birthday party has changed our plans. The goal now is to get there before nightfall.

Kate had never been to Long Beach, or on up to Tofino, on the west coast of the island and, of course, neither had I. It's about a 5 hour drive from Victoria. You head north along the east side of the island on the mostly 4-lane Island Highway through Nanaimo (famous for the chocolate bar; also the other ferry to the Horseshoe Bay on the mainland). Shortly after that you head west, crossing the island and mountain ranges through Port Alberni and on to the Pacific Rim Highway with Tofino at the north end and Ucluelet on a peninsula to the south. The road is only two lane across the island; sometimes closed because of snow or landslides; few passing areas; snow tires required in the winter season. It's a beautiful drive with lots to see but we don't have much time to make any stops.

It's only 40km along the west coast from Ucluelet to Tofino with Long Beach in between. We made it to Long Beach but not to Tofino. That 40km is the entire highway on the west coast of Victoria Island; all else is only accessible by boat. The island is a big empty country.

Ucluelet is a small fishing and tourism town of about 2,000 people. Our AirBnB is near the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. We are on the water, or at least a swampy inlet, but the tide is out. I'm wandering down by the water and find there's a deer there munching on the sweet grass in a swampy area; later on there's one close by our stay. They seem very tame or at least nonplussed by us. I was telling/texting this to our landlord after we had gone. He said, that's nothing. He had moved the fridge out onto the driveway, a bear came along and tipped it over rooting around for something to eat!

On Monday we visited a couple of fishing harbors in town, did a walk in the woods nearby and went out to the Lighthouse before heading up to Long Beach. There's an interpretative centre at Long Beach and an Information Center on the highway where you branch south to Ucluelet or north toward Tofino.

We had a fine Monday to visit the west coast; it had been cool and foggy the night before when we arrived (I gather it often is). On the way back to Victoria we stopped at the "Old Country Market" in Coombs (famous for "goats on the roof " and yes there really were goats who live on the roof). It's a too busy and too cute by far tourist trap that Tony and Pat recommended. Further on we stopped in Cowichan to explore the many painted murals. Tony and Pat recommend the dinner theatre here but that would be for another day. There's another ferry terminal in Cowichan serving some of the islands which are just a stone's throw away.

Back in Sydney, the Victoria Airport and the Sydney Ferry Terminal are here, we meet up with Tony and Pat to return their car that they had kindly lent us. We share a meal together at Riva over looking the water and they drop us off at our hotel. We fly out in the morning.

It was a brief visit, far too short. Kate loves the woods of the west coast, we should visit again and give it more time.

Lake Florence

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We were in Victoria, BC for the wedding of our great nephew Mordecai (Cai) and his partner Gillian (Gil) on July 12 which happens to also be the 80th birthday of Reg's brother Anthony (as a child he was and remains "Tony" to me). It was a fun wedding; we were so happy to be able to attend.

We had rented a hotel room by the inner harbor where we had stayed for Tony and Pat's wedding back in August of 2021 but, having reconsidered, we found an AirBnB on Lake Florence which was much closer to Cai & Gil and Tony & Pat. Had we stayed downtown we would have been closer to Ellen and Ken. Noelle and Grier where there for a week, stayed nearby, and spent quite a bit of time with Ellen.

I am surprised to see that Victoria is a large sprawling city (actually a city of independent towns). Lake Florence is a quiet woodland oasis; you easily forget that you're in the city. It looks and feels an awful lot like cottage country.

The lake is quite small; Kate can easily swim to the other side or each end. Me, not so easily, but I probably could/might make it. Because it's a small lake there are no motor boats; that helps to make it very safe for swimming. Most cottages have a dock that detaches and is powered by a small electric trolling motor. It's quite funny to see a dock putt-putting at barely walking speed crawl across the lake with passengers lolling on a couch or comfy chairs with an umbrella for shade. Our dock detaches as well but we never try it. There's also stand up paddle boards and other toys for us to try. However, we just enjoy the swimming.

Our AirBnB is a private well appointed room on the lower floor of a largeish residence under tall trees. There are several similar units. Our host runs a yoga retreat here. They have a friendly dog and odd collection of garden knick-knacks scattered around the grounds.

A short distance away you're in a California modern setting with shopping malls and multilevel condos. There's a supermarket nearby that we frequent. Cottage country with big city perks!

Tony's Birthday

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One of the nice things about coming to Victoria, BC for the July wedding was it happened also to be my brother Tony's 80th birthday. His birthday is July 12, which was the day of Cai and Gillian's wedding! 

The morning of the wedding we had Tony and Pat over to our VrBO rental on Lake Florence where we had a bit of a celebration before heading out to the afternoon wedding. We bought a cake, with candles for Tony to blow out. We gave him a funny card, a tin of all sorts liquorice and a framed collage of some family photos. We think we saw him shed a tear. We shared a ride with Tony and Pat to the wedding.

The next day, July 13, there was a family birthday party arranged at Pat's daughter's home high on a hill across the lake from us. They are a very nice family, friendly, and put on a great meal for everyone. We stayed for a bit but had to run after the cake as we were on our way to Long Beach and Ocluelet on the west side of the island. Google tells us that's a four hour drive and we want to get there before dark.

There are pictures in the album of Tony and Pat, Ellen, Noelle and Grier, and many of Pat's family.

Ps. We always associate July 12 with the Orange Parade (King Billy, Battle of the Boyne and all the Fenian troubles). I've also just learned there's another reason to celebrate July 12; Google AI tells me

July 12 is celebrated as World Paper Bag Day to promote paper bags as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic, highlighting their biodegradability, recyclability, and positive impact on reducing pollution. The date also commemorates the inventions related to paper bag production, including Francis Wolle's 1852 patent for the first mass-producing paper bag machine and Margaret E. Knight's 1870 invention of the flat-bottomed grocery bag.

Now isn't that funny! Something else to celebrare.

Cai & Gillian Wedding

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We were in Victoria, BC for a few days to attend the July 12 wedding of (our great nephew) Mordecai and Gillian (his partner of several years). They were married in a lovely wooded outdoors setting overlooking the mountains at the Owl Grove — a short distance out of Victoria towards Sooke. The wedding party included Eleanor their lovely young daughter as a "Flower Girl". Gill's sister Megan was the Matron of Honor and Megan's daughter was also a flower girl.

Jeananne walked the aisle with Cai to give him away. That was cute and meaningful.

This was very much a non-traditional wedding. The officiant was quite the hoot! We enjoyed the service, the location, and were duly impressed with the bridal party.

The reception, after the wedding, was at the Metchosin Community Hall where the bridal party came storming in to the music of Blur, Song No 2 (the infamous Woo Hoo Song). That was a nice touch. There was lots of good food, speeches, jokes and games. But we ducked out early. We're no longer the party 'til you puke gang of our youth.

It was a well organized event, the bride and groom were both glowing. As were parents on both sides and grandmother Ellen (our sister). Noelle and Grier came out for the wedding and stayed the week visiting with Ellen. We flew home Tuesday morning after a brief visit to Ocluelet and the west coast of the island.