Cinqueterre is only a beautiful memory!
The weather forecast for that last day in Italy was bleak, but I went anyway and I'm so glad I did. It was BEE-utiful!!! I took the train from Pisa and after an hour or so, the train burst through a tunnel and there was the wide, blue, glorious expanse of the sea! I realized how much I'd missed that lovely perspective that I was so accustomed to on Hornby, and I was in bliss as I walked along the Amore trail, perhaps 100 feet above sea level.
BUT Ontario in the snow is a beautiful NOW. Strangely, the address of the house I bought in Owen Sound ends with B E. I looked at the name on the street sign: 4th St. B E and thought, "Wow, BE HERE NOW!" Actually, all the streets in this city are classified by number and East or West, and A or B. So I'm on 4th St. B East. Which also looks like BEast. At least my number isn't 666. That would be scary.
My living room window gazes onto the Sydenham River and silhouettes of deciduous trees and a big willow tree. There are often a pair of swans lolling elegantly outside my window, usually surrounded by a court of ducks. I can walk downtown in 15 minutes, or reach Harrison Park and all its trails, in 10 minutes. I'm happy. And it's so nice to have a phone number and internet again!
I've been shop-shop-shopping. Flea markets, used furniture stores and, dare I say it, Walmart. Also, friends have contributed odds and ends so I have enough furniture and dishes to invite my newly married son and his wife and a few friends for a turkey feast before Christmas. I ordered a fresh turkey from a farmer at the market and bought a Norfolk Pine for a Christmas tree. I've shovelled snow 3 or 4 times already... well, it is Ontario!
Home again. A Merry Christmas to all!
