As Ian Sees It

      I've always found this time of year a contradiction.   The end of August being the end of summer vacation when I was a kid meant the beginning of another dreaded school year.  Now I loved all the new blank scribblers and new pens and the new outfit Mom bought me.  So much promise in the coming year.  A faint hope that the tools for school would be used properly.  That they would be filled with the words, fractions, formulas, and theories worthy of my new clothes.   Feelings that barely lasted the day.     And it was September.  My birthday month.  Warm colourful days.  Cool evenings where darkness came early.  Playing in the darkness was rare in my home and native land as summer months saw the sun set long after bed time.   In the winter,   well it was winter.   Lots to love about this time of year.   And its shortness contributed to the urgency of our enjoyment.   An urgency t...

It is hard to sit here in the dark corner of my basement when the sun is shining and the air is warm.  I just felt the need to stay in touch.   It has been a pretty incredible summer here at the lake.  We have had some smokey days,  but we missed the wild fires.   It has not been a wet summer but we have not suffered from drought like so much of our Province has.  In fact, the crops here look absolutely fantastic.   We have been lucky so far.   Huge hail storms have been all around us.  When it does rain, it is usually at night.  We have missed perhaps a single day of golf due to weather.  And that says a lot,  cause we golf what seems like all the time. Our family dynamic has changed again with the addition of two new grand children.   Our daughter and her husband have taken on two foster children aged four and two.  Once again our house adorns baby gates,  scattered toys,  tiny finger prints, and sticky ed...