Yesterday Daniel found mushrooms right beside the cottage. Consulting several books about mushrooms and edible plants we decided that it was the “American Slippery Joe” and that it was edible. Immediately it was used in the sauce for dinner sauté with some bacon it was served to grilled salmon. We made some jokes, that Hanna’s sister should call us every two hours to check if we somebody still answers the phone. We made it and are still alive and well this morning.

Yesterday at lunchtime the family has left the cottage and wie good enjoy the quietness again, especially due to Big O.’s absence. Well, it was quiet until Helga decided to hoover the cottage, there it was, something else wailing again. Slightly angry I escaped down to the lake.

This morning we were in Bala to stock up our supplies. Soon another part of the family will arrive and silence will be gone again.

Yesterday we had a walk trough the forest to visit neighbours who celebrated their silver wedding anniversary on their cottage. We had a nice evening and later a young man from the crowd performed some very good card tricks. Interesting at the neighbour’s were all the feeding places for birds. We have see some woodpeckers and I tried to catch one in this photo. If you have visited our page more often, you might know that we often talk about BBQs. Here in Canada everything is a bit larger, and the BBQ at our cottage must be one of the larger even for Canada.

Today finally the sun has has returned after some overcast and rainy days, and it promises to become a nice day.

And here is Oliver in full, equipped with shirt and cap Hanna brought for him from Berlin. He is a very energetic little guy who certainly knows to express what he wants. But he seems to love Hanna’s singing. Probably it will be her task to sing him to sleep during some of the following days.

Natasha cooked a wonderful birthday dinner two days after my birthday. A soup with potatoes and Polish sausage, but the main ingredients were mussles, king prawns and lobster tails. The whole thing then was topped of with lots of butter in the soup. Was one of the best meals I had in my life.

Usually you do not notice when it is weekend during a holiday. Here on the cottage you realise it when the family is expected including the new star, “Big O.” (2 years old). Unfortunately it has become a little cooler (20 Celsius only) and is raining a bit. We are sitting here waiting as the first family members wanted to arrive one and a half hours ago. Nobody in sight yet.

Around Six Mile Lake you find the most Northern kind of Kolibris called Hummingbird. Hanna’s nieces have installed a feeding place for them, which is frequented very often. The birds get four parts sugar and one part of water, a mixture which humble bees would like as well.

Hanna only has arrived in Canada, when she has drunk her first Caesar’s, I think I mentioned that already. She always calls it Clamato, but Clamato only is an ingredient of the drink, which you hardly get anywhere else than Canada. Clamato originally is a by-product from a mussles-factory, which mixes the juice from the mussles with tomato juice and sells it as Clamato. To get a Caesar’s you mix clamato with vodka, some tabasco, horseradish, celery salt, Wourcestersauce and a dash of lemon. The mixture is served in a large glass with a stalk of celery. A significant portion of concentration is needed to prepare it as you can see.

Our friend accompanies us on this journey. For her these holidays might be a bit more adventurous than her previous ones. After the opulent food on our flight to London we confiscated her passport because of obvious danger of escaping as it was clear that the food would not be better on the intercontinental flight. Arriving at Toronto airport we allowed her to inhale twice from her cigarette in the open air, only to drive to the countryside where she got a glass of Coke and was allowed to load the luggage into another car. Then she had another two-hour ride into the wilderness without any food or restaurant visit of course.

Upon arrival on the cottage, in the real wilderness, we told her that her mobile phone would not work here, but at least she got a sandwich. Next morning my sister took the car away leaving no opportunity to escape from the cottage except by walking. That is why she started to practice swimming yesterday, a sport she had not done for 15 years. This morning the last guests also left the cottage, so now she really is in our hands. But Helga likes to be on a diet.

Just look at the people carefully you are going on a journey with.

Everything went well with the flight. We only had some paperbags with a small selection of dry food as catering, to drink we only got water and a cup of coffee because of industrial action at Heathrow, but at least the flights were as planned. We were met at the airport by Heide and Rudi, went to their home and changed cars. Then buying supplies and off to Six-Mile-Lake. Then Hanna finally arrived: she had her first Caesar’s. Now we are enjoying the first morning on the cottage with all its quietness, with its fog rising over the water. An a wonderful sunrise.