Happy Friday!
The weather has been fantastic all week - 30+ Celsius, sunny, just the loveliest of ways to end an August!
Wednesday afternoon, we went sailing with our friends M&M. It is always a treat to be with them - on top of being smart and interesting people, everything they do in life is quite lovely, from the dinner parties they host, their house, etc.
Their sailboat is no exception.
It is a beautiful handmade wooden sailboat. The craftsmanship and design is absolutely lovely and sailing up and down our lovely river is always an amazing treat.
They took us out to an island in the middle of the river. As you can see in the picture above, the beach is actually quite sandy and is a lovely spot for a picnic:
The view from the other direction, with cows and horses in the background:
Cows and horses in the background? Glad you asked. Local farmers move their cows (and in this case a couple of horses) over to these islands to graze for the summer. They were quite tame and quite curious...
And the horses were beautiful, but cheeky. Once we had fed them all of the carrots and broccoli we had, they tried to take a nip out of the camp chairs!
I can't tell you how lovely it was to putt up and down the river and then land here and have a lunch and a little exploration and be so close to these lovely animals.
It reminded me of Swallows and Amazons, a book both I and my children loved.
I loved this book and the adventures that the children had, toodling around in their little sailboat. It turns out it had a profound impact on Mr. M especially. It is interesting, my other sailor friend, D, loves that book as well. I wonder how many sailor Arthur Ransome helped create with his story?
There is a certain freedom when you are out on the water. I truly love it and a sailboat is my ship of choice, so different than the fast speedboats and party boats that went by. There is something just so romantic and peaceful and intelligent about a sailboat. Plus, I like all of the sailing terms - keel, rudder, etc. Sailing harkens back to a different time and it just feeds my soul.
I was sad to leave the island and I have to admit, I quite envied the seagulls who got to stay:
In honour of our lovely day with M&M let's make a cocktail in their honour, shall we?
How about the Smooth Sailing Cocktail?
Instructions
Mix bourbon and cream with cracked ice in a shaker and serve in a tumbler, topped up with club soda.
Ingredients
Last night we had a really inspiring evening, but I'll tell you more about that on the weekend!
Have a lovely Friday and Stay safe out there! And Dani - it's probably time for you to come home from your vacation, as we are all on the front porch and the neighbours are sick of us!!!
The weather has been fantastic all week - 30+ Celsius, sunny, just the loveliest of ways to end an August!
Their sailboat is no exception.
It is a beautiful handmade wooden sailboat. The craftsmanship and design is absolutely lovely and sailing up and down our lovely river is always an amazing treat.
They took us out to an island in the middle of the river. As you can see in the picture above, the beach is actually quite sandy and is a lovely spot for a picnic:
 |
| Barry, who ate a LOT of sandwiches - must have been the fresh air... |
The view from the other direction, with cows and horses in the background:
Cows and horses in the background? Glad you asked. Local farmers move their cows (and in this case a couple of horses) over to these islands to graze for the summer. They were quite tame and quite curious...
And the horses were beautiful, but cheeky. Once we had fed them all of the carrots and broccoli we had, they tried to take a nip out of the camp chairs!
I can't tell you how lovely it was to putt up and down the river and then land here and have a lunch and a little exploration and be so close to these lovely animals.
It reminded me of Swallows and Amazons, a book both I and my children loved.
I loved this book and the adventures that the children had, toodling around in their little sailboat. It turns out it had a profound impact on Mr. M especially. It is interesting, my other sailor friend, D, loves that book as well. I wonder how many sailor Arthur Ransome helped create with his story?
There is a certain freedom when you are out on the water. I truly love it and a sailboat is my ship of choice, so different than the fast speedboats and party boats that went by. There is something just so romantic and peaceful and intelligent about a sailboat. Plus, I like all of the sailing terms - keel, rudder, etc. Sailing harkens back to a different time and it just feeds my soul.
I was sad to leave the island and I have to admit, I quite envied the seagulls who got to stay:
In honour of our lovely day with M&M let's make a cocktail in their honour, shall we?
How about the Smooth Sailing Cocktail?
Smooth Sailing
Instructions
Mix bourbon and cream with cracked ice in a shaker and serve in a tumbler, topped up with club soda.
Ingredients
- 2 Oz Cream
- Water - Soda
- 2 Oz Whiskey - Bourbon
Last night we had a really inspiring evening, but I'll tell you more about that on the weekend!
Have a lovely Friday and Stay safe out there! And Dani - it's probably time for you to come home from your vacation, as we are all on the front porch and the neighbours are sick of us!!!
How much fun! I think I'll make that cocktail this weekend. :) Happy Friday!
ReplyDeleteHi MW - I think that the cocktail sounds divine! I may join you!
DeleteWhat fun! I love cows - they are just too cute!
ReplyDeleteThey were pretty friendly cows, although the horses kept shooing them away!
DeleteI love that picture of all the cows on the green grass by the water lol. Sounds like it was an amazing day.
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun - just one of those days when you are glad to be alive!
DeleteI loved that book, too. Gorgeous island you sailed to and with chairs! Good thinking. Our islands had sheep in the summers, long ago now. There are a few Ram Islands off the coast where the rams would be pastured to leave the ewes in peace. I do wish they were still out there.
ReplyDeleteNothing so grand as messing about in boats, to quote Pooh. The girls had a sailfish to zip about in, I love my kayak the best and we all like to head out on the Whaler. Your friends' boat is lovely and she requires a lot of upkeep with all that wood. But guys love to do this. We didn't get to see your boating wear?
That is true I forgot to get Barry to take a picture of me! I was just wearing navy short, a white sleeveless blouse, plastic sandals for wading and my "island" hat - very boho!
DeleteSounds perfect!
DeleteOh I almost squealed when I saw the cows and horses!!
ReplyDeleteSwallows & Amazons is one of my favourite books, and M loves it too!
Looks like such a fabulous day!
Good British girl! There is something nice about cows and horses!
Deleteruth, I did squee, it was just too perfectly bucolic, and I was once pony/horse mad.
DeleteWhat a delightful day. The words smooth and sailing don't apply to me, unfortunately. A first date turned disastrous when I got sick because the waters were choppy. My date was kind enough to turn back and bring me to dry land in the middle of a race. No, we did not end up together.
ReplyDeleteoh Marie - that is sad, but also funny!
DeleteOh but it was the start of a wonderful friendship. He married a lovely Canadian and moved to Toronto. Four years ago we visited them and he took my family sailing. Yes, I stayed on dry land. Before meeting him, my family thought I just made that story up.
Deletewell alls well that ends well on dry land!
DeleteHi Wendy, that truly looks like a lovely day out. Like Marie, I'm not one for messing around in boats. The one time I was on a small sailboat was on the Rhine in Germany - a friend was a member of the base yacht club and invited us out for the day. I really didn't feel very safe at all (it was a small boat), so asked them to drop me off whilst they continued on. I sat in the car reading, but glanced up to see the boat turned upside down, the mast scraping along the bottom of the river - our friend had failed to secure the plug (terminology?) properly and they couldn't bail out fast enough. A woman's intuition is the best!!
ReplyDeleteoh that is a great story!!!
DeleteIf the dictionary had pictures to define idyllic, these would be it, wouldn't they? Sigh. I'll just imagine doing this instead of what I'm going to be doing today.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was much younger, I took two series of sailing lessons with my best friend from that time. In order to graduate, we had to demonstrate rigging, sailing (of course), capsizing and righting several different kinds of sailboats. We got into some trouble as the only two-women team.
was it the righting that got you in trouble or the fraternizing?
DeleteWhat an inspiring little trip on a beautiful day. Very bucolic scenery with the cows and horses. How does the rancher get them over to the island?
ReplyDeleteHe has a little ferry that runs along a cord under water!
DeleteStill so happy about your wonderful news!
This looks like such a perfect day. The cows are beautiful!! S much fun. My kind of day.
ReplyDeleteAHOY MATE, as xoxo says, how perfectly bucolic. You just reminded me of the Sable Island ponies my great-uncle painted. You'll never get me to sully my bourbon with cream, is very Tabs' faves tho'. Happy weekend WMM.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and text about the day. Funny how wonderfully different an experience looks through someone else's eyes and lens. We have enjoyed many a day such as this in our Will and now I will pay more attention to the feeling it gives us. Thanks.
ReplyDelete