Birthday Blahs

It doesn't seem like too many years ago that I used to put a lot of planning into Kazi's birthdays - gifts, homemade birthday cake, parties, dinners with relatives, more gifts. Decorations, go to the fair, visit grandparents etc etc...

But now she's 24, today actually, and I haven't even seen her. Oh, we texted back and forth all afternoon but she was just too tired to move her butt and come home. Our dinner plans have been moved to tomorrow night. She and her boyfriend, Steven, went to Toronto on Friday to some big concert, stayed over, shopped Saturday morning for her gift, then drove back to London. She was in and out of the house while I was visiting with cousins in Alymer. I know because I saw the evidence in the washroom :( Then last night she went out with lots and lots of girlfriends - lots of eating and drinking and music and dancing.

Six cousins: Doug, my brother Gord, Joyce, Brian, Gordie Wayne and me.
I think my cousin Gordie Wayne (whose knee I grace) and I look like brother and sister!

So today, her actual birthday, she is laying low and getting her strength back. Ah to be young again!

My gift to her this year was paying for her teacher's college application (she didn't go) and I helped her pay for her car repairs, it does go. Exciting eh?

I'm gearing up for my trip, leaving this Thursday. Did up the laundry today and had my last big hike (10km) this morning before I leave. I'll have lots more hiking to do once I arrive in merry Olde England :) It was a bit of a muddy hike today with lots of fallen trees to crawl over and many many hills to slide up and down. Luckily I was one of the few who didn't do a face plant or a bum plant on the slippery muddy hills. We've had a LOT, I repeat a LOT of rain lately. I've never seen the Thames quite so high as it is these days. I had to spend some time cleaning the muck off my hiking boots and water proofing them. They are ready to go and so am I!!

 Isn't that idyllic?

Stonehenge? or inukshuks? You be the judge!

 Down down down to the swollen river!

 Oh yay another hill to climb up!

 Oh this is better...cross country for awhile...look!! Blue sky...bits of it anyways...

 ...going down is actually harder and more dangerous than going UP! One person falls and it's like a stack of dominoes!!

 NOT poison ivy though we had several PIAs (poison ivy alerts!)

 Just beyond the tree branches is a huge swath of beaten down and drowning tall grasses that used to be along the shore of the Thames but are now flattened by the strong currents in a flood zone.

 Our sculptural moment of the day.

Time to go and scrounge something edible out of the fridge. I'm using up leftovers and creating some unlikely combinations. Maybe I'll discover something new!