On our way to see Aline, heavy storm clouds started piling up.
When we arrived, Meg, the border collie, greeted us
enthusiastically and slipped into the house with us, but, being well-trained to
know her place, remained in the porch.
Aline was on the phone to Nicholas who
had asked his mom to call as soon as we arrived because he didn’t want to miss
our visit.
From the fridge, Aline triumphantly
produced cold bottles of beer. “There’ll
always be a beer for you,” she assured me.
“George used to say, ‘My sister’s coming. There’s gotta be beer in the fridge’.”
Beer, a platter of cheese and
pepperoni . . . man!
Also, on the table were a fruit platter and Nanaimo
squares! Aline apologized for the squares, saying, “The
bottom layer is too dry.” She had asked
for Graham wafers but received Graham wafer crumbs. “It’s so much better to crush the wafers
yourself,” she sighed. She was right
about the bottom layer but the top layers of custard and chocolate more than made
up for it! I had more than piece J
I asked Nick if he had a picture of
his girlfriend so he showed us one on his I-phone. (Very pretty.)
Bryan, with only a little Irish exaggeration,
likes to describe this as a very Canadian moment because Nick also showed us a
picture of his tractor. It was actually
a few minutes later when Nick’s farm had become the major topic. Nick is really enjoying farming.
It was a great visit, and we got
back safely to Russell in spite of slashing rain and great flashes of
lightning.