Falling Out of Summer

It was only the fourth of September but the trees on the shores of Lake Superior were already falling out of summer and into their colourful autumn coats...

Bar None

My attachment to the ocean is more than water and waves or the smell of drying seaweed and salt. 

It's lobster boils and fire clay and skipping rocks and catching crayfish. It's jumping off of breakwaters and picking seaglass and painting seashells.

It's all of the best parts of childhood, bar none.

The Best of Her

I've never been one for motherhood. The idea that people willingly and joyfully bring whole other human beings into this world and mold them from helpless infants to productive adults (on purpose! Sometimes multiple times!) is absolutely mystifying to me.

But had things been different, and I'd had a daughter, Skyler is exactly the one I'd hope to have.

This vibrant and happy young woman was not always this way. She grew up battling learning disabilities and bouts of depression and anxiety that left her locked in her room for days on end. The strength she developed in dealing with her mind and the world around her overflowed into the biggest, fullest heart of anyone I know. So when she told me she was pregnant, I was thrilled for her. She has every ounce of the motherly instinct I was never given, and finally she would have someone who would unconditionally accept the incredible amount of love that huge heart of hers had to give.

But even I could have never imagined the effects motherhood would have, and how much Baby Lincoln would bring out the very best of her.

That smile says everything.

We all have very different experiences growing up.We can allow them to be our excuses, our alibis, our reason for all the worst things we become as adults. Or we can find our strength in them, and let them teach us what it is we do or don't want to be. 

Skyler herself still has a long way to go. But she's rocking this big step, and with a whole new reason to get there, I just know she's always going to be "alright... most of the time. I guess." ;)

The Ryder Cup 2019

I got to attend another family gathering this summer that I had been sorely missing. My fourth Ryder Cup Annual Friends and Family Washer Toss Tournament happened to fall on one of the three days I happened to be at home in Cape Breton, and it was literally three blocks away from where I was staying!

You can click the links for previous years' posts:

2012

2013

2014

By 2019, because it had been five years since I attended, there were lots of new faces. Some of them, in fact, were actually NEW.

Interspersed with the usual crowd...

...up to their usual shenanigans.

And of course, lots of friendly competition.

 Drinks?

Little bit.

And lots...

..lots...

...LOTS...

of tossing.

Buffet-style potluck eats...

...and kids who absolutely stole the show.

They weren't all little kids, either. 

I wasn't even the only western exile in attendance. Muzzy showed up all the way from... lo and behold...  Calgary, Alberta!

The games run consecutively all day until the winner is pronounced. 

I didn't stay through to the end, but I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend an entire afternoon than with a family who has helped see me through some of my very worst times and given me one of my very best friends. It is the most incredible feeling to know there is always a spot with my name on it, no matter how much time or distance has passed, at the Ryder dinner table, and a photographer's pass for me at the Ryder Cup.