I recently had lots of fun chatting with a friend from my Acadia days, back in the late 70s and early 80s, on her new podcast. We’ve reconnected now that we’re both spending time in the Haliburton Highlands. She’s starting a podcast, “Retired and Inspired” – don’t suppose I’ll ever actually be retired, but I’m definitely slowing down. I think I giggled too much, and said “yeah” about 200 times, but it’s a nice chat, nonetheless. Heather (Hez) has a great voice for radio, and she does the Tuesday morning show on Canoe FM, the community radio station in Haliburton.
We had a real heatwave here in the Haliburton Highlands last week – 35 with a humidex closer to 41. Phew! Luckily, we have window air conditioners and ceiling fans, but it was still too warm.
Pickleball😊
I’ve been playing lots of pickleball for the past several weeks. It’s such a great way to meet people when you’re new to a place. And I play inside most often, so it’s AIR CONDITIONED! I’ve played badminton for about 50 years, so I’m really enjoying learning a new game. There’s lots of cross-over, but also lots of unlearning since a paddle and a plastic ball are very different from a racquet and a bird.
Baby Birds
Can’t say as I’ve ever been too interested in real birds, but there are two nests just outside my back door, so I’ve been spending time watching. I think one nest is home to flycatchers, and their first fledglings left the nest a couple of weeks ago. I was happy when I saw one fly away over the roof, because two others didn’t make it. The adults have recently returned, and I assume there are new eggs in the nest, so hopefully I’ll get to enjoy seeing more fledglings take flight. The robins’ nest behind the garage had five babies stuffed into it. As they began dropping to the ground, I was amazed at how BIG they were – not sure how they all fit into the nest.
Brown-crested flycatcher
baby robins stuffed into their nest
Bunkie and Babies (now toddlers)
We’ve been staining our new bunkie, which is now wired. We’re doing the interior with pine tongue and groove (bought from a family-owned mill nearby) – so far so good. It’s an interesting experience owning the cottage property with Liam, Rachel and family. I love that Don and I are getting to know our kids as independent adults/parents, and of course, time with our granddaughters is precious. Now that they’re talking and growing their imaginations, so much fun to hang out with them! Still no pictures allowed online – sigh…
Nana and GP’s escape room
THRIFTING
I first started shopping at Frenchy’s, (now mainly Guy’s) Maritime thrift store haven, as a teenager, and I’ve never looked back. These days, Facebook Marketplace always seems to have whatever it is I’m looking for, and I’m spending too much time browsing its virtual aisles! (got a perfect non-tippy three-seater canoe on the weekend) I’m also getting an inside look since I’m spending Thursdays in the sorting room at the Lily Ann Thrift Shop in Haliburton. All proceeds are used for the 4Cs Haliburton Foodbank, which is independent rather than being supported by a bigger organization such as Feed Nova Scotia. People are generous in cleaning out their closets and donating, but I do wish they would sort out the items that are past use – garbage is garbage, and shouldn’t be donated… Most people are sensible and arrive with donations carefully laundered and folded, but not everybody.
I finally got to visit the new exhibit of Doris’s work/photos at the Doris McCarthy Gallery (U of T Scarborough) last week – more on that in a later post, but it was so good.
Hope your summer is off to a great start, and that you get to spend time with your people having fun, and staying cool. Hope you’re feeling lucky to live in Canada.
I’m always a little surprised when I finally make it back to my blog and see when I last posted. Oh, well. I’ve been in the Haliburton Highlands at our family cottage for most of the summer, seeing lots of our grandbabies who will soon be two years old already! Sadly, they’re not appearing on social media, but trust me when I say they are the two sweetest little girls who ever lived😊 They’re so different and changing every week as they’re learning to talk, experimenting with the potty, etc. Grandparenting truly is the best gig ever.
We’ve heard lots of live music here in the Haliburton area, listened to lots of Canoe FM, spent time in the woods as well as in and on Pine Lake most days. I’ve never lived anyplace with so much sunshine! Surprisingly, the lake level doesn’t seem to go down much, even though we’ve had very little rain all summer. We were back in Nova Scotia for a month in the middle of the summer, and people say it rained in Haliburton then, and the grass is still green, so maybe we missed it. While in NS, I got to enjoy my annual week at Beach Meadows with writer friends Marcia Barss, Jackie Halsey and Jill MacLean – lots of fog, but I did a lot of painting and the conversation is always rich. I’ve been busy uploading my soul smiles greeting cards, which you can find here: https://jancoates.ca/soul-smiles/ – I’m happy to mail them out to you (in exchange for an e-transfer:) BIG THANKS to everyone who has supported my fledgling business over the past 4 years. They’re also available at Stirling Farm Market just outside Wolfville.
Just signed a contract with Fitzhenry & Whiteside for a kids’ book about iconic Canadian artist, Doris McCarthy, scheduled for publication in 2026. Doris lived between 1910 and 2010, and I got to be writer-in-residence for a month back in 2015 at her former home on the Scarborough Bluffs, Fool’s Paradise, where I became smitten with all things Doris. As a young artist, Doris spent a lot of time here in the Highlands painting with her friend Ethel Curry, so I’m thinking of her often as I roam about. I’ve had a couple of nice chats with the CEO of the Haliburton County Public Library system, Chris Stephenson, and his mother was a student of Doris’s in the 1960s at Central Tech – I hope to have tea with her someday since I’ve met few people lucky enough to have known Doris.
1930s Doris McCarthy painting, Haliburton, ON
Sadly, the CEO of Fitzhenry, Sharon Fitzhenry recently passed away. She and her sister Holly Doll (who was nice enough to come to my book event at cozy bookshop, Lahave River Books, in late July, as pictured below) have been the faces of F&W for many years, and their dad started the publishing company back in 1966. A great loss to the CanLit community.
This is a very welcoming place to be, and I’ve so enjoyed our first summer in the Highlands. Haliburton only has about 1000 full-time residents, but there are over 500 lakes in the vicinity, so it’s bustling in the summer. Now that it’s fall, things will quiet down I expect. We just bought the cottage in the fall of 2022, so there’s always lots of work to do. The previous owner built it in 1975, and he basically left everything (EVERYTHING) here when he sold it. We’ve made lots of donations to SIRCH, the local community helper agency, and I’ve become a big fan of FB Marketplace, where I recently found these pinch-pleated drapes for $60, allowing me to get rid of the orange circa 1975 ones, but still use the existing tracks.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the summer of 2023 and had a chance to spend time with the people who matter most to you, as I have. I’ll leave you with the cover of the book I did for Camp Triumph in the spring, and this moose we saw close-up on Highway 118 last week. I hope he made his way back to his family as he looked kind of lost… Cheers!
Jan L. Coates - "What if...?" 