Took a very pleasant drive out to Long Lane Orchards this morning. I wished I had taken my camera. There are interesting displays of autumn harvest produce, faces moulded onto the trunks of the trees, beautiful fall flowers etc.

Bought a bag of apples, a fresh loaf, and a couple of fresh sausage rolls. There are all kinds of beautiful baskets, jams, jellies, apples, fresh coffee etc. It's a good place to treat children to a party. A family arrived while we were there, to enjoy a birthday party.

I was really disappointed to get stung by a wasp as I was getting into my car. That's the first time I have been stung while doing nothing to provoke an attack. Usually I have had to actually put my hand on the insect or sit on it. But, this time it just flew over and bit me! Actually, in retrospect, I did do something - I touched my ruddy car! My car is a Ford - and it is full of static. Every time I touch it it zaps me. This frequently wipes out the magnetic strips on my credit cards, it sets off my personal purse alarm and .. of course .. when the wasps were zapped - they zapped me right back! If anyone reading this has similar problems with their car and has found a good way to stop the annoyance I'd certainly like to hear from them: (Email to oficserv@sentex.net) .. I bought some static strips - but don't see anywhere I could hang them, without drilling through the bodywork.

Everyone agreed the wasps are particularly aggressive this year - so wear long-sleeves, long pants, no perfume and insect repellant. I'm going out now to buy some anti-histamine.

Take care and enjoy the lovely autumn weather.

Thursday 16th September 1999

Second tour this week with Cherry/Maxey Bus Lines. Getting to be a habit. Set off from Guelph at 10:30 a.m. travelled pleasantly along toward St. Catharines and Niagara on the Lake, stopping for coffee at the Tim Horton's drive in, as usual. Toured around the vineyards and went to a matinee performance at the Shaw Festival Theatre.

The play was Noel Coward's "Easy Virtue". I wondered why he called it that. No doubt they had very different ideas in those days. The story I thought not in the least funny, actually rather sad - but there again, their way of looking at things was quite different.

The programme explained a great deal of the background and lifestyle. I thought it interesting and rather strange that it was considered to be part of the play - continually lighting up cigarettes and drinking. I always notice the same thing in old movies. Why would it be considered smart and sophisticated to go around with a cigarette hanging out of one's mouth? Why would it be thought interesting and fascinating for the women to hang around on sofas, half-cut and complaining about being bored? I always wondered about the song in "High Society" - "You're Sensational", when Grace Kelly was staggering around acting like a half-wit. It was a different and very boring lifestyle, that's for sure.

I really enjoyed the play, in spite of my criticism. The Shaw Theatre is beautiful, set in acres of parkland. During the breaks one could buy gifts, drinks, snacks etc. or just wander around the lawns.

Afterwards we could walk or take the coach the short trip into the little picturesque town of Niagara On The Lake. I wished I had taken my camera. The town is very pretty. During the summer coaches are not allowed to go into the town, it is so busy with tourists.

I walked along the main street and eventually found a little shop selling fish and chips, so settled there for supper.

Then it was time to return to Guelph. The return journey didn't seem to take very long and we were back by about 6:30 p.m. (I think). The sunset was spectacular again, with a bank of black cloud outlined in silver and gold and the sun itself shimmering red/gold. What a lovely sight. Our driver was not so impressed, as he had to look right into it. You certainly need good sunglasses in Canada. All our visitors from Europe have had to buy new extra dark sunglasses.

Tuesday 14th September 1999

Went with a friend on a Cherry/Maxey Bus Lines Tour to Niagara Falls (again). This is the same tour I took last year: Rossi Glass, The Niagara Steam Ship "SS Pumper" (see http://www.niagarasteamship.com) and Kurtz Orchards. This year a hail storm had taken all the fruit from the trees, so they didn't include a trail ride around the orchards. The orchards of Niagara suffered tremendous losses. I took a few photographs at the Falls:-

It's almost mid September already. Thank goodness the 9th went by without a hitch. One hopes next January will be a similar anti-climax computorially speaking!

Sunday 12th September 1999 This afternoon I went to see A Dog of Flanders .. but apparently it had been received like a lead brick, so they had taken it off early. The only other two were Stigmata and Sixth Sense. I really don't care for horror or suspense .. but have just become accustomed to going to the cinema in the heat of the afternoon. So, I opted for the lesser suspense and was very pleasantly surprised. Most of the movie opted for gory bodies suddenly popping out from here and there, which I thought was pretty ho-hum. However, I thought the ending of the story was brilliant and went out of the cinema laughing at myself. .. This because usually I can think what the ending will be, but on this occasion had absolutely no idea what would happen.

Visit a site for many photographs of North American Birds and animals.

Rhona Raskin Home Page at http://www.rhona.com.