Arriving home in Quebec

We returned yesterday to our house in Quebec.  Returning home to the Northern Appalachians.  It’s a long drive, 2 1/2 days.  Fortunately, it went smoothly and we crossed the border without issue, having fulfilled all the requirements (vaccinated, negative COVID test, arriveCAN filled out, and an address of the place we were going.)  The border fellow wanted to see proof of our ownership - thankfully I’d prepared with our school property tax bill.

The last two hours before our arrival were unexpectedly occupied by an excellent writing workshop program that I’ve been in for 5 weeks now.  Who knew that I could write on top of an iPad cover on a printed hotel invoice from the night before?  In the car?  Reading and commenting, too?  At least my iPhone managed a charge through arrival, almost exactly after we arrived.   Remarkable.  Lovely to share that last bit of journeying with that small group of writing friends.

It’s hard to understate how glad we were to arrive back to this special place after a year and half away.  The house was fine, as expected, and the landscape looked fine as well, although robust and weedy.

We started cleaning it up today, tackling big tasks (my gardening companion) and weeding the bed in front of the antique shed (me).  Plenty of exercise in both activities.  An afternoon trip to town this afternoon had me successfully buying a small chest freezer to use on the main floor, replacing the mildew-ridden basement one (it’s now working set on the proper temperature and without air leakage).  Our vintage-look all refrigerator requires a separate freezer, so we’d been using the big one in the basement in summer 2019 and winter 2020.

This evening, we returned to St. Fabien sur Mer, where Woody had a nice swim and we had a lovely chat on the beach with an English-speaking couple from Montreal who’d bought a place for family three years ago, about the same time that we bought our cottage here. 

It’s a wonderful place and one of our favorite excursions with Woody after dinner.