End of Summer

Boat Trip through "Hole in the Wall" - Pointe Au Baril, Georgian Bay

End of Summer really seems to have arrived.  The nights are cooling down, even days are calling for a sweater as I head off to the salt mines in the morning.

This end of summer is a bit different for me this year.  Lots of change in the air and I feel decidedly unsettled.  It is less than 6 months until I take my sabbatical and go off on my adventures.  I am moving into full planning mode now.  Lots of details to look after.  The primary item I have covered - my home and my dog.  Thanks to my son's friend Amanda I have someone to move in here and look after Bella.  Next important is what to do about my beloved Collingwood Shangri-La.

After much thought I decided to find long term tenants for the property to ensure that I didn't have a drain on my funds during the time away.  Also, maybe I am wanting to make sure that I don't have to rush back if I like where things are heading me when I am gone. 

Boat Trip through "Hole in the Wall" - Pointe Au Baril, Georgian Bay

I put an ad in Craig's list on Saturday to rent out the property.  If I can get long term tenants installed, I can put it on "autopilot" presuming that the tenant will pay their rent on time.  With the expenses covered I will be free to go wherever my heart sends me next February - that is until I run out of travel money.  LOL  So that means for the next month I will be busy getting rid of stuff.  I had previously thought that I might keep my wonderful resort condo as my home base and just rent it out for the 4 ski months next year but that seems kind of silly given for sure I will be away all next summer and back just in time to try and rent it out for ski season the year following.  Maybe I will want to continue my travels for much longer, and in fact regardless, I have decided that I will rent it out until I am able to retire and instead go on more trips in the coming years.  Lots of time to enjoy my Shangri-La once I retire.

So I need to get rid of a lot more stuff than usual - I may even have to clear out all the furniture if a tenant comes along who doesn't need it furnished.  I will be sad to leave my place of serenity but know that it is necessary to position me for maximum adventures as a gypsy in this next phase of my life.

If you know of anyone who is looking for a sweet spot in Collingwood send them over to my photo album of my Collingwood Shangri-La and have them get in touch if interested.

Canadian National Exhibition - View from my balcony - An End of Summer Ritual in Toronto

 I have been doing lots of stuff over the summer in "real life" and so not really blogging much.  I am planning on doing a few blogs to catch everyone up on the goings on - my trip to Iceland (wonderful), lots of stuff up Georgian Bay way (my weekend at Pointe Au Baril where I took the first two pictures) are just a few of the great things I have been up to this summer.

Lastly, I need to tell everyone that my baby is starting University this fall - frosh week is this week to be exact.  Tegan has been living with her father for quite a few years now and is moving out of his home to be closer to school (ok .5 km instead of 5 km LOL) ... anyway, I am so proud of Tegan and wish her well in this segment of her life. 


Vacation over, we go back to routine.
Students go back to school and

weekend  cottage trips are replaced by weekends raking leaves,
Days grow short and nights grow long.
Summer romance is over. 

We mourn end of summer.
What comes next?

End of Summer can be a sad time because the good times and fun come to an end, but more importantly it is a time of new beginnings - for some exciting beginnings.  So with mixed feelings, sadness that I won't have the solace of my Collingwood Shangri-La for a few years and excitement that goes with planning a new long term travel venture I have chosen a song by Dar Williams to send us off.



Dar Williams is described by Wiki as an American singer-songwriter who specializes in pop folk. She was born in 1967 in New York State. To learn more about Dar Williams go to her official site.



The summer ends and we wonder where we are
And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car
And you both look so young
And last night was hard, you said
You packed up every room
And then you cried and went to bed
But today you closed the door and said
"we have to get a move on.
It's just that time of year when we push ourselves ahead,
We push ourselves ahead."

And it was cloudy in the morning
And it rained as you drove away
And the same things looked different
It's the end of the summer
It's the end of the summer,
When you move to another place

And I feel like the neighbor's girl who will never be the same
She walked alone all spring,
She had a boyfriend when the summer came
And he gave her flowers in a lightning storm
They disappeared at night in green fields of silver corn
And sometime in july she just forgot that he was leaving
So when the fields were dying, she held on to his sleeves
She held on to his sleeves

And she doesn't want to let go
'cause she won't know what she's up against
The classrooms and the smart girls
It's the end of the summer
It's the end of the summer
When you hang your flowers up to dry

And I had a dream it blows the autumn through my head

It felt like the first day of school
But I was going to the moon instead
And I walked down the hall
With the notebooks they got for me
My dad led me through the house
My mom drank instant coffee
And I knew that I would crash
But I didn't want to tell them
There are just some moments when your family makes sense
They just make sense

So I raised up my arms and my mother put the sweater on
We walked out on the dark and frozen grass
The end of the summer
It's the end of the summer
When you send your children to the moon

The summer ends and we wonder who we are
And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car
And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree
I passed the farms that made it
Through the last days of the century
And I knew that I was going to learn again
Again, in this less hazy light
I saw the fields beyond the fields
The fields beyond the fields

And the colors are much brighter now
It's like they really want to tell the truth
We give our testimony to the end of the summer
It's the end of the summer,
You can spin the light to gold.