O What a Canada Day

We are winding down our day from a wonderful Canada Day. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The sun shone the entire day. No clouds, no rain, no hail, no thunderstorms, no tornadoes. Just a light cool breeze to cool us down when we asked. It was as if the earth was celebrating Canada Day (in this part of the country) and gave us what we asked for. We hiked through the Dundas Valley and stopped to play soccer, eat popsicles and dodge horse unh-huhs. We explored the Griffin House and met a young girl who had spent countless of her grade 5 hours meticulously preparing a presentation on the Griffin family and their arrival into Canada via the Underground Railroad. Which I had imagined to be an actual railroad underground for several decades. It's a part of our history in Canada that we is often shadowed with the stories of perhaps other struggles. Slaves did exist in Canada and were recorded in the history books in this area. In fact, Mohawk leader Joseph Brant was recorded to have purchased a young slave girl and later sold her as a 12 year old slave girl. Nasty times. The Griffin House stands atop a hill and looks across the valley across to the rim of the Niagara Escarpment. I love the view and will never tire of it.

Then we were asked by *Mila* to stop off at a local farm for ice cream and to jump inside of an inflatable caterpillar. We manage to always show up after their sweet potato fries are sold out. So we opted for the regular potato fries and *Mila* had the best time jumping around inside the rectal cavity of the inflatable worm. Ah, good times. Then we came home, splashed around in our abundant resource: water from the sprinkler. We went to DQ for some dessert after dinner and brought the dog. After we filled up our tank for just shy of $60, we drove out to the country side and day dreamed about trees and trampolines, inflatable caterpillars and we spotted 3 deer munching on a farmer's corn field. I had a great day and I'm so glad that I can relax and sleep safely in my home with my windows open at night, rest assured that my family will all be alive in the morning due to our reliable health care, drink water from my sprinkler (although a grey water tank would be nice) and be able to fall asleep to the cracks, whirrs and bangs of fireworks tonight instead of warfare. Thank you Canada. We are the TRUE NORTH, STRONG & FREE!

signed, the willow