Surprise Ending

There is a beautiful day is apon us here in PEI and instead of enjoying the fresh air, I am fulfilling my blogging obligations because once again, it is more than a week since I've posted. The truth is, I was out this morning so it is not a terrible punishment that I am enduring by staying indoors. After today's painting group I had a visit with a friend who lives in a beautiful spot but has a long driveway. The snow is slushy and I was afraid of getting stuck so walked the distance. She and her husband feed birds so chickadees met me at the first tree and accompanied me on my journey and back. It's truly beautiful in the countryside these days so it is very good to be outside taking it all in.

Sorry for the interruption though of course, you didn't know I was gone. I had some wonderful company drop in , a couple of drinks, started supper and was away from the computer for a couple of hours. During supper preparations my oregano had disappeared and I spent a long time looking for it. Found it when I was cleaning up. I have to continue giving stirs to the supper but from this moment forth, you'll never know when I've been gone.

I am still readying my computer to set up the Christmas gift from my daughter. It was a turntable that allows me to convert my vinyl to mp3 files. The fact that the Olympics are on 24/7 on one of the two channels I get has given me some extra time. I've missed Oprah and American Idol terribly but soon I will have this machine working and I am very excited about that. There is so much good music in our universe and I want to hear every bit and share some of the old songs I have that you may not be familiar with or are very, very familiar with.

To have Bonnie Raitt's first two albums, all of Joni's, Dylan's, Dan Hicks' early albums, Phoebe Snow' s, Aretha's and more albums than I can name right now available anytime I want is a dream come true. All my vinyl is sitting upstairs and I've missed it terribly. My daughter had a boyfriend a few years ago who wanted to see how turntables worked and changed the weight on mine. It is beyond my expertise to change it back to how it was.

I brought up Bonnie Raitt first because I know I have one song, That Song About the Midway, from Streetlights on mp3. I also have my favorite Phoebe Snow song. It's actually a well known Gershwin song but in my opinion it is sung best by Phoebe Snow. It is There's a Boat that's leaving Soon For New York. It is one of my top three favorites and I've featured it on this blog more than a few times.

When getting the Phoebe Snow link, I read that she suffered a brain aneurysm in January. I have to read more and find out how this has turned out. Perhaps you will too.

By Boat

It's a long time since I've had such a fun day as yesterday turned out to be . Boats full of people gathered for an annual poker run to aid the Northumberland arena. Each boat called at four ports to receive five cards and the best poker hand won.

I'd estimate thirty to thirty-five boats were present at a selected site to spend the finale. Most had coolers, barbecues, stereos, water toys, and lots of happy party-goers. Children and dogs had fun, went for swims, lay on water lounges, and visited back and forth on other boats with their keepers.


Our boat had sixteen aboard and we had a ball. The brave ones got towed behind the boat on a boating tube. My daughter is in the middle of the threesome shown above. I think I was the only one not in for a swim. I may go for one at my own beach later to try and cool off after supper. It is hot and humid today, more;so than yesterday. We share good food and lots of fun times. This is what summer is meant to be. The ride back to the home port was wonderful with the setting sun and promises to meet again next year.


This calls for boat songs does it not? One of my all time favorite pieces of music is Phoebe Snow's version of the Ira Gershwin song, There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for New York. In my opinion it is the best version of the song out there. I also like the Holmes Brother's version of Lyle Lovett's song, If I Had a Boat. Hope you like them too and I hope you get a chance to get out on a boat this summer.

A Ducky Day

I've been cleaning my bathroom and need a break! That's not such a big job you're thinking but you'd have to see my bathroom. I have more than a hundred ducks and they're on every surface. They're on the walls, the window, the floor, several shelves, the old fashioned bathtub, the ceiling, the radiator, the towel racks and the back of the toilet. Once a year I do a thorough housecleaning and today is the day. The bathroom was all apart as I had a plumber in this morning finishing the tap installation. My friend had some problems so I had to call a plumber. It seemed like the right day for the big job.

I'm going out for dinner with my son, nephew and sister-in-law. I'm sure it will be a fun evening and the best part - I don't have to cook supper. My sister-in-law works on the north shore and experienced a snow storm/blizzard today. We have none on the south shore. Weird, eh? The last few posts on An Island Walk were from the area where she works and now those photo spots are all covered in snow.

Songs for today: Sweet Little Duck by Kathleen Edwards and Diving Duck Blues by Harry Manx and Kevin Breit. Those are already on the pages. To be replaced is the other song that I'd consider my favorite song on the pages along with Renee Olstead's version of Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby that I talked about a couple of days ago. This is Phoebe Snow's version of There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York. This has been one of my favorite songs since Never Letting Go, the album it's on, came out. I think it's from that album anyway. I have all of her albums and am a big fan. The job she does on this Gershwin song is remarkable. It stills stops me in my tracks every time I play it and that is quite often. Also today is Shirley Horne's version. If you choose only one, let Phoebe's be it. Spectacular, I say.