Maple Lake

I am recovering (ie, coming back down to earth!), from a wonderfully invigorating and entertaining all girls' weekend at a friend's cottage.

We did all the usual things girls do: eat a lot (the prescription was q2h and prn!!), drink a lot, talk, dance and laugh! Oh, did I mention that we laughed? A lot!!

The theme was "Blue Hawaii", so above, one of the ladies is over-the-top, in her unique, whole-hearted and exuberant way, into the theme! Don't you just love it?? What an amazing person you are, M. !!

Here, another one of the women whose friendship I treasure, with her marvelous purple hair, and though wont to wear battle fatigues or black to work, looks edgier than she actually is.

An event such as this serves to remind me of the incredible strength and beauty each of my female friends possesses! I would like to take more time to describe some of them to you someday. So many complex personalities. So many interesting stories. So many battles they have fought and won -- and are still fighting! I am humbly honoured to have been able to share the weekend with them!

I joined my friend, Kim, for a walk around the lake in the middle of the day, Saturday.

My good friend, Kim, in front of St. Peter's Anglican Church on Maple Lake, Ontario. While we were there, it was being visited by some black-leather garbed people on motorcycles. And I noticed that they were checking out headstones in the small graveyard behind the church.

I enjoyed this strange little architectural detail. It could be called "how to handle a change in levels within a regular repeating pattern".

We partied into the night, enjoying marshmallows toasted in the fire, then dipped in Bailey's!What decadence, eh?

Notice the sparks in the photo above?

I'm at the far left in the photo above, thoroughly blissed out by the fire.

Sunday morning. Most of us don't look too bad, considering we've been celebrating for nearly two days straight. Our awesome hostess, standing in the black t-shirt, believes Elvis still lives, therefore the "Blue Hawaii" theme for our weekend.

I was not oblivious to the flowers in I.'s garden either.

Me, relaxing after a gorgeous 20 km run around Maple and Green Lakes. Some long steep hills, but mostly a pleasant run along scenic lakefront in one of Ontario's most beautiful cottage country/holiday areas. I also got a short 5 km run in on the Saturday morning. Can't be slacking off on my training for the Scotia 1/2 marathon in Toronto in September!