New Years a la Lanark County

Viva 2005 and all that jazz!

I spent New Year's Eve in a big house with a roaring fire in Lanark County, Ontario (stairs above lie adjacent to enormous stone fireplace). This is a county that lies on the stretch between Kingston and Ottawa and is full of lakes, rocky landscape, farming communities, charming small towns and stone houses. Perth is exceptionally pretty: a town of 6,000 that sits atop a river and has a huge central park and bandstand, a lively artist community, a wonderful array of restaurants, a divine bakery and one of the best whole food stores I've ever visited (FoodSmiths).

We ate a quick dinner before the rural escape to the farmhouse party at a quaint retro-diner called Harry & Rosie's. And while the food was a spoof on comfort food with porkchops and mashed potatoes scattered throughout the menu we settled on our own version of comfort: I ate halibut fish and fresh cut fries and my date had the burger with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, fresh cut fries and coleslaw. Harry & Rosie's is the twin restaurant to the GoodWood Oven; this is a lovely ambient restaurant in an old stone building with excellent pizzas and pastas.

After dinner and wine we had to pick up a few vagabonds and make our way north out of Perth to a destination outside of a hamlet called Ferguson Falls. We had our overnight bag packed, a few bottles of chilled champagne, a bottle of red wine, 2 six-packs of Heineken and a mixture of rye & coke (not for me!).

After sliding on the ice rink that was the parking area and landing in a snowbank, we clamoured up the wooden stairs to the side door and were welcomed by friends old and new. And then there were seven. There was Jack who grew up in Lanark County. He's a talented carpenter and he's currently in school studying masonry. There was his new wife Donna a mennonite from British Columbia who is as a social worker amongst other things: breadmaker, amateur photographer, avid reader, traveler. The two of them just returned from 8 months in New Zealand and Australia where they worked on organic farms and apparently drank lots of cream and ate lots of ice cream. There was David who also grew up in Lanark County. He's another expert carpenter who lives in British Columbia and just happens to be an old flame of mine. Chris recently returned from Japan where he was teaching English and kept riveted by the Japanese carpenters who clamour up frames in shoes with separate toe holds. Alison lives in B.C. too and is a vivacious character who acts and writes for a living. Julie, like myself, has had too many odd jobs to write about here but now edits and writes websites for places like the CBC (our national broadcast network). There was myself to round out the human participants, and then there was Bait, the cat, with the loudest purr in the province!

We drank champagne, crantini's, Porter Ale, Heineken beer, white wine, red wine. We played absurd games like Cranium and a more verbal interpretation of charades. We had ridiculous ping pong tournaments where we had to run around the table. After 6 hours of imbibing alcoholic beverages this resulted in a few catastrophes. People got on the piano and suddenly remembered tunes they played back in high school, like the theme for the Young and the Restless. All and all an excellent night. Coffee and spelt/arrowroot/cinnamon homemade waffles with homemade preserves of strawberry and blackberry and freshly whipped cream was served at breakfast with locally tapped maple syrup. Good times. Good friends. A wonderful New Years!

And may you all have brought in the new year with celebrations of love and health, good times and friendships, travels and new beginnings. And of course: Good Eats!

Comments

[Mats]

Are you sure this entry isn't a transciption of a movie script or a novel?! It sounds just a bit beyond perfect! I must check out Perth.
Happy New Year!!