Today is Sunday. We, like most of you, have had a quite the rain storm over the last 24 hours. Wonderful sound on the tin roof though and in the last hour the sun has finally started to come out again.

We have had quite the week. Seems like everyone in Tadoussac has started to get ready to nest for the winter! We have ordered our wood – and so seemingly has everyone else – as the wood can’t be delivered just yet.  The men are all gone on the hunt for moose.

I spent most of yesterday morning trying to get my flower beds organized and most is finished . I just have to figure out what to do with the hydrangeas. I pruned last year and that did not work well as the one I pruned did not bloom this year,  so I am now looking for a Plan B. We spent yesterday afternoon clearing brush and cutting dead trees on the property so they don,t fall down and crack us in the winter!

We are slowly meeting people which is really fun.  We had Sean Thompson and his girlfriend Pascale in to dinner this week. It was lots of fun  and learned lots about the community which was super. There is a women’s group which meets on Tuesday evenings all winter long at the Auberge de Jeunesse. I signed up so that will be a great way to meet other women in the village.  We also figured out more practical things like how to get a physician so apparently that will only take a month which is quite a rapid turnaround.

We also found out quite a bit about the Hovington Farm. Apparently it is now owned by the MRC which is roughly translated as the Regional Councils of Municipalities. There was a call put out to gather tenders for 6 projects to reclaim the Farm as a farm. So far there are several established. One section which we saw this summer is a place to raise and ride horses. Apparently there is a fairly new but not small movement called Equestrian Tourism.  A group of horse owners go together to a specific place with trailers that are part horse trailer part camper and set up camp together in a large field. They spend a couple of days riding the trails and then they pack up and go to another place. Simon Lamarche (son of Gerard) will head this section and apparently they have been given permission to use the Parc Saguenay trails. The first group was here last Fall and apparently it went very well.  He hopes to  be able to board horses for owners inthe area as horses are becoming more and more popular. Another section will be to revive the apple orchards and bring heritage apples to the area. Another will be a large garden to provide vegetables for sale to the community, including to rejuvenate the strawberry patch! There is also discussion of a large plot for a community garden with plots for use. I have put my name on the list to see if I can have a garden. I am not sure about the other sections yet as not all are determined but it will be very exciting to follow this.

I think my only problem is going to be Sundays. We have had really good church in our lives for a very long time both in summer and winter. By good church I mean thought provoking services making me think about my life, great music and great people. We have started to the Catholic church here and it has not yet lived up to any of the above. Nothing to do with language that is for sure. Six weeks in and not one person has spoken to us yet – my St Andrew’s and St Mark’s crowd would have a fit about this. So I have started a campaign to speak to at least 2 people even if only to say hello and comment on the weather. Mission accomplished today. It is weird and sad to me to have no good church but we will hope that this will improve. I am putting this down to the fact that there are strangers in the church every week so we are still considered vacationers and not much point in investing in strangers. Not a good attitude to build your church – just saying.

Our basement project is underway. Slowly coming closer and closer but boy did I under estimate what still needed to be done.  There are still some of the anglo community around – Dorothy and Thierry are here for a long weekend and we had a wonderful dinner with them at Skutezky’s last night with Jannie Beatty.

We are still pinching ourselves every day as we walk and live in this wonderful place. We had friends, Pam and Stephen,  in last week for a couple of nights and were able, even on a very cloudy day, to wow them with where we are!!

Lots of love to all,  Jane