The Lansdowne Letters: Word Pictures on an Inclement Day

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Friday again!
Sometimes, especially in 
this busy holiday season, 
I’d love to have a lazy, inside day
with nothing intruding from outside.

No computer, no TV, no phone ~
curled up on the couch 
with a good book:  
PURE BLISS!!








My father's world moved at a slower pace
a half a century ago, as he showed
on Saturday, October 1, 1960 
when he wrote from Lansdowne House:

Evening Folks:
Today was 
sort of 
a lost cause 
as days go.  
It rained, 
or snowed, 
or tried to do one 
or the other 
most of the day.  

All in all, 
the weather was inclement.





Sunset over
Northern Ontario.
On route to Iceland
May 2014





Uno and I spent the morning in bed 
trying to persuade ourselves 
that we should get up 
and get our housecleaning done.  

We finally made it up for dinner, 
but not before we were fifteen minutes late.
  
The reason we were so reluctant, 
or perhaps I should say reasons, 
were first it was very cold, and second, 
we had been up very late last night.  

We didn’t get home from MacRaes' 
till about two o’clock in the morning.  
I am getting to be an awful 
early-to-bed, early-to-rise boy 
and can’t take these late nights like I used to.

Brian Booth

          We played bridge till 
          about eleven o’clock, 
          and then Brian, the clerk 
          at Hudson’s Bay, 
          dropped in.  

          After that we didn’t know 
          what to do 
          because only four 
          can play bridge.
  






Then I introduced those poor 
uninformed upper Canadians 
to Auction Forty-Five.  
They were quite taken with the game 
and insisted on playing it into the wee small hours. 

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It’s funny about that game.  
I never found anyone 
outside the Maritimes 
who plays the game.  
Must be a Maritime game exclusively.








I hope that something happens 
to perk up the letter this week, 
for so far it strikes me as being very humdrum.  
However, if I can stand living it, 
I guess you can stand hearing about it.

We finally got around to doing 
our house cleaning this afternoon, 
and then I finished answering my mail, 
something I had started this morning in bed.  

After that, Uno slept, 
and I read some more of a book 
that I am engrossed in.  
The name of the book is Advise and Consent 
by Allen Drury. 

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It is a novel about 
Washington politics, 
and it is absolutely fascinating.  
If you have a chance to beg, borrow, 
or steal the book do so.  

It is quite long, about 600 pages, 
but I feel that once you get into it, 
you will find it difficult to put down.  








It starts off kind of slowly, 
but it rapidly picks up interest.  
Actually, there is no great suspense 
like one encounters in a detective novel.  

It is just a novel about the machinations 
necessary to get a controversial bill 
or appointment through the U. S. Senate.  

What makes it so utterly fascinating 
is the exquisite word pictures 
of the various Senators and other assorted characters.  
The author makes them seem so human.

This evening Uno and Brian 
went up to the show at the hall¹, 
and I typed this 
and wrote a few other letters, 
private ones to Sara, 
and some official correspondence.




Well, that brings us to the end of a very uninteresting day.  
The bridge game was cancelled 
because Bill Mitchell was down with a cold.

Bye for now,
Love, Don


Notes (FB): 
                   hall¹ ~ Father Ouimet showed movies
                   in the rec hall on Wednesday and Saturday nights
                   for anyone in the community who wished to come.
                   The Three Stooges and Western movies
                   were very popular with the Indians.

I'll be taking a brief break 
from my Friday Northern posts
during Christmas week.
My next Northern post will be on
Friday, January 2, 2015 
Happy Holidays Everyone! ~ Fundy Blue.