People seem to not read books as much during the warmer weather, but some book worms are welcoming the reopening of libraries.
Things are slowly getting back to what we've been used to before things crashed March 16. That was the day schools were closed. It is nice to see parents helped Grade 12 students celebrate graduating, with social distancing in mind. Way to go and with such imagination and creativity.
Medstead celebrated June 20. Graduates rode individual floats and paraded up and down Main Street with bystanders cheering the happy students. Maymont had a grad June 27 at 3 p.m. with the nine graduates on a large flat deck trailer. Weather did not totally co-operate, but guests sat outside the hall with umbrellas. There were light rain showers, but at one point the sun shone on the platform, making for some lovely photos. Hafford is having their special day for Grade 12 students June 30 on the sports grounds. What do all of these three rural schools have in common? Great outdoor backgrounds for snapping the special photos that will be memories for yeas to come. These students will definitely remember their Grade 12 graduation day.
Hopefully June 2021 will be back to what citizens have become accustomed to for decades, featuring more elaborate celebrations.
Lang, a small village located 70 kilometres southeast of Regina, hosted a family gathering for Faye and Keith Liebaert of Mayfair this past weekend. Faye doesn't get to visit her siblings often, so they were delighted to share this outing. Their son Ryan from Mayfair was also in attendance.
All Saints Paris in Mayfair has been offering mass to its local parishioners for the past month. The limit for attendance is up to 10 including the priest, and now that number can be increased. It is nice to see the happy faces of some of my friends, whom I haven't seen for the last four months. We have to sign in with our phone numbers, use hand sanitizer and stay six metres apart. Father Frederick Akah announced he is not relocating to another parish. It is a common practise for the Prince Albert bishop to keep relocating the priests within the diocese. Father Frederick used the analogy that is like being in a foster home to be moved from one home to another every so often. He and we parishioners are happy to have him stay in the parish. He lives in Hafford and has a large territory including Muskeg Lake First Nation. St. Joseph in Marcelin, St. Solange in Hafford and Mayfair church.
Mayfair mass is still at 8:30 a.m., as it has been for the past couple years. Campers at Sandy lake east of Mayfair and Meeting Lake near Rabbit Lake have now and again joined us for the service and we are happy to have them. Once things get back to "near normal" we will have coffee and squares once a month after mass, because we all love to socialize.
The water level in central and northern parts of the province is still extremely high. There has been sandbagging and other measures for the past month at Meet Lake Regional Park and other points on the lake. Some people cannot even get to their cabins, as backed up sewers and lack of clean water are big issues.
Rose Jensen (nee Dion) formerly from North Battleford and her husband Al visited me at my Chitek Lake cabin last week. She has resided in Vernon, B.C. for a few decades and owns a thriving bookkeeping business. She is slowly retiring from it as they want to travel throughout Canada and the United States in their retirement years. Her son Shawn Drury, wife Melissa, four children and two large dogs from Prince Albert also accompanied them. What a fun time it was catching up on childhood memories. Most of her siblings are in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and North Battleford areas, so when they travel here they are kept busy. Evan, another son, and his family moved to North Battleford two years ago to be closer to their dad, Darcy Drury, who is the former owner of a masonry/stucco business. Evan is employed with an accounting firm in North Battleford. Rose's older sister has lived in Hawaii for the past 45years, so they holiday in that lovely setting when possible.
