Sunny Sunday on the Toronto islands

Sunday suppertime, after a wonderful day... Penny and I were out the door on our bikes at 9.05 a.m. to make the 9.30 ferry to the islands. Ran into a roadblock - they were filming a chase movie with Colin Farrell on the Gardiner, no one could cross. We made our way through various side streets, rushed to the docks, and made our ferry with one minute to spare.

Meandered about in the nearly empty space - it sprinkled with rain so we stopped under shelter to eat a sandwich, ended up at the end of Ward's Island admiring the beautiful island houses, and went to the Rectory for lunch. I introduced myself to our waiter as the mother of Sam, who worked there for years, and I do think we received extra-special treatment. Lunch was superb. And then the sun came out and - the beach, lying in the sand, swimming, hard to believe, as Penny said, that it's not the ocean, except that it's not as cold. Perfect, in fact.

On the ferry back, we saw the jam-packed hundreds in the line-ups to go over and were glad we'd had the place to ourselves.

Yesterday - Harry Potter. Oh my friends, what a wonderful film. Yes, I confess, I wept. There were many moving scenes, but the one that hit me hardest was when Harry is preparing to die at the hands of his great enemy (Ralph Fiennes in a most thankless role, among the many superb British actors who bring such talent to these films). He finds himself in the midst by his dead loved ones - his mother and father, his godfather, his beloved teacher, surrounding him with love and strength. He asks his mother, "Will you be with me at the end?"

"Always," she says, beaming with love. "Always."

I thought, what a beautiful message for anyone, especially a child, who has lost someone valuable - the sense that that person is always, always, beside you. Very beautiful. But the whole thing was terrific. I'm glad they showed a bit from an earlier film, so we could remember Harry when he was a small boy. We have watched these kids grow up. I adore them, and I adore J. K. Rowling for bring all this to us.

When Penny arrived and was standing at last in my kitchen, she cried, "I'm here. I'm in the blog. I'm in the blog!" I think she is enjoying herself. If you want to find out for sure, you can follow HER blog, at

http://pennyrea.blogspot.com/

Duelling blogs.