Late May and Early June Activities

Wednesday May 30th I went into Hamilton to play a round of golf at Beverly Golf and Country Club, where I started my golf career as a 13 year old. That evening, with my brother Peter, I attended a fundraising dinner, lottery and auction at Beth Jacob Synagogue, the one I grew up at. I purchased one of the auction items, a pair of tickets to the Labor Day football game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts in the new stadium (built on the same site as the old one, but with the field turned 90 degrees) in Hamilton, which I had not been to yet. An event to look forward to throughout the summer, which my brother agreed to go with me to. (Many moons ago, when I was a football official in Hamilton, I worked some high school games at the old Ivor Wynn Stadium.) I stayed over for a few days. On Saturday morning we went to synagogue. In the afternoon we went to the Busker Fest in Dundas 

This performer was from Israel.

A good juggler and unicycle rider.

Street artwork piece in progress.
(One of my old nicknames was Wonder Woman, so this resonated with me.)

and on Sunday we went on a hike at the botanical gardens in Burlington. 

We encountered a lot of very friendly chipmunks. It turns out that they are that way because despite the signs saying not to feed the wildlife, many people bring nuts and seeds with them, for just that purpose. 

We visited the Iris gardens.
These large purple ones were among my favorites.

Nice quality time spent with my oldest brother.

Monday June 4th I played my first Mixed Seniors Golf league round. Registration was $10, which covers a season ending banquet. Each week is an additional $1, for prizes. They play closest to the hole on a par 4 and a putting game, where you have to predict how many putts you will have in the round and then match it with your actual performance. It didn't take me long to figure out it was better to predict a higher number, so that you had wiggle room towards the end of the round, as opposed to using them all up with several holes left to play. 

Wednesday June 6th I played my first night of Euchre at the Dunnville Legion. They have a good group of very serious players, much more serious than the Monday game at Lowbanks. They have a few different rules and give more points for lone hands than what I am used to, but the adjustments are easy to make.  

June 8th I headed to Kingston for the annual Cataraqui Golf Club Field Day (Invitational) and Eastern Provinces Match Play. The plans were the same as last year, when I also went with the trailer.

One of the prettier green complexes at Cataraqui.

View from my campsite, close to the river.

I played pretty well in the Field Day, shooting 81, and the fact that my early season play at Freedom Oaks in difficult scoring conditions helped to elevate my handicap a bit, allowed me to win Low Gross, worth $100 in the pro-shop and qualified 5th in the Match play. 

I was able to win my first round of match play rather easily. In the second round I lost a very close match. My opponent in that match went on to loose in the following round. They are planning on making this event into the Provincial Match play championship going forward. I'm not a big fan of that idea. Time will tell if I decide to continue playing in it.

The folks camping next to me were newbies and needed some help with setting up, packing up and dumping their tanks. I was able to help them a bit as the few moments I was around was when they seemed to be in the greatest need of help, so it wasn't like I had to go out of my way to be nice.