Canadian TOP reader Euan Forrester glowing with affection for his S.O., Kate
I keep hectoring you to come visit the Finger Lakes, and every now and then an intrepid reader actually takes me up on the offer. TOP reader Euan Forrester was here Tuesday and Wednesday morning. He and his partner Kate stayed at La Belle Vie, my friends Laurel and Llew's B&B at the top of the lake. Euan, who is 38, works for Cisco, and Kate is an E.R. doctor. They live in Vancouver, British Columbia, in coastal western Canada.
Euan is a serious photographer with some outsized ambitions for an amateur (like several of the other people who came here for a portfolio review). To give you an idea, his latest project was to extensively document the creation of a mountain biking trail; he then posted weatherproof prints as information placards along the opened route, so mountain bikers using the trail could see how the trail was created. He essentially worked just as an assignment photographer would do, but on his own. A huge amount of work went into the project—all on his own time and his own dime—and it earned him a brief groundswell of fame and publicity locally and in mountain biking circles.
Laurel and Llewellyn of La Belle Vie Bed & Breakfast in Penn Yan
Euan (pronounced "Ewan" as in Ewan McGregor) and Kate felt that I pitched the wrong things about this area by concentrating on the museums and vineyards. They weren't very interested in those things. Euan has mentioned that once he gets home to Vancouver he might send me some pictures that illustrate the things that appealed to them about the Finger Lakes. If he does, I'll post them. I will say, though, that every time we heard an Amish or Mennonite buggy clip-clopping past, Kate brightened and said, "horses," so apparently we're in agreement on the charm of the local Old Order communities.
It's getting to be kind of a tradition that whenever TOP readers come stay at La Belle Vie, Laurel and Llew invite me for breakfast on the visitors' last day. We've had some epic conversations, and yesterday was no different. They're getting to be my favorite social occasions. Llewellyn is a photographer too, and so is Kate, and Laurel is a polymath, so we had a fascinating discussion about the parts that personality and social aptitudes play in what we choose to shoot. Laurel generally dislikes what she calls "doo-rag" photos of herself, but I had to show her breakfast table. I can't vouch for the bed part of the B&B, but Laurel is a master breakfast chef. Her multi-course breakfasts are exquisite.
Always nice to meet TOP readers, who are truly like the residents of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone—every one well above average. :-)
Mike
(Thanks to Euan, Kate, Laurel, and Llewellyn)
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Featured Comments from:
Frank Petronio (partial comment): "A link to Euan's website. I read about his mountain biking trail building project a few months ago. Non-bikers should realize that trail building is a high art around Vancouver and this was a wonderful to 'pay back' their labor and make riders aware and appreciative."
