Category Archives: nature

Odysseo…

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

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topped a good day with a trip to Odysseo… what a magnificent show… horses and acrobats just doesn’t cover the experience…

we started the afternoon off with a visit to my doctor where it was all good news… I’ve lost another seven pounds and my sugars are pretty good… need a little work on cholesterol but doable…

from there we went to the zoo for a walk and visited the Persherons…

  
they were taking them into the barn for a snack when we arrived… so we got to see them close up in their stalls… they are big and beautiful…

saw the tent as we were heading down Kenaston… reminds me a a castle and courtiers…

  

we headed to Bellissimo for lobster mac and cheese, with baked Brie with pear and fig jam… oh my… first time there, won’t be the last…

  
then we rushed to a friend’s to print the tickets for the show… we just realized at the last minute that we needed a paper copy:-(…

 
quite a lineup for parking but we got in fine… might be interesting when we leave…

lovely to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter…

almost out of the parking lot… excellent process… obviously they’ve done this before…

if you get the chance go to the show… worth every cent…

pattern…

14 Monday Sep 2015

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as I work to lose the additional pounds that the doctor wants and to stay healthy and active I have been following a pattern…

get up in the morning… make and eat breakfast… take care of bathroom necessities… pack my lunch and take out whatever is needed for dinner…

then I spend fifteen to twenty minutes on the treadmill… it is set up in front of the tv in the basement… I watch a particular morning show while walking which makes the time fly…

  
the rest of the day I make sure to take extra trips to the printer, check in with colleagues in person instead of emailing, and get up and step away from my desk on a regular basis…

usually walk part way home… maybe just one block, but occasionally quite a bit further… sometimes I spend fifteen minutes of my lunch hour and walk on the treadmill at the gym in our building…

happily my Fitbit will vibrate and let me know I have reached my goal for the day…

usually on the weekend I will walk to and around the Park at least once…

sometimes in the evening I will spend a bit of time on the treadmill to ensure I have completed my steps and reached my activity goal…

the pattern has become ingrained and that makes me happy…

walking really is my favourite form of exercise… 

 

short…

13 Sunday Sep 2015

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up early and walked over to the “A” for breakfast with my son-in-law…

surprised to discover that they don’t open until 8 on Sunday… and we got there just a few minutes after 7…  so we went to Perkins… 

got dropped off not far from home and walked the rest of the way… 

saw this interesting X in the sky and had to stop and get a picture…

  
ran out to do a couple of errands and sat out for a few minutes before my daughter picked me up to go to her new house and figure out where to put everything in the kitchen… picked up a variety of squash on our way to the house…
 took the fixings for supper and after a busy but short afternoon, came home with my son-in-law on his way to work…

been thinking of my grandma lately… got my hair cut over a week ago and it was kind of short…

 still really short… my grandma used to have hair about this long… she brushed it straight up and it looked really great… been wondering whether I should give that a try… I use a brush that was hers so it reminds me of her on a regular basis…

full day…

tgif…

11 Friday Sep 2015

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although I only worked three days this week I am very happy it is Friday…

also enjoyed stepping into the bathroom this morning…

 
last night I turned on the radiant heating… the floor felt toasty warm… very nice on this chilly morning… still giggle when I think about how we thought that the heat would radiate across the tiles where there weren’t any of the wires… that was so wrong, lol… if you put down this type of flooring make sure you put it everywhere…

checked out the morning glory early today… of course it had a few blooms opening…

  

  
happily the cold night didn’t kill either the morning glory or the mandevilla… 

keeping many individuals I know in my thoughts and prayers as they deal with difficult times in their lives… it is so easy to look at someone and think their life is great, not knowing what struggles they are facing… 

  

market…

10 Thursday Sep 2015

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laughed out loud this morning when I popped outside to look at the morning glories before leaving for work…

  
because of course there were four of them opening… not sure how the plant knows which days I will not be home for the day…

  
at lunch walked over to the Farmers Market with a colleague and brought back some corn on the cob and tzatziki…

had already taken out falafel for my dinner, so decided to add corn to the menu…

 

made some corn chowder with a whole wheat pita filled with tzatziki, spinach, tomatoes and baked falafel…

   
delicious… learning to enjoy whole wheat… much better than when I first tried it, lol… continue to eat in a more healthy manner…

  
multiple colours blooming… I love morning glories…

reminder…

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

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went to my oldest grandson’s soccer game last night…

they are nearly done their games and it was nice to get to go to one very close to home…

while there got this shot of some geese on their way over…

  
been trying to get a picture of the geese in flight all summer but just haven’t been able to manage it… I just love the sound and sight of them honking and flying in formation… such a sign of spring and fall for me… still makes me stop and look up when I hear the sound…

half an hour later I was home waiting for my BS friends to arrive and looked out at this beautiful sky… went and got my phone right away and took a few shots and then just stood revelling in the moment…

  
read a comment recently on a friend’s Instagram feed about enjoying the moment, and just got an email from another about being in the moment and how important that is…

all of these things remind me of the importance of enjoying each moment and being in the present… I have been trying to do that for the last few years… always good to get a reminder…

greenhouse…

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

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gorgeous day off…

walked over to the Park and through the Gardens…

got a few nice shots during my walk…

  
lovely dahlia…

  
monarch on a butterfly bush… well more like a tree… they have quite a number of plants which spend the winter in the greenhouses… the butterfly bushes and datura are obvious ones… they are all very large… think that many of the plants get an early start there as well…

  
the rose standards were filled with nearly spent blooms… was surprised to see so many because last time I was there only a few were budding…

the pond in the Leo Mol Garden was nice but it is a bit cold for the water lilies to open…

  
always so peaceful in that portion of the Garden…

heard the horses while I was there which was cool… first time I’ve heard them in the Park… don’t think they made any sounds when we were in their area on Saturday…

  
this was what I saw as I was exiting the English Garden… great view of the fountain in the Duck Pond…

giggled when I got home because the pump in the small pond decided to shoot up higher than required…

  
the cold weather is clearing up the water…

had to top up the pond again this afternoon… won’t be long before we shut it down and do some reorganizing of the rocks… and I will have have to ponder what to do with the garden…

special…

07 Monday Sep 2015

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here are a few flower pictures I’ve taken over the last while…

this shot of hydrangea was special to me because of the light…

 

this was in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden and there were dozens of bushes filled with blossoms… quite beautiful…  
yesterday morning I took this shot of wild jolly jump-ups… they are so tiny and cute… could easily have been missed…

  
there are now three little patches of them in the grass in the garden… luckily they are right along edges so should survive mowing…

here is a shot of one of the morning glory buds preparing to open…

 
thought they looked like this the day before they open, but it seems they can stay like this for a few days… will be interesting to see if it opens tomorrow while I am home, lol…

this is a stalk from the calla which I cut off the other day because I thought it was done…

  
it is just stuck into a pot to dry the seeds out, and now it is blooming… pretty special…

this final photo is of one of the phone handsets in a bag of rice…

 
managed to drop it into the toilet yesterday… hopefully the rice will do its magic and dry it out…

busy…

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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had a fairly good sleepover night… little guy was still sick and got up at three for about an hour… saw this out the window…

  
misty… looked ethereal…

  
had a busy day… went to the Children’s Nature Playground at the park and spent a few minutes quietly watching the deer… we saw five in total…

  
great time on the swings… these round ones are very popular… the area was nearly empty so they could play on everything as much as they wanted…

  
then I spotted a few wasps on the butterfly weed… pretty good photo just with my iPhone…

  
on to the crow’s nest… this was the most popular slide for these two…

  
finally headed to the train for a ride… we chose the very back because the last time we took a ride on it with grandpa it was in this spot… here they are making a space for him…

  
the one down side was that apparently all the mosquitoes love this spot…

picked up groceries and had a quiet time when we got home… a bit later in the afternoon the older one mowed the back garden…

  
and the front yard… first time he has done this so we had a bit of a lesson…

 
he did a great job… after supper they headed home… 

writing this and then going to bed…

I am exhausted, but had great fun, lol…

persherons…

05 Saturday Sep 2015

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great fun at the zoo today… the little boys and I got to check out the barn and go on a lovely wagon ride at the new McFeetors Heavy Horse Centre...

  
the guide explained all about this powerful horse breed as we circled the new area…
  
our ride was excellent… we went and picked up some rain ponchos as it was misting on us a bit…  properly attired, we checked out a few other spots…

   
looking for butterflies… most of them were released last week…

 
but finding lots of caterpillars… Mr. Eagle Eyes even spotted a chrysalis…

  
unfortunately the littlest guy had a headache for a good portion of the day… when we got home, having walked from the Park, he napped for a bit…

  
this is a picture of the canna…

  
cannot see the hummingbird that came to it twice while we were in the garden… it was faster than I was…

here’s a picture of two of us taken by the littlest person…

  
was a bit cool by then, but happily rain didn’t start falling again until just after dark…

had its low points, but wonderful time spent together…