listen…

12 Monday Sep 2016

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been thrilled to get some great shots of Canada geese over the last few days…

I love the sound as they arrive in the Spring… and their calls as they travel through the sky on their way to and from the fields where they are now filling up for their flight south…


I hear them and usually, by the time I get the camera up and focused, they are gone… got most of these at the Park…

a few days ago I started my morning listening to them flying over the house… the next night I heard them flying by just after dark…

one year we went to FortWhyte Alive and watched the evening return of thousands of geese from their feeding grounds… the sight and sound was amazing…

of course the sound in the Fall is a bit sad because they are either preparing to leave or actually going…

still it stops me in my tracks wherever I am, and I gaze up to the sky until I spot them… hope you get to hear some where you are…

nature is awesome…

fleeting…

11 Sunday Sep 2016

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what a lovely ending to my vacation…

enjoyed a walk to and through the Park before a breakfast date with my sister-in-law, nephew and his girlfriend…

after breakfast we took a quick tour of the Gardens…

she lives in Calgary so it is always great to spend time with her when she comes to town…

had just pulled my camera out to take a picture of a butterfly bush when this butterfly decided to land on it… and pose…

surprised how this picture turned out with the light and dark from my shadow…

I love this spot and often sit here for long periods of time… a favourite place where my beloved and I would rest when we walked through the Gardens…

and my kids came for supper… soccer is over, yay… we had a great time, Pokemon-ing and visiting… everyone enjoyed the food and there were leftovers to share for a few meals this week…

kitchen is tidy, laundry is done and I am ready for my return to work after a fun and fleeting break…

I think I enjoyed every moment of the ten days… lots for the memory banks…

fun…

10 Saturday Sep 2016

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picked up by the kids and went to Pokemon Day at the Zoo... there were lures set up at all the PokéStops…

great fun to see people of all ages playing throughout the area… got my picture taken with two of the Pokemon trainers…

they didn’t mind taking a photo with me and the kids thought it was hysterical…

from there we went to Grant Park Soccer Fields where the middle guy played his two final games of the year…

that’s our guy on the left…

this shot even has the ball in the air, pretty cool…

to top off the day we went downtown to Manyfest… way too many people for me… the food truck lines were crazy… eventually, after spending a long time in food lines, we ended at the shaved ice truck….

there were a lot of flavours to choose from…

sure looked pretty… and I think that every drop was eaten up…

going to bed now, that was a busy day…

growth…

09 Friday Sep 2016

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yesterday and today I was out for lunch with wonderful women…

we were at Mona Lisa yesterday and it was a beautiful and sunny day… there was a little breeze but that kept it from being too hot…

my friend stepped away for a while and I was content to sit and enjoy the time on my own…

today I arrived at elements before my friend and happily sat and enjoyed a cup of tea while waiting for her…

this might not seem like such a big deal, but just four and a half years ago I hadn’t ever been in a restaurant on my own…

yesterday I also went back to the dentist because I thought that a filling from a few months ago still wasn’t quite right… I’d been a couple of weeks ago and they had trimmed the filling down a bit… it took a bit of proding from other people for me to go then, but I went this time on my own… apparently I’d cracked the tooth right next to the one that was just filled, lol… was the most calm I’d ever been as they went ahead and filled that one…
I made trips to the pharmacy and the Apple Store with no stress or desire to call someone to go with me…

feels like I am experiencing some growth… finally, lol…

apparently those big girl pants are getting more comfortable… well, at least some days…

house…

08 Thursday Sep 2016

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before I left home on my vacation I took a few pictures of the house…

the trim has been peeling like crazy and the doors have both faded…

I’d arranged for it to be painted while I was gone, so wanted some pictures to remind myself of how it looked…

I had chosen a company that would let me pay over a period of up to ten months and only required 10% down… seemed worthwhile to have the professionals do the job… 

my daughter drove over the day after it was done and sent me some pictures…

looked nice from a distance and in the early evening light… she noticed a few things that needed to be touched up, but I was very happy to see how it looked…

as soon as I got home I took a few shots to show how good it looked…

tonight they came by to fix the few final bits… someone will be by first thing tomorrow to get the last piece put in around the window… 

looking very nice…

was a little disappointed to discover they needed cheques for the 6 payments… apparently they only take credit cards for the whole amount… that can be the problem with dealing with two different people… they each gave me different information…

happy it is done and pleased with the finished product…

Ottawa day 7…

07 Wednesday Sep 2016

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well, spent the morning in Ottawa and flew home this afternoon…

started out with an egg on an English muffin, with a side of pistachio/coconut bark, all made by my daughter…

we said our goodbyes and she headed off to work… took a bit of effort to get my bag packed… apparently the gifts for my daughter’s friends filled up my suitcase, lol…

then finished taking a few pictures… of the chocolate stash…

final job was to wash the last of the dishes… this is becoming my trademark whenever I am with my kids… but really, fairly easy to manage, lol…

had my bags at the front door when my daughter surprised me by coming home for an hour before I left…

while I waited for my flight caught a few Pokemon and collected items from three PokeStops which were right at the gate…

touch down… home…

had a wonderful, crazy busy, and memorable week…

Ottawa day 6…

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

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last night we had a fun time doing a chocolate tasting…

we had gone to the liquor store to get an appropriate bottle of wine and picked up Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Reserve… two different staff members recommended it…

while I was doing the dishes before our dinner arrived my daughter was preparing the plate of chocolate…

she chose six different chocolates, most of which were around 70% cacao and made a list on a sheet that we would review at the end of our tasting…

then we tasted them one by one with and without the wine…

after each piece we both made notes… she wrote on paper and I entered comments into the Notes app on my iPhone…

we took our time and toasted each piece of chocolate that we tried…

it was great fun…

they were different shapes but about the same size…we took a short break after the third piece to give our mouths a chance to rest…

the wine was very good and we found that it certainly did enhance the taste of the chocolate…

once we were done, we reviewed and compared our notes and picked our favourites… 

as it happened we both chose the same bar…

afterwards we went over ways to make the tasting experience even better…

don’t think it will be too long before she has a group of friends over for an official chocolate tasting…

nice flower bed down the street…


today she worked and I went out and picked up steak for our supper, read, napped and prepared the ingredients for the meal… 

glads opening…


lovely, restful day…

Ottawa day 5…

05 Monday Sep 2016

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had a lovely sleep in… my daughter made me breakfast… first sit down for our morning meal since I arrived, lol…

we played on our electronics, visited for a bit, and then took back the rental car…

forgot to take a photo of the whole car… took this one when we got it so we’d be able to recognize it in a parking lot…

jumped on a bus to downtown where we shopped for shoes and technology, and enjoyed wandering around the Rideau Centre which has lots of new shops since I was last here…

got a picture of us on the bus… strange that I’ve been here this long and this was our first bus trip…

this is my daughter’s usual mode of transportation…

I find it fun to travel on the bus with her… she is trying to convince me to take the bus to and from work at home, as I have just lost access to reasonable parking…

had a lovely lunch on the patio at Social in Byward Market… we were under the shade of this lovely tree…


tasty beet, nut and ricotta salad…

think I got a Pokemon we haven’t caught before… sent an email to my grandson, but haven’t heard back from him… just makes my girl laugh… she keeps sending pictures of me playing to my oldest grandson…  

also picked up this sparkly new phone case…

it will be an excellent reminder of my time in Ottawa…

back home on the bus, followed by a quiet restful time… ordered supper using SkiptheDishes… beef ribs from The Smoque Shack…

yummy, but a little spicy…

then we did a chocolate tasting… what fun… will write about that tomorrow;-)…

Ottawa day 4…

04 Sunday Sep 2016

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really going to need to have a vacation when I get home…

today we were up and out of the house by 5 am… decided we would see if we could get a hot air balloon flight… if it didn’t work this morning then that was a sign that we weren’t meant to go…

by 6:30 we had a flight booked and were heading to the Gatineau Airport for lift off…

although the expectation was that we would go straight up and come right back down as the air was very still, we were up for an hour and a half and went to 3000 feet…


spectacular… this time when we got back to the Park, we all had Apple Cider together and got pictures with Annie, one of the pilots of La Magie de L’Air… what a great team they are… maybe next time we will take in the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu;-)… 

then we headed to the Farmers Market at Landsdowne… lots of people there, most of whom seemed to be lined up for the bread…

we stopped at the Lindt store and Whole Foods for dinner supplies and headed home for a well deserved nap…

later we took a long list to IKEA and as we were leaving saw the balloons on their evening flight… 

once home, we even saw a few as they floated through the air close by…


ended the day with a stunning light show…

Ottawa day 3…

03 Saturday Sep 2016

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another fun-filled day…

slept in, and when we finally got up went for sushi for a late breakfast… 168 Sushi is a buffet where they use iPads for ordering… options include sushi, dim sum, Thai and Chinese… was thinking the little boys would love ordering at this place because everyone could get what they wanted:-)…

iPad ordering system…

so far every time we have eaten we have cheered;-)… green tea and 7 Up this time…

beautiful and delicious eggplant…

we stopped at the gas station next door and the very kind attendant filled the car with gas for us as neither my daughter or I can stand the smell… then it was back toward Gatineau on our way to see the Formal Gardens at the Mackenzie King Estate…

here they are…

I had envisioned something on a slightly larger scale, lol… we did take a nice hike to a waterfall, which was more like a trickle… but we had fun…

some very cute mushroom parents with their babies…

not sure what these glossy red berries were, but I did enjoy taking a few photos…

my daughter took a couple too…

the dappled light along the path was reminiscent of the forests close to her home in Courtenay, BC, when she lived there…

had a bit more fun in the tunnel under the highway…

the high point of the visit was afternoon tea at the Mackenzie King Tea Room where we enjoyed finger sandwiches, scones with Devonshire cream and fresh raspberry jam and petit fours… 

the owner was a lovely young woman who brightened our afternoon… 

yummy… I skipped the petit fours and focussed on the scones…

decided to take the scenic route home and came across Pink Lake, which is actually green… but beautiful…

as we were crossing into Ottawa we remembered the rock people we’d read about and stopped to have a peek… we parked and walked about three kilometres there and back…

 they are quite amazing… some of the people who built them sit there daily to keep people from touching them…

here are a couple of builders focussed on their work…

just as we were heading back, the balloons lifted off from the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival across the river… 

we watched at least fifteen rise up and float over the trees… so beautiful…

stopped at Farm Boy and picked up a few things for our supper…

been a full day… now to bed:-)…