Up North

Would you like to live in this little house? The neighborhood looks a bit bleak, probably a long trek to the nearest grocery store for supplies. But lots of fresh air!

Imaginary landscape created from painted papers (yes, I have bins and bins of assorted bits of coloured paper, no piece is too small to keep) and little houses cut from an Arctic Adventure Cruise holiday book that arrives in the mail every year.  The cruises look like loads of fun but are far too expensive for me, and as the cruise company is kind enough to send the brochure, I make use of their nice illustrations. Waste not, want not.

Random Stuff

Some random photos from the past couple of weeks.

I love the smell of freshly baked bread, wish I could include it in this blog post. I let the bread machine do all the mixing then I bake the dough in the oven. This bread has a mixture of white and wholewheat flour, oats, chia seeds, flax, bran, and pumpkin seeds. My grandson said it was "so soft that a baby could eat it".

I gatecrashed a wedding last week.... yes, I said gatecrashed. YoungerSon's best friend was tying the knot and YoungerSon and his Bride couldn't be at the ceremony, only at the after-party, so I showed up instead, along with the mum of the best man. It was at the historic Enoch Turner School House in downtown Toronto. Photo taken before most of the guests arrived.

The new Mr and Mrs signing the register. I cried of course. I always cry at weddings and everyone laughs at me. But I've been fond of this young man ever since the kids were all young, and he deserves to be happy.

Fireworks at Markham Fair at the end of September. The camera has a firework setting and I hadn't used it before. Not bad eh?

Finally, a visit to the cardiac doctor in Newmarket. This is the view from his office window looking west along Davis Drive, snapped while I was waiting for the doc to arrive. The brown traffic lanes along the centre are for buses only.

This 'n' That 'n' t'Other

I think Canadian Spring might be just around the corner here in the Great White North. We actually had two back-to-back sunny days, but it's back to cold weather again today.
I took TessaDog for a run in the forest last weekend, but it was too icy to go far. I'm afraid of falling and nobody finding me for a week. I'd have to eat the dog to survive! YoungerSon wouldn't like that.

Just a few more of those glorious sunny days and this view will change to green instead of white.

Auction Sale season has started. Every year there's an interesting Good Friday sale at the local Community Hall, so I went along to do some people watching (always a good sport) and to see what was on offer. I bid on a few things, but didn't actually part with any money, prices were too high, and there was nothing that I really needed.

A carved totem or symbolic mask from the West coast, possibly Haida. It sold for $750.00.

The auctioneer has a contact in the Persian carpet business, and always has a large number of carpets and rugs on offer at the auctions. The large ones go quite cheaply, as nobody has room for a 30' x 20' rug, and carpets with a big pattern aren't fashionable any more.

This one sold for just over $200.00. Listed price was over $1500.00. A bargain for someone.

These sweet little 1950s Dutch dolls sold for only $12.50. I was tempted, but do I really need dolls? After they were sold, I wished I had bid on them..... but then I saw sense and was happy I didn't. Indecision, indecision. 

Browsing at the local Care and Share junk charity shop, I noticed this shoe box up on a high shelf. Chandler is one of my family names (my mother's maiden name) so I was instantly interested. I wonder if these Chandlers are long lost relatives? And do their shoe shops still exist? According to the box lid they had addresses and stores all across the USA.

The town of Ilfracombe in North Devon (England) is where I spent some of my school days, and two new state of the art web cams have been installed looking at the harbour. I can spend quite some time just watching the people and the boats. If you see a large blue and white boat tied up at the dock, it's the MS Oldenburg, the ferry to the island of Lundy. The web cam is here, well worth a look. You'll also see a view on Cam2 of Rapparee Beach, the site of a disastrous shipwreck in 1796 and also a fistfight in 1878 with the Crown Prince of Germany who apparently was a bit of a twerp.

I've been painting again. The colours haven't photographed well in this photo. A bit fuzzy.

That's all folks..... until next time!     Happy Easter.

Grace Lake Retreat

It's a three hour drive away from home, but such a nice change to drive north to cottage country. The countryside changes from gently rolling hills and fertile farmland to the Canadian Shield.... rocks, trees, lakes, and more trees and more lakes and even more rocks.
OlderSon and The Equestrienne and Callum (and large hairy dog Badger) rented the cottage at Grace Lake Retreat for a week's getaway, and were kind enough to ask me to join them for a few days.

The cottage sleeps 8 and has everything needed for a week's vacation. All conveniences: fridge, stove, microwave, coffee maker, TV, DVD player, X-Box.... you name it, it's there. Plus kayaks, a canoe, a fishing boat, comfy Muskoka chairs, a BBQ on the deck.....

Just remember to bring the bug spray. There are lots of trees sheltering hungry mosquitoes who like to come out in the evening to hunt for unsuspecting vacationers.

The orange kayaks got lots of use out on the lake, as well as the blue canoe. There was a big rainstorm the day before I arrived, and the lake water level was about 12 inches higher than normal. Normally there is a small sandy beach in front of the steps. A lot of cottage driveways were completely washed out.

The motor boat was used for fishing, but they didn't catch anything. The lake at this point drops off to about 60 feet deep. The water was cold to get in .... I'm such a coward.... but once in all the way, lovely! And sitting out on the dock after dark watching for shooting stars was a new experience for us all, especially Callum.

A great place to take sunscreen, sunhat, a good book and just watch the world go by on the lake.
Thank you to OlderSon and The Equestrienne for inviting me. I loved it!

39 Varieties

On my way to OlderSon's house, I pass this building. Usually traffic is too busy for me to stop, and I sail by. But this time I decided to pull over and have a closer look.

I love the subtle faded colours and the peeling paint and the general dilapidated appearance. This is still a working farm, but no longer in use as a Farmer's Market. 39 varieties? I wish it was still open.

North Challacombe Farm

I've been taking a couple of acrylic painting courses, and sadly they have now finished for the summer. I've really enjoyed meeting up twice a week with all the other participants and exchanging ideas with them. Everyone had a different style of painting, and our teacher was so encouraging. I'm sure even if you produced the worst painting he had ever seen, he would always find something good to say about it!

This is a farm scene near where I grew up in England. I found an old photo of the farm that had been posted on the internet. I should think this farm has stood at the base of the moors for close to 200 years.

First I blocked in all the basic shapes, and then started to add more colours and more details. It had numerous changes over a few weeks. The farmhouse changed colour about five times. It's called artistic licence!  In fact the greenish house you see in the framed version is now a lighter grey, giving more of a focal point.

The green detail in the foreground is pages torn from the 2013 Niagara Falls Tourist Guide.... the colours were just right!

February's Last Blast

It's been snowing for two days now. Yesterday morning my driveway was filled with heavy wet snow about 8 or 9 inches deep in places.  The bushes were bent double with the weight of the snow so I went out to rescue them before the branches broke. But they look just as bad this morning as it's been snowing in the night.

The view from my front door at 7:00am this morning.

The view from my back door a few minutes later.

 Most of it will be gone by tonight.... supposed to be a mild melty day. Hurry up, Spring!