Before we leave summer behind, a few photo's to share that didn't make it into the last blog because the blog was already HUGE. Of course, so is this one!
My friend Marny's lovely daughter Julie and fiance Matthew invited us lucky people, to their beautiful wedding in August. A pretty wonderful venue; a home on Toronto's tony Bridlepath - how appropriate. What a fun day!
 |
Perfect garden for a wedding. Could have done without neighbours
Conrad and Barbara peering through the trees. I had to ask
them to leave! |
 |
Marc and Marny with Marny's daughters Alison, Julie and Katie with
handsome groom Matthew. That is Marny's great-niece Lauren who
spread gorgeous rose petals on the lawn in front of Julie. |
 |
| Bob and Alison |
 |
| Matthew and Julie cutting the cake |
 |
| A bit fuzzy but I loved the lighting |
 |
Even a photo taken of us together!
That rarely happens.
|
A couple more photo's from Victoria that I didn't include in the last blog.
A few years ago, Mom gave son in law Peter, a clay pip that belonged to Rachel's great-great grandfather. Peter loves it and had researched how to clean a pipe that appears so delicate and that probably hasn't been used in over 60 years. It looked dark and yellow and Peter thought that the fine stem must be clogged. He learned that putting the pipe into a fire (fireplace or stove) and leaving it there until the embers became cool, would probably do the trick. He didn't say a word to anyone but holding his breath, put it into the wood burning stove in the cabin, the night of our art workshop dinner.
The next day he opened the door of the stove with much trepidation and was relieved and thrilled to discover this beautiful pipe.
Lastly, Laura received many emails after the workshop, asking about the demo painting that Laura was working on. Everyone wanted to see a photo of the finished piece. Isn't it gorgeous?
 |
| Laura Harris - world famous artist and my teacher! |
My first weekend home, we signed up for a David Suzuki Foundation initiative, a Park Crawl. The idea was formed by a Suzuki volunteer who feels that we all need to celebrate, explore and protect our parks. Chefs and well known restaurants had kiosks in each of four parks, starting at Christie Pits at Bloor. We bought our tickets online which gave us a taste of 12 different foods at the four parks we visited. There was music, it was a beautiful sunny day and we were led by the musicians and singers, from one park to the next. Hundreds of us wandered through neighbourhoods and people came out of their houses to gape at us as we walked south to Queen Street and the last park, Trinity Bellwoods. We learned that Toronto has over 1600 parks and that no one lives any further than a 10 minute walk from a park.
 |
| David was there! Sort of... |
 |
| Wonderful street art on the pool |
 |
| Children were invited to make a planter out of a canoe |
 |
Our first stop - pizza from a wood-burning oven.
The oven is a permanent fixture at Christie Pits |
 |
| Many unique and decorated bikes at the event. |
 |
This shy fellow was pretty happy with the art project
that volunteers helped him create |
 |
| Lots of four legged fans of parks were there too! |
 |
The second act - Choir!Choir!Choir - who entertained us
as they led us to Park #2 |
 |
Unusual trees in this old neighbourhood.
Anyone know what it is? |
 |
| Olivia Chow was there, as was Mike Layton |
 |
| Fall colours were emerging |
 |
| More hilarious dogs |
 |
| Aha! I think I spot members of the next musical group |
 |
This young lady had great footwork as she entertained
herself while her parents got her food |
 |
| What a fun group! They led us to the last two parks. |
 |
| This girl loves 'em |
 |
| Cool! |
 |
| On to the next park! |
 |
| He loves to entertain! |
 |
| Off we go! |
 |
These were delicious! A kind of doughnut/croissant
cross with syrup...5 gazillion calories! |
 |
Did you know that there are hundreds of hives in downtown
Toronto? Many of them are on the roof of the Fairmont Royal York
and the honey is used by the chefs in the hotel |
 |
| Wonderful neighbourhood gardens filled with produce |
 |
Trinity Bellwoods Park is huge and these
are some of the views along the paths. |
 |
| Roof of the stage |
 |
The cardboard canoe created at Christie Pits, followed
us everywhere |
 |
They were not just fries! They were fries covered in poutine
and a choice of gravy/sauce |
 |
The end! Old and beautiful gates of the park
on Queen Street |
While I was in Victoria, Bob was tooling around a Habitat for Humanity project in the west end of Toronto. He loved being a crew leader on the Women Build, surrounded by hundreds of happy and productive women; business women, models, politicians and stars of stage and screen. He was mightily impressed with the hard work, attention to detail and especially enjoyed their enthusiastic cheers as they raised the framing into position on top of the basement walls. When I returned home I joined him on-site. The huge blitz was over and it was back to normal volunteering by that time. We spent several days with other volunteers from Manulife as well member families (those who know they will be getting a house and who must contribute 500 hours building as part of their contract), in beautiful weather, framing the second floors of the 6 new homes. It was really nice to be back at it, swinging a hammer and climbing up and down ladders. Bob and I were the oldest volunteers there on those days, and it was pretty hilarious...so much respect. I can't stand it!!
 |
Big boss Brian (on left), checking out our work. That little
person on the right (kneeling) is Caroline, one of the strongest
Habitat workers you could ever meet. She's been a regular Habitat
builder for 10 years and she is a force! |
|
|
These Habitat houses will look .....
|
|
|
...much like these lovely Habitat homes when they are completed
early next year
|
|
|
Bob the Crew Leader/Builder
|
|
|
Manulife Volunteers on my team. Bob was crew leader
so I had to obey....sort of....
|
|
|
Maya just loved the saw!
A couple of days later, we packed the van and headed to Algonquin for a few days camping before we joined good friends Yves and Linda at their cottage on Lac Sainte Marie, in the Gatineau Hills. The weather was brilliant; hot sunny days, cool nights and each morning we awakened with our van completely shrouded in fog.
|
 |
We just couldn't drive up Highway 11 without stopping at famous
Webers BBQ |
 |
| The food was terrific! |
 |
They have added old railway cars to their property since
we were last here 100 years ago |
 |
Knowing that it would be busy in Algonquin Park Thanksgiving
week, Bob reserved a site. It was a beauty! |
 |
Bob reading brushing up on how to start a campfire. It's been a
year you understand. |
 |
| Fog lifting in the morning sun |
 |
| Aren't all canoes supposed to be red? |
 |
The colours had pretty well passed their most vibrant,
compared to home where they were in full glory, however
there were enough contrasts to make our hikes wondrous. |
 |
| Off on our first hike |
 |
| Spectacularly coloured leaf litter |
 |
| Lunch at the top, half way through the hike |
 |
| Unusual rocks just plunked there |
 |
| I tested the water of Rock Lake....nippy! |
 |
Back at the campground, we thought this woman had
captured Sasquatch! |
 |
But it was just an enormous mutant dog. I couldn't
afford to feed this beast! |
 |
| Yes! He got it going, first try!! |
 |
The next day we drive to Lake Opeongo, another beautiful
lake in Algonquin Park |
 |
| We were surprised to see this sailboat on the lake |
 |
| This is the most common form of lake transportation in Algonquin Park |
After three wonderful days in the park, we hit the road to meet our friends, Linda and Yves, at their cottage on Lac Ste Marie, in the Gatineau Hills.
 |
We're on the right track! There's the sign "Chevalier"
pointing the way. |
 |
| A beautiful hot day for a ride, appetizers and CHAMPAGNE in their new pontoon boat |
 |
| This "cottage" has a boathouse for four boats?? |
 |
Their pooch awaits our return. What's your first
clue he's not real? Inexpensive to feed. |
 |
This beautiful tree in their garden was still hanging
on to it's leaves |
 |
| Fog on the lake next morning |
 |
| And a beautiful visitor lands on the dock |
 |
| Off we go to the ski hill for the annual Thanksgiving festival |
 |
| We hiked to the top in 22C temperatures Gorgeous! |
 |
Yves is actually massaging Linda's back, not
beating on her. |
 |
Linda and Bob decide to take the chairlift down the hill,
while Yves and I hike it |
 |
| On the way down, we meet this adorable puppy |
 |
| This is the very proud owner |
 |
| Flower Power trailer in the parking lot at the bottom |
 |
Large jugs of beer in the sunshine, makes for our kind
of perfect day |
 |
An amazing turkey dinner! Way too much food. We loved
every minute of our time with dear friends. |
 |
Next day, Bob gets to drive the boat down the lake where
Yves is waiting with the truck and trailer, to haul it out
and put it into their shed for the winter. Bob LOVED
driving a very different kind of boat! |
Back home, the tree outside our dining room window is in full colour.
