I visited my friend Linda in Port Perry
a month ago and during one of my
walks along the shores of Lake Scugog
I took some pictures of the last of the
seasonal plants. I love taking pictures
like these that almost seem to have a
texture to them.
And fluffy seed pods are a great
favourite.
The days were overcast (until the day I returned
home, of course) but that's okay. Any time I
can walk near a lake and watch the birds and
breath in the air is fine by me.
Another day, closer to home. Glen Williams
is just a 35 minute walk from my front door
and is such a pretty village. Took this
picture from one of the bridges that spans
the Credit River, which twists it's way
through the village in two spots on the
main road.
One of my favourite houses in the village. I think
I take it's picture every time that I do a walk
through of the area with my camera.
On Remembrance Day I joined my neighbour and
three of her kids to walk down to our town's cenotaph
to observe the wreath laying ceremony.
Love the tradition at the end where members of the
crowd can come forward and leave their poppies on
the base of the monument if they wish to.
On the weekend of the 14th I took the Go bus down
to Toronto to spend the day with my friend Darlene.
We walked through the Jane/Bloor village section
of the city and poked around in the shops located
there. It's a very European section of Toronto with
lots of fabulous bakeries with glorious displays of
fresh baked pastries and breads and cakes.
We even visited a couple of the Christmas
bazaars being run in a few of the local churches
in the area which was fun. In one lovely
church we were admiring the interior of the
main part of the church from a doorway and
one of the parishioners offered to give us a
little tour, which we were delighted to accept.
I love when that sort of thing happens.
This is St. Olave's Anglican church.
We also walked through High Park which is Toronto's
version of Central Park in New York. Most of the
leaves on the trees there were gone but the willow
trees next to Grenadier pond still retained their
Fall colour.
Since High Park is just a short walk from Lake
Ontario we just had to go there as well and walk
along the boardwalk for a bit. This is looking
west, with our backs to downtown Toronto.
It does look cold and gloomy in that picture
doesn't it? But we had a nice walk and
were quite comfortable, though we were
warmly dressed.
City Hall, downtown Toronto. The Toronto
sign was put up for the Pan-Am games that
Toronto hosted this past summer. It was
decided that since the sign was such a hit with
tourists and Torontonians alike it should be
kept up once the games were over.
Note that it is lit with the colours of the
French flag. This was the Saturday
after the Paris attacks.
The highlight of our day was in the evening
when we attended the lighting of the
Christmas lights at Dundas Square in
Toronto.
Live music, dancers and acrobats and lights.
Lots of lights! In fact the name of the event
was Illuminite. This is the second year in a
row that we've gone to this show and it was
quite amazing.
This year the show stopper was when four of the
dancers plus the piano and the piano player were
hoisted in the air by a crane where they (the dancers, I
mean) danced and spun and tumbled in midair.
I'm sorry that my pictures weren't very good but
at least you get an idea of how it all looked. We
were told that there were about 12,000 people
in attendance, filling the square and spilling onto
Yonge street which was closed to traffic for the
occasion.
Books read, or in this case being read by
me in the past month or so.
The Nightingale is a story that takes place
during WWII in France during the occupation.
I've read a number of Kristin Hannah's books
and this one is one of her best so far.
Amendment: Nov 26th
Sat for two hours this morning reading this book.
Could not leave it alone. My bed is unmade and
I'm still in my PJs. I read it to the end and I
cried and cried. It's rare that I shed a tear over a
book, no matter how well written or how much I
loved it. This is a haunting, powerful story which
resonates in this day and age.
The best by far that I've read by Kristin Hannah it
takes her to another level as a writer. I highly
recommend it but warn you to read it with a box
of kleenex close by.
The Courtesan takes place in China in the late
1800's and is based on the life of a woman who
lived during that time. It is Alexandra Curry's first
novel.
A young adult novel with an interesting,
thought provoking twist. I'd been wanting
to read this one for awhile and when it's
sequel came out a short while ago I got
them both and read them one after the other.
The first book "Every Day" I enjoyed more then
the second book "Another Day" which was the same
story but told by another character's point of view.
David Levithan is a very popular writer of
Young adult novels.
I've been spending my crafting time working on
scrapbook albums that I am making to give as
Christmas gifts. One is done and the other is
in the beginning stages.
In spite of the bags of extra time I expected to have
to prepare for Christmas because I'm no longer
working the days and weeks leading up to December
25th are flying by just as fast as when I was working!
This amazes and frustrates me to no end.
Oh well. The tree is up and decorated and so is
most of the house so I need to begin my cards next.
Cheers!
