Where oh where does the time go?

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!