A Birthday Party and the Royal Botanical Gardens

….a busy week with the family

On Sunday, after returning from the cottage, Kevin, my father and I went to my daughter-in-law’s father’s 80th birthday party. I knew when we got to the party that my father would make a big deal about being the oldest person there. He quickly found the over 80 table and made himself comfortable and engaged in conversation with people he had never met before. That’s what my Dad has done his whole life and I remember as a kid being so embarrassed by how easily he would go up to perfect strangers and start talking.

The party was a huge success and the daughters actually pulled off surprising their father. The mostly Italian and some Argentinian guests thoroughly enjoyed the food and there was lots of laughter and lively discussions.

On Monday I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with my daughter, Gaelan and her daughter, Winnie. Brendan was working from home that day so he decided to join us for lunch at a great Chinese Dim Sum restaurant. Winnie has been introduced to a lot of different foods as soon as she started on solid foods and I was amazed at how much she enjoyed digging into the sushi.

After lunch it started to pour and we waited in the strip mall while Brendan ran home and brought the car back. I felt badly when he got back because the rain had almost completely died down. Thank goodness it had because Gaelan, Winnie and I decided to go the Royal Botanical Gardens. The part we went to had a lot of indoor displays but the rain was so light that we ventured outside and took Winnie to the children’s area where she could run around and play in the sandbox.

Just before we went back home we decided to go the Tea House for some refreshments. We had tea, coffee and scones. Winnie drank the milk they brought me for my tea.

A wonderful two days.

Cheers!

Enjoying the Peace at the Cottage

…..so happy that I opened the cottage earlier in June

On my first trip to the cottage after opening it three weeks earlier, I was really looking forward to my stay. The only big thing that I still had to do was move the fridge outside, hook it up to the propane tank and fasten the tarp to the edge of the roof to keep the rain off the fridge. I managed to do most of this on my own and the only part that I needed help with was lighting the burner at the back of the fridge while I pushed the buttons on the front. Luckily my friend’s son had arrived the day before and was able to assist me with this final step.

For the most part the weather was very nice. I took several long walks along the beach that is mostly under water this year. When I wasn’t walking, cooking or cleaning I started and finished a book called The Last Days at Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan. A lovely summer read that gave me some insight into how the lives of Iranian citizens were affected by all the political and religious unrest that has taken place since the 1930s. The story centres around the owners and staff at Cafe Leila and the children who were sent to America after their mother was murdered by the police. When the daughter is separated from her estranged husband her father asks her to come home after being apart for more than 30 years.

When I wasn’t reading I took time to go and explore and take photographs. A couple of times I had to drive to the dock to drop someone off or pick someone up from the boat; consequently, many of the photos are from that area. The rest were taken at the beach.

The shots from the beach were taken in the early evening just as the sun was setting.

The day after the previous pictures were taken the weather had become quite windy and very cool. For most of the day I wore my longer pants and sweat shirt.

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More Fun Faces

….a few more art projects done by my grade 3 classes

This last assignment on drawing faces has to be one of my favourite projects. If I ever get called back to do supply work in an art class I’ll definitely pull this one out of my bag of tricks if I have to come up with my own lesson plan.

Full Moon

….on my way back from the cottage Saturday evening I had to stop and shoot a few pictures of the full moon

Stopping on the shoulder of the highway to take photos is not something that I’m in the habit of doing but the full moon on Saturday had me mesmerized and I wanted to capture it on my camera. I’m still experimenting with my lenses and I’m sure that there are better settings on my camera for that perfect shot but I wasn’t prepared to start fiddling with my settings at the edge of the highway.

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