A Community Effort

thanks to Becky B for hosting Walking Squareshttps://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/13/walking-squares-13/

Today as I started on my walk I noticed that the neighbours were out with their rakes and yard bags helping our friend on the corner. Ms. I was recovering from knee surgery and her husband was in Florida helping a friend. They asked me if I had more leaf bags so I walked back to my house and retrieved the extra bags that we had plus my rake. Did I ever mention that I actually like raking leaves.

After dropping all of its leaves we filled 31 leaf bags

A Much Smaller Park Than Normal

one of my favourite destinations in the neighbourhood will be considerably smaller for close to a year

Thanks to Becky B. for hosting Walking Squares https://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/12/walking-squares-12/

After higher than normal water levels for a couple of years, erosion has taken its toll on the shoreline of Lake Ontario and the beaches next to our parks. To prevent further erosion the city is fixing the problem but our park over by Third Street will see half the park fenced off to make the repairs. On my walk a couple of days ago I still had a nice view of the lake from the west side of the park but over to the east the park is fenced off and filled with stone and heavy equipment.

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Remnants of Hallowe’en – Day 9 of Walking Squares

thanks to Becky B for hosting Walking Squares https://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/09/walking-squares-9/

As soon as Hallowe’en is over and sometimes a few days before the stores start to decorate for Christmas. In the neighbourhood, however, many people leave their Hallowe’en decorations out for another week or more and soon after the Santa Claus parade in mid-November we’ll start seeing the ornamental reindeer, inflatable Santas and snowmen and colourful lights appear in front of people’s homes.

On my walk around the neighbourhood I noticed these pumpkins and skeletons are still adorning people’s yards.

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An Evening Walk by the Lake – Day 8

thanks to Becky B for hosting Walking Squares https://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/08/walking-squares-8/

Now that the time change occurred it’s getting darker sooner in the evenings. I headed out towards the lake which is only 100 m from my house and quickly took some shots of the city skyline of Toronto and then turned around and I got shots of the sunset. Some of you may remember that less than a week ago you couldn’t see the city because of the fog.

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It wasn’t even 5:30 when I started back home and it was already dark.

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A Walk Around the Block

….thanks to Becky B for hosting Walking Squares https://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/06/walking-squares-6/

November, so far has been incredibly warm for this time of year. I walked around the block this morning without a sweat or a jacket. I know my family out west won’t like this comment because they are experiencing very cold temperatures and have already had lots of snow.

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Walking Squares for November – November 4, 2022

….thanks to Becky B for starting up the square challenge againhttps://beckybofwinchester.com/2022/11/04/walking-squares-4/

The theme for November is square photos taken while walking. Seeing that I try to walk every day this should be fun. The last few days have been very foggy.

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This fog was a result of the cold ground, warm air and Lake air coming together. It lasted for days.
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This new growth seemed to pop with the fog in the background
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Looking up at the leaves of this gingko tree, it felt like the foggy background illuminated the leaves

Fogged In

When I was leaving Moncton, yesterday I knew that Southern Ontario was experiencing very dense fog. As I boarded the plane I wondered if the pilots had more up to date information on the state of the weather over the island airport that we had to land on.

When I left Moncton, it was sunny and very mild. Once in the air we were above the few clouds that hovered over the east coast but one had a nice view of the land, rivers and lakes below. As we neared Toronto we were all of a sudden above a completely white blanket of clouds. Fifteen minutes before we were to land the pilot came over the speaker and informed us that the airport in Toronto was too fogged in to safely land so they were going to circle above the lake for 40 minutes to see if the fog would lift.

After about 30 minutes the decision was made to fly into Hamilton instead because it looked like the fog would not lift until well into the next day. As we approached Hamilton I was relieved to see land below again. We landed safely but now we needed to get back to Toronto. Some people were suppose to get connecting flights to elsewhere and others had conferences they were scheduled to attend.

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Normally our luggage is on the tarmac when you fly with Porter and you grab it as you leave the plane. In Hamilton, however, they had a different system and because so many flights had been rerouted there over the course of the day and because they were understaffed we had to wait about 30 minutes to get our bags. Then about 70 of us headed outside to catch a shuttle bus.

The bus didn’t arrive for at least 30 minutes and then it was only a small bus. The next bus was on its way so I allowed others who had connections to make to board in front of me. The unfortunate part was that the bus was nowhere near us and we ended up waiting another hour. When it did finally arrive there were only four of us left waiting. Twenty or more people had ordered taxis and Ubers to get them to where they needed to go. The funny part was that the second bus was a full size coach. By this time the fog had rolled into Hamilton.

The trip to Toronto was very comfortable and the driver, although a tad heavy on the accelerator, got us safely and very quickly back to Billy Bishop Airport. Of course the place was deserted because the fog was so heavy and no flights were coming or going. I ordered an Uber and luckily I was picked up two minutes later.

This morning when I woke up the fog was still over the lake and the city. The photos that I took from the park at the bottom of my street normally show a clear view of the city and the lake. As you can see there is not much to see beyond the trees.

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Day 4 – P.E.I, Confederation Bridge, Beaches and Red Soil

On Day 4 we took another road trip but this time we headed east toward Prince Edward Island.

There are two ways to get to the island by car. One is taking a ferry and the second is crossing over on the Confederation Bridge. The bridge is 12.5 kilometres long and is only two lanes. We were wondering what happens when the bridge needs repairs. Well just as those words left our mouths we started to slow down. Luckily it was not a busy day and the construction only affected about 50 metres of the bridge. Once we passed the workers traffic resumed at the normal rate.

The unfortunate part about travelling to PEI on November 1st is that most of the museums and points of interest have closed for the season but the plus side is that the place isn’t swarming with tourists.

Cows Creamery is a big deal in this part of the world and it was opened today.

PEI is famous for its red soil, potatoes and north shore beaches.

On the drive home we drove into the sun but we also experienced a beautiful sunset.