…away from the bird feeder
When we had the big snow storm and over 50cm came down our back deck was impossible to walk on and I couldn’t make my way to the bird feeder so I put seed on a plate and placed it on top of the snow as far away from the door as my arms would reach. I was hoping that the birds would see it and fly onto the plate. In fact, it was the grey squirrel who found the plate first and with some difficulty made his way over the deep snow and had quite the feast.
….adding to Sevin’s watercolours
After my granddaughter and her family went back to London, England, I discovered that they left behind a number of things, like toys, gloves, snacks and Sevin’s artwork. We had already taken our favourite piece and framed it but there were five more left behind. Rather than throw them away I decided to take them and add marks with black and white ink. Here is the first one that I worked on.
…living on the shores of Lake Ontario, especially in the winter, never disappoints the photographer in me
….new sticky notes from the Korean Paper Store
Why not join us and share some of your trios. They can be from your archives or something you’ve recently photographed. The only rule is that there has to be three subjects in the photo. To share with me just copy my link on this page and paste it into your post. I’ll be sure to get a pingback and I will respond. Have fun!
….first massive snowfall in over two decades
When I say first, I mean the first snowfall with 40 to 60 cm accumulation. Snow days in this city are rare and I remember as a kid and even when I was teaching we would dream of snow days. Buses were often cancelled but schools were open and teachers were expected to go to work. Many teachers who lived north of the city frequently couldn’t make it because the snow conditions were usually worse.
The irony, of course, is that today was the first day kids were supposed to go back to in-school learning.
As pretty as it was, the snow continued into the afternoon and major highways around the city were closed due to high winds, drifting snow and accidents. The message from city hall stresses staying home and staying off the roads. The high winds that are expected in the next hour or so will make the problems worse. I’m happy to stay home and glad that I don’t need to go anywhere. Even if I did I wouldn’t be able to get out of my driveway and when the snow ploughs do finally arrive they will probably push more snow in front of the driveway. No point in stressing. Enjoy the snow for the day.
…just discovered this challenge ….thanks to XingFu Mama for hosting https://xingfumama.blog/2022/01/16/whatsoever-is-lovely-challenge-2022-week-2/
Seeing I missed the first week of this challenge I’m going to post photos from the last two weeks. I met my youngest granddaughter for the first time over the Christmas holidays. On January 8th our son, daughter-in-law and Sevin returned to London, England after spending two weeks with us. The first two photos show Sevin just before she left for the airport and sleeping on the plane.
…..I live next to Lake Ontario and on the weekend I saw this
Last weekend I went for a walk along Lakeshore Drive and I noticed that there was a person on the lake on a sail board. It was well below freezing and the wind was quite brisk. When I got to Rotary Peace Park I noticed that the surfer was still on the water but he seemed to be in the water more than on the board. He was clearly having trouble navigating the board to shore.
I started to get anxious because every time he fell he seemed to go further out into the lake. There was no boat near by and there were no supporters on the beach in case he ran into trouble. I watched for a long time, worrying that the longer he spent in the water the greater the risk of hypothermia kicking in. I was seconds away from dialling 911 when all of a sudden the surfer got back on the board and finally navigated his way back to shore.
What would you have done if you saw someone struggling in an icy cold lake in January?
Thanks to Jez for hosting Water, Water Everywhere https://jezbraithwaite.blog/2022/01/10/raindrops-on-a-leaf-water-water-everywhere-109/
…last Tuesday, Brendan, Sevin and I decided to go to the AGO
When I booked the tickets I knew that Tuesday would be the last day before another lockdown here in Ontario. Frankly I was quite surprised at how many people had the same idea, especially since it was a Tuesday and many people were back to work, mostly remotely, but none the less there was a bit of a line-up to get in even with timed tickets.
I really wanted to see Picasso’s Blue Period but Sevin was not really into this show so we walked through quickly. Hopefully I can go back when the lockdown is lifted.
One of my favourite areas of the AGO is the Galleria Italia with its floor to ceiling windows and beautiful wooden arched beams. I thought Sevin would enjoy this more and of course she found a seat to sit in right away. Since COVID the cafe in the galleria is closed and the tables have been removed. In its place a number of bronze sculptures are prominently displayed.
…thanks to XingFu Mama for hosting Pull Up a Seat https://xingfumama.blog/2022/01/07/pull-up-a-seat-photo-challenge-2022-week-1/
Today has been the coldest day so far for 2022 or at least it seemed that way as I tried to take photos in High Park. In order to take photos it was necessary to remove my gloves and after about 20 minutes of taking them off and on to push the shutter button my fingers on my right hand were close to acquiring frost bite. I quickly returned to the car and place my hands over the heating vent after cranking up the heat full blast.
The cold, however, didn’t seem to deter some folks from finding a resting spot on some of the park benches. Here are a few of those brave souls.
…after waiting almost two years I finally got to meet my granddaughter
This Christmas was touch and go. As many of you know our sweet Frances had to be put down last week. If that wasn’t bad enough our daughter in New Brunswick, Gaelan, cancelled her trip to Toronto because of the Omicron variant. All the things I had planned to do with Winnie went out the window. I don’t blame them for not coming. Things got complicated with having to put their dog in a kennel and then they had to be back by December 31st because the kennel was closing down for a two week vacation.
That same day we found out the our daughter-in-law had tested positive for COVID so that meant that two more people were not coming to the house for Christmas. Luckily Josie didn’t have to be hospitalized and our daughter Andrea continues to test herself and the results regularly show negative for COVID. In the meantime on the east coast, Gaelan has been testing herself and she kept getting a faint positive result. Fortunately the last couple of tests have come up negative. On Christmas Eve, Kevin and I spent the evening together sans family.
Fingers crossed that Brendan and his family were going to get here from the U.K. Not only was the spread of the variant rampant there but the airlines were starting to cancel flights because they didn’t have the staff to man the flights. On Christmas Day I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that they were on the plane. When they arrived it was raining but seeing my granddaughter for the first time was like a ray of sunshine.
Jet lag is tough for adults but particularly hard on toddlers. On Sevin’s first night she was up at 3:30 am. I normally sleep till 8:00 but I was in and out of sleep till about 7:00 and I finally decided to get up and actually get outside early and catch the sunrise. We all got warmly dressed. At the least the rain had stopped and we got a peak of the sun coming through the clouds. Seeing that we were up we walked over to the playground so that Sevin could explore.
Today it started to snow. We spent the morning playing with Play Dough and Sevin and I filled the bird feeder and watched the birds and squirrels come for breakfast.
We’re hoping to make some video calls to New Brunswick later today and hopefully we’ll be able to see Andrea and Josie in the next few days. Fingers crossed again.
Mama Cormier 