The Last Night of Lawn Bowling

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Mama Cormier

….what a great season

This was the first year, since 2020 where we were able to play a full season and with fewer restrictions. Many of us, including myself, had the experience of playing in tournaments with other clubs and with the addition of 30 new members in our club alone we made a lot of new friends.

Thursday evening was our last opportunity to play. It was cold and windy but enough members came out to play on three rinks. Today the city came by and laid a layer of sand to the pitch which prevents us from playing into next week. In a couple of weeks we will have one more opportunity to get together and share a meal at a local restaurant.

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Lens Artists Challenge – #86 – Treasure Hunt

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Travels and Trifles for this week’s theme

This week’s theme is very long and detailed so I’m cutting and pasting the instructions here:

This week we’re going on a Treasure Hunt! The challenge is to search for specific items – either from your archives or newly captured – from the list below. Extra credit items are a bit more challenging. Focus on quality over quantity and hit us with your best shot(s)!

Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall
Extra Credit Items: An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image. My opening image, for example, includes a sunrise, a seascape and birds in a single shot. See how easy it is?! 😀

My favourite portrait of my granddaughter.

Sunset at the cottage

Strange fish

Rhino at the Toronto Zoo

Street Performer in Hamilton

Sunrise in the Neighbourhood

Water fowl in the Park

Two more recent sunsets in the park

Christmas Tables

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Mama Cormier

It’s been a busy week with lunches with friends, a volunteer Christmas lunch at the Inn, an open house, discovering a new brewery and Christmas dinners with old friends.

….and I still managed to lose six pounds.

Why Three Year Olds Love the Crazy Uncle

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….maybe it has something to do with the fact that they can be as goofy as the three year old

Our granddaughter doesn’t get to see her uncle Brendan very often but when she does he makes sure that he gives her his undivided attention. Yesterday was no exception when we drove up to Sparrow Lake to visit Brendan’s twin sister and her family. From the moment we arrived he was placing banana peels on her head, swinging her in the air, playing pretend sword fighting with sticks, playing with balls and doing cannon balls into the lake. Here are a several examples of the two of them at play.

Slowly But Surely

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….the temperatures go up and then they go down but surely Spring is in the air

On the weekend we attended a soccer (football) game. The tickets were gifted to us by our daughter and daughter-in-law who had other plans and couldn’t use them. The forecast wasn’t very promising but we decided to bundle up and bring along a stadium blanket to keep us warm.

The seats are very high up in the stadium but the view is spectacular.

I wish I could say that the game was exciting and that we were victorious but TFC was off its game and we were quite disappointed in how they played. In the second half my husband wasn’t feeling well and just couldn’t get warm. We left when the game was tied 1-1 and made our way to warm restaurant for a meal. There were TV screens all through the place and by the time we got there the game was over and Toronto lost 2-1.

On Sunday, the temperatures were up slightly but the best part was the sun and no wind. I took a walk through Col. Sam Smith Park and took a lot of wonderful shots of the lake, the beach and the trees and plants that are getting ready to erupt with colours of green, pink and yellow. You know when the weather is good because everybody and their dogs are out walking.

Share Your World – June 11, 2018

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Cee for hosting Share Your World

If you could choose any person from history to be your imaginary friend, who would it be and why?

This is a tough question. The more I learn about famous people the more I realize that many of them were ruthless and unkind or so narcissistic that they would make terrible friends. I think I would have liked Eleanor Roosevelt. She was politically active and pretty much her own person.

60s, 70s, 80s, 90s: Which decade do you love the most and why?

Another tough question. I loved high school so the 60s hold fond memories of friends, parties and clubs. In the 70s I found my voice. I went to university, moved away from home, travelled to Germany, met my husband and got married. At the end of the 70s I had my first child. In the 80’s my family grew, I went back to teaching and started building our cottage. In the 90s I took on more leadership roles, explored new options in teaching and started to dabble in art. I can’t pick one decade.

When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?

I want to be remembered as a kind, fun loving and creative person who helped others and inspired young people to grow up and be the best person possible.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

This week I had my first art showing at the WAAC gallery and met some wonderful artists. I also went to the museum and took in an exhibition on fashion design and architectural design.

On Thursday I drove to Hamilton to visit with my daughter and granddaughter. We took a walk to the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre. The building used to be the old Customs House where imports coming into Canada were processed before being released into the Canadian market.

My granddaughter loved playing with all the levers, buttons and cranks and climbing up the old staircase.

On Saturday I went to a friend’s 50th birthday party and on Sunday I met my friend Liz at the Trinity St. Paul United Church where we attended a concert of children’s choirs. As you can see it’s been a very busy and joyous week.

Happy Easter – April 1, 2108

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Mama Cormier

,,,,,is it some kind of cruel joke to have Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day on the same day?

Of course it’s not 2108. That’s my lame attempt at an April Fool’s joke. I know that teachers are delighted that April Fool’s day is on a holiday, except maybe those individuals who liked playing jokes on their students.

This year we celebrated Easter one day early to accommodate other commitments that family members had. It started out as a sunny day, so I hid all the eggs for our granddaughter outside in the backyard. When everyone arrived we could see that the sky was darkening so we didn’t waste anytime and proceeded with the Easter egg hunt. It was so much fun seeing the delight in Winnie’s eyes every time she discovered an egg or other small gift hidden in the branches, corners of the deck, handles of the barbecue and under covers.

One of the gifts was a bubble maker. Actually our oldest daughter also got her a bubble maker. This was definitely the hit of the day. Winnie got into making bubbles almost right away and after dinner we went outside again (just before the rain started) to make more bubbles. It turns out that buying that extra large bottle of bubble soap was a good idea.

Here are a few photos of the egg hunt and blowing bubbles.

WPC – Favourite Action Shots for 2017

Posted on December 23, 2017 by Mama Cormier

….I promise that these are the last of my favourites for 2017

Playing with a telephoto lens is new for me and this year I loved experimenting with my new toy. One of the things that I enjoyed doing was trying to catch action shots. I found it tricky timing the shot. So often I would take the shot too early or too late and only get part of the subject or none of it in the photo. Here are two shots that I’m particularly fond of. I’m sure they are far from perfect but it’s a work in progress.

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Dogs, Dogs, Dogs…..

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Mama Cormier

….what’s more entertaining than a dozen super energetic Super Dogs?

In the summer I saw, for the first time, the Super Dog Show at the CNE. I was sitting pretty far back from the arena and I didn’t have my zoom lens with me so most of my shots were distant and often not very focused. It was also very dark in the arena and the dogs were highlighted with special lights and spot lights.

A couple of weeks ago when I went to the Royal Winter Fair with my father, he really wanted to see the Super Dog Show, so I went again. It was very different this time. It wasn’t dark, we sat much closer and I had my zoom lens with me. It was, however, still difficult to get clear shots of the dogs because they moved so quickly through the race course.

Here are a few shots that I managed to get that I’m somewhat happy with: