Category Archives: Food

Thursday Doors – January 25, 2018

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….thanks to Norm for hosting Thursday Doors

On Wednesday of this week I went on a little road trip with my husband to Collingwood. He had an appointment with a client and he invited me come along to keep him company on the two hour drive there and then home again. It was a beautiful day and the drive was easy.

As we got further north the countryside was almost magical. It looked like they had a dusting of fresh snow that coated all the trees and the snow itself was still pristine white. Luckily the roads had been cleared and driving was pretty uneventful.

Collingwood is very much a tourist town, with cottagers in the summer and skiing in the winter. The population is only about 18 000. The Main Street is where most of the shopping and restaurants are but I’m sure that somewhere in Collingwood there are malls and box stores and fast-food restaurants. I was happy to be dropped off on the Main Street while my husband drove to his appointment.

I spent most of my time browsing through the stores, checking out the art gallery, photographing the store fronts and enjoying a coffee at one of the local coffee shops. The downtown area has been designated provincially as a historic site and many of the storefronts have maintained it’s original architectural features. Two of the older buildings house the municipal offices and federal government offices.

Many of the stores still had some Christmas decorations in the windows and on the sidewalk. I loved the art on the exterior walls and I can imagine that in the summer when the trees are adorned with their leaves that walking along here is very pleasant.

I met my husband in a lovely coffee shop called the Espresso Post. While I waited I enjoyed a flat white and sketched in my drawing book. I loved the feel of the place with it’s heavy sturdy tables and chairs and high ceilings. When my husband arrived he also ordered a flat white and then we walked down the street to a restaurant called Sol Kitchen. It was recommended to me by the ladies who owned the art gallery called Butter Art Gallery. It was a great recommendation. The food was excellent and there was art on all the walls from local painters. My kind of place.

365 Days of Art – Child’s Play

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…..day 18

Today I drove to Hamilton to spend the day with my granddaughter, Winnie and her mother, Gaelan. I brought some apples with me and together we made applesauce. I peeled and quartered the apples and Winnie’s job was to put them into the pot. She did a great job and she included her own version of quality control by tasting every piece before dropping them into the pot.

When the apples were stewing, Gaelan and I continued to get the ingredients ready to make an apple cake that Jodi from The Creative Life In Between posted yesterday. We made it almost exactly as written except that we didn’t add the glaze because we thought there was more than enough sugar in the cake. While the cake baked I played with Winnie in her playroom.

One of the things that she desperately wanted to do was finger paint. To my daughter’s credit, she has a very strict rule when it comes to painting and that is that everything in the playroom has to be put back where it belongs so that there’s a nice big empty space on the floor for painting. Winnie was very reluctant to do this so the paints didn’t come out. When it was time for me go home she was quite upset because she didn’t get to paint with her Oma. Gaelan told her one more time that she had to clean up first and this time she listened. With our help the floor was emptied of all her toys, a plastic sheet laid out and she was undressed and covered with a plastic paint jumper. Gaelan spread out finger-paint paper and scooped out four colours of paint onto individual paper plates.

We had so much fun. I know why Gaelan completely undresses her before starting this activity, including her socks. Of course she wanted Oma to get right in there with her and I managed to get paint on my sweater but it washed out pretty easily. We worked on one painting together where I painted the flowers and she painted the ground. The other paintings were done solely by her.

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Of course when we were done, Winnie went straight into the bath tub and we said our good-byes, this time without any tears.

P.S. The cake was delicious by the way. Thanks for the recipe, Jodi!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Letter P – has to have at least 5 letters and start with the letter P

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….thanks Cee for hosting this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge

Pollinating Purple Flowers

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Parents

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Pumpkins

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Parade

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Produce

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Beautiful Vegetables vs Huge Ugly Ones

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…..from the Royal Winter Fair

I always enjoy looking at the prize winning produce at the Royal. This year did not disappoint. The giant pumpkins are always a big hit and there was a good variety of oversized root vegetables (some completely unrecognizable). This year there was also a display of perfectly formed vegetables that were grown in a greenhouse.

Large and Ugly

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Parsnips

Uniform and Perfect

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WPC – Temporary

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….this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge is temporary

Often photos of precious moments or beautiful sunsets, fall colours or fields of wildflowers are fleeting. Bonfires, midways, cloud formations, celebratory sweets and all living things are temporary.

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Share Your World – November 6, 2017

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….thanks Cee for hosting Share Your World

Would you rather take a 2 week vacation with an organized tour or take a cruise of your choice?

Sometimes I think I would like a two week vacation with an organized tour, especially in an exotic place where I don’t know the language. China and India come to mind. On the other hand, I’m far too spontaneous and I’m somewhat adventurous and I think I’d like to organize some of my itinerary. I see benefits to both ways of travelling.

Did you like swinging as a child? Do you still get excited when you see a swing?

I did like swings but I was wary of going too high. I still get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see children soar to the max.

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What is the most important thing that you ever learned ? (I bet it’s not something you learned in school)

In my 20s I learned that not everyone will like you and often the reasons are not clear. The hardest part is to except it and get on with your life. Focus on those who love you and don’t try to change for people who don’t.

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

Last week I went to a wedding and met up with old friends of the family. When we first came to Canada my parents knew few people but my father’s good friend and his wife, along with their 4 year old son arrived before us. As their family and ours grew we were almost like cousins. Carlo was my godfather and my father was godfather to their third boy.  In my family there were three girls and they had four boys.  On  the weekend the second son’s youngest boy married and we were invited. Everyone still calls my Dad, Onkel Heinz and they were thrilled to be able to finally introduce their children to us. It was so nice to put faces to all the names we’ve heard over the years.

The next day we celebrated my oldest daughter’s birthday. It was actually the day before but because of the wedding we delayed the celebration by a day. We met at Barque’s for brunch and then went back to Andrea’s and Josie’s place for cake.

On Monday my 91 year old father wanted relive some memories of his past by visiting the Royal Winter Fair. As a boy he grew up next to a farm and helped tend to some of the animals. Last year I went there with my youngest daughter, Gaelan and her daughter Winnie who was only one at the time.

It was wonderful seeing the joy my father got out of such a simple excursion. We started off watching the horse jumping competition and then walked through the barns where we saw cattle, sheep and pigs. We strolled amongst the prize winning vegetables and fruits and then we went to the food court and had some lunch.

After a meal of fish and chips we headed towards the President’s Choice Theatre to watch the Super Dogs show. We arrived a bit early so we also took in the Medieval Times presentation. My dad loved both shows and was so impressed that he felt that it should have been televised. I explained to him that the Royal wants you to go there. If it was on TV people wouldn’t need to attend.