Judy’s Numbers Game Photo Challenge – #183

thanks to Judy Dykstra-Brown for hosting the Numbers Game https://judydykstrabrown.com/2025/03/03/numbers-game-62-mar-3-2025/

October So Far….Dog Sitting, Concert at Massey Hall, Family Wedding and a Trip to Hamilton

It’s been a busy month and we’re only 1/3 of the way through.

Our daughter and daughter-in-law took a trip to Berlin, Germany where Andrea participated in the Berlin Marathon. While they were away we dog sat, Olive. For a dog who doesn’t like to walk we got in quite a few long walks in the neighbourhood.

The day after Andrea and Josie returned from Germany we all went to my nephew’s wedding. My sister and her family travelled from Calgary to be here so it was a bit of a family reunion. Unfortunately our son in London and our daughter in New Brunswick couldn’t join us.

The wedding was beautiful and so much fun. Rose and Patrick were very happy.

Earlier in the week, before the wedding Kevin and I attended the Herbie Hancock concert at Massey Hall. Herbie is 84 years young but jumped on the stage like a 20 year old. What a fantastic concert.

On Friday, Oct. 11 we drove to Hamilton to attend a cross country race hosted by McMaster University. After the race we drove back to the area where our youngest daughter used to live and had a coffee at our favourite cafe. We lucked out and took in the Art Crawl,

Thursday Trios – Handmade Trios

from the Hamilton Art Crawl

Once a month, on a Friday, Hamilton hosts an outdoor Art Crawl. Dozens of vendors set up tables on James Street N selling everything from art to jewellery to handmade crafts.

Trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens

the RBG is located in Hamilton and Burlington

Last Friday I met my sister in Hamilton. Her husband was attending a conference so they decided to make it a weekend and arranged for friends and family to look after the farm in the Chatham area. I picked her up from the hotel and we drove into downtown Hamilton, parked the car and walked to the Burnt Tongue for lunch. The restaurant specializes in homemade soup and the menu changes daily. After enjoying a bowl of soup and half a sandwich we made plans to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Luckily the gardens is only a 10 minute drive and very easy to find. The rock garden is located in Hamilton so we stopped there first. We weren’t sure if there would be a lot to see and it is all outdoors. It found the walk along the paths brisk but pleasant and the views were wonderful.

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Down the road, in Burlington is the main building. We had heard that their Christmas display was open to the public and in the evening there was a special light display. Chris and her daughter had already made plans to go Saturday evening to take in the outdoor lights but she was happy to check out the indoor displays with me. We weren’t disappointed.

One of the attractions was a beautiful train track, all built out of wood with trains running throughout. It had a very Canadian theme featuring the Parliament building in Ottawa, the grain silos from the prairies and the CN tower in Toronto. The kids loved it because the trains were characters from the Thomas and Friends series.

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We also went through the Mediterranean greenhouse, checked out the gift shop and then headed outside where there were numerous Christmas displays.

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My sister, Chris
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As the sun started to go down I took Chris back to the hotel and we said our farewells. All in all it was a lovely day and I am looking forward to seeing her again in a few weeks when she comes to Toronto to visit her kids.

Thursday Trios from Last Week

there’s always something that keeps me from posting

Last week I couldn’t upload my new photos. It had to do with a password problem that took days to resolve. On Friday I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens and was delighted to see so many roses in varying stages of development and decay.

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If you have any trios to share I’d love to see them. Clearly it doesn’t matter if you post on Thursday.

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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