….odd ball photos are the ones that don’t fit into any one category
Do you have any odd ball photos in the archives? Join the fun and check out Cee’s Odd Ball Photo gallery.
Last week I wandered around my daughter’s house a photographed her collection of jars and cookbooks.
…..it’s Thursday and I’m home trying to get over a cold
I don’t like waiting so long to get to Cee’s challenge but it seems like I’ve taken on more than I can manage at the moment so something had to be put aside temporarily. That something just happened to be writing for my blog. I’m trying to rest today so that I’m not sick over my March Break. Plans include drawing, reading and answering the following questions.
What would you ask for if a genie granted you three wishes?
I would ask for good health for me and my family. My second wish would be enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life and take two or three trips a year. My last wish would be for on going happiness for my children. If they’re happy and I’m healthy what more could I ask for?
What experiences are most meaningful to you?
The experiences that are most meaningful to me are those that involve my husband and my family. They would include getting married, buying a house, having my children, going on vacation, having a great job and watching my children grow up and sharing their happy moments.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was very young I wanted to be a nurse. At the age of 12 I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and not just any teacher but a family studies teacher. I held on to that dream all through school, occasionally contemplating about going into medicine but my first choice was teaching. Well I did become a family studies teacher and did that for 15 years and then switched to become a guidance counsellor for two years and then a grade 5 homeroom teacher for 14 years and for the last 4 years I’ve been the librarian and art teacher.
Complete this sentence: The best day of my life was….
I can’t pick just one. My wedding day, the days my children were born, the day we bought our house, the day I got my first teaching job, the days when my daughters got married, the day my son got engaged and the day my granddaughter was born.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for spending the day babysitting my granddaughter last Sunday. My husband had a lot of medical tests done this week and I’m grateful that everything looks good and that his cancers are still in remission. We have the green light to proceed making plans for our trip to Italy this summer. We’ve had warming temperatures all week and the rain that we were suppose to get didn’t arrive until today so we’ve experienced very pleasant days.
After tomorrow our March Break begins and I’m looking forward to a week of rest and relaxation. We haven’t made any plans other than seeing our children. Maybe we’ll take in the museum or the art gallery and I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of walking.
….thanks Cee for this week’s questions but I can’t help but think that I’ve answered one or two of these before
Do you believe in extraterrestrials or life on other planets?
Absolutely. I think it would be pretty arrogant to think that we are the only race of beings to inhabit the universe.
How many places have you lived? You can share the number of physical residences and/or the number of cities.
I haven’t lived in too many different places. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany and when I was one we moved to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria. Soon after that we boarded an ocean liner and moved to Canada where I have lived most of my life in Toronto. For a period of four years, when I was 6 to 10 we lived in Oakville (a bedroom community close to Toronto) and when I went to university I lived in the town of Guelph.
If you given $22 million tax free dollars (any currency), what is the first thing you would do?
I would pay off all my credit cards and then give each of my children $1 million dollars, so they could pay off their debts and own a home. After that I would probably put aside enough money to live on comfortably and afford a couple of vacations a year for the rest of my life. Then I would share the rest with my sisters and friends and donate to different charities every year. Spread the wealth!
The Never List: What are things you’ve never done? Or things you know you never will do?
I will never and have never done the following:
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am grateful that my son has started to heal from his surgery and that he returned safely to London, England on Monday night. Before he left we spent some quality family time with his siblings and our granddaughter. Last Saturday, B, A, J and I drove to the Aga Khan Museum and spent a couple of hours perusing the artifacts from the middle east. It was fun watching my children take in the displays and actually taking the time to read the text that explained the history of the different ceramics, books and articles of clothing.
After our experience at the museum we drove to Hamilton and met up with my husband and younger daughter and her family. There was a whirlwind of activity in the kitchen as homemade meatballs were being prepared by the two of them while the rest of us took turns holding the baby and entertaining her. She is so curious now that she doesn’t want to sleep. The dinner was fabulous.
On Sunday I drove my son to the AGO to meet up with one of his good friends and to see the Turner show. I enjoyed our time together but I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Turner’s work. I liked his small watercolour studies but his large pieces were too dark and gloomy for me. I am, however, very curious to see the movie on his life. I think he was one very strange man.
Later this week I’m hoping to figure out how to transfer photos from my new camera to my iPhone and computer using WiFi. So far transferring my photos onto the computer and onto my phone has been a challenge to say the least.
Hopefully I can sort out my photography problems so that I can continue to participate in photo challenges.
Cheers!
….thanks Cee for 50 weeks of great questions
Favourite thing to photograph? Write? Or Cook?
I love photographing nature. When I discovered the macro feature on my camera I’m became somewhat obsessed with taking close-ups of flowers and seed pods and when an insect appears on the subject, I’m in heaven.
I like to write about my daily life. It’s like keeping a personal diary that I share with the world. I’ve dabbled in Haiku which I quite enjoy.
I like baking but I don’t do very much of it because I would eat it and be even heavier than I am. I’ll probably do some Christmas baking because I like to give it to my neighbours and friends.
Did you like swinging as a child? Do you still get excited when you see a swing?
I’m not sure that I really liked it as a young child but when I got older (preteen) we used to hang around the swings and challenge each other to go as high as possible. I can’t say that I get excited when I see the swing sets in my neighbourhood. The thought of going on one actually makes me a bit nauseated.
What has surprised you about blogging?
The biggest surprise about blogging is that I’m still here, almost four years since I started. I’m also surprised how my focus has changed and how many photo challenges that I take part in.
List at least five favorite desserts.
I have to admit that desserts are a weakness. When I’m good I can go without for a long time but once I start eating sweets it’s a slippery slope. Here are some of my favourite desserts:
Anything with fruit – apple strudel (authentic is the best)
– apple or fruit crisp
– fresh fruit torte with whipped cream
Poppy seed cake
Creme Brule
Key lime tarts
Bread pudding
Ice Cream with fruit and whipped cream
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for a wonderful dinner and time spent with a group of friends last Friday. On Saturday I got out for a long walk with my husband and dog and I managed to log over 15 000 steps for the entire day. On Sunday my family and I drove out into the country to a Christmas tree farm and cut down three trees for each of our homes. It was a cold and dreary day and the first time that I’ve done this when there was no snow on the ground. Afterwards we went back to my youngest daughter’s place in Hamilton and warmed up with coffee, gluehwein, hot home-made soup and grilled sandwiches.
Today the girls played in the West Conference Finals for basketball. They won their first two games and in the final game they lost in a very good game, 16 to 14. It was a difficult loss for them because it was so close and they missed out going to the city championships because of one basket. On the plus side they earned a second place banner for the school.
This week I’m looking forward to hearing the choir sing at the Holiday Concert. We’re having our staff party on Wednesday and on Saturday I’m attending another Christmas dinner with another group of friends. Friday is the last day of school and I have about a week to finish my Christmas shopping and get the house ready for family get togethers. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is seeing my son on Monday. He’ll be flying in from London, England and spending about two weeks with us.
….with a couple of warm weeks in November the roses have decided to hang in for a few more days
…spending the day with my daughter and baby Winnie
November has been a blessing as far as the weather goes. We’ve experienced Indian Summer in the last two weeks. Temperatures were in the double digits, well above normal. People were back in sandals and lightweight clothes. The trees are finally dropping their leaves, leaving beautiful carpets of colour all over the sidewalks. 
My daughter still has hot peppers in her garden. Her husband has been busy making numerous batches of hot pepper sauce.
Miss Winnie is now over three weeks old. She basically eats, sleeps and poops. She is starting to lift her head and she is beginning to focus on objects in her surroundings. When I arrived she had just been fed and she was sound asleep. I held her for awhile and then we decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a walk. We bundled her up and buckled her into the stroller. I’m not sure why she needs to be buckled. She’s not going anywhere.
With Lucy at our side we walked through the neighbourhood. It was fun seeing all the left over Hallowe’en decorations on people’s front lawns and the last few remaining flowers making a final showing before the frost sets in. We stopped at a local cafe and bought chai lattes to go and a little something to take home and eat. We would have stayed but we had the dog with us so G stayed outside while I went inside to order.
When we got home the baby finally woke up and of course she was hungry. She ate for a long time and then she became quite fussy, probably due to a little gas. I laid her over my lap and rubbed her back. It helped a little but after an hour the only thing that worked was more time with mommy. She finally fell asleep again. 
….on our walk through my daughter’s Hamilton neighbourhood I found this lovely Black Eyed Susan proudly displaying her bloom in autumn colours
….amongst the decaying plants in my daughter’s garden I found this beauty
….thanks to Cee for four more great questions
Are you usually late, early, or right on time?
It depends on the situation. For appointments I’m almost always on time or early. The only time I’m late happens if I get caught in traffic because of an accident. For parties or social events I’m sometimes ‘fashionably’ late. If I do arrive on time I find that I’m the first one there and end up waiting for others to arrive. If someone has made a reservation for a specific time I try to be there on time. For this blog post I’ve been late recently because of my circumstances in my personal life. Cee would probably say that I’ve posted this in the time frame given but when the next set of questions come out the next day I feel like I’m late.
If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels?
I don’t know if I have the patience to write a novel. I would probably prefer a short story or a poem.
Where did you live at age ten? Is it the same place or town you live now?
When I turned ten I lived in Oakville, a small city between Toronto and Hamilton. We only lived there for four years and my father used to commute to work in Toronto every day. By today’s standards that’s not a very long commute but my father hated it and we moved back to Toronto when I started grade 5. I’ve lived here ever since.
Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?
I think I’d rather fly. Flying is faster than swimming and being underwater I think might be somewhat claustrophobic.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for walks in this lovely crisp autumn weather. I love the colours. 
I’m grateful for a dinner and tickets to the opera, downtown, with my friend D who treated me for my birthday. My blogging friend Judith over at Curious to the Max says that after 50 you can celebrate your birthday season for as many days as you are old. So even though my birthday was in August I can still celebrate for six more days.
I’m also grateful for a fun evening with friends and colleagues from school. We went to a great sample sale, where I bought gifts for Christmas, something for my daughter and a couple of things for myself. Afterwards we had a very nice dinner in a great Italian restaurant, Caffino, in Liberty Village.
As always, I’m grateful for time spent with my family. On Saturday, my husband and I picked up our daughter, A, and her partner, J and we all drove to Hamilton to visit G and her new baby girl. My sister, CJP, drove down from Chatham and her son came in on the Go Bus from Toronto to visit as well. It was like a mini reunion. 
Our little Miss Winifred is starting to show her true colours and was a little fussier than I’ve seen on previous visits but this morning after I checked in with my daughter via What’s App she reported that she was able to get more sleep last night than she’s had in awhile.
While we were in Hamilton we went for a walk and I discovered more wonderful shops. Everyone is so friendly and I spent quite a bit of time talking to the shop owners. One of the shop keepers ended up being a former student that I taught in middle school. She made the connection before I did. What a small world we live in. Shine is the name of her store.
Next week I’m looking forward to closing the cottage for the season and spending more time with Miss Winifred.
Cheers!
Mama Cormier 