Category Archives: Happiness File

Thankful for One More Splendid Day In November

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….Nov. 29th proved to be an awesome day for a walk

I’m so happy that my husband and I could enjoy one more mild day in November and get out for our longest walk yet. We were in good company. I think half the neighbourhood decided to take advantage of this good weather.

One pleasant surprise was seeing the para sailors out with their kites on the water. I’m sure the Lake must be very cold but that didn’t deter these hearty souls from enjoying skimming across the water and flipping through the air.

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I said earlier that this is the longest walk we’ve done in awhile. My husband managed to make it all the way to the point and back which is approximately 4.6 kilometres. The cyclist, dog walkers and even the fishermen were out on Sunday. It’s a good thing we all took advantage of the good weather because the last day of November turned out to be cold, grey and rainy.

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Monster Monday and Tuesday Birds are Returning

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….now that the weather is colder and painting outside is no longer an option my husband has decided to work on smaller pieces

One of the things that Kevin is particularily good at is drawing or illustrating fun creatures. He initially started making drawings for our first granddaughter over a year ago and then suddenly stopped. This week he decided it was time to bring back Monster Mondays and Tuesday Birds. Here are his first two drawings.

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Ink, marker and watercolour

First Snow and Christmas Lights

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….pulled out the lights and strung them on the outside tree

On the weekend we cleaned up the garden and put away the lawn furniture. We took out the snow shovel and snow blower and put the garden tools and rakes back in the garage. I also found the outdoor Christmas lights and dragged them out as well.

On Saturday our eldest daughter came over helped me put up the lights. This has to be the earliest I’ve ever put up the lights. I’m usually the one who gets to it a few days before Christmas. This year because of COVID we decided to try and make the Christmas season as cheerful as possible seeing that there will be no Santa Claus parade, shopping mostly on-line or curb side pick-up and no family gatherings.

We’re planning on a Zoom Christmas for now. In Toronto we’re in lockdown again for at least four weeks. To keep our spirits up we’re planning on decorating as normal, doing a cookie exchange and doing drop off deliveries of presents and goodies.

Our first snow was pretty slim down by the lake but other parts of Toronto and north of the city there was quite a bit of snow. Most of it has now melted but I’m sure there will be lots more to come in the next few months.

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first snow by the lake

I’m glad we got the lights up when we did. It was probably the last nice day for awhile. Now that they’re up it helps boost my mood and I’m starting to pull out more decorations.

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Another COVID Birthday Celebration

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….thank goodness for the beautiful weather we’ve had in November

The last two days have been more normal in terms of November weather but prior to this we’ve had the most glorious, warm and sunny days. Our eldest daughter celebrates her birthday in November so we were thankful that we were able to get together with the family and have a small celebration on the deck in the backyard.

Blowing out the candles has also taken on a new format. I lit the candles on the cake and then we removed them one at a time and my daughter blew them out individually away from the cake. Well that was the plan but it turned out that the candles had burned down too far so she tried to put the candles out by waving her hand over them.

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That didn’t work very well so she tried to extinguish the candles by snuffing them out with popcorn. That worked somewhat but the popcorn caught fire.

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In the end no one was harmed and the cake was delicious.

My Favourite Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake

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….a small but mighty winery

Part 2

You know a winery is good when the local restaurants all have their wine on the menu. We were introduced to Marynissen years ago when we first started visiting Niagara-on-the-Lake. On our last trip we learned that Marynissen was the first winery in Ontario to plant the cabernet sauvignon grape and now 48 years later they are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their cabernet sauvignon wine.

While there we sampled this special wine and I have to say it was spectacular. The tasting room is very unpretentious but the staff are extremely friendly and helpful. We walked away with a case of wine. Hopefully we can hang on to some of it for the holidays.

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A Short Visit to Wine Country

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…after the shock of losing my Dad and having to deal with the immediate paperwork we decided we needed a break

We were surprised that some of our favourite places outside the city were booked in the middle of the week, even during COVID. Toronto and the Greater Toronto area has more restrictions in place because of higher positive test cases so I guess people were looking for places, like us, to get away to.

We finally found a great old mill that was converted into an inn in the outskirts of St. Catharines. It was very close to all the places we wanted to visit and it had a fantastic restaurant on the premises. The Stone Mill Inn was located in a once very industrial area and my husband immediately recognized it because one of his father’s favourite drinking establishments was just around the corner. That’s a story for another time.

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We had dinner at the Italian restaurant in the Inn that evening and were pleased and relieved that the place was not busy. All the safety protocols were in place and the servers all wore masks. The food was fantastic.

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We decided to forgo the outlet mall on our first full day of exploring. We headed straight for Niagara-on-the Lake and made our first stop at the Wayne Gretzky Winery. A lot of wineries are now expanding their inventory to include beer and spirits and interestingly enough it was the whiskey here that we preferred. I’m not much of a whisky drinker but I loved the salted caramel whiskey. I guess some people would argue that salted caramel is an abomination to that classic spirit but it was flying off the shelf.

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Our next stop was the old town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. We walked down the main street and browsed through some of the stores and of course we had to stop in the local bakery and pick up my husband’s favourite pastry, eccles cakes.

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Back to the Inn for another amazing meal and more adventures the next day……..

End of Part 1.

A Drive By Birthday Party

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….for five year old Winnie

I wanted to post this 10 days ago but with my father’s demise the day after these photos were taken I was ……well you can imagine how my blog was not my priority.

Now that things are settling down but nowhere near normal I’m trying to find joy again in the little things, like taking photographs of autumn leaves and flowers and taking walks with friends (with masks on). I’m on the phone a lot catching up with friends because COVID makes visiting in person difficult.

This year for my granddaughter’s fifth birthday we were suppose to get together for a birthday celebration in our backyard on Thanksgiving Monday but our daughter in Hamilton (Winnie’s Mom) received a COVID alert that she had been close to someone who has the virus. Out of caution they decided not to come to Toronto.

On Wednesday they decided that a drive by birthday for Winnie would be okay if we stayed apart and wore masks. Before they arrived I put out chairs on the front lawn and placed her birthday presents next to the chairs and her cake on the wall next to the driveway.

It was different. No hugs and kisses. We stayed on the porch while Winnie opened her gifts and then she dug into a piece of cake. She loved having cake at 10:00 in the morning. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes. Then we blew her kisses through our masks and they were off to the Toronto Zoo.

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This last photo was sent to me by Winnie’s Mom. At the zoo they had these decorated hay bales and Winnie wanted to pose in front of every single one. This one was my favourite.

An Evening Walk on the Beach

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…after arriving at the cottage we had a quick snack and then decided to explore the beach

Now that the days are getting shorter my daughter and I knew that we didn’t have a lot of time to walk on the beach before darkness set in. After sitting in the car for over three hours we needed to stretch our legs. We fuelled up on some tea and homemade apple cake and then headed down to the beach. We were pleasantly surprised to find the the water level had gone down somewhat since our last visit so walking on the beach was considerably easier than it was two weeks ago.

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My Morning Coffee

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….mornings at the cottage

The first thing I do when I wake up at the cottage is fill the kettle and boil water for my morning coffee. I have no electricity so there is no coffee maker, Tassimo machine or Nespresso machine. When I grew up my parents always made filter coffee. People now call is pour over coffee and they pay a premium price for it at the coffee shop.

For more than 30 years I’ve made my coffee at the cottage this way. I put the kettle on the side burner of the BBQ and place the filter cone over our Coffee Butler. It’s a thermos that keeps the coffee hot for hours but when there’s more than two of us we often have to make a couple of pots if we want more than one cup.

This past weekend I went to the cottage with my daughter and daughter-in-law and this is how we started each morning. The night before we left for the cottage I made a large loaf of banana bread which I wrapped in foil and brought along. Heaven!

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Celebrating 45 Years of Love and Friendship

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….our wedding day feels like it happened yesterday and not 45 years ago

This time last year we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary in the hospital when Kevin was admitted for pneumonia. I was so pleased that his cough wasn’t COVID related or pneumonia and that he was well enough to go out for an early dinner today.

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Yesterday Kevin took me clothes shopping to buy a new dress for our anniversary dinner. He planned to take me to one our favourite restaurants along the Port Credit River but because of COVID he couldn’t make reservations and we had take our chances and hope we could get in. We decided on an early dinner but even at 4:00 there was a one hour wait. We decided to check out an Italian restaurant up the street.

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Our view from the patio, including the restaurant we couldn’t get into

Posta was open and readily accepted our request for a table for two on the patio. The service and the food were excellent and the view was fantastic. We now have a new favourite restaurant to frequent for special occasions.