Category Archives: husband

Fandangos One Word Challenge – Feed

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...thanks to Fandango for hosting the One Word Challenge https://mymindmappings.com/2026/01/03/fowc-with-fandango-feed/

What is it about feeding people that gives us so much joy? Food in our family is a way of caring for the well being of our loved ones and expressing love. My husband loves to cook. It gives him a great deal of satisfaction and enjoyment. We are so lucky to be able to feed ourselves and family every day and not worry about where are next meal comes from. Yes we complain about the price of food these days but for most of us we are still able to put food on the table. Sometimes we have to get creative to stretch the dollar but I still fondly remember some of the comfort food we prepared at university. Chicken livers and peppers over rice was a staple along side macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meat sauce (from a jar), grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, homemade chilli and eggs and toast.

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Judy’s Numbers Challenge

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…this week’s number is 227

This week’s number brings back memories of a visit to the High Park Zoo, an art exhibit at the ROM, a day at the opera with my good friend, LInda, several of my art projects from years ago, friends and family, photos from my retirement party and pictures from the cottage.

The Cute and Christmasy Factor

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…the reason why my husband’s cards outsold mine

Kevin is very talented and had a lot of fun creating our annual Christmas cards but he also made numerous other images that had a winter or Christmas theme. Here are some of the images that I had printed and made into greeting cards.

Haven’t Played this for Awhile – #220

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…thanks to Judy Dykstra-Brown for hosting The Numbers Game https://judydykstrabrown.com/2025/11/10/the-numbers-game-98-please-play-along-nov-10-2025/

This week’s number is 220.

Pull Up a Seat on a Rainy Day

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…thanks to Xingfu Mama for hosting Pull Up.a Seat https://xingfumama.blog/2025/11/07/pull-up-a-seat-photo-challenge-2025-week-45/

On our recent trip to London, we would often walk along Church Street, close to our Airbnb. On our last day we experienced our first rainfall in two weeks. I call that a win when visiting London, England. It didn’t, however, stop us from going for a walk.

School Pick-ups and Ballet Classes

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One of our favourite things to do in London was pick up our granddaughter from school, walk back to flat with a stop at the corner store to stock up on drinks and snacks and on one occasion we got Sevin ready for her ballet class and walked her over to to the community hall for her lesson.

Dinner and a Show

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…Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

After walking around Trafalgar Square and enjoying the art in the National Gallery, Kevin and I headed to the Steak and Co. for dinner. We chose this restaurant because it was down the street from the Harold Pinter Theatre. It also had a good rating.

It was a nice meal even if I did have to send my steak back twice. Kevin and I both ordered medium rare steaks and his was perfect but mine was blue and difficult to cut. The chef cooked me a new steak but it was also blue. After sending it back for more grilling the third try proved to be the charm. The staff were quite embarrassed and they kindly discounted our final bill. The appetizers and the dessert were outstanding and the service was exceptional.

After dinner we took the short walk to the theatre. The Harold Pinter Theatre is an ornate 19th century theatre with three tiers of balconies. It opened in 1881 as the Royal Comedy Theatre.

The play we watched was The Weir, starring Brendan Gleason. Kevin summed up the story line as a crash course on rural Irish culture. It took me a few minutes to get used to the Irish dialects. Here is a summary of the plot.https://www.haroldpintertheatre.co.uk/shows/the-weir

We caught a glimpse of the set before the play started

A Trip to the Seaside

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…Leigh on Sea

My mystery destination was a train trip to the seaside today. It almost didn’t happen because we couldn’t find the train station. We used Google Maps and when we arrived at our destination there was no train station. We tried going in the other direction and we asked at least three strangers where C2C was. No one knew and when they checked Google Maps they kept sending us back in the same direction.

We finally stopped at a pub for an early lunch and I googled train stations. Eureka! We were so close but it wasn’t near C2C. We decided to give it one more go and in a few minutes we found our destination.

We purchased tickets for Leigh on Sea and had a comfortable train trip to the seaside. Once we arrived it was a short downhill walk to the quaint town. We checked out a few stores and I explored the tiny museum.

Leigh Heritage Centre stands in the centre of the old town in the old Smithy. Over the centuries the building has been owned by several people and had a variety of uses. Now home to a photographic display tracing Leigh’s local history, and a treasure trove for all connected to Leigh-on-Sea.(from the website)

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the cottage attached to the centre.

At the end of the road we came to the beach. As far as beaches go it was pretty small but several families and couples were enjoying the sand and the sun. Kevin and I found a bench and we took in some rays.

Before heading back to the train we stopped for a cold drink.

A Surprise Visit to Abby Road

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…then lunch in a pub and a walk through Hyde Park

Kevin decided to surprise me with a secret itinerary into central London today. We walked to the Arsenal Station and took the Piccadilly line to Green Park and then transferred onto the Jubilee line. Three stops later we got off at St. John’s Wood.

As we started walking Kevin hesitated for a moment and checked his phone for directions. A kind man asked if we were looking for Abby Road. Our destination was no longer a surprise but I was very moved by Kevin’s plan. He knows that I was and still am a big Beatles fan.

The famous crossing on Abby Road

The actual studio is heavily guarded but there is a gift shop that is open to the public.

We considered going to some of the other iconic Beatles landmarks but they were all very far apart and not easy to walk to so we opted to get some lunch instead.

We headed to Bakers Street and had a nice meal at the Allsop Arms. I had the steak sandwich and lemonade and Kevin had the chicken BLT and a non alcoholic Peroni.

The forecasted rain held off and we made our way south to Hyde Park. We entered from the north east side and continued along the path towards the Serpentine Lake. As we got closer to the lake we were happy to see benches to rest our weary feet.

After a short rest we continued heading south to the south end of Hyde Park.

On the way out of the park I saw the rose garden and suggested to Kevin that he could rest some more while I quickly checked out the flowers.

All in all it was a great outing and when we got home Brendan cooked us dinner and Sevin set up her hairdressing parlour and gave Oma and Big Papa a makeover. If our son shares his photos with me I might share them with you. All I can say is that it was crazy fun and there was a lot of laughing.