I don’t often take photos of waste but two years ago, at the beginning of COVID, my neighbour and I went out every day for a month and collected the waste that people left behind. We were appalled at the amount of trash we picked up every day. People started to notice and thanked us and many people picked up the cause. It seems that the amount of trash is somewhat less these days.
Much of the trash that we collected had washed up from the lake and we found some pretty interesting things along the shoreline, hidden under the rocks and landfill that lined the edges of our parks.
Our trip to Europe, France and London to be exact, was a blessing because we got to spend every day with our youngest granddaughter. Sevin is just two so of course there were moments when everything wasn’t sunshine and lollipops but for the most part we loved spending time with her and now that we are back home she asks her parents where are Oma and Big Papa.
….I finally got to use all the icing and decorations that I bought in December
Last Christmas our granddaughter from New Brunswick was suppose to come and visit with her Mom and Dad. With the emergence of the new Omicron strain they decided to play it safe and stayed home. In the meantime I went to Bulk Barn and loaded up on icing pouches, sprinkles, mini candies and peanut butter chips because Winnie had requested that we make cookies together.
Last week they finally found some time to visit and they flew to Toronto for four days. Out came the cookie mix, the cookie cutters and all the icing and decorations. It was so much fun until Oma, that’s me, ate the broken hand that fell off the Santa cookie. I was in so much trouble but luckily the trauma passed quickly but I’m not sure that I’ve been completely forgiven. Ouch!
We also got to finally celebrate Gaelan’s 40th birthday in style.
….not as big as in years past but open non the less
In the past College Royal has attracted up to 30 000 visitors but in the last two years it was mostly virtual and this year it was limited to staff, students and family members. It was much smaller in size but we enjoyed our two days of exploring the campus, speaking to the exhibitors, learning new things, watching the dog show and walking through the barns.
If you had any doubts as to the what the University of Guelph is all about, College Royal highlighted the agricultural, veterinary and animal and food sciences. As a graduate of U of G I can tell you that there is much more to this university, i.e., Family and Child Studies, The Arts, Biomedical studies, Business and Economics, Athletics, Human Kinetics, etc.. Hopefully in future years College Royal will be back to hosting more clubs, more of the arts, fashion shows and will have more hands on activities and bring back the milkshakes.
Three Generations of Guelph students, past and present
This weekend is the annual College Royal Open House at the University of Guelph. This is where my husband, Kevin and I first met. I was a student and he was visiting a friend who lived next door to me. We hooked up pretty quickly and he enrolled in the university the following semester. College Royal was always one of our favourite activities. We both belonged to a drama club, Curtain Call, that put on student written and produced shows every year during College Royal. Every year Collage Royal attracts about 30 000 visitors. https://www.collegeroyalsociety.com/
Now, as for Tonguely he seems to be missing. We’re pretty sure he wants to be there. Hope he’s not getting into any trouble.
One week after Kevin’s hip replacement surgery he decided he couldn’t let Valentine’s Day go by without doing something special for me. So he got on his phone and ordered a special Valentine’s Day dinner that was delivered to the house. It was beautifully boxed and only required some reheating or final minutes in the oven.
I set up the little table in the basement kitchen, where Kevin was recovering, with a cloth and candles. A day earlier I went out and picked up a special wine that Kevin wanted to have with the dinner. Since the beginning of COVID we have had date nights where we would get dressed up and share a gourmet meal at home. Kevin wanted this to be one of those date nights so he insisted on putting on a white shirt and one of his bowties.
It was an amazing meal. There was so much food that we saved our dessert for the next day.
…looking around the house I found these trios to share with you
A trio of Paper DollsA trio of tobacco tinsA trio of scissorsA wall of triosOne of my favourite photos from the past – Me at 1or 2, my Dad and St. Nicholas
Has the well of creativity run dry? Have we run out of art supplies? No, none of that is true.
During the holidays making art was difficult because we had the house full of family. Even after they left it took awhile to get our Mojo back. Then the accident happened. Ten days ago my husband, Kevin, fell down the stairs at home and broke his hip. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance and the next day they did a hip replacement.
The amazing part of this story is that his operation was new and his recovery time is much faster. So fast in fact that they sent him home the same day of his surgery. They got him out of bed one hour after his operation and had him walking and climbing up and down stairs. After that they said he was good to go. Everything our friends who’ve had hip surgeries told us to expecthad didn’t apply to Kevin. No restrictions as to movement and his physio is taking place at home.
We set him up in the basement apartment because everything is at his fingertips. He has a walk-in shower with grab bars, a kitchen, TV and new bed. Climbing stairs to come upstairs is not recommended for another week (although I caught him going half way up the stairs to retrieve some mail). As a result I’ve been cooking all the meals (he can do toast and snacks) and all the running around for meds, food and other necessities, such as a new laptop for his business. Needless to say I’m finding it difficult to find time to do my blog and make art.
Kevin was very impressed with the nursing staff a Toronto Western and saw some of the abuse they have to endure from disgruntled patients. He wanted to do something special for them so he made a painting for them. I brought his art supplies to the basement and this is what he made.
With Valentine’s Day close at hand he also got busy and made a card for the family.
In New Brunswick, our Miss Winnie was busy making Valentine’s Day cards for every member of her class and she personalized each card by drawing something that the child likes or has an interest in. Luckily she only has 13 classmates.
After my granddaughter and her family went back to London, England, I discovered that they left behind a number of things, like toys, gloves, snacks and Sevin’s artwork. We had already taken our favourite piece and framed it but there were five more left behind. Rather than throw them away I decided to take them and add marks with black and white ink. Here is the first one that I worked on.
Some of the pieces that were left behindAfter I added white and black marks with ink
Last week my son and I, along with my granddaughter took a car ride to the Royal Ontario Museum. My son really wanted to see the Photography exhibit and I knew that Sevin would be less than impressed. I was, however quite surprised when I saw how easily she amused herself. It wasn’t the photos that caught her attention but the chairs that were placed throughout the exhibit.
Mama Cormier 