Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge 2015 – Week #10

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…. a trip to the bike show inspired these photos

For more odd ball photos check out Cee’s photography challenges.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Farm Animals

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks Cee for another fun foto challenge

A Word a Week Photograph Challenge – Broken

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks to Sue Llewellyn for this week’s word ‘broken’

More Snow, Cuban Food, Cheese, Tarts and Jazz

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….despite the snow it was a very full and delightful day

On Saturday we woke up to more snow. Lots of snow. We had made plans earlier in the week to meet up with friends for lunch and because we had already cancelled the last get together because of illness we didn’t want to cancel again. Luckily the drive wasn’t too long.

We had lunch at a very popular restaurant on Roncesvalles in the west end of Toronto. The weather certainly didn’t keep people from going out for a meal. The place was packed but our wait was relatively short. La Cubana specializes in Cuban delights and because we were there on a Saturday the brunch menu was being served.

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The food was very tasty and the service very friendly. I would definitely go back. We hadn’t seen our friends, D & D, since New Year’s Day so we had a lot of catching up to do. They talked about their recent trip to Singapore and shared some beautiful photographs of this island country. We brought them up to date on K’s recent surgery and his even more recent accident. You can see from the photograph that he’s healing nicely.

After lunch we said our good-byes, scraped off more snow from the car and then carefully drove off. On the way home we decided to stop at one of our favourite cheese stores in town, The Cheese Boutique. It was a good day to go. We sampled some delicious organic olive oil from Turkey, were served some hot turkish tea and met a lovely lady who was promoting her homemade lemon curd tarts and butter tarts. I asked her if she lived close by and she told us about her store and bakery on the Queensway called the The Tartistry. She also told us about the live jazz band that played there every Saturday, all day long. Seeing it was on the way home we decided to stop in and check the place out. Before we left we picked up some great cheese that was on sale, a free range chicken and a nice big steak to share for dinner.

The Tartistry is a small store, crammed with beautiful antiques, jewellery, art work and of course tarts. We sat at a small table and ordered two pots of tea and because we hadn’t had dessert with lunch we also indulged in the best tarts I’ve ever eaten. The jazz band was very good. The place was pretty quiet, probably due to the bad weather, but I can see how on a nicer day the place could be very busy. I would definitely go back here again as well.

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After spending about an hour listening to jazz we finally drove home, stopped to pick up some fresh vegetable to go with the steak and quickly shovelled more snow and took the dog for a walk before preparing dinner. Actually, we were pretty full from our mid afternoon snack so we waited quite a while before making dinner. The steak was amazing and even though one steak is normally enough meat for both of us my husband did wish he had an entire steak to himself (only because it was so good). We laughed when he said that because when we have in the past eaten a steak each he usually complains that it’s too much meat.

All in all it was a wonderful day. Full of new and unexpected and spontaneous adventures.

WP – The Rule of Thirds

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Mama Cormier

The Rule of Thirds

Cee’s Black and White Challenge – Things Found in the Kitchen

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..thank you Cee for another great black and white challenge

Share Your World 2015 – Week 7

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Mama Cormier

……lucky 7

Is the paper money in your possession right now organized sequentially according to denomination and with the bills right side up and facing the same way?

There is no money in my wallet at the moment. I’ve been using my debit card a lot lately. When I’m organizing money from school trips and fund raisers I do tend to organize the bills sequentially and all facing in the same direction.

What is your favorite type of dog? (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal or character in a movie)

My favourite dog is probably a Golden Retriever. I’ve owned two of them so I tend to have a soft spot in my heart for them. Having said that, however, I love all my dogs…. mutts and pure breads alike.

If money was not an issue, would you go on a cruise? If so where would you go?

I think I’d like to try a cruise at least once. A river cruise through Europe appeals to me. My sister went on one last fall and enjoyed it very much.

Would you dare to sleep in haunted house overnight?

No thank you. I do believe that ghosts exist and haunted houses tend to have ‘angry’ ghosts. There’d be no sleeping going on for me.

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 very special ‘Family Day’ get together at a dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. Both my girls and their significant others were there and we videotaped a greeting to our son and his fiancé in England. My husband is healing up nicely and I’m over my tummy ailments that had me down for the count last Friday.

This week I’m looking forward to a cross country ski trip with a group of grade 4 and 5 students and on Friday our boys’ basketball team will be competing in a tournament against four other school teams. Wish us luck!

For more Share Your World fun check out Cee’s Photography.