Walking, Waves, Water Foul and Wildflowers

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..I got up early enough to join my husband and Frances for our daily 5k walk

As you can see I’m not at the cottage. I decided to go see my doctor yesterday (yes, he was working on Canada Day) and get the results from my blood work. I’m happy to report that all the major things were in the good range (cholesterol, sugar levels, etc.). So why am I not on my way to cottage today, you may ask?

Last night my friend, D, called my from Christian Island and told me that she and her husband were coming home today and going back next weekend. I decided that there was no big hurry to get up to the cottage, seeing that I would be mostly alone, so instead I’m going into school today to clean up my library/art office. I was going to go in next week but I think I’m going to be too busy getting ready for our trip to Ireland.

After a quick cup of coffee, the three of us headed out on our walk. I almost always take my camera with me and today was no exception. I love the macro function on the camera and it came in handy today as I got down nice and close to the tiny wildflowers that we pass on our walk. Part of my walk turned in a run today because every time I stopped to take a picture I had to run to catch up to K and Frances.

The morning started out a bit overcast and there was a slight wind. If you saw the waves on the lake you might have thought there were gail force winds but not so. A few metres inland the pond was as still as ice.

This last shot is my favourite. As I zoomed into the these mini thistles I didn’t notice the blur of activity that was taking place on the stems of these plants.

I’d better get to school before the morning completely disappears. Till later!

Happy Canada Day!

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..what am I doing today?

I’ll probably start my day with a long walk with my husband and our dog. On Sunday we walked for 5.1k, and the day before 4.9 k. Here are a few photos from Saturday’s hike through Col. Sam Smith Park.

I’m not sure what else the day holds for me. I had thought of driving to the cottage but I might wait until Tuesday when I can stop and pick up a few groceries on the way. Everything is pretty much closed today. Anyway it’s one in the morning and if I want to get up early for that walk I’d better be off to bed. Till later. Good Night!

It’s morning now and my post didn’t publish. Don’t know why. This is another problem that I frequently encounter. I’ll try again. By the way I think my husband went for the walk without me. Sigh!!!!!

Weber’s: A Cottager’s Delight

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..or is it?

On this Canada Day weekend many cottagers who are heading north to Orillia and beyond will be making a pit stop at Weber’s, an Ontario landmark. All the years that I’ve been going to my cottage on Georgian Bay I’ve never been to Weber’s, mostly because it’s not on the way for me.

Last weekend I passed Weber’s on the way to a friends place and on the way home I decided I needed to stop at Weber’s, just to say that I’ve been there and experienced one of their ‘legendary’ burgers.

Weber’s is a family run business that Paul Weber started in 1963. The burger hut became so popular that the Ministry of Transportation put up barriers between the south and north bound lanes on Highway 11 to keep people from crossing the busy highway. It was becoming a serious safety hazard. The barrier, unfortunately, seriously affected Weber’s business so they purchased a section of bridge from the CN Tower in Toronto and were given permission to erect it over the highway in 1983. To this day this is the only privately owned bridge, anywhere in Ontario, that spans a provincial highway.

Travellers now can park on either side of the highway and have easy and safe access to Weber’s. Over the years the business has been passed on to Paul Weber Jr. and many new additions have been made to the property. There are two separate entrances and two separate grilling stations to reduce the line-ups and picnic tables have been set up in well kept park like settings. There is also a diner style car on the property if you want to eat indoors.

I thought the line-ups would a problem for me but they have a very efficient system that gets you in and out very quickly. The burgers were good but I didn’t think they were any better than a Harvey’s burger or Southside burger. In fact these places have more options when it comes to toppings and choice of buns.

The organization has become so large that refrigerated box cars are on the property to store the meat and over 400 stores across Canada now sell Weber burgers. The weekend I went was before the long weekend in July, when the really busy summer traffic begins. I can only imagine that the line-ups will be considerably longer and the wait times as well. Would I stop there again? Maybe but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way for a Weber’s burger. I know there are people out there that would disagree with me but a least I can say that I’ve been there, done that.

For more information about the history of Weber’s you can check out this link.

Cheers!

The Month of June in Photos

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Mama Cormier

Saturday, June 1st – Fun Fair

: Our principal taunting the boys and girls

: Professional griller

: Inflatable slide

: What a good sport!

Saturday, June 8th – High School Reunion

Sunday, June 9th – Girls on the Run 5k

Wed, June 12th – West Conference Girls’ Soccer Finals

Thursday, June 13th – Forest of Reading Celebration

: Finished accordion journals

: …. Luke’s journal

: Drama workshop

: Lunch…..pizza

: Thanks for being expert readers

Saturday, June 15th – Opening the Cottage

: View of the island from the dock

: Enjoying first breakfast at the cottage

: Taking a break after opening the cottage

: View of the cottage from the lane

Wednesday, June 19th – Spring Concert

: Folk Dancing

: Line Dancing

: Shaking those hips

: Modern Dance based on a story that students chose to tell through movement

: Grade 1/2 choir

: ‘Modern Ruins’ dance

: The Junior Choir

The report cards were printed, proofread, reprinted, copied, signed and sent home today. The grade 5s had their farewell ceremony yesterday and today were away for their fun activity day. Today the rest of the school had their Fun Day and a colleague and I spent the morning clearing out the computer lab so that construction crews can come during the summer to remove the wall and enlarge the library.

I’ve returned 90% of all the artwork that students produced in my art classes and students have returned most of the books that they took out of the library. I’ve started removing the books from the shelves that will be moved during construction. Only one more day with the children and then the staff party, followed by one more day of meetings and closing down our classrooms for the summer.

…….busy,busy and only a few things left on my to do list. Phew it’s almost over and then I can start planning for our trip to Ireland.

The Next Picasso?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….my grade 2s,3s and 4s loved this project

Even though we only have less than one week of school left, my students really wanted to finish their Picasso portraits. I love all of them. They are all so different and so very colourful. The ones that were started two weeks ago were painted with acrylic paint and the ones that were started only a few day s ago were completed with coloured sharpies.

A Word a Week Challenge: Vibrant

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

I’ve always loved vibrant colours and when I see them on my walks I eagerly pull out my little camera and shoot away. I was delighted when I found out that Sue’s word of the week is ‘vibrant’.

To check out more vibrant photography go to http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/a-word-a-week-challenge-vibrant/

One More Pottery Class

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. where does the time go?

It just seemed like yesterday when I started my classes almost 10 weeks ago. Tonight was our second last class and all my pieces have been fired. One piece needs to be glazed and I started a new piece which should also be ready to glaze on Thursday.

I was really excited to see the glazed pieces tonight. My first piece was a bit disappointing. It was much darker than I anticipated and it had a very flat finish. I’m going to paint another colour over it on Thursday to lighten it up.

The plate and the bowl that I made I glazed with an apple green and than added a sapphire blue on top. I really liked how these two pieces turned out.

The last glazed pieces are my berry bowl and under plate. They were both made from a white clay and I applied a clear glaze to both pieces. This way the fruit that I add to the bowl will contrast nicely with the white.

My teacher, D, suggested that we make a new piece tonight and save our glazing for our last class on Thursday. I really wanted to try a new technique that involved rolling a ball of clay into a slab and then pressing a design into it. After that you cut out a base shape and build your walls with shapes that you cut in any pattern that you want. I cut out a bean shaped base and then started to layer my sides around the base. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to be a bit creative.

I hope it survives the firing. Now I need to figure out what colour to glaze it.

Why was it so Quiet at the Cottage?

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..could this sign posted at the dock have had anything to do with it?

I’ve been going to my cottage for almost 30 years and we’ve never seen a bear, never mind two bears. One of the reasons is because the cottage is on an island and it takes 20 minutes by ferry boat to get from the mainland over to the island.

You can get a pretty good idea how far away the island is from this photo. The bear must have swum over in the fall. I can’t imagine her doing it in the spring with a young cub in tow. There was some speculation that she might have walked over on the ice but I always thought that bears hibernated in the winter.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and even though it’s still early in the season there were very few people on our beach. I did hear that some of the cottagers with dogs purposely stayed away until the bear problem is resolved. I feel, however, that unless they become a nuisance, nothing will be done about their presence. It certainly made me think twice about going for a walk in the woods this weekend.

The view looking east and west down the beach, yesterday.

An Almost Perfect Day

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..until our guest speaker didn’t show up

Today was the day I was most stressed about. Since January I’ve been running a school wide book club, featuring children’s books written by Canadian authors. The club was open to all students in grades three to five. Initially over 80 students joined the club.

The program is called the Forest of Reading and there are books for all age groups from Kindergarten to high school and beyond. Each age category is named after a tree commonly found in Canada. The primary books are classified as Blue Spruce books, grade 3 to 6 are Silver Birch and the French books are named Tamarack and Poplar.

Every year new authors and books are featured and at the end of April students from all over Ontario vote for their favourite book in one category. There’s a big culminating event in Toronto that students are encouraged to attend to meet the authors and find out who the winners are. It’s like the Oscars of children’s books. A couple of years ago the entire school went downtown to attend this event. It was outside and it was a very cool day and because it took place right next to the lake it was even colder. There were thousands of children there and there were line-ups for everything.

Last year we decided as a staff to host our own special event with the students at our school. It was such a successful day that we wanted to do it again. Unfortunately with the political climate in all our schools this year it almost didn’t happen at all. Earlier in the school year the parents purchased the books for us and I really wanted to proceed with the program. Luckily enough teachers were willing to help out and be expert readers so the program started in earnest in January.

In order to participate in the year end celebration for the Forest of Reading the students had to read enough books to reach a goal of 10 credits. I’m happy to say that 34 boys and girls reached and surpassed the goal. One of my students read 38 books.

Today the successful participants were pulled from class and enjoyed two specially designed workshops. In one session the children worked with a professional actor and did drama activities around one of the books that was featured this year. In the second workshop they learned how to make an accordion book which they could personalize and take away with them. For lunch, we treated them to pizza, juice and popsicles.

After lunch I had arranged for one of the Forest of Reading authors to come to the school and speak to the boys and girls. We were all very excited about this special visit. Unfortunately this was the one feature of the day that did not take place. Our guest of honour had mixed up his dates and thought he was coming to the school tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m not at school so we arranged to do the presentation on Monday morning, so not all was lost.

At the end of the day my colleague and pottery teacher was excited to show me how her Father’s Day gift activity turned out. These wonderful clay trophies mounted on bits of scrap marble were created by D’s grade 1/2 class. I think they’re amazing. What Dad wouldn’t love these works of art?