….took awhile to find this week’s photo challenge but I didn’t give up
Today’s walk brought me peace and harmony as I played with my new camera and experimented with different angles.
WPC – Harmony
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Category Archives: Snow and Ice
WPC – Seasons
….no two years are the same
This week’s photo challenge asks us to take photos of what the season looks like where we live. February in Toronto is usually cold and white. At least the two years before this one were like that. Today the temperatures were mild and the only snow came from the skating rink after being cleaned. Here are photos from two years ago in February at Col. Samuel Smith Park and today in the same place.
Share Your World 2016 – Week 3
….to share your world check out Cee’s blog
What is your favorite piece of art? (it doesn’t have to be famous)
That’s a hard question for me because I love so many different pieces. I’m a huge fan of Ray Cattell’s art and would love any one of his pieces. Here’s one that I’m fond of:
A Ray Cattell painting.
What made you smile today?
A photo of my new granddaughter always make me smile.
Which place do you recommend as a Must-See? Please state which country, state or providence.
Again I struggled with this question but after a discussion with my daughter I decided that Niagara Falls should be a must-see destination if you’re visiting this end of Canada or New York state in the USA. You can see the falls from either side of the border but I think the view from the Canadian side is spectacular.
Complete this sentence: When I was younger I used to….
…..sing in a German choir. I started at the age of 18 and sang with them for 27 years. I was always one of the youngest in the choir. Even when I left at the age of 45 most of the members were considerably older than me. I did enjoy it and I do miss singing in a choir and hearing German.
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 that my son has had his staples removed from his arm and that his arm is healing nicely. He’s back in England now and has found himself a doctor and is part of the National Health Service. Things are going well at school and boys’ basketball is well underway with early morning practices are happening three times a week. I’m especially grateful to one of our dads who is coming out each morning to help us coach the boys’ team.
This week I’m looking forward to a day off on Friday. It’s a report card writing day. I’m not thrilled about writing report cards but I am grateful for the time to work on them. I’m also looking forward to seeing Miss Winnie on the weekend. We didn’t get to see her last weekend and by all accounts from her mother she’s growing by leaps and bounds.
Here are a few photos from our walks through the park and the snow storm we had on Monday. Notice how tired Frances is. She had just stared down a coyote during that storm.
A Week of Highs and Lows
….I haven’t posted in days
My lows include not posting for a number of days. I had over 500 emails that I hadn’t opened and I tried to read as many as possible. I deleted many of them without reading them so I apologize if I missed an important message or one of your better posts. If I made a comment or ‘liked’ your post you know that I read it. I actually do read your posts and I feel unusually guilty if I have to pass them over. I’m trying to read my emails daily but there are over a hundred in my inbox again.
It’s been a tough week with the kids at school. I’m sure that it’s partly due to the time change. Everyone was tired and a bit cranky and with March Break in front of them many found it difficult to focus. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation for this holiday.
I also haven’t done any art for myself. Every day this week I planned to spend some time on my art and it didn’t happen. I’m planning on fixing that during my time off.
Now that March Break is here, I’ve come down with a head cold. Wouldn’t you know it! I’m not sick all year and on the first day of the break I have a scratchy throat and runny nose. Oh well, I have 9 days to rest.
On the high side I managed to get more of the books in the library labelled and shelved and I finally put in an order for supplies and more books. I know that may not seem like a high for some of you but I always feel good when I can get something accomplished.
Last Sunday I took my family to see Ray Cattell’s art show at the Arts and Letters Club. I’ve know Ray for over 25 years. His daughter, L and I work together and have been best friends for all those years. Ray is now in his 90s and it was nice to see the range of work that he has produced from the 1960s to the present day.
The temperatures have finally warmed up and the snow has started to melt. In fact so much of the snow has melted that I’ve finally been able to go outside without my winter boots on. A few crazy people have also been seen wearing shorts in Toronto. Plus 4 is hardly warm enough to go outside without a coat never mind wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
I also went to a concert this week. It was part of the Music in the Afternoon concert series put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. The concert featured Jens Lindemann on trumpet. I had no idea what to expect but it ended up being one my most favourite concerts to date. I’ll write more about this in my next post.
I also spent time with my friend CL who I hadn’t seen since Christmas. We had lunch together and then headed downtown for the concert. Afterwards we stopped for coffee and continued to catch up on what we’ve been doing for the last three months. As with most of my friends she asked about my retirement and gave me some food for thought as to what I might want to do when I finally take that step.
On Wednesday a group of us from school decided to have a bit of a staff social and we went bowling and then out for dinner. Most of us are not very good bowlers but it was a lot of fun and we vowed that we would plan another outing after March Break.
Last night my daughter and her husband came over for an impromptu dinner of homemade pizza and salad. My husband and I are very spontaneous and we love it when things like this just come together.
To top off my highs for the week my husband bought me another fresh bouquet of flowers.
More Snow, Cuban Food, Cheese, Tarts and Jazz
….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.
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.
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.
The Next Wave of Snow is Upon Us
…..last Monday we saw more snow than predicted but still no ‘Snow Day’ in Toronto
Luckily everyone else stayed off the roads so driving to work on Monday wasn’t as bad as it could have been. About one third of our students stayed home and made their own ‘Snow Day’. All the other school boards around Toronto closed schools for the day. We only cancelled buses. It’s funny how conditions for school buses are too dangerous but it’s okay for teachers and parents to get out in their cars to get to school. Go figure!
Anyway, I didn’t intend to rant about last Monday. Today we’re experiencing more snow but I’m not sure that we’re going to get as much as predicted. I’m trying to get out and walk more so late this afternoon, when the snow started I went out for a walk and on my way home I took a few photos. They’re a little grainy because it started to get dark but some of that graininess is the snow that’s coming down.
I went out again a little while ago to walk the dog but she wouldn’t go further than around the block so I think I’m going to be about a thousand steps shy of my 10 000 step goal. Maybe I’ll go out one more time without her and shovel some of that snow.
some of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – My Favourite Things-Verse One
…this challenge comes from the song ‘My Favourite Things’ from the Sound of Music
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles, and warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings, These are a few of my favorite things
Thanks Cee!
A Word a Week Photograph Challenge – Chilled
…..doesn’t get much chillier than this
Sitting on the tarmac waiting to be de-iced
Thanks to Sue Llewellyn for her weekly photo challenge.
From a Blast of Winter to Sunny Skies and Warm Temperatures in Four Hours
…from Toronto to Calgary
Who knew that travelling west to Calgary could be the equivalent of going south in search of warmer weather. Well that might be a bit of a stretch but the temperature in Toronto went down to -30 celsius with the wind chill and the visibility was close to zero as I sat on the tarmac waiting for our plane to be de-iced.
When we arrived in Calgary most of the snow had melted, the sun shone brightly and the temperature was sitting at 14 degrees celsius. When I got to my sister’s place I had to change my clothes because I was literally too uncomfortable in my fleece lined pants and sweater.
It is only 7:00 am here in Calgary but my internal clock can’t seem to adjust to the time change. I’ve only had six hours of sleep and I’m wide awake so I’ve decided to post a few pictures of yesterday’s plane trip. Enjoy!
Sitting on the tarmac waiting to be de-iced
A welcome sight. It’s all about safety.
The de-icing truck doing its thing
Blue skies above the snowy clouds. I thought we’d never get through those clouds.
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- Over frozen Lake Michigan
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- Across the snow covered Praires
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- Approaching Calgary
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- Way off in the distance you can see the mountains
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- Calgary suburbs
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- Calgary industrial neighbourhood
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- Downtown in the distance
The Perfect Day for our Winter Olympics
….freshly fallen snow and temperatures just below freezing
Tuesday morning I arrived early for basketball practice. I assigned a couple of students to sweep the snow off the adventure playground and I drew a couple of targets on the brick wall in preparation for the event that G and I were in charge of, the biathlon. In total there were 11 activities that were being set up for our Winter Olympics.
Shortly after the bell rang students waited to be called to the gym where they would find out which country and team they would be part of. We were hoping to start the first activity at 9:00 but organizing 420 students into 22 teams took longer than we anticipated. The older students were the flag bearers and held up their flags which also had a number of letter assigned to it. Before the students arrived their teachers wrote a number or letter on their hands so they would know where to go when they got to the gym.
The challenge was placing the kindergarten children with the older children. It was the first time that the younger children participated in a fun day with the whole school. I think that their teachers were a little more anxious than the kids themselves. The grades 4 and 5 students did an excellent job looking after their younger team members. They assisted them with the activities and ran with them when necessary but most importantly no one was lost or misplaced during the entire morning.
Every team rotated through at least six activities before the morning ended and then everyone returned to their classes where hot chocolate and cookies were waiting.
After lunch all the students went to the gym where all the choirs were called to the front of the room to perform the songs that they would be singing later in the week and in the following week for Kiwanis. This is a music festival that our school participates in every year. It’s a competition where schools compete against each other in different categories. This year we’ve entered a primary choir, junior choir, grade 4 homeroom choir, grade 5 homeroom choir and a boy’s choir.
After the choirs performed we had our closing ceremony for the Olympic games. At lunch G and I tabulated all the scores from the morning’s events and we determined which countries would win the gold, silver and bronze medals.
We asked the flag bearers to pick up their flags and after the Olympic torch and the banner with the Olympic rings entered the gym I called on each country to enter the gym with their flags held high. The spirit in the room was amazing.
Then it was time to announce the winning countries. The winner of the bronze medal was Denmark. Silver went to Sweden and the gold medalists came from Germany.
Enjoy the photos while you listen to
Mama Cormier 