Tag Archives: Hamilton

A Busy Week

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….a lot of driving, twice to Oshawa and twice to Hamilton

Since Christmas Eve we have been constantly on the go. This year we celebrated Christmas Eve in Hamilton and on Christmas Day we celebrated some more here at home. No turkey this year, another first.

On the 27th I drove to Oshawa to bring my Dad his Christmas presents from my family. In the move a few weeks earlier he lost the remote control for his radio/CD player and he had to unplug the machine every time he wanted to turn it off or change the CD. Our daughters, A & J picked up a new remote control from a store downtown close to where they work. Dad was so happy to finally be able to play his music properly.

Two days later we drove out to Oshawa again but this time the whole family went to celebrate with Dad. There were 11 of us and because his new apartment is so small we all met in the library of the retirement home. After opening presents we headed out to the restaurant to enjoy a meal together. Today my sister sent me a few more photos that I can share with you.

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SONY DSC
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SONY DSC

Yesterday we were back in Hamilton to celebrate the birthdays of our twins. Our son, unfortunately, is not celebrating here in Canada but is with his new family in Iran. From his photos and messages it sounds like he’s having a great time. Our daughter opened her house for yet another celebration in less than a week. Our good friends A and W, who were unable to join us this year on Christmas Eve, made the trek to Hamilton as well. It was a lovely time with family and friends. Very low key and relaxed and of course the baby stole the spotlight again.

WPC – Path

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…..this week’s theme for WordPress’ weekly photo challenge is Path

“A path is a prior interpretation of the best way to traverse a landscape.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Supercrawl in Hamilton, ON

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….last weekend I went to my first art crawl

Since 2009, Hamilton has hosted an art supercrawl that now spreads over 16 city blocks and has gone from a one day event to an entire weekend. It celebrates the diverse art community in the James St. North community in Hamilton. This year it featured numerous art installations, hands on art demonstrations, live bands, street performers, dozens of food trucks, and hundreds of vendors selling jewellery, crafts, paintings, clothing, knitwear and handmade toys. Supercrawl 2016

 

April Fools’ a Day Late

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….clearly Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that April Fools’ Day was on the first

While visiting our daughter and her family in Hamilton yesterday we notice that a few snow flakes were coming down. We didn’t think too much of it as we donned our spring coats and headed outside for a walk. The temperature was hovering just at the freezing point so we didn’t bring scarves or hats.

Within minutes of starting our walk the snow started to fall in huge fluffy flakes. My daughter and I put up the hoods on our jackets. We walked through the neighbourhood commenting on how all winter we had seen very little snow and here it was April 2nd and we were experiencing a blizzard. We were headed to the market to pick up a few things and by the time we got there we were drenched from the snow that melted through our coats.

My granddaughter wasn’t at all disturbed by this sudden shift in the weather. She just didn’t like the cover that we kept putting over her stroller so that she wouldn’t get wet. After awhile it became a bit of a game as the cover constantly slipped away and she would give us one of her big grins every time she saw our faces. I guess we were quite the site with these mounds of snow collecting on our heads and shoulders.

After an hour we arrived back at the house and my husband and I decided we should drive back to Toronto. The visibility was bad so as soon as we could we got off the highway and took the Lakeshore all the way back to the city. It was slower but way less stressful.

This morning we woke up to clear blue skies and only a dusting of snow on the rooftops but it was much colder. We heard that another bout of snow was heading our way so we decided to go for our walk while it was still sunny. This time we bundled up in our warm parkas, scarves, hats and gloves. It turned into a great walk and on the way back with the wind at our backs it was even more enjoyable. We walked exactly 5 kilometres.

The forecast of more snow turned out to be true. As I write this the snow is coming down gently now but it was pretty stormy about an hour ago. April is fooling all of us. Winter is back….well at least for a little bit. How is spring in your neighbourhood?

 

 

A Trip to Hamilton, Hot Sauce and Baby Time

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…spending the day with my daughter and baby Winnie

November has been a blessing as far as the weather goes. We’ve experienced Indian Summer in the last two weeks. Temperatures were in the double digits, well above normal. People were back in sandals and lightweight clothes. The trees are finally dropping their leaves, leaving beautiful carpets of colour all over the sidewalks. IMG_6741

My daughter still has hot peppers in her garden. Her husband has been busy making numerous batches of hot pepper sauce.

Miss Winnie is now over three weeks old. She basically eats, sleeps and poops. She is starting to lift her head and she is beginning to focus on objects in her surroundings. When I arrived she had just been fed and she was sound asleep. I held her for awhile and then we decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a walk. We bundled her up and buckled her into the stroller. I’m not sure why she needs to be buckled. She’s not going anywhere.

With Lucy at our side we walked through the neighbourhood. It was fun seeing all the left over Hallowe’en decorations on people’s front lawns and the last few remaining flowers making a final showing before the frost sets in. We stopped at a local cafe and bought chai lattes to go and a little something to take home and eat. We would have stayed but we had the dog with us so G stayed outside while I went inside to order.

When we got home the baby finally woke up and of course she was hungry. She ate for a long time and then she became quite fussy, probably due to a little gas. I laid her over my lap and rubbed her back. It helped a little but after an hour the only thing that worked was more time with mommy. She finally fell asleep again. IMG_6748

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Share Your World 2015 – Week 42

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….thanks to Cee for four more great questions

Are you usually late, early, or right on time?

It depends on the situation. For appointments I’m almost always on time or early. The only time I’m late happens if I get caught in traffic because of an accident. For parties or social events I’m sometimes ‘fashionably’ late. If I do arrive on time I find that I’m the first one there and end up waiting for others to arrive. If someone has made a reservation for a specific time I try to be there on time. For this blog post I’ve been late recently because of my circumstances in my personal life. Cee would probably say that I’ve posted this in the time frame given but when the next set of questions come out the next day I feel like I’m late.

If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels?

I don’t know if I have the patience to write a novel. I would probably prefer a short story or a poem.

Where did you live at age ten? Is it the same place or town you live now?

When I turned ten I lived in Oakville, a small city between Toronto and Hamilton. We only lived there for four years and my father used to commute to work in Toronto every day. By today’s standards that’s not a very long commute but my father hated it and we moved back to Toronto when I started grade 5. I’ve lived here ever since.

Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?

I think I’d rather fly. Flying is faster than swimming and being underwater I think might be somewhat claustrophobic.

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 walks in this lovely crisp autumn weather. I love the colours. IMG_6523 IMG_6513 IMG_6552I’m grateful for a dinner and tickets to the opera, downtown, with my friend D who treated me for my birthday. My blogging friend Judith over at Curious to the Max says that after 50 you can celebrate your birthday season for as many days as you are old. So even though my birthday was in August I can still celebrate for six more days.

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I’m also grateful for a fun evening with friends and colleagues from school. We went to a great sample sale, where I bought gifts for Christmas, something for my daughter and a couple of things for myself. Afterwards we had a very nice dinner in a great Italian restaurant, Caffino, in Liberty Village.

As always, I’m grateful for time spent with my family. On Saturday, my husband and I picked up our daughter, A, and her partner, J and we all drove to Hamilton to visit G and her new baby girl. My sister, CJP, drove down from Chatham and her son came in on the Go Bus from Toronto to visit as well. It was like a mini reunion. IMG_6563 IMG_6564

Our little Miss Winifred is starting to show her true colours and was a little fussier than I’ve seen on previous visits but this morning after I checked in with my daughter via What’s App she reported that she was able to get more sleep last night than she’s had in awhile.

While we were in Hamilton we went for a walk and I discovered more wonderful shops. Everyone is so friendly and I spent quite a bit of time talking to the shop owners. One of the shop keepers ended up being a former student that I taught in middle school. She made the connection before I did. What a small world we live in. Shine is the name of her store.

Next week I’m looking forward to closing the cottage for the season and spending more time with Miss Winifred.

Cheers!