….on the last evening at Mono Cliffs
While the students played some cooperative games after dinner I walked around the grounds and took some interesting shots.
Playing With my Camera
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Up in the Treetops
…..as for me maybe next year
When I first saw the treetop trekking course I was in awe. I couldn’t believe how high the course was. I found out later that the wires were anywhere from 25 to 40 feet off the ground. This is the first year that Mono Cliffs has offered this amazing program to students. Our school was only the second school group to attempt this course.
Before the students were allowed on the high course they participated in a team building activity where they were encouraged to walk across a low ropes course. The wires and swings were close to the ground so that if one lost their balance all they had to do was step off. It was pretty challenging walking across those wires but I did it. It wasn’t a pretty site as my body wobbled and shook, making my way across.
It was raining and cold the morning my group headed towards the treetop course. The three groups that had already experienced the ropes had perfect weather. Everyone raved about the experience and my colleagues encouraged me to take on the challenge. All of us were fitted with safety harnesses and helmets and then sent to a different low ropes area where we learned how to use the harnesses and transfer our clips from one part of the course to the next. Safety first.
After going across the low ropes I felt much more confident and even allowed myself to hang from the ropes in the harness. I waited my turn to go up the cargo net to the first platform. I cheered on the students ahead of me and praised the two who attempted the climb but couldn’t bring themselves to go any further than the platform. When it was my turn my hands were already numb from the cold but I started the climb up the ropes anyway. It was much harder than I expected.
The first platform was 30 feet from the ground and I was about 6 feet away when my arms just gave out. I tried to rest but my experience with anything physical has taught me that when you’re physically spent, pushing yourself can only lead to trouble.
The one thing that I’ve always wanted to experience is being repelled from a significant height. So rather than climb back down I asked if I could be repelled. It was a lot of fun and it inspired the two students who didn’t continue on the course to climb back up and then then experience the same thing. I think they felt a lot better having done that.
As for me, I definitely need to build up my upper body strength before I attempt this again. Losing more weight would also help. I’m actually looking forward to trying this again. 
Exhausted but Rejuvenated
….I can barely keep my eyes open as I write this
Today I returned to the city after three days at Mono Cliffs with 54 grade 5s.
The experience at this well established outdoor education centre was very different from years past. The focus used to be more ecological with geology hikes to the caves, eco hikes through the woods along the Bruce Trail, exploration of the ponds, orienteering, and survival skills in the woods.
This year’s programs still focus on the environment but are more adventure based. The children participated in archery, instincts for survival games, co-operative games and team building, mountain biking and tree top trekking. The last two activities are completely new and just blew me away. The equipment for the mountain bike ride was top notch and the design of the tree top trekking was awe inspiring and frightening at the same time.
Mountain Biking
I have owned bikes most of my life and I still ride today. Now I do more city riding and I haven’t been on a mountain bike for several years. About half of the students hiked a short distance through the woods to a cabin in the clearing where Mono Cliffs stores all their bikes and related equipment. 
The remaining students were at other activities. At the cabin each student was equipped with a bike that was suited to their size, a water bottle and a helmet. They were instructed on how to wear the helmet and how to adjust their seats. 
A couple of students who had never ridden before were taken to a clearing with a couple of instructors and were given personalized lessons on how to handle the bikes while the remaining cyclists were lined up and taught about changing gears and braking. Then we all got onto the bikes and rode around in circles for awhile, practising
proper braking, going up and down hills and keeping a safe distance between the bikes. When the leaders felt we had mastered the skills sufficiently we set off for our afternoon ride through the conservation area.
The ride took us into the Mono Cliffs conservation area which is open to the public. The trails started out wide and mostly downhill and when the path became too rocky for beginner riders we all dismounted our bikes and walked for a stretch. The leaders made sure that the children took frequent water breaks and aired on the side of caution with the paths that they chose. As we were going downhill, I realized that the trip back would be a lot of uphill but I didn’t know that we’d be pushing our bikes back up the side of the cliffs. The leaders and the teachers were able to pick up their bikes over the rocky areas but some of the smaller children struggled to get their bikes up the hill. Surprisingly on one complained and they all seemed to enjoy the adventure.
On the last portion of the trip we rode through grassy fields. This is where some of the children wiped out. The paths were very narrow and overgrown with tall grasses, shrubs and trees. There were lots of dips and rocky areas as well. At least when they fell it was usually into the tall grass. I think at this point of the ride we were all getting very tired. Certainly that was what was happening to me and I started to feel claustrophobic on those narrow trails. I fell twice before I finally abandoned the idea of riding on the hilly areas of the field.
When we got back onto the road I got back onto the bike and finished the ride back to the cabin. Other than a few scratches on my ankles I was unhurt and all the children survived the ride with relatively few bruises. Later in the day the lead instructor came to me and apologized for the route she had taken, realizing that it was probably a little too long and technical for our students. The group that had done the ride in the morning had taken a different route and the group that went the next day chose another route. It is early days for this program and the leaders are still working out the glitches and the best routes to take. 
All in all it was a great experience for all of us and the two students who couldn’t ride at the beginning of the afternoon were confident cyclists before we headed back to the centre for dinner. On our way back we passed the tree top trekking course and witnessed first hand what we could expect to experience the next day. More about that in the next day or so.
Bull’s Eye!
….I hit the mark at Mono Cliffs
On Monday I was asked to join the grade 5s on their trip to the outdoor education centre at Mono Cliffs. I’ve always loved this trip and it’s one of the things that I miss now that I don’t have a homeroom. That morning I put that very thought out into the universe when I was talking to some of the parents during our cross country practice.
We were one teacher short for supervision for this year’s trip so after some rearranging of timetables it became possible for me to go on this trip. On Wednesday morning we packed 54 students and all their luggage into two school buses, waved good bye to some anxious parents and made our way up north to Mono Cliffs for 3 days of outdoor activities.
One of the first activities that I took part in was archery. I used to hate archery in high school but since coming to Mono Cliffs for over ten years it has become one of my favourite things to do. Today for the first time in my life I hit the bull’s eye. I was shocked and thrilled at the same time and it left quite the impression with the kids.
A Day of Cleaning and Purging
…..including cleaning out my inbox
Many of you gave me permission to delete my unread emails that I couldn’t get to over the summer. I fully intended to follow your advice but I started to read them, a few every day including the new ones that came in. Today I finally finished reading every single email and I’m glad I did. I would have missed a lot of great stories, wonderful photographs, beautiful works of art and delicious recipes if I had merely clicked the delete button.
I started my morning by giving the kitchen a good cleaning. I paid some bills and then sat down for breakfast. We were suppose to dog sit Lucy today but my daughter’s plans changed so after breakfast my husband and I discussed what we could do together. We agreed to work on the garden and start cleaning out the garage. We haven’t had a great vegetable garden this year so much of the vegetable boxes and planters were already cleared out but the flower beds needed some pruning, thinning and weeding. My husband cut the grass while I sorted through the plants.
After filling two large garden waste bags, K and I tackled the garage. We have wood in there from over 30 years ago. We started to pull things from the far corners of the garage and filled 4 garbage bags in no time. Some metal items we put on the curb right away. Even though it was a Sunday they miraculously disappeared within the hour. We have people in the neighbourhood who drive around looking for scrap metal to recycle.
We’ve decided to call in one of those junk retrieval companies to pick up the wood that we have stored in the rafters. I think if we haven’t used it after 30 years we’re not likely to start finding uses for it now. If anyone in the Toronto area wants free lumber you can post a comment here or email me. 
After working about 4 hours in the garden I felt that we got a pretty good start on cleaning out the garage and the flower beds. Even if we don’t do anything else this season at least we have room in the garage to store our garden furniture.
I also gave my birds a nice clean cage tonight and before I go to bed I will transfer a load of laundry into to dryer.
Lunches are packed and ready for tomorrow. It always feels good when you can see the fruits of your labour……and I read all my emails. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Birthday Month
…..the celebrations started two weeks ago and continued last Sunday, Monday and today
Most people celebrate their birthdays on one day. This year my birthday stretched out over two weeks. I wrote about going out with my friend D two weeks ago when we had lunch at Merryberry and then went to the Riverdale Farm. Lunch turned out to be my birthday present from D and today I received a beautiful card from her in the mail as well.
Last Sunday my sister from Chatham came over to celebrate her birthday and mine and my daughter G and her husband joined us for dinner. K made us a beautiful dinner of grilled salmon, green beans and baked plums.
On Monday I met my friend A, downtown and we spent the afternoon at the Elmwood Spa. We started with lunch on the fourth floor and despite a few hiccups with the reservation and my first meal we ended up enjoying a very visually appealing and tasty lunch.
After lunch we went to the water therapy room where we had a steam and then I went for a 50 minute aromatherapy massage. I’ve never had such a good massage. I felt my legs were getting a great workout and it made up for the fact that I hadn’t run that morning. Once the session was over I went up to the pool and swan some laps and then enjoyed a few moments in the hot tub.
A bought me a beautiful black jersey top and we decided to go the store where she bought it and see if I could get the matching pants. The store is called Endz and it carries absolutely gorgeous designer clothes and accessories. I bought the pants and am looking forward to my next visit to this wonderful store.
When I got home on Monday a parcel was waiting for me from my sister in Calgary. The box was quite heavy and when I opened it I was delighted to see a glass box with a scrabble motif. As some of you know I love to play scrabble and I play with both my sisters on line. That, however, was not the entire gift. When I opened the lid I found a set of fine paint brushes. In an earlier conversation my sister had hinted that for her birthday she’d like one of my paintings. I guess I have no excuses now.
Today started off with coffee in bed, the scarf from husband,
a morning run and then a wonderful breakfast prepared by my husband. I went to work and was greeted by numerous birthday wishes from my colleagues and my friend L gave me a beautiful crocheted and beaded necklace.
When I returned home from work I was greeted with a bouquet of flowers from my father that had been delivered to the house. My cousin from Germany called me to wish me a happy birthday and my neighbours down the street appeared on our doorstep and sang Happy Birthday to me and presented me with a bottle of wine.
I wish I could have invited them in for a drink but K had made reservations for dinner at Bloom and we were running a little late. When we got to the restaurant my daughter A and her partner J were already waiting for us. The staff was extremely friendly and the food was out of this world. We had been to this restaurant for our anniversary and the service and food were so outstanding that we knew that we would return.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get better the staff at the restaurant presented me with a complimentary dessert, decked out with a sparkler and ‘Happy Birthday, Carol’ written with chocolate sauce on the rim of the plate. Our waiter started singing Happy Birthday and the restaurant patrons joined in. Even my husband was surprised because he hadn’t said anything when he made the reservations. The four of us shared the dessert before I could take a picture of it but I did manage to save the design on the rim of the plate.
All day I’ve been receiving birthday wishes from fellow bloggers, facebook friends and phone calls from family. I am so blessed and want to thank all of you for my making my day so special.
Tomorrow I have to phone my sister in Calgary and my father in Oshawa and thank them for their thoughtful gifts. The only thing that I’m sad about is that I missed several calls from my family. I hope that I can connect with them tomorrow.
Baking in the BBQ
…..and wheat free doesn’t mean carb free
After reading Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD, one quickly realizes that eating gluten and wheat free foods doesn’t guarantee weight loss. There are more and more gluten free products on the market than ever, especially in the snacking and bakery sections of the grocery store. If you were to read the ingredient lists you would discover that many of these products are high in sugars, fats and alternative starches and the calorie count is high for what you’re getting. 
I was feeling somewhat liberated when I found gluten free flour at Costco and I was somewhat disappointed when I couldn’t find a gluten free banana bread recipe in Dr. Davis’ book. After using a regular recipe and substituting the gluten free flour for regular flour it started to dawn on me that I don’t normally eat bananas, let alone banana bread, even though I love both. I’ve always known that bananas are high in carbs and the bread goes without saying. It was when I added the 2 cups of sugar, the 1 1/2 cups of butter and 6 cups of flour that I started to question what I was doing.
So why was I baking banana bread when I’m still trying to lose weight? It just so happened that we were going to celebrate my friend D’s birthday on Sunday and she suggested that we bake something special. Besides she had some sour milk that needed to be used and I had some very ripe bananas. I went through my cottage cookbooks and lo and behold I found a recipe that used both those ingredients.
As you know from previous posts I don’t have electricity and I do the bulk of my cooking on the BBQ, including any baking that I might do. Over the years D and I have developed a knack for baking muffins, cakes and breads in the great outdoors. One of the tricks is to use smaller pans so that dough cooks through to the middle in a shorter length of time. The bread in the bundt pan was finished first, or so we thought. If you look closely at the cut slices you can see that the middle is a little too soft.
The two breads in the loaf pan took a little longer but were a better texture. One of the differences with using gluten free flour is that the bread was much denser than a normal banana bread and for some reason tasted much sweeter. If I were to do this again (for my friends who are truly gluten intolerant) I would definitely add less sugar and maybe even experiment with some kind of substitute that isn’t aspartame or saccharin. I’ve heard that applesauce is a good replacement for sugar in some baking recipes.
I had one and a half slices of the bread on D’s birthday and I ate one slice for breakfast the next morning. I’ve always found that if I’m going to eat carbs it’s best in the morning and then avoid them for the rest of the day. Maybe I should clarify that when I say carbs I mean breads, pasta and primarily flour products. I still eat lots of healthy carbs in the way of vegetables, some fruit and dairy products along with lean protein and healthy fats.
I’m going to have to read the Wheat Belly book a little closer and try to figure out how to fit it into my daily diet without increasing my carb intake. Maybe some of you have a gluten free, wheat free recipe, low in carbs, fat and sugar that I could try. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The following pictures are of D and D’s birthday/anniversary dinner that they kindly invited me to. Afterwards we relaxed around a beautiful bonfire as the sun set over Christian Island.
Delicious lamb, fresh tomatoes, green salad with avocados and Ontario corn on the cob. Yum!
Happy Birthday, D!
Happy Anniversary to Us!
…..38 years and still going strong
Today K and I celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. Wow! Looking back through the photo albums it’s clear that we’ve changed physically but how we’ve grown and matured emotionally and socially aren’t as obvious.
K still has all his hair and there is very little grey. No, he does not use Grecian Formula. The big difference is that he likes to keep it really short. Drives me crazy because I’m the one who cuts it. Just when I start to like the length he insists it’s time for another buzz. I, on the other hand, still have very blonde hair but I do cover my grey and I’ve been wearing it longer.
We’ve both gained weight over the years. K used to run marathons when we were first married and even when the kids came along. Except on our wedding day, I’ve always weighed more than my husband. Even at my thinnest, 132 pounds, K weighed 2 pounds less (at the peak of his marathon running days). Although we’re both heavier now we’re probably fitter than we’ve been in years. We walk anywhere from 5 to 10 k every day and we eat pretty healthy meals.
I’ve always worked as a teacher but at numerous different schools and I’ve changed specialties over the years. K on the other hand has had a lot of different jobs but he’s happiest working on his own. He’s been self employed for over 20 years.
People often ask what our secret is to maintaining such a long relationship. There really is no secret. We have our rough patches just like everyone else but we work through them together. We also give each other a lot of freedom to pursue our interests. K has always supported my little business adventures over the years and encourages me when I take courses and classes. I do the same for K. A few years back K was travelling to Ireland on his own almost every year. I knew it was important to him to keep in touch with his family and travelling in June or October made sense, money wise. Of course that meant that I couldn’t go because I’d be working. On the other hand, however, I have the cottage and I spend a great deal of time there during the summer.
When we were first married I did most of the cooking but K has become a very good chef and he prepares at least 75% of all our meals. I can’t tell you how envious my friends are.
One of the most difficult periods of our marriage took place about 3 years ago when K was diagnosed with cancer, CLL. Last year he underwent 6 months of chemo and I’m happy to say that he is in remission for now. We know that it will return but we’re hoping that it will be later rather than sooner. Today he went for his routine three month check-up and everything looks good but more importantly he feels good. This is the best anniversary present for both of us.
July 2013 at Howth, Ireland
A Farm in the Middle of Canada’s Biggest City
….another 5.3k walk to add to this morning’s 5.0k
Actually it’s already Wednesday but I’m writing this as if it’s still Tuesday. After this morning’s walk I came home to a message from my friend, D, inviting me to join her for lunch at a little bistro in Cabbagetown and then go for a stroll to the Riverdale Farm.
I called her back and arranged to meet her at her condo, downtown, park my car and then together we would walk over to Parliament Street and have lunch at the Merryberry.
The walk took us past numerous churches and Allan Gardens. The area has really changed in the last 20 years. There are more upscale restaurants and the old victorian homes have all been renovated, numerous times to accommodate the design needs of their predominantly upper middle class owners.
The restaurant, The Merryberry, is situated directly on Parliament, just north of Carlton. When we got there we were greeted in a friendly and welcoming manner and offered a choice of eating indoors or sitting out back on the patio. We chose to eat outside. There were lots of light fare lunch options. The soup of the day was a tomato peaches n’ cream soup. Both D and I decided on a half bowl of the soup and D had a salad and I ordered a ‘mash up’. A mash up is a sandwich with egg, goat cheese, avocado and chickpea salad served between two slices of multi-grain bread. I’m trying to eat less bread so I asked for it to be served open face. No problem.
When we finished our meal, D informed me that lunch was on her. It was an early birthday present for me. The big day is in two weeks. We ordered a lemon lime mouse to share for dessert. It was heavenly ….. light and tasty.
After lunch D and I started to walk toward the Riverdale Farm. It used to be the Riverdale Zoo and I remember going there with my parents when I was very young. Today the zoo animals are all gone and have been replaced with farm animals. It’s a great place to take city kids. There were lots of them there today, either with their parents or with a daycare or summer school group.
After walking around the barns and the pens there are several hiking trails that one can use. We walked down a very steep embankment toward a pond that has been restored to its original condition. If it wasn’t for the noise from the cars on the Don Valley Expressway you wouldn’t know that you were in the middle of Toronto.
Wildflowers in T.O.
…..back to our morning walks
Today started out as an exceptionally beautiful day.
As hard as I try, I can’t keep up with my husband and the dog on our morning walks. I watched from a distance today and counted K’s steps and discovered that we both take the same amount of steps in the same amount of time but my stride is so much shorter, due to my shorter legs.
Frances runs twice as far as both of us but today she kept running back to me to make sure that I was okay. How sweet! I’m not upset that K walks ahead of me and he doesn’t worry about me. It works for both of us and so when I stop to take photographs I take my time to get that perfect shot and then continue on my way. Sometimes I run to catch up and occasionally K will stop at one of the benches and waits until Frances has one more swim and I come into view. Here are a few of the wildflowers that I observed on our walk this morning.
Mama Cormier 