New Flower (July 24, 2014) – Orange Trumpet Vine

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….another beauty I discovered at our apartment in Florence

Sunday Trees – 245

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….Italy had trees that I had never seen before

We called these trees camouflage trees because of the bark. The leaves actually looked liked the leaves of a maple tree. We saw these ones in Lucca.

After doing a little research I discovered that these are sycamore trees. As always, thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees.

New Flower (July 23, 2016) – Pink Rhododendron

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….these were everywhere in Italy

I first noticed them when we went to Florence and the driveway to our apartment had a bush by the gate.

I’m Back and Excited to Share My Journey

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….I’ve finally returned from my trip of a lifetime to Italy

We stepped through our front door on Tuesday evening after being on an airplane for 9 hours, at the baggage carousel for at least an hour and then two hours in a car. We ended up driving to Hamilton first to drop off our daughter and Winnie. We stayed for a bit and had a much needed cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Then we packed up our dog, Frances and headed back to Toronto. By the time we got to bed we had been up for about 21 hours.

Luckily for me I managed to sleep through the night but my husband was up at 4:00 and Winnie was definitely on European time, getting up at 2:00 and 4:00 and then again at 7:00. Not only did she wake up but she stayed awake for an hour or two each time.

When I checked my emails I had over 1000. Needless to say that checking and replying to each one is next to impossible. I apologize in advance to my followers whose emails I had to delete. Even deleting emails takes time and I’m now down to 300. I’m hoping to read most of them.

I’ve managed to upload about half of my photos to my laptop. I’ve asked my family members to send me more shots, especially with ones of me in them. At the family wedding I didn’t have one photo of me in either of my cameras. Luckily my brother-in-law and nephew took lots and they promised to send me some.

So for the next couple of weeks I’ll definitely share some of my adventures and certainly many of my photos from Italy. For now I leave you with a small sampling of my 17 days in Venice, Florence, Bologna, Lucca, Assisi and Rome. Enjoy!

Sunday Trees – 244

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….I’m back with some interesting trees from Italy

Every week Becca Givens hosts Sunday Trees. Do you like trees as much as we do? Why not post your favourite trees every Sunday (or sometime during the week) and join the fun.

Packing for Italy

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….busy cleaning up the library and last minute details for the big trip to Italy

I’ve been rather amiss with posting on a daily basis this last week. School is finally finished but I have to admit it’s been a rather stressful couple of weeks.

How stressful, you ask? Well enough to keep me from even getting this post finished. I started this post eight days ago and I’m already in Italy. We’ve been having some issues with Wifi here and I haven’t been able to get onto WordPress or Facebook until today. Presently we’re in Florence and we have a fantastic apartment but this morning we had a power failure. After a day of touring we discovered that we still didn’t have power. Luckily our landlord lives right next door and the problem was fixed with a flick of a switch from his place.

Now I have to figure out how to get my photos onto this device.

This is a shot of our granddaughter on the flight to Italy which I took with this iPad. So far she’s been a great flier.

Hopefully I can figure out how to get some more photos on here to share with you. Otherwise you will have to wait till I return in ten days.

Ciao!

Daily Prompts – The Wanderer

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Mama Cormier

……name 5 places you’d like to visit

1. The west and east coasts of Canada. I’ve lived in Canada pretty much all of my life but I’ve never been to any of our coastal areas. I’m very much drawn to water and that’s one of the reasons I’ve lived in Toronto in the same house for over 35 years. I live right next to Lake Ontario and in the summers I spend a great deal of my time at the cottage on Georgian Bay.

2. Italy, the entire boot. I’ve wanted to go to Italy for awhile now. The rolling hills of Tuscany, the history of Rome, the romance of Venice, the mountains in the north and the rugged coastlines tug at my wanderlust. I love the food, the wine and the art and of course the beautiful scenery. What more could a person want?

3. New Zealand and since I’ve travelled so far I might as well hop on over to Australia. I love reading about both countries and I follow several bloggers from ‘down under’.

4. New York City. The last time I was in NYC I was a mere child of 5 years. We drove down to pick up my Oma from the ship that she travelled on from Germany. Everyone should experience this iconic city at least once in their life and take in the shows, the great restaurants, Central Park, Coney Island and of course the Statue of Liberty.

New York City Photo courtesy of http://i.factmonster.com/images/brooklyn-manhatten-bridges.jpg

5. Iceland. My daughter and her partner just came back from Iceland and the rugged scenery intrigues me. The entire country has no more than 300 000 people so the roads are never busy and they are easy to manoeuvre.