A Life, Lived

Happy Kitten Anniversary

It's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since we picked these two up at our friend Carolyn's farm and brought them home. They have brought a lot of happiness and joy to our lives.

Travel Tuesdays - Bermuda

Six years ago today we woke up in Bermuda after cruising from New York City.

Travel Tuesdays - Berlin

Last week I posted about the post Christmas my friend and I enjoyed in Amsterdam and Berlin. After a week in Amsterdam we hopped the train to Berlin. Note to self: don't take the train from Amsterdam to Berlin. While it looks to be a short distance on a map it is LONG. It didn't help that I was sick. We were in a train with private compartments - I slept in the corner and Nancy enjoyed herself talking to all of the folks who joined us for a part of the journey.

Here are some shots from our time in Berlin.

Travel Tuesdays - Amsterdam

The Facebook memory feature reminds me that I was in Amsterdam 8 years ago. It was the perfect post-Christmas gettaway.

Travel Tuesdays - Hamilton

Back in December Paul and I had a bit of an outing in Hamilton.

We started with brunch at a restaurant called the Electric Diner. I head read about on social media and it was listed as one of the top diners in Ontario. The restaurant is located in Hess Village - a lovely area of restaurants and bars in old Victorian houses.

Brunch was fabulous!

The plan was for us to meet up with friends at 2 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Our one friend is a docent there and he was giving us a private tour of the Maude Lewis and Tom Thomson exhibits.

We had time to kill before we met our friends so we wandered around downtown Hamilton a bit. I used to live in this area but when I lived there I never really took the time to wander about. It was nice to have that gift of time now.

It is amazing what you see when you stop and look around you.

Travel Tuesdays - Florence

Last week I was chatting with a friend who is approaching a challenging anniversary. As often happens it is fraught with family drama, emotion, and stress. Like the brilliant woman she is she has decided to leave the Florence and spend the week on her own in Florence where she can relax, connect with things she loves, and be distracted from the reminder of her husband's death.

You know what happens, right?

Immediately I start to think about my last trip to Florence (on my 50th birthday so 7 years ago - ACK). Here are some pics from that trip.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

I hope that my fellow Canadians have a wonderful day with friends and family.

I hope that my fellow Canadians have a wonderful day with friends and family.

Travel Tuesdays - Bologna

Friends of ours are in Bologna right now (or were when I typed this).

Bologna is one of my favourite cities in Italy - the food, the art, the architecture, the culture . . . it is all so good.

I can't jet off to Bologna right now but I can relive it through my pics . . .

Travel Tuesdays - Stratford

Last week I met my friend Carolyn at Stratford. It was the first time I had seen her in close to two years. There we were, both double dosed, able to hug and watch a performance. It was both weird and blissful.

The festival has just reopened with all sorts of COVID restrictions. They have set up stages under huge tents - but they still only accommodate about 250 people. Everyone is very socially distant. What is on the stage is impacted as well - there is no full orchestra, the number of people on the stage is limited -  so limited in fact that the festival had to create new material for this season. They aren't running your favourite Shakespeare plays.

Anyways. I arrived earlier than I needed to but later than I had intended. As a result there was no shopping for me. I parked in the big parking lot close to the theatre thinking if I parked early I'd get a prime spot. I need not have worried since in the end there were only two cars parked in the entire lot.

I wandered along the rive and visited with the ducks and swans.

The gardens in front of the theatre were particularly lovely this year.

Around the back of the main theatre they have a sculpture commemorating Shakespeare.

Carolyn cut it close but we were seated in time to catch up a bit before the show started.

After the play we couldn't figure out what we wanted to do. I had heard of a new retail space on the outskirts of town so we went there, grabbed some lunch and chatted for what seemed like an eternity but clearly wasn't. How nice to be among good people once again. I've missed that.

Travel Tuesdays - Muir Woods

When Paul and I were first in San Francisco years ago we made the trek across the Bay to hike in Muir woods. We have wonderfully happy memories of that. A few years later when I was hear with a colleague we attempted a similar visit but were thwarted by a land slide. On Paul's birthday trip in California we were determined to make it happen.

The park website warned that parking was a nightmare and people were known to take to parking on the side of the road next to the creek only to experience the horror of their car tumbling into the creek and harming the natural ecosystem (although to be honest the ecosystem would be way down on my list of concerns if my rental were to tumble into a gorge). In order to deal with the onslaught of visitors a shuttle bus has been put in place.

TAKE THE SHUTTLE!!!

We decided to drive and hoped we might find a spot on a Monday morning. HA HA HA HA

I dropped the gang off and ended up parked about two miles away on the side of the road (happily in an area with a huge, wide shoulder).

Here are some pics from that visit 6 years ago.