More photos from Orillia.....

Here are some more photos from last week.  They are all taken down by the harbour front. That brown stuff should be grass.  Thanks to some much needed rain last week, it should look a bit greener, as my grass looked like that also.  I found this display to be very cheery, don't you think?

This was a closer look at one of the fishes.  Not sure what the plants are called to make them?

They had all these "boats" on display also.  The one in the front is a painting of the boat you can take a cruise on.  We have been on that boat and it was a lovely way to see the fine houses on the lake front and also very interesting.  There is more information here.

Now these boats were part of the 2011 Streets Alive Art Project, there is more information about them here

I have to say that Orillia really puts on an interesting display each year.  Also the hanging baskets were just gorgeous again.  It's really a lovely place to visit and a lot to see.  I know each time Jane and I go we discover something else.  Our next trip could/should be the end of this month, beginning of next, I think?

Also, where did the month of July go too?  It seems to have flown by?

Sunday, a day of high's and low's.......

First of all this weekend has been to flipping busy for me.  We never stopped all weekend, and by the time we got home on Sunday night, it was a case of doing what had to be done, sit down for an hour then off to bed.  I don't like weekends where you don't have five minutes to yourself.


Anyhow the "high" of Sunday was visiting dd and son-in-law at their new house.  They have been busy doing all sorts and I have to say they looked pretty tired, as they have worked their tails off; but they are so enthusiastic and excited about their first house, that you can't help being excited with them. 


The "low" and it was/is a low was when we went to visit dh's very good friend in hospital.  He's dying of cancer.  I hadn't seen him since April and the change in him was very apparent.  Last November he was one of the "three amigo's" who propped up the bar all night with dh and another guy, as they were worried it was going to fall down at dd wedding!!!!!  The doctor's have given him around six months; it's pancreatic cancer.


You feel so helpless not being able to take the pain away from him, or help him.  I guess just have him knowing we are there for him and his wife is all we can do?


Gave dh an extra hug after visiting his friend, and told him we are very lucky and hope we never have to go through what they are going through. Make sure you give your special someone a big hug and tell them you love them, as you never know what is around the corner.............

"Baby's R Us" or not!!!

On Saturday I went with "R" to help her register at Baby's R Us. First let me say I enjoy shopping generally, but by the time we had been in there for an hour and a half we were exhausted.  Neither me nor "R" knew there were such a variety of baby items out there. To say we were over whelmed would not be an under statement!!!


We managed to get a lot done; "R" and her dh have to pick out the bigger items, like the stroller, crib etc. Also they need to figure out which baby monitor they want, along with some other things.  Any advise on do's and don'ts, or what she should have on the registry, will be greatly appreciated.  She will be having two showers, with at least 50 guests at each one.  She did add two packs each of newborn, size 1 & 2 diapers, should she add more and what size?  We will not know the sex of the baby.


We then went to check out a venue for the baby shower, and it was lovely.


It's a renovated Railway Station building.  Those kids were dancing along to some music playing.

This is the water feature in front of the building.

We used to live close to this area. The buildings are stores, with apartments above, they were really nice.

They had just finished an outdoor Zumba class when we arrived..........one woman came up to us to tell us we had just missed it.........drat, drat and double drat!!!!

Some information:

More information on the station restoration.

Bit of this and a bit of that........

John over at Tok Tok Place had a neat quiz about what sort of blogger are you. here are my results:


 

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

Got an email from Kraft in my inbox, and had a peek.  Saw this neat section regarding 5 dinner's in one bag: http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/dinner/1bag5dinners/main.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-mtdce-_-2011-_-4005 thought there were some neat recipes there.


On Thursday while in town I popped into Zehrs and picked up some reduced meat and bread. I got three loaves of bread, 20 dinner rolls, a garlic bread baguette, four packages of English Bangers and two packages of lean ground beef; it came to $26 and change.

With one package of sausage I made my Sausage Risotto which we love.

The recipe is from this book.

The ground beef, I browned in a pan with some chopped up onions, drain and then freeze in portions in the freezer.

I have seen other people do this, but never done it myself.  Figured it would save a step when pulling the ground beef out of the freezer.

Home, Cottage and Condo of the week,and tea cups....

This week's Home of the Week, takes the title of the ugliest home ever.  I do not like any of it, it is so out of place and just plain horrible, wouldn't pay $1.90 for it, never mind $1.9 million!!!

Not having much luck this week as the "Cottage of the Week," leaves a lot to be desired.  I love the whole look of it, but to call it a cottage is so untrue.  It's a flipping mansion with a mansion price tag to go with it at $2 million.  My favourite photo, the last one, other wise I'll pass!!

Well I guess it's three for three this week, as the "Condo of the Week," is bloody awful as well!!!  After seeing the outside of the building, I wasn't expecting the inside of the condo to look like it does?  It should be more industrial, modern looking, that was decorated in a very traditional subdivision house kind of way.  The last photo of the atrium reminded me of inside a fancy prison, and that was the exercise yard, what a huge waste of space.

Finger's crossed next week is better, as it will be hard to find much worse properties!!


Dd and I are organizing a baby shower and the theme will be "An English Tea Party."    There will be around 50 people coming and so I need 50 cups, saucers and side plates.  Jane and I looked around a couple of antique stores, but the cheapest cup and saucer was $6 a set, which is fine if you are only buying one or two.  So Jane suggested looking in charity stores.  On Thursday I picked up one dozen cups, saucers and tea plates for $12.  

There are eight of these sets, which I thought were pretty.

There was only one of these but I thought it was pretty.  Three of the cups and saucers have different side plates, but I don't think that will matter.

We are going to let the guests take their cup, saucer and side plate home with them if they want as a memento.

Also if you have a moment pop over to Jane's blog and read this post.  It's about our day out and is quite funny........

P.S. Sorry I should have explained, it is my "Canadian Daughter" who is not really related at all, but we class her and her dh as family; she is expecting in January.  I keep telling everyone I am going to be a Nana!!!

Streets Alive! Leacock Chairs in Orillia

On Wednesday I met up with Jane in Orillia for lunch.  All along the main street were these giant chairs which are this years Summer outdoor art project for Street's Alive  They are Leacock Chairs in  honour of local writer Stephen Leacock

Here are some of the chairs I took photos of:

I will post more about our day out over the next few days.

Been busy reading!!!

Yep, just wasted a couple days of my life reading the "Fifty Shades of Grey," Trilogy.  I reviewed it here on my Book Review blog.  I hear they have sold the film rights (not sure if that's the right term) for the books.  I would love to know how on earth they will make that movie without it being a full blown "porn," movie?   Not that I will be seeing it as I don't go to the movies.

Anyhow, it has been a good time to catch up on reading as it has been too hot and humid for me.  Monday I never left the house, and although I did venture into town yesterday it was just a quick couple of stops and straight back home.

Now today I am going out and about, as I am meeting Jane again in Orillia.  I'll remember to take my camera and take photos.  Orillia is around half way for both Jane and I.  So check back in tomorrow for a full account of how we got on!!!

My apologies for not visiting blogs these past couple of days, will catch up later in the week,

Gill

My New Iron.....

I go through irons and kettles at a very fast pace it seems.  So a week or two ago I ordered a new iron off Amazon.ca. I got the Rowenta Steamium.  After taxes it came to just over $161, I paid $0 as I used my gift cards I got from Swagbucks.

I figured I would pay more for an iron in the hopes it may last a bit longer.  This one is also made in Germany.  So far so good,  although I do find it a little heavy, but that maybe because I have not gained back my strength in my hands, especially my right hand.


I know I have mentioned this a number of times, but if you haven't already joined Swagbucks you really should.  I don't have any referrals and still cash in for $25 worth of Amazon.ca e-cards every month.  If you would like to know more or would like to sign up for Swagbucks let me know.  If you do decide to sign up could you please do up under this link:


 http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Appleby


Swagbucks is available for people living in Canada, the States and Great Britain.  You're already on the computer already, so why not earn Swagbucks at the same time and get free stuff?


What small appliance are you forever replacing?

Dd house warming gift and a recipe....

Dd and son-in-law close on their house this week.  They are living on the 21st floor of a condo and are moving to a detached house with a garden.


We are lending them our push lawn mower, as there isn't that much grass to cut and I got them the following gardening equipment:

Now truth be told they would have preferred a barbecue, but overall this is more practical as they have no gardening tools.  We are lending them our old pine dining room table and I picked up four chairs for $10, a real steal, that will do until they can afford a new set, plus we have picked up bits and bobs for them. 


I will be posting photos in the coming weeks of all the work we will be helping them with at their new house.


We had the family up for lunch on Sunday and as ham was on sale at Foodland for $1.47per pound, I bought one.

I didn't want to put the oven on so I decided to cook it in the crockpot/slow cooker.


Super simple to do; put 1 cup of brown sugar in the crockpot.

Place ham on top and using hands pat in another 1/2 to 1 cup of brown sugar.

As my ham was to tall for my bowl, I covered the top with tin foil to keep the heat in and cooked it on low for around 5 hours.

It was really, good and super moist.  We had it with Greek Salad and roasted potatoes I had cooked on the barbecue.

We will be eating ham for a few days this week, as there is plenty left.


I guess you could also smother some mustard on the top of the ham when cooking, as that would be tasty.  If your ham is not precooked like mine was you will have to adjust your cooking times.

Why am I posting this You Tube video?

Well the other day I had to go to town, the tiny one, to go and get blood work done.  Normally if there is a line up, it's a couple of people. The clinic opens at 8:30 a.m. so I got there just after 8:30 a.m. only to find I was number 11 in line.


I finally got my blood done at 9:30 a.m. So what did I do for the hour, well I chatted away with an older farmer.  He was a wealth of information and one of the things we talked about was how some dairy farms use the carousal for milking.  I had never heard of this or even seen one before.


What I found fascinating was that the cows need no encouragement to go on and off the carousal.  In fact he said something quite funny. "Cows are both intelligent and stupid!"  We then went on to have a long conversation about cow manure and the in's and out's of that!!


Now I bet you are all jealous of my rip-roaring exciting life aren't you?  By the way I was the youngest in the waiting room!!!


Then if you thought that wasn't exciting enough on Saturday morning I cleaned all the rugs.......does the excitement never stop in my life!!!!

I have had my Bissell carpet cleaner for a number of years now and it has earned it's keep over the years and has paid for itself a number of times.  Got all the carpets to clean at dd new house before she moves in.

We don't have any actual carpets just a few rugs in our house, as we still have the original wood floors in the house.

Before and after photos, and a funny!

They are not great photos but I thought I'd show you them anyhow.


This is what the stairwell of the family room/new basement looked it before:

This is the after one, you can see the bottom of dh's legs and he is taking up the tiles in the basement floor:

We removed the old railing and replaced it with a drywall half wall.  Because the one wall in the new extension is the old stone wall from the house, there are no electrical sockets on that wall.  Dh has wired in new sockets in the new wall, so we won't have extension cords all over the place.  We need to have some wooden tops made to go on the top of the wall to cap it off.


I will post some photos of the new basement at a later date, as we still have a lot to do.  My goal for dh is to have it all finished by Christmas!!!


Thought this was amusing.  You can read the full article here

Suffice to say a neighbour isn't happy and has complained to the local council about it.

Horses, Molly and wildlife...

The new folk have built a paddock in the field behind us and now have two horses residing in there through the day.

One is called Elle, no idea what the other one is called.  Notice they are wearing their "sunglasses" we call them that, but I am guessing it's to keep the flies from their eyes?

This is Molly's view of the horses.  She barks like a crazy dog when Heather is riding the horses, no idea why?

Here is another of Molly's friend's.

Now this friend of Molly's looks as though it has been in a fight.

That particular friend is the one that Molly tries to catch through the family room window; she tends to forget that there is glass there!!!!  Silly doggy!

Molly is faring okay I guess.  Her skin looks icky in places where the hair has dropped out.  She looks as though she has eczema.  I keep bathing her, which is a joy for all concerned!!!  She is looking pregnant, but that's the steroids she's on.  She has had a couple of accidents in the house recently, which is very unusual as she is a very clean dog, so not too sure what's going on there.  Twice we were sitting right there in the same room when she peed???

Overall though she is a delight and is just getting older.  She will be around 8 years of age in August.  We think her eye sight is getting weaker; oh and she has selective hearing, she should be a man, don't you think!!!!!!!  As I know my dh has selective hearing when it comes to me talking to him!!!!

We were going to get another dog, but as yet we haven't got one.  Not 100% sure we want to up scuttle Molly's routine.

Home, Cottage and Condo of the Week........

Well this week's Home of the Week, is owned by former Maple Leafs hockey player Doug Gilmour.like me who doesn't care one way or another about hockey I say so what?  However if you are a big hockey fan, it may make a difference? 

My opinion on the place; totally lacking in personality, a dash of colour wouldn't go amiss.  It's very nice but you can buy the same house all over the city and probably for a bit cheaper.  So I'll pass on this one!!!

The Cottage of the Week is stunning.  Actually to be honest, it's where it is situated that is stunning, right by the lake.  The actual cottage although really nice is not perfect.  Do love the sun room, do love the tiles on the kitchen floor, but there is room for improvement in the kitchen.  If someone were giving it to me, I wouldn't say no though, but I wouldn't want to pay $3.5 million for it, even though it has 150+ acres.  Love the property taxes though, just over $1,500 a year is a steal.The views though are as perfect as you can get.  Just wonder how long it would take to plow out that driveway in winter though?

The best thing about the Condo of the Week, is that you are right downtown Toronto, if that's where you want to be; and you can say you live at the Ritz-Carlton.  However if neither of those things are a must have, along with paying over $2,100 a month in maintenance fees, along with the $1.5 million price tag, then this condo is not for you.  I personally couldn't live that high up in the sky.  Although you are practically next door to the CN Tower, I think you are a bit too close to appreciate it.  The interior is nothing exciting either for the price.  Do like the look of the floor in the living room though.

So there you are, what are your thoughts?

Okay I'm back.....why read on.......

Well first of all I tried to make another blog on Word press and honestly I wasn't happy with how it was going.


Then when you think of all the work etc., I had put into this blog it was a crying shame to close it......well at least that's what I thought?


So I have decided to give it another go.


I hope you will visit me again to catch up with what we are doing?


If you do decide to comment a big thank you.