Blogs from Ontario, Canada, North America - page 2

Saturday was spent gardening, cleaning and preparing for the Susan’s birthday barbeque. I was given the responsibility of using the Whipper Snipper to cut the edge of the grass. Whipper Snipper is a much better name for a grass trimmer than Strimmer! I was also given the responsibility of loading the charcuterie board and assisting with frying the onions. Susan did so much in the morning that she needed a bit of a nap in the afternoon! It was lovely to meet some more of Susan’s friends, and a very pleasant evening was had by all with plenty of food and drink being consumed. The mossies were out again though! Having started our celebrations quite early, we were tidied up and in bed at a sensible time, however some of the neighbours weren’t, with a party ... read more

Stratford is a small city on the Avon River in SW Ontario. As the river enters the city it widens into Lake Victoria. The city was a railway town until the middle of the 1960s when the Canadian National Railway closed its repair shop in the city laying off numerous employees. The drive from Cambridge took us through probably hundreds of thousands of acres of arable farmland, the flat landscape stretching out in front of us and to the sides with huge fields of green and others with grey earth. We drove through North Dumfries, crossed the road to West London, saw a sign to New Dundee, drove through Shakespeare – the village not the person - and eventually entered Perth the county in which Stratford sits. We parked on the outskirts of downtown Stratford and ... read more

Susan’s home town. We walked to Tony’s Diner for breakfast along trail paths lining the edge of creeks (streams) and along sidewalks (pavements) through clean, attractive housing areas where the homes are well spaced out with tidy gardens. Each house is very individual, unlike a lot of areas in the UK where estates are populated with very similar looking houses. There are lots of trees with birds and squirrels. We saw Canadian Robins - bigger and leaner than the small round ones we have in the UK, and their red breasts aren’t as vivid. There are grey squirrels like in the UK, but also black ones. I attempted to get photos of the robins and the black squirrels, but as is often the case when trying to photograph wildlife – in my experience anyway – as ... read more

Only 19 hrs and 14 mins to go before we depart Canada to Germany, then on to Oslo. Shelley and I are packed up and ready to go tomorrow morning. We have some last minute things to do in the morning. Final prep, eat breakfast, load the car, and say goodbye to Maggie 😔. We have arranged to have someone stay here in the house with her, and for the last part of our vacation, Shelley’s Mom will come for a few days to hang out with Maggie. Time for sleep now. More to follow tomorrow.... read more

Oooops .... am back in the future... presently it is April 2023 ...the water has risen...the land has flooded.... panic has set in... that's enough of an intro! Not since 2002, the Spring when the big move north was made to once again embrace the volcanic scraped-smooth rock of Sudbury, has the melt water risen higher than three feet or to be more precise, close to the lake side fence of my slumbering garden space. This year the water stands thigh high, the plastic shed has been inundated and as of April 17 the wooden shed ,close to the road and painted orange, is only 21cm/8" safe from having the floor wetted totally. Flood waters have not reached this high since 2002 the year the move was made north to a region that was never to ... read more