Hiking Trails I’d Like to Take

This past year of lockdown has limited Terry’s and my retirement travelling.

But we have enjoyed solitary walks along paths in our region - paths that wind through towns or along the Rideau Canal.

Soon we maybe able to go farther afield. So I recently bought a books about the trans-Canada trail, also called the Great Trail - at least, the eastern part of it. I don’t expect to head west any day soon. 

I also noticed, by the same author, a book about hiking trails in the Ottawa region, so I bought it, too. I wonder how many new trails we can find!

Midsummer Flowers in Bloom

Eastern Ontario, where I live, has had a long, hot summer…, and it’s really only half over!

Fortunately we’ve also had enough rain to keep our gardens going.

The orange lilies I enjoy so much are winding down and midsummer flowers are in bloom.

I feel as if everything is ahead of schedule…

The phlox are in bloom… and it’s still only July! 

What’s left to bloom in August and September?!

Enjoying a Meal at Tavern on the Hill

My son and his family, visiting from Toronto, thought it would be fun to head downtown to eat.

Why not have a meal at Tavern on the Hill, an outdoor park venue near the National Art Gallery.

Food and drinks are purchased at a canteen.

It was perfect! 

Well-spaced and airy.

I enjoyed a taco and a non-alcoholic grapefruit cocktail.

A lovely place to eat and enjoy downtown Ottawa, overlooking Parliament Hill. I’d definitely go back!

Phlox in Bloom

When we first moved into this house, there was a small flower bed at the back of our property and a small hedge. But no fence in the back yard.

I enjoyed seeing the perennials in bloom, though their blooming season was short, ending in early July.

Around that time, I visited a neighbour who had created a lovely “English country garden” in her back yard - after taking a course on flower gardening at the nearby college. 

The secret of creating a garden like that was to plant flowers close together - with mixed colours blooming all summer long.

I would regularly visit her garden throughout the summer and was taken by the cheerful brightness of flowers called phlox, that come in a variety of colours.

I immediately set out to find some - and over the years I’ve divided the plants and moved offshoots to other parts of the yard.

The phlox I have are light and dark pink, white and red.

I’ve noticed that other types of phlox bloom earlier and later in the season. I’d get some - but I’m not sure where I’d put them! My flower beds are quite full.

Surprised by the Sky

Yesterday I was enjoying my early morning coffee outdoors - around 7 am - when I noticed that the sun looked red...

It doesn’t look as red in the picture, though the sky has a pinkish hue.

The result of smoke in the air from forest fires in northern Ontario?

Then, about half an hour later, as I was heading indoors, I glanced up at the sky again, to see if the sun was still red.., and I noticed TWO balls close to each other...

Was the smaller one the moon? A planet?

I took a picture through the window - hence the grid lines of the screen. Then I stepped outside to take another picture. The second ball was less clear - possibly because the sun was brighter but it’s still visible at about 6:30 (down and slightly to the left).

Here’s another attempt...

Maybe this mark-up will make it easier to see…

Mindful that I shouldn’t be staring at the sun, even early in the morning under a hazy sky, I decided to look for information on an astronomy website instead...

Don’t know if I’ll remember to do that during the course of the day, but seeing the red sun, then TWO disks near each other in the sky reminded me that the sky can be full of surprises!

Park for All Seasons

Occasionally, when the weather isn’t too sunny, Terry and I still take walks at Andrew Haydon Park. 

(We are both supposed to avoid UV rays, due to medication, so we avoid the sun as much as possible.) If it is sunny, Terry brings an umbrella along.

There are a few shady spots in the park, like this corner with rocky waterfalls.

This really is a park for all seasons...

Just a few months ago, Terry and I walked ON the Ottawa River... (ON the ice!)

Now, as we walk next to the river, we see boats - and sometimes sailing classes near the marina. 

An interesting place to walk, all year long!

All So Different!

The beauty of gardens is that they’re all so different! 

I dropped in to visit my neighbor Mary’s garden…

It’s so carefully cared for!

I love the colour of these flowers along the fence.

Some of Mary’s flowers are annuals. Harvesting  the seeds, she replants them every spring. 

Two tall sunflowers in her garden were planted - not by her, but by squirrels! (In my garden, squirrels bury seeds and plant trees!) Mary says she also plans to let them harvest the flower seeds!

Sadly, none of the sunflower seeds my son and I sprouted grew. Maybe next year, I should drop a pile of seeds and let squirrels do the planting. They obviously know how to do it!!

Dress Up, Barbies and Cars!

Last weekend was a lot of fun for me - “Grandma”. After more than a year, my son and his family came to visit. We are now all “double vaxed” - as we say - so we were able to hang out indoors…

Our 5-year-old granddaughter kept me entertained: She played dress-up with Grandma’s Hawaiian sundresses…which were a little big on her!

She also created a world of stories with my daughter’s childhood Barbies.

Her brother enjoyed driving the Barbie van…

She organized dozens of tiny Barbie items that had been tossed into a bin, creating this lovely dresser. Such patience!

Lots of fun and games!

Echinacea in Bloom

My front flower bed is a mass of flowers - some, self-seeding (like the blue ones), overrunning the others!

In the midst of the chaos, I was delighted to see six pink echinacea flowers in bloom.

I remember planting one, not six, so they must be multiplying. Some years, they haven’t bloomed, so I thought the plants had died.

My gardening secret: The less weeding I do, the fuller and more interesting my flower beds become!

I haven’t done much weeding, in part because a wasps’ nest was built in the middle of the bed. It took a few days to get rid of. In the process, Terry was stung. But now the nest seems to be gone.

No excuse not to resume weeding, I guess!

Birthday #3: My Mother’s Youngest Sister

The third (and final) consecutive July birthday in our extended family comes the day after my mother’s.

My mother’s youngest sister, Evelyn, was born when my mother was 19 years old. Here is a picture of Evelyn with her daughter, taken in 1984.

Evelyn was closer in age to me than to my mother. (She is only 8 years older than me.) So at times I felt she was more like an older sister or a cousin than an aunt.

I have fond memories of how she used to spoil me as a child, taking me for ice cream cones on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton, paying for them with her baby-sitting money. She was also the family photographer in those days. Many photographs in our family albums were taken by her.

She’s kept in touch over the years, coming several times to visit my mother here in Ottawa.

Happy Birthday, Evelyn! All the best in the year ahead!

Birthday #2: Margaret’s Birthday

Today is my mother’s birthday. If she were still with us, she would be 102 years old! But she died a few years ago at the age of 97.

Here is a little about my mother’s early history.

My mother’s father, Theodore Gohl was born on November 11, 1890, in a farming community in Lwowek,  Poland. His parents bought farm land in the Ukraine when he was young, and it was there, in the Ukraine that he met his future wife, the only daughter of another farming family. They married young, and my mother Margaret, their 5th child, was born when Theodor was 29 years old.

My mother had no memories of her father, as she was only 2 when he died, on December 27, 1921 of Typhus, leaving a pregnant wife and three young children. (Two of their five babies had died as infants.)

Theodor was apparently very musical - the director of their local church choir. He was also a farmer - and his wife, Olga (nee Sell) struggled to look after the farm and also care for their three young children after he died. (The baby girl  she was carrying when her husband died also died as an infant.)

Eventually olga’s late husband’s cousin, Hugo Bartz, came to help her out. Olga married Hugo in November 1923. She named their first son Theodore.

Here is a picture of the family around the time they arrived in Edmonton, in 1928. 

My mother, second from the left in the front row, was 9 years old.

Hugo and Olga went on to have seven more children in Canada. Born on April 5, 1895, in Volhynia, Olga died in Kelowna, BC on November 28, 1966, at the age of 71 - following a stroke.

I’m thankful that the whole family was, and continues to be close. I knew my grandparents well, just as my own children got to know my parents. In spite of all the sadness in her early years, my grandmother created a caring family home here in Canada - one with lots of laughter and music.

Family Birthday #1

In our large, extended family, sometimes birthdays occur in batches - close together.

Today is my younger son’s birthday. Here he is with his daughter. 

And now (a few years later) with his son.

So glad we were able to celebrate his birthday in person, a few days early!

Best wishes for a fun year ahead!

Healthy Eating

I’m curious about the concept “inflammatory“ and “anti-inflammatory“ foods, things we eat and drink that can have a negative effect on the body - like sugar, which can raise one’s blood sugar and, over time, damage nerves. Or foods, like berries, that can improve one’s health. 

Fortunately I found several in our public library, so I am perusing them.

I’m about a third of the way through this one, and so far have discovered that I have a sensitivity to most of the “healthy” spices, like ginger and cayenne pepper, though I can eat cinnamon.

I already avoid most refined carbs, like white rice, white sugar and white flour, substituting ground chick peas or ground nuts for some flours.

I’m also curious about the health effects of different kinds of tea. I remember someone from Europe telling me that they used different teas as medicine for digestive issues.

I haven’t come across information on that, yet - but they have mentioned the benefits of fermented food and drink.

I do buy a lot of plain yogurt - made with active bacterial culture. But, unlike some of my friends, I don’t make my own.

My grandfather, Hugo Bartz, ate a lot of fermented foods like sauerkraut and yogurt, that he made himself. And he lived to be 100... I now realize I have a lot to learn!

Summer Drive

Terry and I took a trip to TWO of our favourite places recently... with our older son.

It  started when he asked about Wes’s Chip Stand in Arnprior - a seasonal delight our son hadn’t been to in a while.

After a walk in the nearby city park, we decided to take a quick detour to the nearby town of Almonte, with Baker Bob in mind...

But ALAS! - it was Bob’s day off and the bakery was closed!

Always a pleasure to take the river walk near  Almonte’s river walk. 

It’s such a joy to have so many interesting towns nearby!