Kingston in the Fall

A week ago Terry and I headed for Kingston, en route to Toronto.

I always enjoy stopping and wandering around the oldest part of the city, beside Lake Ontario (with its hotels and condos).

There weren't many boats in the water in October...

Birds were lounging on the piers, where dozens of boats were moored the last time we were here, in August.

We weren't planning on staying long... But we managed to squeeze in a few of our favorite Kingston things...

Like enjoy the scenery...

Eat homemade White Mountain ice cream...

And attend a hockey game...

(Mississagua and Kingston were playing...)

On Saturday, before leaving for Toronto, we wandered over to the Farmers Market.

It's open until November.

Kingston - a beautiful city any time of the year!

Flowers Still in Bloom

These days, my eyes are drawn to colorful trees, rather than  flowers...

They are magnificent...

Especially in the early morning light!

But there are still a few flowers in the garden. Most noticeable are the red Sedum.

I bought these yellow perennials at a plant sale at my mother's nursing home in spring. I hope they survive the winter to bloom again next fall. I've forgotten what they're called!

The knautia has been blooming for several months.

A few brown-eyed Susans remain to brighten the yard.

And here and there a few coreopsis are still in bloom.

But the longest-blooming flowers in our yard are these low-lying mauve geraniums. I've fallen in love with them... They spread a bit, and every year I transplant a few in different parts of the yard. Not many perennials last all summer long.

First Frost

Two nights ago we had our first frost...

In the morning, I noticed that black roofs around us were grey...

And our red sedum flowers had a frosting of white crystals...

But surprisingly, the nearby flowers in the planters appeared untouched!

Weather - and its effects - is something I really don't understand!

An Interesting Retreat

Years ago, in Israel, I first heard of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, group of German nuns who had a "branch" house in Jerusalem. I never did visit their Jerusalem house, but I did become friends with a young American woman who spent a lot of time there. In fact, she was thinking of going to Germany and becoming a nun... Eventually she left... I never heard from her again, but over the years I thought about her from time to time and wondered if she ever did go through with her plan.

Then last spring, one of my friends here in Ottawa told me that she annually attended retreats of the Sisters of Mary right here in our city. Intrigued, I signed up to attend.

The retreat happened earlier this month.

Held in a convent I know quite well from other retreats, Maison de Notre Dame de la Providence, the weekend was a joyful time of renewal.

The two sisters who spoke were very low-key... In fact, I was surprised to discover that one of them now heads the sisterhood in Germany. (Prior to that, she had lived in the branch house in New Brunswick.)

Over the course of the weekend, talking to them, I was able to discover that my friend actually did become a nun! Now known as Sister Agape, she lives in a branch house in Paraguay...

I even found a book telling of how this branch house came to be established!

I was so glad to hear about her life!

Colors Changing

This is the prettiest time of the year in many ways, with the colors of leaves changing...

As I stop to photograph the beauty around me...













 

...it's easy to forget that these lovely bright leaves are a sign...

















... that winter isn't too far away!

"If You Want To Get Specific..."

Canada has very few post offices. In the 1980s, Canada Post became a business... (a Crown Corporation)...not a government service.

To save money, most small post offices were shut down, replaced with postal kiosks in drug stores. The employees in these kiosks work for the kiosk owner, not for the post office.

I was recently in a shopping mall, hunting for a post office. Eventually I found it - not in the drugstore, where I expected to find it - but in the back of the Hallmark card shop. A postal clerk was nowhere to be found, and soon several of us were standing in line waiting.

Eventually a young man in jeans and a sweatshirt wandered over from across the store, where he had been chatting.

I need to add postage to this letter to the USA, I told him. I need a stamp for 80 cents. I already have a 40-cent stamp on it. 

You need to add a dollar, he said, slapping a stamp onto my envelope.

No, I replied. I checked online and letters to the US cost $1.20.

Well, if you want to get specific... he retorted.

I came here to get specific, I answered.

What to do?! The dollar-stamp was already affixed to my envelope... The line of customers behind me was growing. Did I really want to hold everyone up, arguing over 20 cents?

Reluctantly I gave him $1.15 - the cost of the stamp plus sales tax, 20 cents more than I should have paid. I was fuming... It wasn't the money, but the principle of the matter that angered me...

A few years ago, Canada stopped using pennies as currency... (Too small to be bothered with...)

Now I couldn't help but wonder:  Have we actually reached a point when nickels and dimes have also gone out of style?

Community Mailboxes... Coming Soon!

I'm not looking forward to the community mailboxes where we will soon be collecting our mail - especially with winter's ice and snow.

But our new way of receiving mail is inevitably coming - soon!

Communal mailboxes are being set up every few blocks - sometimes a single unit, sometimes in groups of two or three.

They do have one helpful feature - a slot for mailing letters. I suppose our old postboxes will no longer be needed...

I do have a few questions: Each communal box has two parcel compartments where parcels will be put. Will only two parcels will be delivered on any given day? Or could several parcels be put into one box?

What happens if there are more parcels than the box can hold? Will they be delivered to our doors? Or will the letter carrier wait until the parcel box is empty before putting another in, causing delay?
 

What if I don't pick up my mail in the parcel box for a few days... Will they remove my parcel and take it to the post office for me to pick up?

The instructions say to drop off the parcel box key in the mail slot - I presume the slot for mailing letters. What if someone forgets to do that? Does that mean the parcel box is unusable? Or will they simply use another key - even though there is a spare key out there? Or, for added security, will they change the lock and use a new key?


I hope they have given thought to potential problems like these!