Arboretum Escape

Ottawa's arboretum definitely adds a breath of fresh air to our little corner of the world. The parklands are pretty, full of good climbing trees (important for Margot) and there is lots of space to run, walk your dog, or just sit.

And it's a good thing too because these days, going through Ottawa's third lockdown since the pandemic started, that's about all you can do! 

Always assume someone is spying on you. Go Glosette Girl, Go!

The arboretum, which is adjacent to the Rideau Canal, covers about 35 hectares with some trees dating back to 1889 (that's ancient times in Canada).

The one negative these days is that because everything is closed the park is much busier than normal - even compared to last year. Still, "busy" in Ottawa isn't busy compared to parks in more dense cities like Toronto or Paris. Glosette Girl was easily able to go for a jog today while Margot and I chatted about...what else...Harry Potter (Margot is still on a huge Harry Potter kick these days. She literally talks about nothing else.) 

With the weather being so warm this spring we also found time to smell the flowers, which are about two weeks early this year. 

Actually, I was surprised that there wasn't more being hanging around the Magnolia trees considering how delicious they smell. They are probably saving themselves for all the tulips that are about to bloom. They can keep them - I'll take Magnolias any day of the week!

Slytherins don't mess around

Who's Sassy? I'm Sassy!

When life gives you lemons...throw the lemons (who wants lemons?) in the humidity drawer of the refrigerator and go grab some cookies, chips and watermelon instead!

The latest Coronavirus lock down in Ottawa probably feels like a big punch in the gut to a lot of people. I think it's because they can taste freedom, with the vaccine rollout slowly underway, yet it fears so far away. 

Worst of all, for Glosette Girl is that her birthday was last Friday - the same day they expanded the latest restrictions. So she felt a bit down. 

Fortunately, I had planned a bit of a surprise for her. I noticed back in January that the Gladstone Theatre was renting out their marquee. I love this idea and I was able to secure a spot for a message for my lovely lady.

If you never knew what her name was...now you know!

  

We came up with this expression when we were living in Bristol, UK, way back in 2003! All I can say is that Glosette Girl still has sass to spare!

To my fellow Ontarians, I will just say, don't despair! There is joy everywhere if you look hard enough. And if you can't find any, create your own!

Happy belated Birthday, Glosette Girl!

p.s they don't have question marks or apostrophes available for rent at the Gladstone Theatre and only one exclamation point. Aren't there any plays with punctuation in the title?!

Small Joys

I love finding random surprises around our neighborhood. There seems to be more of this sort of thing these days, in what is hopefully the end of the beginning of covid.

A tree bursting with bird houses:

A helpful hand for those who are less fortunate:

It's hard to read but this store is giving out free curbside breakfasts. No questions asked.

And a herd of rhinos* wandering through an underpass:

Let the world never run out of whimsy

There is hope and laughter everywhere, if we only take the time to look. 

* Sadly, the city in all its wisdom painted over the herd of Rhinos 2-weeks after they were painted. Don't they have better things to do?

Muddy stroll on the Wilsondale

Today our gang ventured to the Wilsondale trails, just east of Cumberland Heritage Village, which is  east of Ottawa. Normally, when I blog about the hikes we do I am fortunate enough to be able to comment on all the great trails around here.

Unfortunately not all trails are all stars and sadly I'd put the Wilsondale trails into this category. 

Two minutes in from Margot, the dreaded: "I'm bored." Luckily we pushed through that!

Key features: 

• A confusing muddy start to the trail where you have to walk across a field without clear signage to get to the trailhead.
• Transmission towers criss-cross here and there over and above the trail (not exactly the most natural feature!)
• The low hum of the highway can be heard in the distance (same comment as above).

In the distance, a rare Canadian tree: power-line-us-coniferous

That's not to say I didn't have a great time walking the trail with Glosette Girl and Margot. Au contraire my friend! We actually had a few good laughs as we stumbled and bumbled our way through the muddy trail for an hour or so.

Honestly, when the weather is mild and the sun is shining it's hard not to have a good time on even the most humble trail. And while I can't say this one will rank among the great Canadian or even great local trails, it did the job!

Margot was chattering about Harry Potter the whole time!

Another Reno?!

Apparently it's been a banner year for home renovations in Canada. So, guess what? We decided to join the action!

We have very limited bookshelf space in our little house and recently we started thinking about how we could improve our situation. 

• Move to a bigger house? No that's crazy in this housing market...
  
• Add an extension? No too expensive...
  
• Throw away a bunch of books to make more room? NOOOO! That's the worst idea of all!
  

But one thing we realized we could do is build a "faux" built-in: a built-in bookshelf that really isn't built-in at all because it's really a bookshelf in front of the wall that is covered by crown molding on the edges to make it appear like its integrated into the wall.

On Sunday we started with a bare wall:

Notice how crooked the floor is! Actually there isn't a straight line in this photo

On Monday our contractor brought in some tools and and did some measurements:

Renos always get worse before they get better...

 On Tuesday the hard work really began:

Apparently wood prices have risen 30% this year if you can believe it

On Wednesday the bookshelf started to really take shape:

Has that ladder moved?

And today, on Thursday, the renovation mostly* wrapped up. Woohoo!

Not too shabby! I'll take this over a 129-day renovation any day!

* Technically we still have to install a few shelves.