Gone sailing

And life is very very good.

Random street art

'cause I wasn't driving so I could take some pictures from the passenger seat.

Project for next summer, photos of cool street art in TO.

Project for this winter, photos of cool street art in BCN.

What I did this evening

Do you recognize him?  That's Neil Gaiman.  Eldest is a MASSIVE fan, and when we found out he was coming to Toronto, we got tickets.

So Eldest and I and a friend went off to see him this evening.  Youngest was supposed to come but got a better offer!  (Two weeks sailing with a friend!)  I got there first and very early, then Eldest, who went inside and twitched, then the friend, in we went.

Chatted, wrote a question for him, chatted more, waited and it was all lovely and good

Then he came out. He read from his latest - and very good indeed - book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  There were questions, many were funny and he was wittier and funnier still.  Then he started to sign things.  And sign and sign and sign.

They sensibly decided to call people up by row, and Neil said they would do it as a lottery, a good way, so the rows are out of order, but it did mean you hadn't a clue when you were leaving.

Neil signed books for Eldest, admired her t-shirt and all is very good indeed.

Smart, witty funny man, who writes smart witty (frightening) wonderful books.

Read some.

Backus Woods, that would be Saturday

We went off to Backus woods the day before yesterday, near Long Point on Lake Erie.

LOVE this place.  It is the largest stand left of the Carolinian forest in Ontario- therefore probably Canada.  It has great big huge fat Tulip trees, the Man's favourite tree....and I love it too.

Plus lots of wildlife and paths and many many mosquitos.  Though I seemed more bitter flavoured than Eldest and the Man who were along.

They also have a bunch of old houses collected together so you can go and see what some of these buildings were like!

Here, have a look.

Eldest got her hands into flour in the mill, then onto me...

Huge trees make huge planks.

That's a nice house size....

Octagonal school house...one of few in Ontario..

Chuck seems to want to go to school....

Big bright open airy space, no?

Great Blue Heron

A huge Tulip tree....

Weird fungus....doesn't look too edible to me.

Plus a video of the mill wheel spinning!

Dogs don't think rowing is fun

The Man, Eldest and I went off to watch the Masters' rowing races today at Henley.  Pretty cool!  A fair range of ability but some of those folks could really row.

Chuck watched for a while, but it was boring.

He got up to leave, but couldn't

So he blamed us.

 Later we saw Paddington Bear graffiti.  Chuck wasn't impressed by this either, though we were.  Ford would view it as the sign of the devil though, and spend lord knows how much getting commissions to remove it while shooting/snorting/whatever it is you do with crack.  Nice work.  Fortunately this wasn't in Toronto, so Paddington should be safe for a little longer.

Then we went to the War Plane museum, the Man and Eldest are both history buffs.  I had been before and Chuck wasn't allowed in so we napped in the shade.  We both love napping on lawns, so that was good.

Cool view.  Chuck still wasn't all that impressed.

He liked the woods yesterday much better.

Hummingbirds

Now, Chuck...well, Chuck has a thing about bees, wasps, flies, all those things that fly and make a buzzing noise.  He feels compelled to hunt them down and eat them, but he actually doesn't want to do this, so if given the option, if there is even one little tiny fly, he will go inside.

Really.

Hates them.

Now, a hummingbird, to Chucks eyes, is the mother of all buzzing flying insects. The stuff of NIGHTMARES!

We did not realise this until today when he started barking at them, and barking and barking.  If one had been silly enough to come close, he would have definitely tried to eat it.

Bad dog.

Fortunately, they weren't that stupid.

They are however remarkably hard to capture with your average point and shoot camera.

Especially with barky dog wailing away next to you,

so here,

the best I could do.

For you.

Ottawa, day 2 and the drive home

I never quite got around to writing about the second day in Ottawa...and a grand day it was.  We went to the Museum of Civilization, designed by Frank Gerhy, spectacular, but there are spots where he forgot that sometimes people have strollers or wheelchairs......

Outside:

The roof of the great hall, looking to me rather like the mouth of a gigantic whale

A Bill Reid sculpture of a gigantic whale...

Some West Coast work

Another Bill Reid

West coast dug out canoes.  Amazing-

A wee spider I picked up for the ride, he got put outside after a bit.

The view of Ottawa from Quèbec!

Then we picked up Eldest and her buddy and took the MUCH less eventful and considerably glitterier drive back.

Lovely weekend away.