Getting There

Spending time together.

This past week our tenth wedding anniversary took place. We wanted to mark the occasion with a trip, but when this proved to be impossible we decided to simply send the children over to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, and have two whole days to ourselves. The last time we had two whole days to ourselves was when we went on a trip for our first anniversary!

We had a lovely weekend. We explored the local farmer's market downtown, did a little shopping, picked up some juicy steaks at our favourite local butcher and barbequed them to perfection, watched an entire 2.5 hour movie from start to finish without interruption, went on a beautiful walk at a nearby nature reserve, and did a bit of work around the house. And of course, just relaxed together. :) What bliss!

Check out the animal tracks we found in the mud at the nature reserve:

It was such a beautiful fall day...

This was the best photo we could get of the two of us! Looks like we were standing under a maple tree...

When we got home I used some of the apples from the farmer's market to make up and can a batch of applesauce. Okay, maybe this doesn't seem like something a person should do on "vacation" time, but it was satisfying work, and it was so nice to get some canning done without little people underfoot.

(Aren't those apples in the picture huge? They're sitting next to 1 quart jars!)

All in all, it was a great weekend. It reminded me how important it is sometimes just to slow down and take a deep breath with the person who is most important to you. We didn't spend much money, we didn't go on a trip, but we had a memorable and enjoyable time together all the same. Sometimes, all you have to do is make time for each other. Just be together. It's so refreshing to the soul.

That said, and although I did need a break...I missed the little ones. I am off now to pick them up from Grandma and Grandpa. I can't wait to get the hugs that are sure to be waiting for me. :)

I love cool weather.

I'm so happy Autumn is here! The weather has been much cooler here in Southern Ontario the past week or so, and I'm enjoying it immensely. Hanging laundry outside is all the more enjoyable now.

This morning the air was particularly nippy and fresh, so I decided to take the children to a park in our city which we like.  The ornamental gardens there are lovely, but Owen loves to go there to see the Spitfires, which are WW II aircraft.

This park is filled with fat squirrels which are very well fed.

Owen snapped this one of me sitting under a pine tree:

After exploring the park we sat down near the flowers and munched on some apples.

Being out in the fresh air was invigorating. I look forward to more mornings like this out in the Autumn weather. For me, crisp fall air is one of life's purest pleasures. Add in the earthy scent of damp fallen leaves, and I'm in heaven. :)

Things I Love About Summer.

Here we are smack in the middle of summer...isn't it wonderful? Some things I especially love about summer:

1. Hanging laundry on the line. Of course technically I could do this all year round, but it's so pleasant to be out there in the summer, hanging up the laundry in a leisurely way while the sun beats down and insects buzz around lazily. And I love how on a very hot day, the laundry dries in about the same time as it would have in the dryer.

2. Wildflowers. Right now the park across the street from us is filled with Queen Anne's Lace, Chicory, Bird's Foot Trefoil, Red Clover, Bird Vetch and more. I love to pick a bunch of delicate Queen Anne's Lace when we go there. Last time we went, we found upon arriving home that one stalk was home to a baby snail, and one white flower was hiding a rather large and pure white spider. Owen was quite fascinated with both of these.

Queen Anne's Lace By Mary Leslie Newton

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has washed her lace
(She chose a summer's day)
And hung it in a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night;
Then waked, to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer's day),
But left her lace to whiten in
Each weed-entangled way!

3. Fresh vegetables straight from the garden! We're loving the cherry tomatoes right now.  They taste so much better than anything you can get in the store!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summers, and to my Canadian readers, happy long weekend! :)

Am I the only one who finds this a bit sad?

The children and I spent a pleasant morning at the neighbourhood park today. When we got home, the mailbox was stuffed with flyers. While looking through a flyer for a hardware store, I noticed this:

Am I the only one who finds this product a little sad? Are we really so far removed from the natural world today that the closest most kids will ever come to seeing fireflies glow is seeing a jar of plastic, solar powered fireflies perched on a plastic branch? It just doesn't sit right with me.

Children (and adults too) enjoy direct contact with nature so much, and yet today, so many kids are deprived of some of life's simplest pleasures--like making mud pies, climbing a tree or catching a firefly in a jar--by their overly sterilized urban existence, surrounded by concrete and plastic.

That's my two cents, anyway. I do hope that when we finally get a chance to live in the country, my own children at least will be able to go out at least once and catch fireflies in a jar. We do see fireflies in the city once in a while, but only very rarely, and usually only one by itself. I suppose this is why some people would want to buy this product. I understand, but I still don't like it. I suppose I'm just a hopeless crank. :)

A trip to a horse farm.

Yesterday Kira, Owen and I went with my aunt to visit a horse farm. My aunt's good friend boards her horse there, and she was kind enough to show us around.

We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful horses, including a Clydsdale mare which was huge! On the other end of the scale, in one of the fields there was a group of mixed breed ponies, including a foal. I have never seen a pony foal before...oh my, what a little sweetheart!

I included the second picture with Owen so you could see how tiny that pony was. (Owen is holding one of the mints which my aunt's friend gave us to feed the ponies as a treat).

It was very hot yesterday, too hot for the children to be able to ride...but we were promised that in the fall they could come back again and have a chance to ride. We look forward to that!

Another trip to the beach.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, and we decided to drive out to Point Pelee again and spend the day.

Like always, we had a lovely time, and saw a lot of interesting birds--including a group of barn swallows that were nesting under the roof of a shelter.

The way they swooped and dived under the roof with such grace was amazing! They're such pretty, delicate little birds.

Here is a picture of my older two right at the Point--this is the southern most point of mainland Canada, jutting out into Lake Erie.

You know, the last couple of years I really felt guilty that we didn't have the money to take the kids on a "real" summer vacation. But I am starting to change my mind about that. In past generations, most people didn't have the money to take "real" vacations, and instead did things in the summer like go to the beach or go camping--never straying all that far from home. This is good for several reasons--it uses much less fuel, for one, it helps the children to develop an appreciation for their own backyard, so to speak, and when there is a place you go to over and over again, it becomes a family tradition that when grown, the children will look back upon with fondness.

And on top of all that, we really have fun when we go to this park, and we feel so peaceful and relaxed when we leave...someday I hope we can travel our own country, maybe even see other countries, but for now I am content to enjoy this beautiful natural area we are blessed to have nearby.

Blackberries.

The other day we were taking a family stroll along the perimeter of the nearby school yard which borders our park, and we struck gold! Or rather, black...blackberries.

Nestled into the very corner, where two lines of fence meet, is this huge berry bush...I'm very surprised that it's laden with berries, being on the edge of a school yard. I suppose the children must not be allowed into that corner!

We enjoyed the berries which were ripe, and came back yesterday evening for more. The berries had a very tart, strong flavour which reminded me of berry flavoured candies I've had. In other words, they were delicious. Nothing at all like the completely tasteless blackberries I've had from Mexico.

I've found that if you are careful to look, even in an urban setting it's possible to find edibles outside. We found these berries at the school yard...there are raspberries growing along the edge of our condo's property, and rhubarb in one corner too...although I've never been in time to enjoy either of those! Then of course there are dandelion greens, which are always in plentiful supply everywhere you go. :)

I've heard many times that in the Great Depression, people foraged for a weed called lamb's quarters, but I never knew what they were. Funny thing, I just looked it up, and found that lamb's quarters is a weed that grows all over the place...in fact it's one that I pull out of my garden regularly, but I never knew what it was! Perhaps next time I see some, I'll try cooking it up.

Foraging for wild food is a subject I'd love to learn more about in the future...in the near future though, I think we'll be heading back to that blackberry patch soon!

Have a lovely Friday everyone...we are heading back to Point Pelee today, to spend the day at the beach. On that note, I must away...:)

A trip to Point Pelee.

Well, I said I would be taking a week or so off blogging so I would have time to work on the business plan for our family business. As you might expect...after a week of consideration, planning, researching and figuring, we're no where near done yet. But getting a bit closer every day. It's so very difficult to get lengthy, involved tasks like this accomplished in a house like ours, which is so busy and boisterous!

We've been feeling a little bit tense, and yesterday we thought it would be nice to just drop everything and have a day away. So we made a picnic lunch, packed everyone up, and went where we always go when we want to relax: Point Pelee National Park. It's more than an hour's drive from us, but we love it there and go many times over the course of the summer. If we go during the week, it's very quiet and peaceful. And yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day--hot but not sweltering, sunny, just a little breezy...perfect.

First we spent some time on the beach, playing and swimming--yes, we swam in Lake Erie in May, even me! The water was...refreshing, to say the least! We had a wonderful morning on the beach.

After lunch, and a visit to the park's visitor's centre, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll down the Marsh Boardwalk, where we saw lots of wildlife: A giant turtle, a group of turtles sunning themselves, dragonflies, swallows, red-winged blackbirds, bumblebees, a marsh wren hopping from lily pad to lily pad, and a beautiful pair of black terns at their nest--and those are just the ones I could identify.

All in all it was a very special day, and I'm so glad we went. We all need a day sometimes, to just forget about our worries and enjoy life. And in my opinion anyway, there is no better place to escape to than the beauty and peace of the natural world.