3 days ago
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Excitement of New Growth
One of the things I love most about this time of year is watching the new growth in the garden. I check every chance I get to see if there's anything new and how much the little plants have grown since my last trip around the garden.
Today I saw these little lettuce plants for the first time. They must have come up overnight.
These onions and peas have been up for a few days already, but every day there are more.
Today I saw these little lettuce plants for the first time. They must have come up overnight.
These onions and peas have been up for a few days already, but every day there are more.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Gardening and Cherry Blossoms
A few days ago our son Henry, invited us to come over today to help him with some gardening and to go for a good long walk together. I love spending time with our kids, I love gardening and I love walking. So I was really looking forward to this day!
And the day turned out to be just as special as I had imagined. We spent a few hours working in the garden with the three of us. I wish I had taken some pictures because it looked beautiful! One of the previous owners must have really been into gardening - there are lots of perennials and bulb plants. So it's a joy to work there.
After lunch we headed out on our walk. Such a beautiful neighbourhood - the High Park area! Lots of beautiful homes, large old trees, interesting little front gardens and lots of people around. We saw a magnolia tree with these light coloured flowers. This is only the second time I've ever seen one of this colour. The magnolia flowers around here are usually pinkish.
We walked through the Bloor West Village area and down to Sunnyside Beach on Lake Ontario.
This is looking east towards the city centre. You can see the CN Tower in the distance.
And then we headed back through High Park. I've lived in Toronto for almost 36 years, but it wasn't until this week that I heard about the cherry blossoms in High Park. And I didn't just hear about them once - I heard about them three times; once from a friend, then on the radio and then in the paper! I was getting curious and really wanted to see them! So when Henry suggested we go for this walk I thought, "Here's my chance to see the cherry blossoms!" Well, I had no idea what a big deal this is! Look at the crowds! There were people and cameras everywhere! I was so glad that we walked into the park because the line-up of cars coming in was unbelievable.
A plaque told us that this hillside planting of cherry trees was donated to the city of Toronto in 1959 by a Japanese ambassador from Tokyo. I got the feeling that for many Asian people, coming to see these cherry blossoms is an annual tradition because there were so many Asian people there. It was very exciting to experience this big event for the very first time in our own city! I can't believe that I hadn't heard of this before. And the blossoms were beautiful!
Henry showed us the gym where he and Melanie go to work out. We stopped for an ice cream cone - tiramisu for me - Yum! And Henry showed us where they catch the bus for work. I enjoy getting a little glimpse into how and where our kids live. A wonderful day! Thanks, Henry!
And the day turned out to be just as special as I had imagined. We spent a few hours working in the garden with the three of us. I wish I had taken some pictures because it looked beautiful! One of the previous owners must have really been into gardening - there are lots of perennials and bulb plants. So it's a joy to work there.
After lunch we headed out on our walk. Such a beautiful neighbourhood - the High Park area! Lots of beautiful homes, large old trees, interesting little front gardens and lots of people around. We saw a magnolia tree with these light coloured flowers. This is only the second time I've ever seen one of this colour. The magnolia flowers around here are usually pinkish.
We walked through the Bloor West Village area and down to Sunnyside Beach on Lake Ontario.
This is looking east towards the city centre. You can see the CN Tower in the distance.
And then we headed back through High Park. I've lived in Toronto for almost 36 years, but it wasn't until this week that I heard about the cherry blossoms in High Park. And I didn't just hear about them once - I heard about them three times; once from a friend, then on the radio and then in the paper! I was getting curious and really wanted to see them! So when Henry suggested we go for this walk I thought, "Here's my chance to see the cherry blossoms!" Well, I had no idea what a big deal this is! Look at the crowds! There were people and cameras everywhere! I was so glad that we walked into the park because the line-up of cars coming in was unbelievable. 
A plaque told us that this hillside planting of cherry trees was donated to the city of Toronto in 1959 by a Japanese ambassador from Tokyo. I got the feeling that for many Asian people, coming to see these cherry blossoms is an annual tradition because there were so many Asian people there. It was very exciting to experience this big event for the very first time in our own city! I can't believe that I hadn't heard of this before. And the blossoms were beautiful!
Henry showed us the gym where he and Melanie go to work out. We stopped for an ice cream cone - tiramisu for me - Yum! And Henry showed us where they catch the bus for work. I enjoy getting a little glimpse into how and where our kids live. A wonderful day! Thanks, Henry!Update: I just Googled, "cherry blossoms in High Park" and found out that in 1959 the Japanese ambassador to Canada donated 2000 Japanese sakura (cherry blossom trees) trees to the people of Toronto on behalf of the people of Tokyo in appreciation of Toronto accepting re-located Japanese Canadians after the Second World War. Many of these trees were planted around Grenadier Pond in High Park. Then it said, "Come celebrate spring's arrival with a visit to High Park and participate in the centuries old Japanese tradition of Sakura Hanami, roughly translated as "cherry blossom flower viewing". So it is actually an annual tradition for many people!
In Honour of Our Volunteers
This past week was National Volunteer Week in Canada. Like many organizations, our mission hosted a volunteer appreciation dinner to honour our volunteers and to say a big "THANK YOU!" for all the many ways in which they carried out the work of the mission this year.
I just want to share two special volunteer stories, to show you that anyone can make a contribution by volunteering, no matter what age you are.
This young girl came to our office with her mom, my co-worker, last summer and went through all my files and printed new labels for them. She was good with the computer and did such a great job even though she was so young that she had to stand on a chair to reach my filing drawers to stick the new labels on the files! I love this picture!
And then there is the story of a group of seniors who prepare our mailings for us. As we were looking for volunteers, our bookkeeper told us that another agency she works for brings their mailing to a retirement home where the seniors prepare the mailings for them. And they loved doing it! This sounded like a great idea so I decided to contact a nearby Christian seniors home that was already supporting the work of our mission financially. They were very excited to try one mailing to see how it would go. The chair of the missions committee put out the word and next thing you know she had about fifteen people eager to help out. Many of them used to volunteer at their churches, but are no longer able to drive and so had to give up their volunteering. We delivered the newsletters, envelopes, and stamps to their activity room and they worked in shifts and got the whole job done. When I called to see how it went, their coordinator said the volunteers were already asking when the next mailing would be. They are so thrilled to be able to contribute to the work of our mission in this way! And we are so thrilled to have their help in preparing our mailings! What a great match! Win-win all the way around! I love it when things work out like this!
At our meeting of the Toronto Association of Volunteer Administrators this week, we found these sayings on our table, also because it was National Volunteer Week.
I just want to share two special volunteer stories, to show you that anyone can make a contribution by volunteering, no matter what age you are.
This young girl came to our office with her mom, my co-worker, last summer and went through all my files and printed new labels for them. She was good with the computer and did such a great job even though she was so young that she had to stand on a chair to reach my filing drawers to stick the new labels on the files! I love this picture!
And then there is the story of a group of seniors who prepare our mailings for us. As we were looking for volunteers, our bookkeeper told us that another agency she works for brings their mailing to a retirement home where the seniors prepare the mailings for them. And they loved doing it! This sounded like a great idea so I decided to contact a nearby Christian seniors home that was already supporting the work of our mission financially. They were very excited to try one mailing to see how it would go. The chair of the missions committee put out the word and next thing you know she had about fifteen people eager to help out. Many of them used to volunteer at their churches, but are no longer able to drive and so had to give up their volunteering. We delivered the newsletters, envelopes, and stamps to their activity room and they worked in shifts and got the whole job done. When I called to see how it went, their coordinator said the volunteers were already asking when the next mailing would be. They are so thrilled to be able to contribute to the work of our mission in this way! And we are so thrilled to have their help in preparing our mailings! What a great match! Win-win all the way around! I love it when things work out like this!
At our meeting of the Toronto Association of Volunteer Administrators this week, we found these sayings on our table, also because it was National Volunteer Week.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
All Things Bright and Beautiful...
Here's what we get to enjoy every time we step out the front door these days. After the long winter I love these bright colours! And it seems that all our early tulips are really bright yellow and red, and then later when I'm ready for more muted tones, the pink, purple, light yellow and off-white tulips come out. While I was thinking about this, these words just popped into my head...
God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
All things bright and beautiful...
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful: the Lord God made them all!
Each little flow'r that opens, each little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colours, He made their tiny wings.
All things bright and beautiful...
...the Lord God made them all!
God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.
All things bright and beautiful...
...the Lord God made them all!
On the Hiking Trail Again
This afternoon we went for another Sunday afternoon hike with a group of us from church. We were on the Oak Ridges Trail, about an hour north of where we were last Sunday, and the flowers in this location were about a week behind the ones we saw last week.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. We stopped at an apple farm for some hot apple cider. That's where I saw this neat clock - hanging on their covered porch.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. We stopped at an apple farm for some hot apple cider. That's where I saw this neat clock - hanging on their covered porch.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Mom's 98th Birthday!
On Thursday we experienced the blessing of celebrating my mother-in-law's 98th birthday with all of Gerard's sisters.
Friday, April 16, 2010
On My Way to the Bus
Shortly after I put the first seeds in the garden and moved around a lot of perennials a few weeks ago, it rained for a few days. Perfect for the garden! There were earth worms everywhere - also perfect for the garden!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Looking for Trilliums
Last Sunday we went hiking to see if the trilliums were flowering yet.
We found these little flowers...
And yes, the trilliums were just starting to come up. There were a few that were almost ready to open. Maybe in a week or so they'll be at their peak.
The trout lilies were just coming up and a few were in bloom.
And we found one red trillium!
I don't know what these small daisy-like flowers are called, but there were masses of them.
We watched these canoers for a while. What a wonderful way to spend a sunny, spring Sunday afternoon, for them and for us!
We found these little flowers...
And yes, the trilliums were just starting to come up. There were a few that were almost ready to open. Maybe in a week or so they'll be at their peak.
The trout lilies were just coming up and a few were in bloom.
And we found one red trillium!
I don't know what these small daisy-like flowers are called, but there were masses of them.
We watched these canoers for a while. What a wonderful way to spend a sunny, spring Sunday afternoon, for them and for us!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Another Look around the Garden
A few more pictures of some of the early spring flowers in our garden a few weeks ago.
And with the wonderful warm weather we had on Easter weekend, I couldn't wait to get gardening, so I dug up sections of the garden and put these early seeds in. I keep checking to see whether anything is coming up yet and sure enough, yesterday I found a few sprouts of spinach and some peas coming up!
I love the little red bug in this picture!
And with the wonderful warm weather we had on Easter weekend, I couldn't wait to get gardening, so I dug up sections of the garden and put these early seeds in. I keep checking to see whether anything is coming up yet and sure enough, yesterday I found a few sprouts of spinach and some peas coming up! 
I love the little red bug in this picture!
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