She's a year old!

I can hardly believe it but Eve is one year old now. Aint' she sweet?

Six word memoir - meme

I saw this at Hahn's blog and thought I'd use my humble graphics skills and my sick twisted mind to design this hypochondriac's testament:


I tag:

• Drew's Brave New World
• Uncensored Thoughts
• Mimi Writes
• If I Knew Then What I Know Now
• Earth2Karen
  

Here are the instructions for the meme:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Good things grow in Ontario....

I was cleaning up my hard drive and found these photos I took at Parkdale Market when I was visiting my mother in Ottawa late last summer.

Create a Free Slideshow

Winter 2007 at the Lair

Took these photos just before the holidays.

Bass Pro

I have a blog buddy who lives in the great state of Kansas and is an avid angler. Every time he goes on a road trip he finds some excuse to visit a Bass Pro shop. He always speaks of his visits with such glee I figured that Bass Pro must be some kind of Disneyland for outdoors-folk. I had never been to a Bass Pro shop but my nephew Marc works at the shop just north of Toronto. So on our recent trip north, Lise and I stopped in to check the place out.




It truly is a Disneyland for outdoors-folk. They have an indoor shooting range, fish ponds and steam with real trout, every kind of hunting, fishing, boating or camping gear you could imagine. We didn't have a lot of time to look around but I did get a good shot of Uncle Buck's plane.



Oh yes, and one more shot. Alan,this one's for you my friend:

I coulda been killed...

That's me. I wasn't even a year old in this picture and here I was zooming around a parking lot under the el, somewhere in the Bronx in, (oh my god) a walker! What were my parents thinking! Sheesh, by today's standards they might as well let me run with scissors!
Considering that cars didn't have seat belts or collapsible steering columns and babies were often placed to sleep in the back window next to the bobbing head Yankees player doll on the way to Bear Mountain, it's a miracle any of us baby boomers survived at all.

Had a little visitor today

My daughter-in-law Sue borrowed my car this morning so she could go down to the Ministry of Transportation office to write the exam for her D (truck) license. Sue's dad works for one of the local waste removal companies and has encouraged her to get her truck license and apply for a driving job for when she comes off maternity leave in March. She's a gal after my own heart, seeing as how I hold a D class license with a Z (air brake endorsement).

Anyhow, after passing her written exam she brought the car back to me and surprised me with her tiny passenger.

Here's little Eve at grandma's office at the Local. I think she'll make a fine shop steward one day.

The Ghost of Birthdays Past

Since birthdays are a time of reflection, I thought I'd share some photos of my past birthdays.


Here I am with my mom. This was taken not long after we came home to our apartment on Coster Street from St Francis Hospital in the Bronx.
Mom was 33 when she had me and I was her first.














These are my parents. This was taken when I was 2-1/2 months old. I'm not exactly sure where this picture was taken but from what I remember of the furnishings, I think it was taken at my godmother's house in Brooklyn.









This was my first birthday party! We had moved from Coster St. to a house on 222nd Street not far from White Plains Rd in the Bronx. I was five years old.








My next birthday party was held after we moved to Canada in our home in Ottawa. I was twelve and the dress I'm wearing here is my mom's second wedding dress.
It was the 70s - dig those bell bottomed sleeves!




This was my 33rd birthday. I think everyone should climb a tree when they turn 33 don't you?





This was my 35th birthday. This was my androgynous neo-feminist period. Thank heavens I grew out of that!

Ottawa's Byward Market

While I was away in Ottawa Lise and I went for lunch at the Byward Market. You could spend a whole afternoon there visiting all the vendors and looking at all the things there. Here are some pictures I took.

There is a scene in the movie City of Angels where you see all the angels in long black trench coats gazing off into the sunrise. It's really quite a beautiful and haunting scene and one which immediately came to mind this morning as I drove to work and saw this:



Every day I drive by a farm where turkey vultures roost in the surrounding woods. I have seen these turkey vultures roosting in the trees before but this morning they were all sitting in the treetops with their wings extended.


I've never seen this before and I wondered if they were not drying their wings out from the thunderstorms we had last night. That seems the most practical answer but the sight of it was striking enough to make me double back and stop to take these pics.

Plan B

Well, since it was raining and I was determined to get out and play with my new camera we decided to head out to Colasanti's.

It was close to lunchtime so we drove to Leamington first to have lunch. We stopped at a diner right near the dock for the ferry to Pelee Island. It was the type of mom & pop diner I love and I said "F-the diet" and had the pastrami special. I took a couple of pics from the dock but was afraid to get my camera wet so just hopped out of the car for a quick click or two.

We then drove to Ruthven and Colasanti's Tropical Garden. Colasanti's is a landmark in these parts where generations have enjoyed weekend outings and school field trips. The best way to describe Colasanti's is that it's a giant working greenhouse where they have set up themed sections open to the public.

They have a restaurant, Christmas shop, sweets shop, mini-golf course, kiddie rides, arcade, petting zoo and of course, all kinds of plants and flowers. It's a great place to take your kids or a warm place in the winter months to wander around looking at the plants and garden accessories. We spent a couple hours there then headed home via Kingsville.

One of the interesting things about this area is that there are so many greenhouses. The greenhouses here grow everything from flowers to tomatoes. Leamington is home to the Heinz ketchup factory and is known as Canada's Tomato Capital. As I drive around I see fields and fields of tomatoes all destined for Heinz.

Funny thing is that it's hard to find a field tomato to eat. Almost all of the roadside stands sell greenhouse tomatoes not field tomatoes and to me, they just don't taste the same. Greenhouse tomatoes are grown for their looks. I heard a greenhouse owner's interview on the CBC last year and he said that consumers want perfectly round, very red tomatoes. I suppose they have more control over the tomatoes' looks in a controlled environment like a greenhouse.

Field tomatoes can be asymmetrical and have brown blemishes. Not pretty but very tasty. In my opinion there is nothing like a thick slice of a big, fat beefsteak tomato in a sandwich with some fresh basil, a little mayo (or aioli), fresh ground pepper and a dash of ground smoked sea salt. Yummy!

Ok, so here's a slideshow of today's photos. Enjoy.

Sunday Morning

Today Lise and I planned on visiting the Fujisawa Zen Gardens so I could play around with my camera. I got up, put on a pot of coffee and grabbed my laptop so I could sit outside and surf but when I looked out the patio door, this is what I saw:


Yep, that's rain. The local farmers will be happy about the rain but I'm not. It's raining so I can't sit outside, sip coffee and write. Bummer. Bigger bummer is that I have a terminally diseased roof so rain is not my friend right now.

Anyhow, back to this picture. This patio is where (weather permitting) I sit and write my blog. I live at the dead end of a dirt road and just beyond those trees is the beach. You can't actually see the lake in the summer because of the trees but you can hear it and the waves lull me to sleep at night.


This is the front of my house. Where the patio doors are is the original cottage. The part to the right is the addition. Even from this picture you can see how bad the roof is. (sigh) On top of the roof you can see my TV and wireless internet antenna, what you can't see is that I also have a satellite dish. We can't get cable TV, DSL or cable internet out here so without these gizmos I'd be stuck with snow-static, ghost filled TV images of the PBS station from across the lake in Ohio and dial-up internet. Cripes, I'd rather chew tin foil. So that explains why the roof line of my house looks like I'm the Mother Ship.

Lise and I wanted to get out of the house and do something outside today. With the rain it looks like we'll have to come up with a "plan B".

Sunset at the Navy Yard

Reading the Sign Posts

I think for a gal born in the Bronx projects, I've come a long way. I few years ago my wife and I moved out of the city to a little cottage on the north shore of Lake Erie. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not astounded at the beauty which surrounds me.

On my daily commute to work I drive past vineyards and fields of corn, soybeans, hay and tomatoes. There's other things that grow out here but being a city gal, I can't always identify the crops as I drive by. These are soy beans and a vineyard behind a barn.

In the last couple of weeks they have been bringing in the hay.

Everywhere I turn is yet another beautiful vista of a panoramic sky over fields stretching out as far as can bee seen. Sometimes, when the light is just right, the views bring tears to my eyes.

I drive the same way to work each day and when I reach the main road that takes me right into the city I pass a series of telephone poles.

Someone has nailed little signs on the first six poles. I read them as I zip by at 80 kilometers an hour. And as I think about the day ahead, this transplanted city gal smiles and whispers her thanks. Here's what they say:

Shutter Bug

I've become a snap-happy shutter bug and I totally blame this on my friend Glenda. She's such a bad influence on me. First she gets Lise and I hooked on birdwatching and now she gets me infected with the shutterbug flu.

All I can say is thank heavens for digital cameras and gigabyte memory cards!

I've never really learned how to take photos but I'm trying to figure things out. The camera I have has a big dial with lots of settings and stuff so I've been playing with all the shiny buttons.

Here's a few of my latest pics.

These were taken at Colchester Beach and Harbour:











Last weekend while visiting family in Woodstock I took a morning walk to Pittock Park and took these:








I thought I'd get real artsy fartsy and try to capture a spider web in the rain:


Then some logs piled up at the side of the house:


Here's a couple shots of a vineyard that's just up the road from me. I live on a wine route so there's four wineries right on the county road I live off of.





Finally, back home to a setting sun looking towards the mouth of the Detroit River:

Two proud Memés

For Mother's Day the kids arranged for Lise and I to have our photos done with the two girls. My step-grand daughter, Natalie is seven and here Eve is three weeks old. Natalie's been a good girl at school this week so this afternoon I'm taking her to the movies to see Shrek 3.

For more Eve pictures check out: www.lakesidelair.com/ourAngel

Our Baby

Ok, I've tried really hard to spare you all and not to come here and keep blubbering on about my new grand daughter but...

The other day I picked up the kids to take them to get their Welcome Wagon New Baby kit. On the way back we stopped in to see my hairdresser. Her daughter had a baby too a few weeks ago and I wanted to see her grand daughter and, of course, show off mine.

After we had left and were driving back to the kid's place my son turned to me and said, "That was a cute kid." I agreed their baby was adorable. Then Matt said, with all the earnestness of a 23 year old new dad, "Ya know mom, I think I'm pretty sure about this but I think our baby is even more beautiful." I smiled then I thought about this photo:


Eve had fallen asleep while I was feeding her. Milk had pooled in the dimple around her perfect little cupid's bow and as she passed gas, she smiled. Yeah, my son is right. There is no baby as beautiful as our baby.

Introducing Eve Lillian

Our little Eve arrived this afternoon at 2:50pm Eastern, weighing six pounds, eleven ounces.



































Eve and her Mémé Lise.


















Eve and her Mémé Barb

It's a Girl!

Introducing Eve Lillian.
Yep, I'm gonna be a grand'ma.
I'm gonna bust!
LOL

Big Shoes

My son Matt was a year old in this picture. He's standing in my friend Dan's army boots. This photo was taken several months after I had left my husband and had moved to a new city. Once the shock of my dissolving marriage subsided, the reality of my situation began to sink in. I was a woman with no money and few marketable skills and now I had a family to raise.

My mother tells me that her parents supported nine children through the Depression and never went on the dole. I remember her telling me this when I was a child and when she said it, she sounded so proud. When I left my husband I had a two year old toddler, an eight month old baby and $14 to my name so I swallowed my inherited pride and went on the dole.

I received just over $600 a month and this crappy little place cost $290 a month. Thank goodness the previous tennants left that old lumpy sofa you see in the background, because that gave me something to sleep on.

As I'd tuck my two babies in each night, the weight of the responsibility I had to them was nearly suffocating. I knew their future, whatever chance they had in life, was totally dependant on the decisions I'd make and I was determined we would not be another statistic.

In those anguished, lonely nights I'd sit on that sofa, in the darkness of that tiny living room, and listen. I'd try to still my breathing, my thoughts and the nauseating panic. I'd force myself to focus on the muffled sounds of distant traffic, the neighbour's droning television, the raindrop's patter on the window until I could hear nothing but my own breathing. Only then could I hear the whisper of my father's voice, “Educate to elevate”.

I had met Dan's wife Marlene in the first weeks in my new city. Although I couldn't pay her very much, she agreed to babysit my kids while I took courses to upgrade so I could get into university. Between classes, I got a job cleaning rich people's houses for grocery money or a new pair of shoes for Matt. He was growing so quickly and was so hard on his shoes.

He was my little man. The most important man in my life. I named him Matthew because I once read somewhere that “Matthew” meant God's gift. Matt was a twin. I lost his twin but carried Matt to term. That he was even born, (and born on Christmas Day no less) was a gift. I'd gladly scrub toilets to buy him shoes.

The day I took this picture I remembered wondering what kind of man would grow to fill those boots. Would I be able to raise a good, strong and kind man or would, in my desperation to survive – to keep us fed, clothed and housed – I make some misstep and fail him?

It seemed we both had to fill big shoes.

Winter at the Lakeside Lair

Just got in a little while ago and thought I'd take a stroll down to the beach to watch the sunset. This is virtually the same shot as the one that I use in my blog title. Sure looks different in winter eh? Just as pretty though.

This is looking just to the right of this breakwall. I thought these ice floes looked neat.















Here's a view of the Fermi nuclear plant. On a clear day you can also see another nuclear plant across the lake in Ohio.

I've always told my children that when I go, I want to go fast. When my son saw how close we were to the nuclear plant he said, "Mom, all you'll see is a big white flash".














And here's the sunset near the mouth of the Detroit river.

Happy Birthday Matt!

This is my son Matt and he is 22 years old today!

Matt has a wonderful imagination and from the time he was very little, he would invent things. After he made a flame thrower out of his super soaker water cannon, I thought he might grow up to be a mad scientist (by the way, I still twitch funny as a result of this incident).

With his career as a designer of weapons of mass destruction thwarted, his talents were channelled to his art. Matt has a talent with a pencil and sketchbook and writes wonderful tales of fantasy. He could be another George Lucas. My wish for him is that he doesn't give up on his dreams and that he finds the time to continue to imagine and create.


Matt found himself a nice girl he plans to marry this spring. Sue has moxie. She's smart, has a great sense of humour and is a good mom to her six year old daughter. I like her. I think she is good for Matt.








Look at them together. They are young, happy and in love. My son is happy. What more can a mom ask for?

Happy birthday son! Love, Mom.

Sailing

Two years ago at the Boat Show in Mount Clemens, Michigan I met my dreamboat. Of all the sail boats I saw that day only the Rhodes was the one I felt I would be confident handling by myself. The design is well thought out and makes the most efficient use of space but what impressed me most was the boat builder's philosophy - they were the only company represented at the show who will sell you a recycled Rhodes with a new boat guarantee. Really, you have to read everything at their site to appreciate this boat and how this company does business.

I blame my brother-in-law's partner for getting me infected with the sailing bug. After a few sails on his Grampian he said that if I passed the Power Squadron's boating course he'd let me use his boat. (See photo of me at the helm of his boat)

It didn't take me long to enroll in the Boating Course with the Windsor Power & Sail Squadron. The Boating Course is a 14 week course that not only teaches you everything you need to obtain your Pleasure Craft Operators Card but teaches you the essentials of plotting and navigation that will get you back to the marina safely. After successfully completing this course I was invited to help teach this course to the next group of students. So I spent another 14 weeks assisting the Squadron's past Commander teaching the new group of students. Truth be told, I think I learned even more by assistant teaching.

The second course I took through the Windsor Power & Sail Squadron was the VHF course where I earned my Restricted Operator Certificate (R.O.C. Maritime). I later went on to help teach this course as well.


At the end of this season my brother-in-law's partner sold his boat so next season, if I want to sail on anything larger that my dinghy (see photo of the Good Ship Cauliflower), I'll have to find another vessel on which to crew.