Sunday, March 18, 2012

My Road Trip with Bob Dylan

William and I just got back from our March Break road trip.  I thought the road trip would be about checking out the universities.  Turns out I was wrong - it was about Bob Dylan.  


We had a lot of fun.  Our road trip went like this ...


We drove four hours the first evening and listened to a couple of Bob Dylan albums.


The next day there were huge Vs of Canada Geese flying overhead migrating north.  I wanted a picture of them so asked William to take one while I was in the washroom at the gas station.  I came back and he told me he had not been able to get a good photo of the Canada Geese, but he did get an awesome photo of a seagull eating garbage.  Impressive!  (by the way, here's his best photo of a seagull minus the garbage - I knew you would appreciate that).




I did manage to get a photo (of sorts) of the Canada Geese.  I couldn't get over how many birds there were flying together in long strings across the sky.




We drove for about five hours (listening to Bob Dylan for much of the drive) to Sherbrooke, a small city in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.   It is such a pretty city with lots of red brick buildings, a few rushing rivers going through the downtown, 




and plenty of gorgeous clapboard houses painted in an array of pastel colours.  



Do you like my rubber-necking-while-driving skills?


Bishop's University is an older university with a mix of old and new red buildings amongst groves of pine trees.





The next day we drove to Ottawa and Hull ... we listened to Bob Dylan albums and William read me some of Bob's poetry (after all this contact I'm totally on first name basis with him).


Parliament Buildings in Ottawa seen from across the river in Gatineau
I had never seen Ottawa in the winter/early spring with ice and snow around so it was fun to see it at a different time of year.


Samuel de Champlain statue in Gatineau/Hull (you can see a photo of where he left from in France in this post)


After taking a tour of Carleton University in Ottawa (sorry - no photos as it was raining and I didn't want to get my camera wet) we drove to my parent's cottage.  And as we drove we listened to Bob Dylan!  

The drive through Algonquin Park was so pretty.  I'd never been there in the winter and the frozen lakes, birch trees, deep green of the evergreens, and soft grey of the deciduous trees were beautiful.






There was still lots of snow around and ice on the lake at the cottage, but the air was warm and the snow and ice were melting rapidly.  








My Dad dug down in the snow and uncovered the daffodils that had already sprouted up several inches in my Mother's garden.  I wonder how they know it is time to start growing when they are covered in a layer of snow.



A few days later William and I drove home from the cottage listening to  - you guessed it - Bob Dylan.  After listening to his first eight albums (and most of them more than once), I have decided that my favourite is "Bringing It All Back Home".  Seems fitting for a road trip, don't you think?

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day


I thought this mosaic I did with my class of students with Learning Disabilities was the perfect thing to share with you for St. Patrick's Day - being a rainbow that I'm sure has a pot of gold buried at each end.


We spent a fun class making these using dyed crushed egg shells and lots of glue.  The students had to work for each of the colours they got to add to the page so they were learning and having fun at the same time.  Their teacher told me they are going to go wild and design their own pictures with the leftover eggshells which sounded like a lot of fun too.
 
Happy St. Patrick's day to all of you!  Do you have special plans for the day?

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Day Trips Around Normandy France - Honfleur

France is so gorgeous that you can literally take a different day trip every single day of the week and always find something amazing to see.  Recently I showed you the the day we spent at gorgeous Étretat and today I wanted to show you Honfleur.  


Honfleur is a quaint historic coastal town located on the estuary of the River Siene.  We visited it on a lovely warm summer day - one of those days when the sky is so blue it almost hurts your eyes and it brings all the colours to life.  



Our French friends took us to Honfleur via a small town called Vieux-Port which is part of la Route des Chaumières (which translates as Route of Thatched Houses).   Vieux-Port is about a 45 minute drive from Honfleur and well worth stopping at on your way.   It is a postcard-pretty town along the River Seine famous for its tudor-style homes with thatched roofs and holly hedges.





  


I have never seen plants grown along the seam on thatched roofs, but they did that quite often here - on both gates and homes.  It apparently helps strengthen the seam.





When you finally do arrive at Honfleur after enjoying the gorgeous homes in Vieux-Port, you will not be disappointed.  Honfleur is the kind of quaint town where you find yourself spending the day ambling along pretty streets, climbing narrow stairs, poking your head down alleyways, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the harbour, and just generally soaking up the atmosphere.  Whenever my husband and I visit places like this we always wonder why we live where we do.  




At the heart of Honfleur is the picturesque harbour.



If you are thinking of visiting Honfleur with children - you might want to take a ride on the vintage merry-go-round near the harbour.



Sainte-Catherine Church in Honfleur is the largest wooden church in France.  I loved the patterns made in the wood shingles down the front side of the church.



It has a ceiling that was built to look like a ship's hull,



The town is full of lovely touches like this beautiful door, the chimney pots, the mermaid inset into the wall, and the window boxes full of flowers.



Of special significance for Canadians - well really for any history buff - is knowing that this is where Samuel de Champlain set sail from in 1608 to establish Quebec City.  They installed a plaque on a wall dedicated to him.


Writing this brings back such fond memories for me.  





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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

WISH Wednesday #22

Being that it is St. Patrick's Day in a few days, it seemed appropriate to find a green room for WISH Wednesday.  I'm not sure I would ever have the nerve to paint my cabinets kelly green, but I do think it looks amazing.

Apartment Therapy

These two photos are of the same kitchen, although I notice that the green is quite different (personally I prefer the green in the first photo).  I think all the white in the peninsula cabinet and on the walls and the black in the open shelves, the counter, the stools and the dining room chairs help to balance such an intense colour .  I love the tall wall of tiles with the dark wood open shelves on it and the herringbone wood floor pattern.  And I think the tiny hits of orange are a perfect contrast.


Do you like the dark green cabinets?  Could you paint your kitchen green?

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Monday, March 12, 2012

It's Here and I'm Not

I finally found a copy of the magazine that has my first published photograph in it.  It was a pretty exciting moment for me.  There I was standing in the magazine aisle at Loblaws holding the Ladies Home Journal open to page 54 and grinning like a Cheshire cat.   I want to thank Ladies Home Journal for including me in the article and to welcome anyone who is stopping by after reading the article or visiting the LHJ website.


Malcolm and Christie came for a visit yesterday and it was so nice to see them.  It has been difficult to arrange visits since Christmas because of conflicting schedules so we were excited when they said they would be able to come and stay overnight.  I wanted to show you (like any proud momma would) what Malcolm brought me.
 

He's turned into quite the accomplished chef.  I'm going to be sharing some of his favourite recipes with you in the near future (just as soon as I make the dishes).
 
In other news, I'm away this week on a road trip.  William and I are off visiting two universities so he can decide which one he would like to attend.   We're going to stop at the cottage on the way home so we can visit my parents and relax a bit as this is our March Break.   I'll be back with some photos next week.
 
I hope those of you with the week off have a nice relaxing time.  
 
I've lined up a St. Patrick's day inspired WISH Wednesday photo and another day trip in Normandy France for Friday to keep you all entertained while I'm away.
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