A Walk in Waterloo

I've ended up with a lot of posts about our road-trip to Waterloo on the weekend, but we visited so many interesting places and I wanted to share them with you. 


The last thing we did on Saturday - after we had a bite to eat -

was go for a walk through a beautiful neighbourhood in Waterloo that my son Malcolm has been wanting to show me for the past four years.  It always seemed there was something else we needed to do when we visited him in Waterloo so we had not got around to going on the walk.   Malcolm is just finishing his last course of his undergraduate degree and will be graduating this month and moving when he gets married in May, so this really was our last chance.  Malcolm took us on a guided tour showing us his favourite sights. 


The subdivision was built in the 1960s and has mature trees and landscaping.  There was a lovely mix of house styles, including several modern homes.  This one was one of my favourites with all the big windows, the stacked stone walls, and 

the curved bank of windows opening on to a curved deck at the back. 

Here's another modern one that looks incredible with the stone wall, and vertical windows balanced by the dark horizontal wood siding.

Behind this house was a cute little shed in the backyard that would be so much fun to decorate. 

I loved the decks and fencing that some of the houses had.  This next one had a lovely arbour built over the deck with arched pieces incorporated into the ends.  I also loved their simple trellis-like shutters.

The house in the photo below looked like they had an architect completely re-work the front of the house.  I loved the little deck down the side of the house covered with an arbour.

It was a surprisingly hilly area, given that the university is just across the street and has a very flat terrain - I think the glacier left a big load here.  As a result of the steep landscape some of the properties had terraced rock walls,

and others had hills covered with trees and ground-cover, like myrtle, instead of grass as they are too steep to mow,

and others had beautiful rock gardens.

The area also had a meandering brook with some lovely little bridges,

and the first snowdrops I've seen this year (growing right beside a large patch of snow),

and the friendly neighbourhood cat who welcomed us.

It may seem quintessentially Canadian, but I've never seen it in a subdivision before - someone was tapping the maple trees to make maple syrup.

Do you see those blue buckets - they are for collecting the maple sap and it will be boiled down to make maple syrup.

It's a lovely neighbourhood - I can see why my son liked to go for walks there and I'm glad I got to see it before he moved.  Just in the nick of time.  Thanks for the tour Malcolm!

Linked to Good Life Wednesday at A Beach Cottage