Travel

Peggy’s Cove

Posted by

5

Went to Peggy’s Cove a couple of days ago with a friend visiting from BC. It’s been a while since I’ve been there and couldn’t get over how built up the Prospect Road to the cove has become.

Peggy’s Lighthouse

We ventured out onto the rocks. It was a calm day, but we were still cautious and stayed back from the edge – the ocean there is very unpredictable and hazardous so although it appeared calm large waves can arrive unexpectedly.

Couldn’t resist taking another classic photo of the lighthouse – what you see on the horizon is the St.Margaret’s Bay shore along the Aspotogan Peninsula.

The Terrain Around Peggy’s

The terrain around Peggy’s Cove is abruptly different as you approach the cove. The land here was scoured bare by glaciers and granite erratics are everywhere left by the receding ice. All that manages to grow here, even after 12,000 years, are creeping and low bush shrubs.

The Swiss Air Memorial

One half of the Swiss Air Flight 111 Memorial is located just outside of the cove. The second half is located in Bayswater on the other side of the bay. The sighting lines cut into the standing rock on each site triangulates the actual point of the crash. The site is peaceful and yet disturbing. I feel it every time I stop there and look through the cuts in the rock.

Signting The Precise Location Of The Crash

The point on the horizon visible through the cuts is the actual location of the crash. It’s impossible not to think about the victims of the disaster when you’re standing there.

It really was a lovely day. The tourist season hasn’t yet begun so there were very few people around. We shared a lobster roll for lunch at the Sou’wester – noticed a woman nearby enjoying the classic gingerbread with ice-cream.

Sewing Inspiration

Posted by

2

It’s very hard for me to shop because I look at garments and notice the sewing imperfections and remember fabric in my stash and think how easy it would be just to make it. Instead, “shopping” for me is about ideas! 

Yesterday Sheila and I dropped into Desigual – their stuff is interesting although their sizing doesn’t fit me, it’s intended for women 40 years younger and skinnier than I am (I wear a size 12-14!) I actually tried on a black and white shirt in a large (forgot to photograph it) but I’d have needed an XXL (which they don’t make) to hang properly and even then I think the shoulders would have been too narrow.

But there was inspiration galore:

A denim jean jacket with inserts and sleeves in an almost sheer print fabric used in the shirt underneath. I’d never have thought of doing that but now I might.A shirt in contrasting bold colourful prints – I might have considered doing something like this. It’s a reminder to look through my stash of shirt fabric when I get home with something like this in mind.

Inspiration everywhere!

Toronto’s Harbourfront

Posted by

1

Yesterday I had lunch with Sheila who I met last spring in San Francisco at the Betzina Sewing Retreat. We were supposed to have spent a week together sewing again beginning of April, but I was hit with norovirus and couldn’t go. 

She lives in a high rise building in the Distillery District on the Toronto waterfront. Imagine sipping coffee on your balcony enjoying this view:

This is the Toronto working harbour – the terminus for the lake barges and occasional ships that come through the St. Lawrence:

Behind this high rise is the site of the recent Pan Am Games:

We wandered the Distillery a district – had lunch, window shopped, dropped into some of Sheila’s favourite stores including this one (didn’t record the name) – every pair of shoes here looked like it had come from the Shoe Museum:

Last we stopped at a coffee shop for some dessert and sat outside enjoying the warm spring afternoon. We won’t have window boxes like this in Halifax for another three weeks!
We had a lovely visit and both of us are looking forward to next April in San Francisco and another Betzina Sewing Retreat.

The Bata Shoe Museum

Posted by

0

It’s been there for 20 years but I’d never visited. After lunch Karen asked where I wanted to go. Our ultimate destination was her grandson’s daycare – her day to pick him up. So I suggested we visit the shoe museum which was near the daycare.

The hanging stained glass “shoes” in the foyer catch your attention immediately.

There was an interesting exhibit of the hazards of shoe manufacture to both maker and wearer – hazardous dyes, for example.

Irresistible to a tennis fan: Roger Federer has larger feet than I thought – larger than Bjorn Borg’s. This pair Federer wore at the French Open – you can see the clay embedded in the shoes clearly.

Sandals worn by Pierre Trudeau, toe slippers worn by one of the National Ballet’s ballerinas in the role of Cinderella – replete with “jewels”.Shoes belonging to Marilyn Munro and Elizabeth Taylor – I remember owning shoes just like these.

The shoe timeline exhibit from the earliest foot protection (found in archeological excavations) to contemporary – a must see. A museum devoted to shoes? Absolutely. Shoes reveal a lot about human culture. The Museum is definitely worth a visit. Put it on your list for the next time you’re in Toronto.

Visiting Toronto

Posted by

1

I’m in Toronto visiting friends and family for the next several days.

Today Maxine (friend) and I took a trip downtown to visit the AGO (art gallery) to view the Outsiders – an exhibition of photos of the 60s, 70s, 80s by iconic American photographers. Very strong images. We also had an interesting tour of the gallery – the docent focused on a dozen or so paintings from the 1300s to a couple of contemporary pieces, deconstructing the content and composition of the works. I don’t know here background but she was most knowledgeable. We also had a very tasty lunch there.

However, it was Dundas St. that made me bring out my camera:

Maxine and I were returning to the car, walking past what I think is the Italian Consulate (across the street from the gallery), she commented on how ugly the dandelions were. My reaction was the opposite – I thought the profusion of golden flowers was lovely! Imagine this display in the sunshine.

The gallery is in the heart of Chinatown:

I used to visit Chinatown when I lived in Toronto but it’s become much more densely “Chinese” in the intervening 40 years – block after block of small shops and restaurants tightly packed.

All in all a great day.

Quintessential Toronto

Posted by

0

My nephew and his gang and I attended the TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) Saturday afternoon a week ago. We took the subway from the northern-most end to Dundas Street and back – the best part of our adventure as far as Charlie (age 4) was concerned. The concert (The Science Of The Symphony – a one-hour program for kids) was well put together and the two older boys enjoyed the music.

As we were leaving Roy Thompson Hall I turned back and captured the CN tower framed by two tall buildings with RTH in the foreground.

How more Toronto than that can you get?

More Photos From Peru

Posted by

1

Giancarlo sent some photos from our Peruvian trip the other day. Although these gals didn’t speak English and I don’t have much in the way of Spanish, I had years of sock-making photos on my iPhone – we had little trouble “communicating” about knitting…

IMG_6224

Sharing Knitting With Some Knitters

IMG_6226

Sharing Knitting With Some Knitters

I tried my hand at spinning with a “puchka” (a drop spindle) – a hopeless failure even with some expert help!

IMG_6227

Failing at Spinning!

Our motley crew! Photo taken at Maximo Laura’s Ayacucho Workshop. (Maximo is in the back.) The gal on the right is Maximo’s sister – she manages the Laura Ayacucho Workshop; she dies all if the yarn blending for the tapestries and she does a wonderful job. Missing from the photo were Giancarlo (taking the photo) and Wilbert (out with the van). BTW I was not the oldest in the group, Beth (second on the right) is older than I am.

Kitchen Renovation

Posted by

0

If you’ve ever had a kitchen renovation done you know what Andrea is living through!

A wall taken down, a patio door repositioned, new cupboards and appliances, and a much larger island installed – except at the moment only half of the old double kitchen sink is hooked up, the new counter tops still a couple of weeks away so there’s nowhere to lay stuff.

The hardest job – finding the “right” place to put all the kitchen STUFF you boxed up before the renovation began.

Yesterday we went to Kent to pick up a 4 x 8 piece of plywood for a temporary cover for the island – finally a place to lay things. This is the second go at finding the best place for dishes – they were in a corner cupboard before and while the dishwasher isn’t yet hooked up, Andrea thinks above the dishwasher is a more convenient location for glasses and dishes.

The kitchen is slowly coming together – in the last two days Charles has painted the ceiling (one coat), and put the bathroom and closet doors back up. There’s still work needed on the deck – a day’s work perhaps. The hardwood floor in the family room still needs to be selected (the plant that makes the flooring is closed for the next two weeks for summer holidays), ordered, delivered, and installed. The walls need painting, mouldings restored, new light fixtures put up, and the last of the electrical outlets hooked up and the kitchen will be done.

I think I need to book a return flight to see the finished kitchen – sometime in November?

The “Ugly Stick”

Posted by

2

Have you ever heard of an ugly stick? I hadn’t until Andrea opened a closet door in her basement and hauled theirs out.


Wikipedia describes an ugly stick as follows:

The instrument’s main body is a mop or broom handle cut to approximately four feet. An old rubber boot is attached to the bottom and a cymbal attached at the very top. At strategic intervals along the length of the shaft, nails affixed with bottle caps, felt tins and other noise makers can be nailed into the shaft.

In other words it’s a one person percussion section! This one had an apple juice can affixed to the top as the “cymbal”, the obligatory boot with mop and beer bottle caps, and a piece of foam part way down covered with masking tape. A notched broomstick as bow creates yet another percussion accompaniment.

She and Charles both play guitars and sing for their own entertainment as well as for friends. So adding in an ugly stick was just a natural extension of a long-standing Newfoundland tradition. This stick (which Charles built 25 years or more ago) has travelled with them to many location across Canada.

Charles played it for me:


I tried playing it! The bloody thing is damned heavy – you are raising the stick and beating the boot on the floor, at the same time drawing the bow across the stick (making the bottle caps jungle like a tambourine), and hitting the juice can (cymbal) for emphasis all in time to the music. It is hard work.

You can see how an ugly stick livens up a good party!