Random bits of city loveliness

Crab cakes on a bed of salad, oh my!

First Nations dance troupe performing for free at Fort York as the sun sets - and with live music - oh my indeed!

Books, glorious books!

It's been a truly incredible year for writing - or should I say reading? I have friends who have published:

• a novel: Flight by Jean Grant
• a collection of short stories: The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk
• a volume of poetry: The Riparian by Lisa Pasold
• a work of non-fiction: Pushing the Limits by Kelly Gallagher-Mackay
• a play: I am Antigone by Saudamini Siegrist (a little stretch as she is a former colleague but still!)

What an incredibly rich and talented group of people I am lucky to call friends. A treasure trove of wordsmiths!

September means Word on the Street. However this year we added in our own book sale the day before. We had culled approximately 170 children's books over the summer. So on this beautiful and bright Saturday morning we set out our wares, opting to move up to the corner near the high street. Sophie did the first shift 9-10:30 and then hustled off to a swimming party when Seb took over for his 90 mins. He then helped to carry the remaining 100+ books back to our house where Mr M spread them on the front wall/tables and proceeded to watch over them from the porch with a cold drink in his hand all afternoon!  Proceeds were about $85 split evenly between the kids - to be spent on books - plus 2 bags to take over to the children's book bank.

And then on the Sunday - a searingly hot day - Sophie and I trekked (via the ice cream shop) 

over to Queen's Quay and looked at, touched, read, discussed, flipped through books, books, books!

One of the books that caught our eye

and another

one Sophie bought - yes, she spent all of her Saturday earnings

She found some shade and leapt into the latest in the Land of Stories series

We met up with a pal from my book club and went to find where our friend Sarah would be reading

Glorious day as you can see!

More of me and my gal

Various snaps from the summer

Temporarily even more colourful!

 Yup, on Sunday both kids "dyed" their hair.

 One of them had swimming on Tuesday and it washed out; the other is avoiding shampoo...

Polish Fest 2017

We continue to love our annual neighbourhood bash.

Heart attack van...

She opted for her first corn dog instead of peirogies

Staying out late on a beautiful summer's evening; Seb went out with 4 friends on Sunday evening and then they came back to ours - made for a buzzy, loud house.

Some of the crowds

Some of the acts

Walking on Roncesvalles itself.

We are very taken with these "air-pocket" sofas. Expect to see one in our future 

A bit of Sophie

High tea with some pals (all because of some imported clotted cream)

Don't we all just want to be part of this hug?

Ballet lessons here we come!

Caption this...

No matter how much we try to normalize it, he loves to play around with the idea of alcohol...

La rentree 2017

Up bright and early and after a struggle with his new hightops, our lad bounded off to high school dressed in his (drama class uniform) "blacks".

45 minutes later, a confident Grade 6-er headed off to her Welcome Circle, with her new house key and cell phone (!!) tucked in her backpack.

The cottage life

As soon as we returned to Canada, we headed off to a borrowed cottage with some dear friends. And it was heaven!

Some great reading spots

Sophie learnt how to play Exploding Kittens - yup...

Seb taught his dad to rig a boat 

Working together

and he helped them board 

and off they went!

Everyone - and I mean everyone! - were so happy there

Big stick for our big puppy

The dawg was not so convinced about the whole boat idea...

 It was so dreamy that it had us all searching the listings for cottages for sale. Though we had to admit that it was late August days when the bugs are low and the sun still strong.

Second stop in England: Brighton

It was a beautiful day for a hike (near the farm houses that the Bloomsbury set took as homes)

We were super lucky to not only have our annual visit to Brighton but to time it for when both Eric & Madeleine were around. We hadn't seem them in a few years, what with uni and their various travels.

Some lavender cake at the tea garden 

Hiding in the corn

the view

Trying the Titanic move

Before a gleeful dismount

Communing with the cows at Middle Farm - where we bought lots of yummy cheese & other bits for export 

Showing pictures of our pup, no doubt