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A nice relaxing long weekend

September 2, 2008 by Tricia

Doesn’t Labour Day weekend being over make you feel as if summer has ended? After visiting several blogs earlier today I get the feeling that a lot of people seem to begin to think of autumn and winter once the last long weekend of summer is over.

I’d like to say that we had a busy weekend, but we really didn’t. It was Chris’ last weekend of his two week holiday and now he’s returned to work. So we did some of the things that he wanted to do, like going to this really divvy bar called “The Wally” that he’s always wanted to go to ever since we moved into the area. We’ve been in this neighborhood for 7 years now so I guess it was about time that we went to the Wally.

We went to the bar yesterday afternoon and sat on the patio. It has an enclosed patio that you can only access by walking through the dark and dingy bar so we couldn’t bring our dog Midnight. Chris is dying to find bars and restaurants with patios that are dog friendly- of course Midnight needs to settle down a bit more if she wants to come out with us regularly. We each had a beer (ok Chris had two) and ordered French Fries and Onion Rings. The servings were huge! If we’d known how big our little snack was going to be we’d only have ordered one or the other.

The Wally has lots of good reviews for it’s food and atmosphere and I must admit the prices were very good and the snacks tasty. Our total bill for three beer and two very large snacks came to just over $16. Not bad at all.

If you’re dieting or taking Fentraphen it’s probably not the place to go as I doubt that they have any low calorie food items, but it was a nice thing to do on a beautiful summer afternoon.

We didn’t do much on Sunday, but on Saturday we took Midnight to a place called “Sunnybrook Farm” which is really part of a huge interconnecting park network here in Toronto. Chris wanted to see how Midnight would react when she saw the horses that they keep at the stables there seeing as her first few months of life she lived in a pen in a large barn where horse were kept.

IMG_4801 copy

There were a lot of flies bothering the horses, this one was rolling in the sand to try to get rid of the flies.

I think she liked seeing the horses. At first she tried to get under the fence, but when we wouldn’t let her she just sat and watched as they milled around their coral. After that we went for a long hike on some trails and through the forest. Chris took Midnight into a little creek twice on our journey so both he and the dog got to cool off a bit while I stayed on the creek bank taking photos.

After our outdoor adventure Chris had wanted to go for a beer on a patio with the dog, but we couldn’t find any dog friendly patios to visit so when we got home we all went outside into the backyard and Midnight played in the yard while Chris and I had a drink at the patio table.

At one point Chris picked up Midnight (not an easy feat as she probably weighs about 70lb now) and put her on one of our Patio chairs:

IMG_4893

She has that “Help me, I don’t really like being up so high” kind of look on her face, doesn’t she?

If you lie in Canada or the US you had a long Labor day weekend too – what did you do?





Filed Under: Canada, Dining and Restaurants, Home and Lifestyle, Life with Chris, Our Puppy, Recreation, The Neighborhood, Toronto Tagged With: atmosphere, autumn, bar, beer, Canada, cheap, Chris, dingy, divvy, dog, draft, Food, frenchfries, friendly, fries, hike, holiday, laborday, Labrador, Midnight, Neighborhood, Onionrings, park, patio, puppy, Saturday, snack, Summer, Sunnybrook, Toronto, US, walk, Wally, weekend

Loveliest sunset of the year

August 30, 2008 by Tricia

photohunter7iq.png

This weeks Photo Hunt theme is Beautiful.

What is more beautiful than a gorgeous sunset on a lovely summer evening?

Summer Sunset in Toronto

Not only were the clouds colored red as the sun set, but some of the smaller clouds were tiny dark puffs creating dotted lines of clouds across the sky.

Summer Sunset in Toronto

I have to admit that what first grabbed my attention were the lower portion of the large clouds. See how wisps of clouds have drifted down below the main cloud? It’s almost as if someone lightly dragged a paint brush through them causing wispy trails.

Summer Sunset in Toronto

It was an amazing sunset. I’m certain it was the most beautiful that I’ve seen all year, or perhaps in several years!

I’m only sorry that we have so many electric wires criss crossing the street. They marred the view and my photos.  Oh well … it’s still lovely.

Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, Photo Hunters, Photography, Recreation, Toronto, Wildlife and Nature Tagged With: amazing, beautiful, brush, brushstrokes, cloud, clouds, color, dark, dotted, electric, evening, gorgeous, gorgous, light, Lines, Loveliest, lovely, paint, photo, photohunt, photos, reds, sky, street, Summer, sunset, theme, Toronto, trails, wispy

Prison Break is back!

August 25, 2008 by Tricia

Did you know that the two hour season premiere of Prison Break is on tv right now?

I’m sure some of my American friends are watching the Democratic Convention, even some of my Canadian friends too since it’s broadcast here as well … but I hope you’re taping the premiere!

We are. We’ll watch the show in a little while once we’re both done blogging and answering all of the email that’s piled up in our inboxes. Oh and after I’ve paid the bills! We have a big car insurance payment to make by the 30th of the month. God I hate bills … well, paying them!

Chris and I didn’t really watch the first season of Prison Break, but when the writers strike started last year and all there was on TV were reruns we began watching Prison Break since it was a show that we hadn’t seen before and we both got hooked.

I must admit that I’m looking forward to next week. A number of shows that we like to watch are starting up again on September 1st and 2nd and others will be starting a little later in the month. I’m happy to see that many of my favorite shows are starting up earlier than normal. Maybe it will be a nice long TV season considering last years was so short thanks to that writers strike.

Are you a fan of Prison Break? What shows are you looking forward to seeing when they start up again next month?

Oops! Uhm … as I said above I was taping the show and hadn’t started watching it. If I had … well .. I would have realized it was the two hour season finale from last season, not the premiere. (((Blush))) The season premiere is September 1st (I believe). Sorry if I had anyone madly searching the channels for the premiere!

Filed Under: Canada, Entertainment, Politics, Recreation, Television, Toronto Tagged With: bills, broadcast, Chris, Convention, Democratic, Entertainment, fan, payment, premiere, PrisonBreak, reruns, return, returning, season, September, show, strike, Television, TV, TVshows, year

Happy Birthday Midnight!

August 25, 2008 by Tricia

Our little fur daughter is growing up! She’s, apparently, one year old today.

 

Midnight, our dog, in the garden

I say apparently because when I first spoke with the breeder on the phone she told me the puppies were born on September 7th, 2007, but a few days later when we drove out of the city to the farm and picked her out of the 12 to 14 puppies that were playing in the pen of a huge barn she gave me papers that said Midnight was born August 26th. Then … about two months later we finally received her official Canadian Kennel Club papers (since she was registered as a purebred Labrador Retriever) the papers said August 25th.

See why we’re confused? I think something fishy was going on at that farm. The parents we met were both yellow labs yet the majority of the puppies were black females. I know it’s possible for two yellow labs to have black pups, but with all the confusion about the date of birth we feel that the breeder probably had two or three litters on the go. Plus, as it turns out we got a very sick puppy! We discovered on the first full day that she was with us (November 24th) that she had a gastro infection, a heavy infestation of round worms and later she also developed an ear infection and an eye infection.

Here she is on her second day with us, November 25th, 2007, when she was just 13 weeks old:

 

Labrador Retriever Puppy Midnight

I can hardly believe she was ever that small – and oh so cute! She looks like a toy!

I guess Midnight lucked out, because we treat her well. Took her to the vet on the first day she was here when we realized something was wrong and she’s fed dog food with only natural organic ingredients. She’s got it made!

So … what do you get a dog on it’s first birthday?

She has tons of toys and tasty treats … We were thinking that we’d have BBQ’d steak for dinner and give her a portion as a special treat. We have given her grilled steak and chicken before as well as plain veggies, but we don’t give her these kind of foods too often. Hopefully this doesn’t cause more gas – she’s still got that problem, I think it’s her hormones since she’s in heat right now.

I think Midnight started celebrating her birthday early …

 

Our lab rolling in the grass

We had her out in the garden on Saturday and she loved being able to roam around the yard while we sat at the patio table. She also enjoyed rolling in the grass!

Oh and this was Midnight on November 25th at 13 weeks during her first visit to the backyard. As you can see she’s exploring the garden. I think she found a small green pepper that had fallen off the dying plant (of course we took it away from her).

 

Labrador Retriever Puppy Midnight

You’ve come a long way Midnight! Now if we can just teach her to stay off the home theater seating with her bones everything will be great!

Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, Our Puppy, Pets and animals, Recreation, Toronto Tagged With: August, Barn, BBQ, birth, Birthday, breeder, canadian, celebrate, chicken, confusion, dinner, dog, dogfood, ear, Eye, farm, fishy, fur, garden, gastro, happy, infection, Labrador, Midnight, November, organic, playful, playing, pup, puppy, Retriever, rolling, roundworm, sick, steak, Toronto, treat, veterinarian

Bees in the garden

August 24, 2008 by Tricia

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Yesterday afternoon and well into the evening I spent some time outside in the garden.

It was a beautiful day so Chris encouraged me to bring out the laptop (since I was trying to make a few posts on my sites!). We also brought our dog outside with us to enjoy the garden.

It didn’t take me long to get out the camera. I hadn’t taken any photos of what’s been blooming in the garden fora while. As I was taking pictures I came across this big Bumble Bee nestled within some Phlox blooms. It was just taking it’s time collecting pollen so I was able to take several pictures of it.

Bumble Bee in phlox

There were quite a few bumble bees buzzing around the garden, visiting all of the flowers that were in bloom. Each year it seems we have quite a few bees, butterflies and moths fluttering around all the plants. There’s usually some wasps as well, but I try to stay clear of them!

I’m actually allergic to bee stings, but (crossing my fingers) I haven’t been stung since I was a teen! Hopefully my luck holds out.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Filed Under: Gardening, Green Thumb Sunday, Home and Lifestyle, Photography, Recreation, Toronto, Tricia's Garden, Wildlife and Nature Tagged With: afternoon, bee, bees, bloom, bumblebee, camera, dog, evening, garden, greenthumbsunday, GTS, laptop, nature, phlox, plant, pollen, sunday

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