Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Trying to decide what to do this weekend

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At this moment I’m busy trying to decide what to do this weekend. Chris and I have lots of options – some better than others. Help me decide?

My nephew has a photographic display at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition this weekend. I really should go to that to see his work and to check out the other artists. I just love pottery and sculptures and if the artwork is anything like last years I’ll be buying some items this time around.

The only problem is that tomorrow is going to be HOT. Really hot. So … do we go to the art show tomorrow or Sunday when it’s going to be a bit cooler?

We have gardening that still needs to be done as well. We started mulching the backyard garden last week, but about 1/3 of the back garden beds aren’t finished yet because we ran out of mulch! We bought more but haven’t had time to add it yet. Certainly if it’s going to feel like 40 Celsius (104 F) tomorrow I don’t think I want to be working in the hot sunny garden. Of course I could just stay inside where it will be nice and cool, work on the computer or be lazy and curl up and read A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Yeah it’s a self help type book. It was a gift from Chris’ aunt. I should read it at some point.

The other thing that Chris and I would both like to do, but don’t have to do, is to perhaps go back to Cherry Beach this weekend with our dog Midnight. We took her there last Sunday and she had a ball playing in the water. We’d taken her to the lake before, but she’d never done more than splashed in the water. This time Chris was throwing toys into the deeper water for her to fetch and we got to see her swim for the first time. She took to it well and other dog owners said she was a great swimmer. They couldn’t believe it was her first time.

We all had fun at the beach so I think that’s a must do.

Of course this is summer in Toronto and there’s always all kinds of festivals, events and things to do on the weekends. I guess I should check what’s going on so that we don’t miss out on something good.

At this point I’m thinking we should go to the beach tomorrow – the hot day. It’s cooler by the water and if we get hot we can always get in the water. Certainly with all the wet dogs running by we will get a bit wet. Then on Sunday we could go to the Art Exhibit and then finish our gardening when we come back. If there’s any other good things going on in Toronto we’ll I guess we can try to go to one of them on Saturday evening.

Looks like we’re going to have another busy weekend. What are your plans for the weekend?





I feel like crap, absolute crap

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I’m in so much pain tonight. Well … really for the last week or so. Remember last week I gushed about eating fresh corn on the cob and how rare it was for me to eat it because it usually caused my Crohn’s to flare up? Yeah, well … I bought six cobs so that means we ate corn three times last week. That was at least two times too many for me.

I knew the corn would do me in, but sometimes you just gotta do it. I’ve certainly been paying for eating it the last few days.

Today I’ve had a lot of fevers. Not great when it’s super hot outside, but you know I had such a high fever when I took the dog outside for a pee at about 4 pm that the slight breeze that was hitting me made me shiver.

I shouldn’t have been shivering outside today, it was damn hot! When I was shivering outside with a fever it was 29 Celsius (84 F) and with the humidity it supposedly felt like 38 Celsius (100.4 F). Ridiculous eh?

I feel bad since it’s Chris’ birthday today. I’m sitting here like a lump when we should be celebrating.

Well, hopefully I feel better tomorrow. Chris won tickets two weeks ago for subscribing to the Danforth Music Hall’s newsletter. They give away free tickets each month to their newsletter subscribers – well to one lucky subscriber each month, I mean. So tomorrow night we’re going to see Amos Lee. He’s supposed to be a great musician however I’m not certain that I’ve ever heard any of his songs. It’s a good venue though and it will be a great thing to go out and do for Chris’ birthday.

So wish me luck that I feel better tomorrow!

A little breath of life

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I grow several different types of roses in my garden and while I consider several of them favorites I think that this rose, Breath of Life, is perhaps my most favorite rose.

I’m not sure if it’s the pale peach to light orange blooms or it’s delicate perfection that draws me to this rose. I just think it’s beautiful. Almost every bloom I’ve ever seen this plant produce has been lovely.

I placed this tall rose at the entrance to my backyard mainly because of it’s name. Breath of Life sounded like a wonderful announcement or proclamation of what was in store for those who visit my garden. Step inside for a breath of life, instant zen … and don’t forget to look at the rose that welcomed you in as you enter the garden.

Do you have a favorite plant in your garden? If you do why is it your favorite?

Oh and if you like this rose you’ll love the rose I have on my gardening blog! It’s possible that Climbing Westerland could become another top favorite … possible? Take a look at this rose and tell me it isn’t gorgeous!

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!

I spent a lot of time outside today … busy busy

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Chris and I had a busy day today. We took our puppy Midnight over to the Brickworks for a walk by the ponds and through the forest and while we were there we attended a walking tour of the lost rivers of Toronto. Quite interesting. I took a number of pictures too. I’ll post more about that portion of our day when I have the pictures ready to post.

When we got home we noticed that our neighbor Sofie was sitting on her porch. This was a big surprise because Sofie had a stroke back in February and was hospitalized for about three months and has been living with her youngest sons family for the last month. They brought her for a visit to her home even though there’s no way she can ever live there every again as she needs to be cared for throughout the day now. It was kind of sad, but also very good to see her.

I sat on Sofie’s porch talking with her for about two and a half hours – directly after coming back from our nature hike. I didn’t even go inside my own home to get a drink so by the time my visit with Sofie was over I was thirsty and tired. However after a brief bit of downtime (by this time it was 7 pm) Chris and I decided to go out into the garden to finish putting mulch on the garden beds.

Do you know how messy red cedar mulch is? I’ve got it in my shoes, socks, probably down my top and after washing my hands when I came back inside the bathroom fixtures and sink had a red tone to them. Yep … lots of red dye everywhere! Luckily it came off easily!

It was a busy day! We went out for our hike at about 11 am, didn’t get back until 3:30 and then I visited with Sofie until a bit after 6 pm. Then after only about half an hour of downtime we were back outside in the garden until 10:30 pm! So I guess I spent about 11 hours outside today.

Time for a rest!

Our neighborhood and neighbors are changing fast!

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My immediate neighborhood seems to be going through a lot of changes lately.

I think I mentioned a few times that my Karaoke neighbors on the other side of our semi-detached put their house up for sale something like last October. Well they finally sold their house in February and the new neighbors haven’t moved in yet but they’ve been doing renovations like tearing down the ugly fake stone wall and the popcorn ceiling and stuff like that. They expect to move in at the beginning of August.

Then there’s the house beside us where my stalker oops I mean elderly neighbor Sofie lived. She had a small stroke in February was hospitalized and then she moved in with her youngest son. So her house has been empty, but the family plans to either sell it in the fall or put it up for rent. I kind of hope they sell rather than rent. I can just imagine a series of really bad neighbors if they rent the house out. If that happens maybe Chris and I will look towards getting out of here. Hey I hear Wilmington real estate is pretty nice. Now that’s an idea.

Just a week ago one of the houses across the street and one down the street from us went up for sale so that will mean two more new sets of neighbors in a few months or so.

In general we have a very good neighborhood and most of us are fairly friendly with each other. Heck, at least three of my neighbors give us food when they are celebrating. Remember the Greek Easter feast that the neighbor behind us gave Chris and I in April? Yum!

Other neighbors come over to our house or backyard to party or we go to their house to party. I think our newest neighbors who are renovating right now will be like that. The man is in a band and plays guitar and as you probably know my husband also plays guitar so they already get along famously. The wife is really nice too and I think we’ll get along well.

I just hope that the houses going up for sale end up having really nice people buy them that fit into the neighborhood well. Hey people don’t have to mingle, but hopefully they are nice and say hello every now and then.

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