The Neighborhood

Hump day – how’s your week going so far?

July 23, 2008 by Tricia

It’s already the middle of the week and I feel like I haven’t managed to get anything done yet!

I always seem to feel terrible with my Crohn’s but the past two or three weeks have been really bad and it just seems to be getting worse. The minute I wake up I’m in pain and sometimes the pain in my abdomen even wakes me from a deep sleep. All day every day I’m in pain. It dies down a little now and then, but then it seems to come back with a vengeance.

The fevers have been really bad lately too. It seems that when the pain is at it’s worst I usually don’t have a fever, but then once the pain dies down a bit the fever perks up and of course the fevers leave me feeling washed out and shaky – shivering or too warm depending whether the fever is starting or beginning to go away. I think I’m starting to get an idea of what menopause must be like for some women. BTW the fevers and chills I’ve been experiencing are definitely not menopause. I’m too young for it and it’s been ruled out by a few doctors … it’s just a multitude of low grade fevers each day caused by the Crohn’s – yet another lovely symptom. I probably have an abscess somewhere in my abdomen although they haven’t been able to find it yet (they have searched! believe me they’ve searched!).

I seem to finally be in a mood to write, so I’m just going with it. Actually we’ve had a lot of weird weather here this past week and we’re expecting severe thunder storms so I’m trying to get as much writing done as I can before the storm starts just in case the power goes out yet again.

On Sunday we started having power failures. It began at 3 in the morning for an hour and then we had three more power failures throughout Sunday morning. Then on Monday we had a two hour outage in the morning. Nothing to do with storms.

I still don’t know why we had so many power failures. I know there was a fire in the area Saturday night and on Sunday morning a huge transformer under an apartment building (a fair distance away from where I live) exploded leaving 900 apartment dwellers homeless … but I don’t think either of those things would affect the power in my immediate area.

Yesterday a big truck knocked down the power line that goes over the street just a few houses away from us, surprisingly not causing a power failure in our home. However it did cause the street to be blocked up by police and hydro trucks for a while. One of our neighbors was moving out of her house at the same time so there was a big uHaul and an American Van Lines truck taking up our whole side of the street. This was at the same time that the Power people and the police were blocking off part of the traffic on the street so it was a mad house around here!

Well I guess for a sickie I’ve had a lot of things going on in my immediate neighborhood to keep me occupied. Life is never boring around here and I’m thankful for that!

So how has your week been going? Are you glad the week is half over or are you just cruising through without a care?

Turtles, Ponds, Native plants all at the Brick Works

July 13, 2008 by Tricia

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Last weekend Chris and I and our puppy Midnight decided to go to The Brick Works.

They were having a walking tour that discussed the Brick Works and the lost rivers of Toronto.

I think Chris got more out of the discussion and history than I did, but I was certainly enjoying the walk and the scenery. Midnight had a ball too – of course she kept wanting to jump in the ponds ( a no no for dogs at the Brick Works as it’s an ecological preserve with rare native fauna and flora) since she was so hot. She also wanted to jump into the water to catch the gold fish (not native, dumped fish) and a Mallard duck that was swimming by.

As you can see she really wanted to jump in. We had to hold her back!

Along with old buildings, native plants and native wildlife there are some beautiful ponds in the old brick quarry that was used to dig up clay to make a good portion of the bricks that make up a good portion of Toronto’s older homes (like ours!).

During our walk I spotted a turtle sunning itself by some native water lilies.

You can see more pictures from The Brick Works and some of the native plants growing there on my Gardening Blog if you’d like. Oh yeah, did I mention that the Brickworks is almost in the center of the city and that it’s only about a ten minute drive (or bike ride) from our home? Great place to go on a nice day.

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

July 5, 2008 by Tricia

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!

July 3, 2008 by Tricia

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.

There’s lots of things going on in Toronto for Canada Day

June 30, 2008 by Tricia

Tomorrow is Canada Day. It will be Canada’s 141st birthday. Our country seems so young, but we have a history that goes back into the 1600’s.

I hate it when the holiday falls in the middle of the week. Some employers give either the Monday or Friday off closest to the holiday to compensate for a mid- week holiday day, but there are lots of Canadians out there that had to work today – my husband included. He’ll have tomorrow off though and that’s the main thing.

We’re trying to decide what to do for the holiday. I already mentioned in my last post that we’ll probably have nice thick sirloin steaks and fresh corn on the cob for dinner, but what else will we do …

If you guessed go to see some fireworks you’re probably right. If the weather is decent we’ll likely head over to Ashbridge’s Bay to watch the fireworks. They load all the fireworks onto a barge on Lake Ontario and set them off over the water. It’s spectacular. Naturally I’ll try to take some pictures if I can – fireworks aren’t easy to photograph! BTW if anyone has tips on how to photograph fireworks properly I’d love to hear from you.

If you’re in the Toronto area you might be interested in learning about what’s going on in the city for Canada Day. I surfed the web and found some other bloggers talking about their Canada Day plans and some Canada Day Event listings. Here you go:

Canada Day Around Toronto – Although Ottawa is, bar none, the best place to celebrate Canada Day, Toronto is no slouch in the festivities department:. 8:00 pm, Mel Lastman Square â€” The official City of Toronto celebration. A concert and fireworks to music …

Canada Day Fireworks – Find out where and when to check out Canada Day Fireworks…

Canada Day – Coming soon to a more convenient day near you? – When I was a teenager, Canada Day meant gathering with my friends at Majorâ€™s Hill Park, drinking (sorry, Mom) and generally having a good time. The bars were packed, the buses were free after 10 pm (another something Toronto might …

HOLIDAY WEEK – Our Annual Canada Day Preview – Finally, if you want to catch me, please come down to the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Johnada will be celebrating the only way I know how – by attacking people with blow up donuts at the first Canadian Donut Olympics. Only in Canada …

I hope that all the Canadians reading this have a great Canada Day – even if you just stay home and relax.

Hump day – how’s your week going so far?

Turtles, Ponds, Native plants all at the Brick Works

I spent a lot of time outside today … busy busy

Our neighborhood and neighbors are changing fast!

There’s lots of things going on in Toronto for Canada Day

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