Tricia's Musings

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



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Beautiful Chicago building

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This weeks theme is Metal

In August of 2007 my husband and I drove to Chicago for a weekend visit with my brother-in-law. Given how long it takes to get to Chicago from Toronto we really only had one full day to see some of the great Chicago sites. I’d never been there before and I wanted to see as much as I could.

As we strolled downtown I noticed the Carson Pirie Scott department store.

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The store had the most beautiful ornate metal filigree that I think I’ve ever seen on a building. It was just a gorgeous site to see.

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Unfortunately the store was slated to close. I do hope that the city of Chicago managed to preserve this beautiful building.

I really enjoyed my visit to Chicago. I found that it’s quite a lot like Toronto and I hope to visit the great city again sometime soon, perhaps this summer. Of course if we drive that distance back and forth again I think we’ll either have to rent a vehicle or get a new car. I’m not sure ours will make that trip one more time! Oh that reminds me … I’ve to look up some rates for auto insurance online as I think it’s time to find better rates.





My favorite spring flowers

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Coral Hyacinth

I haven’t made any secret of the fact that I’m looking forward to spring more than ever this year. It’s been a long cold and snowy winter and I’m more than ready for it to end.

Over on my gardening blog I was just talking about which flowers and plants I expect to see emerge from the snow and ground first. Of course the crocus’ will likely come first. I think they’ve been the first to emerge just about every year that I’ve had a garden.

The muscari (grape hyacinth), hyacinths, hellebores and iris’ will quickly follow and before I know it my garden will be full of life again. Oh and I’ll have a heck of a lot of work to do to keep it looking nice too!

One of my favorite spring flowers are the hyacinths. I just love these coral ones. I must get more of those this fall.

Each year as the snow begins to disappear and my garden begins to peek out from under the snow I look at in excitement to see which plants are actually growing even though the ground is still quite cold. Almost always I’ll see that my many strawberry plants are green and often I’ll note that the heuchera’s have not only emerged but are growing leaves too!

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Do you have plants that seem to begin to grow while still under the snow? Which ones?

It’s Easter this weekend. If you don’t grow your own flowers why not send some to someone you love?

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!

Grey squirrel enjoying a day in the park

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This weeks theme is I Spy

trees at beach

I spied this grey squirrel enjoying a nice day in the park in the Toronto Beaches area and had to take it’s picture as it foraged among the trees.

I actually took this photo in January 2006. Yes, it was winter time and we’d gone to the beach because it was such a nice warm winter day. Now, warm here in the winter time means that it was perhaps 10 Celsius which really isn’t very warm at all, but when you’ve been experiencing weeks of below freezing weather just about anything above zero is warm!

We expect today to be another nice winter day and I think that later in the afternoon we might take our Labrador retriever puppy to the beach for the first time. I’d love to see her have some fun in the water, but I think the water will be far too cold so she’ll have to settle for running on the beach. I think she’ll be happy with that.

Hopefully I’ll get some great photos!

Graduated from puppy training

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I’m pleased to let you know that Midnight graduated from her puppy training class.

She actually graduated on February 8th and we’re already going to intermediate dog training classes, but I forgot to make a post about her graduation. Actually … I even still had the photos on my camera up until yesterday!

Here’s the little grad:

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She was not at all happy to be wearing the graduation cap no matter how cute she looked in it. LOL

It was too big for her really so it sat lopsided and whenever she moved (which was often!) it pretty much fell off.

Prior to getting her cap and graduation certificate we had our last puppy training lesson. I guess it was more of a test to see how well the puppies had learned various commands throughout the course than a lesson. Or rather how well the puppy parents had learned commands as it turned out! We had to walk around with our dogs carrying a full cup of water and using only one had to control the dog and leash. … the floor was pretty wet after that exercise!

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Those are Chris’ feet BTW.

Another test was having the puppies stop at three different pylons to perform different commands like staying in place while sitting or laying down, listening to us when told to ignore something on the ground (food!) and finally sitting, laying down and sitting again for a treat … kind of a dumb trick.

The test that was the most fun was when the trainer paired up two dogs and had their owners stand a distance away and call to their dogs. This was to see if the puppies would go to their owners.

As you can see below Midnight failed … or maybe Chris failed. The other lab owner had a treat in her hand and Chris didn’t, so of course both dogs took off to see her!

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I’m thankful that the trainer didn’t grade the class. Midnight wasn’t behaving at her best that night and I’m sure she would have been near the bottom of the class if they’d graduated with grades!

If you have a dog did you do puppy training classes?

Longing for some greenery!

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After all the snow and ice storms this week, and of course after shoveling snow for approximately five hours yesterday and early this morning I’m tired of seeing white everywhere. I’d like nothing more than to see some green (yes green money too would be nice!).

I really can’t wait for Spring and better weather to arrive. As I write this post I’m lying on the couch. My back is aching from all the shoveling I did. Actually it’s not just aching, it’s spasming. Ow! I sure hope it’s better in the morning when I get up!

The photo above was taken last year I believe. It’s one of my hostas. I’d taken the photo while I was outside looking at the garden as it rained lightly. I think I took quite a few photos that day of plants and flowers with raindrops on them.

So were you hit by all the snow storms passing through Eastern North America? Are you more than ready for spring after that storm? I sure am! It feels like winter won’t ever go away. Maybe I should just embrace winter and look for some Winter Park real estate instead of pining for spring?

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!

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