Our Summer Vacation

Usually, Joanne and I have several camping and hiking get-a-ways during the summer, but usually Jo’s not pregnant! So, this year, our summer was rather tame. Instead of overnight stays in a tent, we simply packed our cooler for afternoon trips to the nearby beaches. We did, however, plan a 3 day, 2 night ‘mini’ vacation trip to Toronto to enjoy the city and some good ‘ol Rock’N’Roll!!!


I managed to get a really good rate at a hotel right in the downtown core of Toronto. We took the 401 freeway until we hit the world famous Yonge Street and soon we were passing Dundas Street and the Eaton’s Centre.


The location of our hotel was great. We were so close to many attractions, restaurants and transit vehicles, so we could walk or go for a ride. This triangular shaped building was just two blocks away from our hotel, as we set off in search of cold beer! You will see this building in many of the Toronto travel commercials on TV. The ‘Y’ intersection that it creates is interesting, as well as…


… this fun mural, found on the backside of the building. Only the middle windows are real. The others are a part of the mural’s design.


Steps away, is another famous Toronto attraction, the St. Lawrence Market. Vendors bring in fresh fruits and vegetables from local Ontario farmers, fresh baked treats, meats and fish, along with many other tasty yummies. After a stroll through the market, it was time to rest and enjoy…


… the cold beer that I was looking for. Ahhhh! Beer! I wonder if the Jupiler Beer Company will send me some money for this advertisement on my blog?!!!


Again, within walking distance, we strolled to the shore of Lake Ontario. We did a lot of walking, sitting, walking, sitting, during this trip. Joanne was using a lot of her energy making a baby and I didn’t want to tire her out so she wouldn’t be able to enjoy our time. So, for a while we relaxed and watched the boats in the harbour. Had we a bit a more time, we might have taken a fairy boat ride to the Toronto Island that you can see in the background of this photo.


As we made our way back to the hotel we spied this view of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre – formerly known as the Skydome. The Rogers Centre is the turtle shaped building at the base of the Tower. We got excited cuz we knew that the next evening we would be sitting inside listening to the world’s greatest Rock’N’Roll band!


After a short rest and a change of clothing I took Jo’ on a fun ride on the Queen Street streetcar. You guessed it – to ‘the beaches’ we went for a stroll along the boardwalk and then an amazingly yummy dinner!

I lived in Toronto for three years while I was studying Architecture, half a lifetime ago, so I got to know the city really well. During this trip, I was able to make decisions about where we were to go and how we were to get there so we could see all the interesting areas in fun ways.


The next day, we decided to journey on the underground subway to visit the ROM – Royal Ontario Museum. We started our tour in the south wing of the museum that is dedicated to the North American Natives, including the Inuit and the Haida Natives who created this monstrous totem pole.

I’ve always respected and admired the indigenous lifestyles of the Earth’s people. In many instances their philosophies have influenced my own art creations and I strongly believe that the future of humankind will aided by adopting these reverences for Nature.


Next, we visited the displays depicting the history of the Asian continent. It took a little convincing to get Joanne to pose with her Buddha belly alongside these other Buddha bellies, but eventually she thought that it would be funny, too! Ohhhhmmmmmmm…


Of course, it would be impossible to learn about the history of humanity without learning about a thing called ‘WAR’. Many people believe that violence is in our nature, an inherent characteristic, a human quality… the way we will always be. I disagree!

As humanity treads upon its path into the future, I can see that we have only two very distinct choices… continued greed and violence leading to the fall of our life sustaining ecosystems and all of the Earth’s life forces or, humbled respect and love leading to the Earth’s first ever unified peaceful global civilization.

Seems like a simple choice!


Yes, the world’s history is marked with many acts of violence and suffering, but humanities capacity to learn, grow and love is also evident in many of histories artifacts… like this – the world’s first ever Peacebus!!!!


Next up on our visit was the Dinosaur display! I don’t know what was more enjoyable, seeing all the amazing displays or watching all the children’s reactions to these displays!!

We wound our way from these ancient creatures, through bat caves and into the present, with displays of North American animals and birds. All the exhibits were great, with interactive teaching tools, but I fumbled for words when I saw…


… this depiction of the common raccoon! Somehow I don’t think that the raccoon’s natural habit is a cottage porch, littered with Campbell soup cans!!


As we walked through these displays – of present day animals – I noticed that more and more signs were stating facts that, “habitat loss, agricultural runoff and excess harvesting,” are the reasons for so many issues threatening the survival of so many important creatures. Boy! We sure do have a lot of changing to do in order to create that utopian global civilization. Recognition of a problem is the first step, though, so let’s all be conscious of our present day situations!


Lunch with a cold beer and then a shower got us ready for an evening at the Rogers Centre and U2! This is ‘The Claw’ and as you can see, it looks like something that you’d find in a kid’s Lego set! Banks of speakers spill downwards and I must say, the sound was the loudest and crispest I’ve ever heard.

Usually after a concert, people’s ears are ringing for days. But, during this show you were engulfed in sound with now side effects.


This guy became very well known in my part of the arena… the Beerman! There was always a crowd around him!!


As I sipped on the most expensive beverage I’ve ever bought, stretched out on the turf lawn, watching the crowds fill the stadium, a natural light display caught everyone’s attention. The roof hatch was opened at just the right angle at the same time as the sun was at just the right height at just the right time of day and “Voila!” A ladder of light appeared to usher in all the angels of Rock’N’Roll!!!!


The day’s forecast was for afternoon rain followed by clear skies. All we got were the clear skies, so soon a decision was made to open the retractable roof. Very cool to watch that happen!


Later, in the evening, the CN Tower put on a little light show of its own and this added to the overall atmosphere for this event! What a great night!!


Bono and the boys really had the crowds jumping with excitement as they deftly pounded out ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ as the opening song. The Edge’s guitar rift in ‘The Fly’ had my brain bouncing around inside my skull as the crowd got into high gear. These songs were followed by ‘Mysterious Ways’ and then ‘Until The End of The World’ and then I told Jo’ that maybe we had traveled back in time to the early 90’s. All four of these songs were from their album ‘Achtung Baby!’ I thought we were here to listen to their most recent tunes.

Bono said something about ‘why’ this album was being highlighted on this evening but I missed this cuz I was busy lookin’ for the Beerman again!

Usually, U2 goes on tour to promote their most recently released album and most of the songs performed are from that album. Last year, they started their tour to promote ‘No Line On The Horizon’ and the last leg of the tour was postponed due to Bono’s back surgery. I’m thinking that once they got the tour going again that they simply decided to play all their favourite songs cuz ‘NLOTH’ was old news by then.


Here is the rest of the set list from this evening…

I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stay (Faraway, So Close)
Beautiful Day w Major Tom
Elevation
Pride
Miss Sarejevo
Zooropa
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Crazy Tonight/Discotheque
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet w Amnesty International Speech
Walk On

Encore:
One
Where The Streets Have No Names
Kiss Me, Thrill Me
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender


Joanne and I had a great time! We ended our night on a restaurant patio, enjoying a cold beer as we chatted about the concert. I was pleasantly surprised to hear ‘Zooropa’ and ‘Miss Sarejevo’. I thought it was really cool how U2 dug into the vault to bring ‘Scarlet’ to life as a subtle backdrop for Bono’s little speech promoting Amnesty International. I was a little disappointed that none of the songs broke into a heavy jam session, as many of their songs often do in a concert… like ‘Last Night On Earth’. I had a hard time getting into their new version of ‘Crazy Tonight’ but I thought that it was really cool the way they delved into ‘Discotheque’ from that song. I listed off a few tunes that I would have loved to have heard, like ‘Love & Peace… Or Else!’, ‘All Because of You’ or ‘Like A Song’ which I’ve never heard live - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wMNNySCZk - but it’s one of my favourite tunes! Joanne told me to quit complaining and she suggested that next time I should send Bono a list of songs that they should play for me, next time they’re in town!!!

Hey! A true fan is a bit of a critic, but that’s just because we want only the best of the best!!! If they had played the songs that I listed above I would probably turn around and complain that they didn’t play ‘Elevation’ or ‘Stay (Faraway So Close)’!!!

Maybe I should have simply complained that the concert wasn’t long enough. If it was longer, then they’d have been able to play every song off of every album, making everyone happy!!!!

Hmmmm…. there’s an idea!

Jim

Happy Birthday – Here’s A House!

We took possession of our new (old) home on November, Friday the 13th – a very lucky day, indeed! Two days later it was Joanne’s birthday – a day neither one of us will ever forget!!!

Actually, we may both soon forget what happened that day (and the whole entire weekend), cuz those days are now a bit of a blur. When I close my eyes to try to remember all I can see are boxes – lots and lots of boxes! We were both quite exhausted from the move.

We finished moving everything by about 6pm on the Sunday – Jo’s birthday – and then it was time for pizza and beer! Less than an hour later we were crawling into bed, completely exhausted. It seemed like I had been asleep for about two minutes before the alarm was waking me up for work the next morning.

It wasn’t until that afternoon – when I was home between runs with my school bus – that I got a chance to really take a look around our home and yard.


This is our Maple tree! As you can see – cuz I couldn’t get the entire tree in the photo – it is quite large. And beautiful!!!


The rest of the backyard, beyond this maple is also quite large. There are a few small flower gardens running alongside the edges of our property, but other than that our backyard is a ‘blank slate’ for me and my shovel. My mind has been on overdrive, designing all the flower and vegetable gardens that I want to build!


Looking the other way, towards the house, you can see that we have another nice spacious area for enjoying the outdoors. I’ll be leaving a little bit of the existing lawn in this area, as I imagine we’ll be using this area for bbq-ing and playing badminton. There is a nice roof extension coming off of the garage that will allow us to stay dry while we watch all the thunderstorms that frequent this area.


One of my favourite things about our house is found in our neighbour’s yard. A huge white pine tree.

Most of you know how the Temagami forestland first inspired me to become an artist. Well, a large portion of the trees that live in the Temagami region are white pine. While I was in this part of Northern Ontario – so many years ago – I had many experiences that positively changed my life. Since then, I’ve always felt deeply connected with the Earth when I can let my mind escape into the presence of a white pine’s spirit.

I saw my neighbour’s tree and I felt blessed.


And this is Koly enjoying the front of our house. As you can see, there is wheelbarrow and shovel in this picture, as well.


It didn’t take me very long to get started. The amazingly warm weather we’ve been experiencing this year also helped to motivate my first gardening initiative in our new home!


I figured that this garden would be a good one to start with – simply edging the walkway that leads to our house. After the top layer of grass had been removed, the soil turned over and the roots from nearby bushes trimmed back, my first 2’x 3’ garden patch was finished – LOL!!!


I always like to kinda ‘feel out’ a project before I get too involved. After I had learned a bit from the first small square I had dug up, I was ready to really get dirty.


After the outside edge of the new garden was determined I used my edging shovel to cut the lawn into small squares.


I took each square of lawn and banged it against the side of my shovel to remove as much of the soil as possible – leaving a small mass of just grass roots.


Then, I took the squares of grass roots and created a ring around the maple tree at the front of the house. Since the lawn closest to the tree is higher that the lawn just a foot away, I laid down the grass squares only in these lower areas. Later I will add some more soil and voila! A new raised flowerbed circling my maple tree.

I always like to find a use for everything when I’m doing any sort of gardening work. Someone else, doing this job, may have regarded these squares of grass roots as useless and simply put them into garbage bags for the dump. I’m figuring that the roots will decompose over the next while to add nutrients to my new gardens. They are also helping me raise flowerbeds so I don’t have to buy any soil to accomplish that task.


Gardening is a great way to get a full body yoga workout. First I’m standing up, balancing on one foot as I cut the grass – then I’m bent over, stretching my back as I cut the grass squares loose – then I’m squatting, balancing with my knees bent, stretching my leg muscles as I bang the soil off the grass squares – before I do it all again and again and again!!!

Still, like any workout… after about two and a half hours I do tend to get a bit tired.


I was rather pleased that I was able to get this much done in one day. I really had to push myself – at the end – to get the beginnings of my ‘S’ curve dug out.

I may not be planting anything in these beds – especially at this time of year – but I’ll be so happy (next spring) when many of my flowerbeds are ready to go!!!

Hmmmmmm! I was hoping that writing this story would take a little longer, but I see that I’ve reached the end. Now, with three more hours of sunlight left in my afternoon, I guess I’ll have to go outside and continue with this garden. I was kinda hopin’ for a bit of a break… I think I hurt something, yesterday!!!!

Laughing Out Loud

Jim

Going With The Flow

Since my ‘Art For Earth’ workshops began, I have learned how to adapt to all the many changes that continuously arise. It isn’t too difficult a challenge because I’m made of rubber and I can bend and change to navigate through any obstacle course.

I was informed that there was to be an assembly happening at Kensal Park School during the same time when I was to begin my workshop. “No problem… I’ll simply arrive a little bit earlier on that day,” was what I told the teacher. This was an easy course to navigate through – on this occasion.

Since the students were to attend this assembly and I would have no one to paint with, I asked if I could attend the assembly as well. The gymnasium quickly filled with all the primary classes. Since I have painted with many of these students, over the last several months, I had a lot of students waving at me with a “Hey! There’s Mr. Jim… Hi Mr. Jim!!!!” I spent a few minutes talking with some of my former students. It was really nice to see them again, and they made me feel really appreciated with all of their warm smiles.


The presentation was created by the senior students of the school. They performed a couple of short skits for us and there were a few speeches that highlighted the activities we saw in the video presentation. This assembly was a part of the “Me to We” campaign and their message was simple “Let’s stop thinking about the ‘me’ and what ‘I’ want and what ‘I’ should have and let’s start thinking about the ‘we’ and what ‘I’ can do for others and how ‘we’ need to work together!” It was a very powerful message.

To involve all the students of the school with this idea, a fundraising project was brought to our attention. The senior students want to raise $5000.00 dollars to go towards a clean water project that is being established in an underdeveloped country. The students have already raised close to half of this amount through other initiatives since the beginning of the school year.

Later, while I was eating my lunch in the staff room, I heard some of the teachers sharing stories about what their students wanted to do to help with this campaign. It was truly wonderful for me to witness so much heartfelt dedication to finding ways to make this world a better place.

For the rest of that afternoon and for all of Friday, the students and I worked on our painting…


Now – some of you readers may be thinking “Hey, this painting looks the same as the last one.” and it’s true. Just to clarify for some of my new readers – because I am teaching these workshops in three schools, each painting is repeated three times. Each month a different topic is discussed and a new painting is created. By the end of this school year 18 paintings will have been created of 6 different images.

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Well, it sure was a tiring week and I’m very happy because of all that was accomplished, but it’s nice to have some ‘unwinding’ time. To do this, Joanne and I and a few of our friends decided to go the London’s Food and Wine Show at the Western Fairgrounds. It was a lot of fun. Lots of people had attended and there was a lot to see, do, eat and drink!

We all began with a sample glass of wine, but soon we discovered that we had more selections than just wine. One of our friends began to sample some fine imported rums while I visited with a few of the micro-breweries enjoying a variety of beer. I even tried a cherry beer. It tasted like cherry pie squeezed into a bottle. Now, I love cherry pie, but I couldn’t imagine drinking an entire bottle of it – the sample was more than enough.

Many chefs, were there as well, with pans on burners filled with different pasta and rice sauces. We all decided to sample different foods, from different chefs and the selections were really great. Afterwards, I led everyone to the chocolate fountain that I found and we enjoyed marshmallows in warm liquid yumminess!!!

Peace is a full belly surrounded by friends.

Jim

Canada Day Weekend 2007

While I was online, yesterday, on my facebook pages, a ‘chat’ box opened and I found myself talking with someone from North Africa. I talked a bit about the snow that we’ve been getting recently and my fb friend talked about how she has never seen snow, in person. Our conversation made me realize how much I’m missing the daylight and the warmth of the summer season so I thought I would dedicate today’s blog to my memories of a camping trip, from 2007.

Joanne, Koly and I spent an amazing weekend with our friends Jim and Audrey. Jim and I have known each other since kindergarten. Jim has a twin brother, Ken and the two of them have been my best friends since our youth. Many people tell me how lucky I am to have such a strong relationship for so long and they are right!

Jim had just bought a small piece of property in Northern Ontario – not as far north as Temagami and not as far east as Algonquin Park – and we decided to go for a visit during the holiday weekend. Most of the property extended high up into the forested hills that surrounded a small, flat grassy area at the base of the hill. It was perfect for this party of four and a dog.


The sky was overcast with a light drizzle coming down, so we put up our tents immediately upon our arrival.


As with any camping trip, the next most important thing to do was to get a fire started. Jim and I decided to go for a short walk down the sideroad to gather some more fallen branches that were easy pickin’ along the ditches. A small commotion of birds flew past and attracted our attention. We both looked up. A bit stunned, Jim and I looked at each other in amazement and then back up to the sky.

Never before had either of us ever seen a rainbow directly overhead. I would have thought that it was impossible, but there it was – or I should say - there they were. Not only did we see one, but there was another, bigger one in the sky as well. There’s more – there was a third rainbow in the sky, too. This third rainbow was upside-down and backwards to the other two with it’s end almost touching the end of the first rainbow.

Jim and I discussed how this could be a reality. We talked for several minutes with our necks bent backwards gazing at this wonder, trying to figure out how this phenomena could exist. Joanne and Audrey were a bit disappointed that they hadn’t noticed these rainbows, but more were about to appear.


The other rainbows that we saw, this afternoon, were the ‘normal’ ones that we were used to seeing throughout our lives. Although this photo is not very clear – the colours that we saw were very intense and bright. This rainbow also had a second ring of colour and the contrasts of the colours of the sky between these two rings was very interesting. If you look closely at the above photo you will notice that the rainbow makes contact with the Earth in front of the hills in the distance. After all of these occurrences we all concluded that this was a very special place for our camping trip.


Soon after, Jim and I had to find more wood for our fire. It would be dark within the next hour and we didn’t want to have to walk through the tall wet grass searching for wood after the sun had set. We found several half-rotted logs from trees that had fallen down many years before. Jim and I had to prop up the logs and jump up and down on them to break them into smaller lengths. Everyone who sees this photo says that it looks like Jim and I are dancing a jig.

One of the things that I am famous for, on any camping trip, are the dinners that I like to prepare. While everyone relaxed by the fire, I made myself very busy getting everything ready. My specialty is potatoes. I place a sheet of tinfoil on the table and drizzle it lightly with vegetable oil. Then I begin to layer the thinly sliced potato rounds onto the foil. I mix in onion and I think we had asparagus on this trip, too. Each layer gets a sprinkling of salt and pepper and another thin drizzle of oil. I usually build this up to three layers. I cover it all with more foil and it’s ready for the fire. My potatoes do not get cooked above the flames, but below. I used a shovel to dig a small hole into one side of the fire pit and I place the foiled potatoes into a wire cage before they go into the hole. Hot coals are placed on top the potatoes and 40 minutes later they are done.


Jim had brought a cooking rack that fit perfectly over the fire and soon we had mushrooms, zucchini slices, green pepper and chicken wings to add to our feast.


As the stars began to appear, we settled around the fire, telling stories and catching up on old times.


The next day, we decided to stop in the nearby town before continuing on to a lake that Jim wanted to take us to. It was Canada Day and there were lots of things going on. We all had a laugh when we saw this giant banana greeting customers at the local grocery store.


Unfortunately, this is the only photo with Audrey in it, since she was the one taking most of the photos this weekend.


Jim and Audrey were the first one’s to take the canoe out for a relaxing paddle along the shore.

While they were on the lake, Joanne and I took turns relaxing in a hammock.


I had a bit of fun playing around with this photo of Jim in his canoe.


Jim and Audrey had canoed to the place where a small river was feeding into the lake. Much of this area was filled with fields of lilly pads and other aquatic plants.


Then, it was Jim’s turn to have a little afternoon snooze.


Joanne and I had our turn in the canoe, though we didn’t go to far away from shore cuz Koly decided to swim along beside us and we didn’t want him getting too tired.

We filled the rest our stay with more beer drinking, frisbee throwing, swimming and yummy food cooked over a warm fire.

Thanks Jim and Audrey for being such good friends and for sharing wonderful weekends with Joanne and me.

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Well, that story made me forget about the snow for a few minutes… I hope it did the same for you.

Jim