Celebration

Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words. ~ Plautus

A few weeks back, I was suddenly presented with the opportunity to take a quick trip to and from my sister, Andrea's town of Port Dover, Ontario for the combined occasion of her 65th birthday, and my brother in law Bill's retirement.
My son, Alex and I were there and back within twenty-four hours for the intimate gathering and our time was filled with family, friends, food and fun. My lovely nieces, Jaime and Stephanie threw this joint part for their parents at the beautiful, old farmhouse where Steph and her partner, Jordan live. They also accommodated six of us with a place to sleep after the party.

I'm not including any people pics - just images of things which made my camera go click!


Along with lots of other goodies, these scrumptious celebration cupcakes were a huge hit.


 



A mini replica of the race car Bill and friends owned, back in the day.






My niece's home borders on a big old cornfield which spent much of the afternoon and evening illuminated by the sun.






What farm doesn't have a wheelbarrow parked on it, somewhere?






Colourful clouds gathered as the sun began its descent in the sky.






Before long, only a small strip of vibrant gold remained on the terrain.






Which was when the moon made its presence known.






That was also when the mosquitoes dictated that we take the party inside to toast the celebrating couple with champagne.

In the morning, Andrea and Bill kindly treated the family to a yummy breakfast out. As we arrived on the patio, a couple who had been enjoying their breakfast made a hasty exit. The waitress told us that the man was Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates who was in town for a charity promotion in support of Big Brothers - Big Sisters. None of us had ever watched the show, so he went unrecognized by our group. I think he saw my camera and feared getting caught up in an intrusive photo request. Little did he know that whether we recognized them or not, they would have easily finished off their breakfast uninterrupted.


After breakfast, Alex and I left for the drive back to Peterborough. Glancing out the passenger window as we crossed this bridge, I happened to see a boat doing circles in the water.





And this famous landmark greeted us as we drove along the Gardener Expressway in Toronto.






A closer, more tilted perspective of the C.N. Tower, complete with dashboard reflection.







And back home again, I happened to catch my beautiful little Zephyr's reflection in this small mirror. He was sitting to my right on my desk, when a glance to my left revealed his perfectly framed sweet face. I had to snap two shots and play with them a bit in Photoshop because there was no way I could get his face into focus along with the rest of the image.

And that ends our whirlwind trip into Port Dover. Thanks for your wonderful party hosting, Jaime and Stephanie, and your lodging hospitality, Steph and Jordan. And thanks for brekkie, Andi and Bill. Happy Birthday, my beautiful sister. And Happy Retirement, Bill.

A Colour Buzz

I love color. I feel it inside me. It gives me a buzz. ~ Damien Hirst

November can be a dreary month. How about a little splash of colour from previous weeks, to help get us through it?


Purple asters make an appearance in late summer and live through until the first hard frost of the autumn. I noticed a small patch of them still growing near my place just the other day but this photo was taken back in September.





While we're admiring nature's art, let's enjoy these bright orange blossoms. They're called Orange Hawkweed - I only know that because I just Googled it.





I'm sure you'll remember this cutie. Riley is one of the many cute kidlet neighbours on the street. He's wearing a pretty colourful top but I think his smile outshines it, hands down.





Doesn't this look like more fun to kick around than the traditional black and white soccer ball?





On one of our house-hunting trips, we saw these colourful kayaks outside of a shop. They'd make a fine looking fleet if out on the water together.


 


Frank's sister Theresa celebrated a milestone birthday in October. The colourful cake was reminiscent of flower power of the 1960s.





Frank's niece did a wonderful job with these cupcakes. I never tasted one but I'll bet they were at least as yummy as they look.





Not everyone dressed up for the party, but Geisha did. She belongs to Frank's cousin, Trish, and she's modeling her little geisha girl outfit. She's a very patient little canine.

Thanks for sharing my colour buzz. Please be sure that you're straight enough to drive before moving on to the next blog.

Colourful Days

Some lovely weather has hit my part of the world and my camera has been kept quite busy. I hope you'll enjoy the following photos.

Sweetness.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Mother's Day. My son and his sweet girlfriend arrived bearing cupcakes, which they spent the morning baking and decorating. It was such a sweet treat in more ways than one. Thank you Alex and Veronica!

Kicked a bit too hard.

A lost golden soccer ball lays in the bottom of the inflow of the pond. The yellow booms are used to filter the water from potential grease spills. We've had a few of those in the past.

Three redheaded beauties.

In my front garden, colourful tulips were in full bloom one day, and totally gone the next. It might have been squirrels or rabbits who did the munching. I'm glad I got a few photos out them first.

Cheers!

A few of the neighbours got together one evening and toasted the season with wine.

Salut!

And with beer.

Benny is high on grass and on soap bubbles.

I hope you're enjoying the season and like Benny, are jumping for the sheer joy of it.. and for bubbles.

Back in a few days with more photos.