Kid-free weekend

Saturday morning, around 10am, I dropped off Small and Smallest at ‘Maccas’ (cub leader) for their weekend away camping.  Two leaders, two cars, two canoes and six kids all went off to the leaders camp ground next to a river for some camping, hiking and canoeing.  Smallest was very excited as it was his first ever camping expedition.  We did get a message from Small who said they had bites a plenty and hadn’t slept much.  It WAS very hot last night.

Huffle and I packed up a lunch in the cool box and set off to Hamilton (West past Toronto for about one and a half hours).  We drove to the Royal Botanical Gardens (our map took us to the University and the wrong place but we got there in the end).

The Royal Botanical Gardens is set out in a strange manner in that there are five different gardens all separate from each other and you have to drive from one to the other.   We started in the new Rose Garden which wasn’t actually properly finished yet.  There were lots of roses but interplanted with perennials.  It was an extremely hot day and we didn’t walk around as much as we could have.  We went inside the Mediterranean House which was incredibly humid but some huge plants including bananas, cannas, cactus, figs etc.  We couldn’t stay in there too long.

I realise I posted the same picture twice.  Should be a lovely white peony instead.

Our next garden was Laking Gardens which had beds full of Iris’ and Peonies. We were disappointed that the flowers weren’t deadheaded as it made it look a little scruffy (however after speaking to Grandad we realised it was probably left to go to seed so they could be collected, which is really the whole point of a botanical garden).   We had a nice sit in the shade under a pergola and went off to the next garden which was the Rock Garden.

This was our favourite and was created in an old Gravel Pit in 1920’s.  The paths took us through some beautifully planted borders and around and up to a wonderful view of the whole garden.  We went into a strange building that housed a huge moving mini railway with village with a working storm’.  It was quite random but the man working the train was British.  The Rock Garden had a water feature meandering through it and it was coloured a really dark reddy/purple colour which made the reflections stand out really well.  It had $20m invested in it 2 years ago.  You could tell.

Our last garden The Arboretum, was the one Huffle wanted to see most but when we arrived it was really just a park filled with trees.  Slightly disappointing and yet nicely calming and quiet.  We sat under a tree, had a snack and drink and just relaxed and enjoyed the solitude (plus two old planes).

Huffle drove us to Guelph (45 minutes away through old country farmland).  Guelph is a University City with a lovely Basilica, a river which reminded us of Oxford or Stratford.  We parked and walked to the river where we indulged in a too-big ice cream and scared away the geese!

Once we were fully sugared up, we walked up the hill to the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate.  It was reminiscent of The Nore Dame in Paris.  Huffle and I have seen many churches, basilicas and duomos around Europe and Canada.  This was a nice one but we couldn’t get inside.  There was supposed to be a service and athough we could hear music, we couldn’t get in to sing along!

Avoiding the local revellers and hobos, we drove to a restaurant where I had my first beer for 54 days (since I got back from England) and a falafel bowl and a pea And prosciutto Risotto.  Very nice.

We drove home to our air conditioned quiet child free house, watched tv with a cup of tea and went to bed.  We slept well.  Our boys did not sleep well apparently.  One of their fellow campers was not wanting to sleep and cried lots!   Both boys had lots of bites.  Huffle counted over 50 on Small’s back.


When the Leader dropped the kids at home, he said it was a pleasure wing with hem and they were lovely well behaved boys.  We know that anyway but it’s always good to hear it from others.  They had a fabulous time but were very tired.  After an ice cream, Smallest went in a hot bath and Small went in the pool with Huffle and I to cool off.


This evening we watched Bake Off with a leftover dinner.  Smallest fell asleep twice and we sent the kids off to bed early.

Watching the sprinkler on the veg garden  

Sunday Jays

Huffle got us out of the house before 10:30am and drove us to the Train Station.  We got the 11am train which takes just over an hour and arrived in Toronto with plenty of time to walk the SkyWalk for the Rogers Centre.

On the train

SkyWalk and Roger Stadium

As it was Junior Jays Day, the outside was full of games and things to do and see.  Our boys now think they are too old for such things so once we had a quick look around, we came inside.  My knee was giving me trouble so we went up in the lift which made us very early.  Smallest played on the Plinko game and won himself a lunchbox.  Then he played Toss the Hoop and ball roll and won two water bottles.  We all had our photo taken in the ‘dug out’.   Next we signed up as designated drivers and got our two free drinks.  A coke for Huffle and a Sprite for Smallest (I’m the desnignated driver and he is the designated pop drinker).

It was a glorious day and the roof was open.  Our seats were up in the 500’s but right behind the Home Plate.  It was very hot and despite us piling on the sun cream and Small getting sprayed with someone else’s suncream, Huffle burned the top of his head and Small had red thighs.  Smallest escaped and I tried to stay in Smallest’s shadow.  Towards the end of the game we moved to the opposite end of the stadium where we were in the shade.

How many people does it take to hold a hose?

It was a great game and the Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-3.  We got at least four Home Runs and they got two.   Very exciting seeing six home runs as well as lots of balls in the crowd.  Only one close to us after we had moved.

We chose to eat pizza on the harbour and then came home.

Lovely day.  

Give peas a chance*

It has been a long time since I last posted.  The idea was I would do a catch up each week but since I don’t post everyday, it goes out of my mind and I forget.

However, we have had a busy weekend so far so I’ll write about that.

Friday was Springfest at Smallest’s School.  As we do each year, we had the Jar Ping Pong Game.  You know the one at the fair where you win a goldfish which has since been taken over by Beer Pong.

So we set ourselves up in the shade, in the kindergarten playground, filled our jars and waited for the crowd.  It wasn’t long before a steady stream of kids came up and ping ponged their 3 balls for 1 ticket into the jars.  This is a hugely addictive game and certain kids came back time after time after time.  I don’t know how much money the parents gave their kids but we took over 300 tickets which equates to $300+ .   Considering we spent less than $30 on sweets, that’s a huge profit we made for the school.  It was also very entertaining watching little girls easily beating their older brothers and boys doing better than their fathers and uncles.  We started at 4:30pm and got home by 8:30pm.  Huffle was starving and popped to our newly opened local restuarant (not a spelling error, that’s what the signs all say!!) for take away.

Saturday (today) we had to get up very early (7am) for our Hamlet Garage Sale.  We had sorted all the stuff to sell so it was just a case of getting it organised.  Our first buyer was from the local daycare and arrived at 7:30am and bought a big box of Bionicles, some games and books.  We ended up selling about $90 in all and we were very happy.  Nothing went back in to the house.  Diabetes Society took all the clothes and shoes, a few things were left on the front for the tip jackals to take and the rest went in the car which we took later to the Charity Shop.  Otto came back later for Small’s scooter and DonNoQuotey came back back for the horrible light that wenall bumped our head on.  MrsChristmas sat with us for half of the time chatting and laughing and helped us clear up at the end.

My favourite photo of the day was PeterRodrigue’s car, normally plastered with his face, faceless because of a bylaw during election time.

*Huffle and I planted Runner Beans where the peas didn’t grow because the chipmunks ate them!

Tomorrow we are off to watch the Bluejays in Toronto.