Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, Ontario


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Saturday farmers' market and community skate at the Evergreen Brickworks.

Winter At Last - Etobicoke, Toronto, ON

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It took its dear sweet time, but winter is finally back in my little corner of Etobicoke.

New Years Eve, Skating at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, ON

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I spent my New Years Eve as I spent the rest of the year: Gliding about wildly, with just enough control to stay upright, having a heck of a good time.

Last year at about this time I wrote a set of guidelines for myself to follow over the -then- year ahead. I thought I'd ought to share them here, as a lot of what you've seen here is a result of me following my own advice.

I like to think I stayed mostly on track.

 

Say yes.

Follow through.

Be honest, always.

Empathise.

Be good to people.

Be good for people.

Socialize.

Forget anxiety.

Never apologise for others.

Slow down.

Be outside whenever possible.

Live in the present, as much as you do the future and past.

Enjoy what you can.

Do what you want.

Pursue the interesting.

Be more of a human being, and less of a brain in a vat.

Say yes: Mean yes.

Follow through.

Always.


You'll have to wait another year to see what I've proposed this time around!

Fairview Farm, Belgrave, ON

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Snow and welding.

Morningstar Mill, St. Catharines, ON

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Out on a rainy day, pointing at a part of a historic mill race.

Western New York, New York, USA

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Christmas Day 2011, Port Colborne, ON

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Woodbridge Memorial Tower, Vaughan, ON

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Woodbridge Memorial Tower, Cold Winter Day.

Williams Orchards, Fonthill, ON

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Road trip out to the apple stand.

Sandcasting 3D Printed MakerBot Objects, Site3, Toronto, ON

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Practicing our sandcasting using 3D printed objects made on the Site3 MakerBot.

 

Birthday Weekend, New York, New York, USA

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Charcoal Foundry, Site3, Toronto, ON

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Building a foundry to melt aluminum, and learning about sandcasting.

 

Oxy Acetylene Welding, Belgrave, ON

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This is me learning to weld with an Oxy Acetylene Torch.

Cober Dunkard Meeting House, Baker-Cober Cemetery, Vaughan, ON

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Pumpkin Carving, Halloween, Toronto, ON

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Ring Ring Ring Bananaphone! Site3, Toronto, ON

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Learning to solder while building this Bluetooth Enabled Banaphone at Site3.

Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls-Queenston-NOTL, ON

(A lovely fall Sunday afternoon made even better by a long drive along the Niagara Parkway + added side adventures with my family.)

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Heritage!

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Trails!

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Food!

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Water!

This ends what is essentially the briefest possible synopsis of Leaf Beaten.

Wainfleet House, Side Road 44, Wainfleet, ON

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Today the plan was to help out friends with the renovation/restoration of their new old carpenter gothic farmhouse.

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And by help I mean ride the tractor!

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(I may have also climbed the silo.)

 

Nelles Manor & Ontario Fruit - Grimsby, ON

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Nelles Manor, built between 1788-1798. One of the few houses of this vintage to survive the War of 1812.

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Sweet plumbs, Bartlett pears, McIntosh apples, grapes, nectarines from the Grimsby Farmers Market: Will not survive the week. (I'm making crumble! And maybe apple jelly.)

Brock Beach, Wasaga, ON

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So, I missed going summer cottaging by less than a day. No complaints! The forecast called for thunderstorms, & we got clear blue skies.

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A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow (Ontari-ari-ari-o!)

Give us a place to stand
And a place to grow,
And call this land Ontario.
A place to live
For you and me,
With hopes as high
As the tallest tree.

Give us a land of lakes
And a land of snow,
And we will build Ontario,
A place to stand,
A place to grow,
Ontari-ari-ari-o.

This is fantastic. Read more about A Place to Stand, A Place to Grow.

 

Eating: Jam Today.

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Spiced Fig and Pear Jam & 3-Citrus Marmalade with my good friend Jackie K.'

("The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday - but never jam to-day.")

Eating: Ontario Beets, Two Pecks, Pickled

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Pickling beets is a near-annual event in my house, something my Dad and his buddies do almost every year. The beets they use always come from the Port Colborne Farmers Market and are well-known as the best you've ever tasted. (These jars only come out at special occasions.) This year I asked if I could help, and they obliged! Mine were the tenderfoot jobs: Cutting the tops and bottoms off of the raw beets, watching the pots so they don't boil over, peeling the skins, and of course post-pickling clean up.

But I also learned a lot. (There are four pecks to a bushel, and 2 pecks to a half bushel.)

And now have two small jars of my very own.

Watching: Canadian Landscape

Via So Sweaty

Hike: Wainfleet Wetlands, Wainfleet, ON

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Bismarck and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon exploring the Wainfleet Wetlands Conservation Area. I've gone swimming in the quarry here more than a few times this summer and wanted to see how long it would take to hike around it. (Answer: Only about 30mins, taking my sweet time.)

On my long meandering way back to the trailhead I passed an older gentleman, dressed head to toe in soft blue denim. "Beautiful day!"  I said, as I always do when it's true.

"Yes." He said with a wise smile. "I didn't think we'd get another one of these."

And then the dog and I went swimming to cool off. And it was pretty perfect.