Sea to Sea in Canada: A Year Later

It has been a year since we moved back to our home province, Ontario due to Covid-19. It is almost time for us to be moving on to another province to explore. We will have to jump back into posting more adventures. Our year has been a difficult one due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 and its variants. We have all adopted new measures such as social distancing and mask wearing. We have missed out on visiting with our family as much as we would have liked but we have done our best to keep busy and safe.

Over the year, Ontario, has been in lockdown or has had a "stay at home" order in place various times but we have still kept busy. Here is what we have been doing:

1. Moving to a smaller place: They say that "a home is a man's castle". Well, we moved into one of our rental units. It is a small apartment (345 square feet). It is one of 3 units in an old farm house that has been converted into rental units. We have the smallest unit. It has 4 rooms, bare and empty. Once moved in, we started to renovate the unit one room at a time. Here are some before and after photos:

View this video of the apartment when we arrived.

The sound is not the greatest but you will get the

picture of what it was like before the renos

We had a lovely little porch that we could

sit on and relax.

The entrance was right into the kitchen.

We added hooks and a bench to store shoes.

Each room had an accent wall. The kitchen, bathroom,

and living room accent wall colour was taken from

the photo on the shelf in this photo. We added shelves

throughout the rooms since storage was lacking.

Other photos of the kitchen

The bedroom had a more subdued colour for the

accent wall.

In the living room, we not only added a shelf but

also a built-in desk to be used as a desk or TV stand.

The other end of the small living room, also with

the accent wall and my DIY art work using fabric

that was used in the curtains.

In the bathroom we added a long vanity

with lots of storage.

The small accent wall shown here.

It was great fun renovating and decorating this small apartment. We just put the finishing touches on the apartment and now we are packing up and getting ready to move to Quebec.

One thing that it lacked was storage and I think that we added enough storage for the next tenant. The other thing that it lacks is laundry facilities so unless I could do laundry at my childrens' place during a visit, (a 2-hour drive) each week I was at the local laundromat.

It was not fun spending two hours a week at the

laundromat but it was a necessity.

2. Al gets a job at the local Home Hardware Store: Since July 2020, Al has been working part-time at the local Home Hardware Store. It takes him all of 4 minutes to walk to the store to start his shift

3. Bev continues to work out: Although I have not been to the gym in months due to the Ontario lockdowns or stay at home orders, I still continue to work out with a personal trainer from GoodLife virtually.

4. Cinnamon came to live with us (for a while): We were again in the foster program for the SPCA, this time in Ontario. Although we registered with them in September we did not get our one and only foster cat until May of 2021. Cinnamon was a lovely young cat that had been feral. She was very shy and hid most of the day. As the days went by, she became more familiar with us and near the end of her stay with us, Cinnamon would come out and walk by us to eat a little food. She aet and did her business mainly at night when we were asleep. She never meowed or hissed. We found that she loved to be brushed, so several times a day we would pick her up and spend a good time brushing her. She was the only cat I know who loved to have her belly brushed and brushed. See the video below. The day came when she was ready to go to her new "forever home". She was a challenge to socialize her but it was pure pleasure looking after her.

She arrived in her carrier sitting way at the back.

Her first day with us. You can see how scared she was.

Cinnamon found a nice hiding place on a shelf.

She spent most of the day there watching us.

One of the rare occasions that Cinnamon came

out of hiding on her own

Watch me brush Cinnamon. She just loves it. She

is so relaxed we got a big yawn out of her.

5. Hiking: We lived a 5 minute car ride away from the Scanlon Conservation Area and we took advantage of the trails there. Although we hiked during the first part of June, we enjoyed the weather and the beautiful surroundings. Many years ago,we hiked here as a family, the Girl Guides camped both at the education centre and the woods, one of our children stayed there for over night for school trip so we are quite familiar with the place.

Here we are ready to start our hike on one of the trails

There were many Trilliums in bloom

We even saw pink Trilliums

Al walking the trail

When our kids were younger and we would go for

hikes and came across a tree like this I would

always take a photo of one of our children in the

roots of the tree. It is only fair that I have mine taken too.

Now why didn't that one grow straight?

The dreaded Dandelion but it was so perfect in shape.

6. Bev keeps up with her sewing: Although my focus this year was not sewing, I did sew, crochet and paint a few things:

This is the quilt I made for my granddaughter, Ruby.

I have started one for the next grandchild.

Here is Ruby and I with her new quilt.

I crocheted this baby blanket for Olivia, the

first child of Anne's friend.

I made blackout curtains for the trailer as well as for

our bedroom, living room and for Anne's bedroom.

I took a webinar class on painting a pineapple.

I also took a another watercolour class on painting

stingrays.

I also spent a lot of time putting together photo

albums of our past trips that I never got around to doing.

It is better to have all those photos in an album.

I completed at least 4 albums with more to be done.

7. Nous apprenons francais: For four years we have been working on this skill. Hopefully we will be able to use it during our stay in Quebec. I think the phrase I will use the most is: "Parlez-vous anglais?" I can read it pretty well but my weakness is speaking it. Al is much better at speaking it.

8. Visiting family: In between the lockdowns and stay at home orders we were able to see our children and grandchildren in person not just via video call. It is nice to see them grow.

Grandpa reading with Ruby

A beautiful smile from Ruby

Grandma walking with Henry and Thomas

Henry playing in the sand at the beach where we camped

Thomas playing in the sand after a swim in Lake Huron

9. Chef Bev: Bev develops recipes for an organization's menu planner. I love to be creative and this is one way I have been able to fulfil this passion. This dishes are whole-food,plant-based dishes made without meat, dairy, salt and oil. Here are some dishes I submitted.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Fruit Salad with mango sauce

Tempeh with rice, squash and asparagus

Chili in a bed of Lettuce

10. Community Service: On Earth Day this year we went to the local park and picked up a bag full of garbage. We spent several hours picking up a wide variety of garbage. There are garbage cans throughout the park especially near the picnic shelter but it seems that a lot of the garbage does not find its way into them.