It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood...

Two weeks ago today I sold dear old Dougie the Dodge. How has it been going? So far, so good.  As I may have mentioned before my neighbourhood has almost everything I need within

 a block or two radius.

Come and walk with me. 

There's my condo with the crabapple tree out front - hence "Crabapple Landing". 

 As we leave the condo complex we are walking east towards Northland Mall - I can see it from the end of the condo road. If you squint really hard you might be able to see a yellow shopping cart that someone has abandoned in the mall parking lot - it's just beyond the No Parking sign and sitting between two cars. We'll see it again later. For now we're going to turn left.

 About 150 steps from my front door, but invisible due to many trees, is a plaza called Huron Market Place. There used to be a movie theatre where the World Gym is now. I took Kazi there many times - her first movie theatre experience there was "Lion King" when she was four. She found out that life isn't always fair and sobbed her little heart out.

 I do my own taxes so I don't use Liberty Tax Service but further down is Dollarama which is very handy - I was just there yesterday buying trail mix and nuts to pack for my hike in Scotland.

Across the street from Dollarama is my local library. Most of my library interactions take place on my iPad as I download books to read but lots goes on there - bookclubs, lectures, movies, a knitting group, English Second Language classes, crafts and so on.

There's the Huron Market Place sign - another

store I go to frequently is Giant Tiger. I get good bargains on produce and it carries

pretty decent brands of clothing and household products.

Here's one spot I won't be going to for awhile! My local gas station! 

That price is per litre, not gallon.

 A bit further down from the library is another plaza which I use once in a while. It has a pet valu store along with an LA Fitness, several restaurants, a bank, a used sports equipment store (it's where I purchased cleats for slo-pitch). 

Across the other street from the gas station is yet another plaza with my favourite thrift store -

 Talize  :)

There are three coffee shops nearby - Williams, Tim Hortons and Starbucks. I don't

often go to Williams though I do like their food better than the other places.

Further down from Talize is my pharmacy - Shoppers Drugmart - 

We're not heading in that direction today. Just past Shoppers is the

Bank of Nova Scotia which is where I go.

Right now we're on the other side of Northland Mall - we haven't crossed 

any roads or walked on any streets - we've just walked through parking lots.

Ummmm....I guess one Dollarama store isn't enough!!

My favourite restaurant is in this mall. It used to be several blocks to the east but when

the mall was refurbished it changed location which makes

it even closer to me. Sweet!

Further down the front of the mall is my favourite grocery

store - No Frills. It has really improved over the past couple of years - also being

refurbished. The best thing is the increasing variety of foods due to serving a large ethnic community.

Here we are inside the mall - you can see the Wine Rack :) and the Health Food store, both used frequently! There is a nice area for socializing.

Here is that shopping cart again, we are seeing it from the other direction.

We are now heading back to my condo complex, the entrance of which is past those

apartment buildings. We are still walking through parking lots.

The apartments are kept up nicely - they have access to a swimming pool which is

just beyond that atrocity of public art. I read an article yesterday about so-called

"public art". It stated that public art should be ART first and PUBLIC second. I have

to say that in this hideous example PUBLIC came first and ART second!!

 Here is the entrance back into my condo complex. The mall and apartments are 

behind us now. All of the trees in the complex

have grown very tall in the 23 years we've lived here.

These condo owners used to be able to see their neighbours on the other side

of the cedars, not any more. The street light is being

swallowed up by the trees!

 There's my place below. To the left of the crabapple tree you can see some branches

 from a maple tree. It was just a sapling when we moved in and now is 40+ feet tall. 

There is another one shading

the back side of the house. I had to change all of my perennials from sun-loving to shade-loving 

over the years but I don't mind. When it's 30c outside it's 24c inside. I rarely have to turn on the A/C.  

 Home sweet home.

I didn't even show you all of the many many restaurants/fast food places. Within a couple of blocks there is: a Macdonalds, A&W, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Harvey's, Fireside Subs, two pizza, no three pizza places, Dairy Queen, a place that sells greek food (can't remember the name), Fast Eddies etc.

Most I haven't been to as I cook 99% of our meals at home. 

BUT - I am excited to say that a "Globally Local" restaurant has just opened in the old Harvey's location and is open 24/7!! 

VEGAN FAST FOOD!

 Kazi and I have already eaten there and it is fantastic! And affordable!! 

So there you have it - what the heck do I need a car for? 

I rode my bike to my optometrist app't in less time than it takes to drive there.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping with my cart. The last time I used

my cart for groceries I was a student at university without a car. I'm glad

I never got rid of it! (the cart, not the car!)

On Wed. I'm renting a car for 24 hours to go to the beach. It will cost less than putting gas into Dougie for the same trip.

I went to Bracebridge in my brother's car and I gave him $$ for gas.

I know that once we start getting cold weather and snow travel will be more difficult. 

Hopefully I can figure out ways to make life easier. 

Catching Up

It's been a busy time here at Crabapple Landing and beyond. The last time I posted was on Tuesday - since then I've been too occupied elsewhere or recuperating from a head/stomach ache. So I'll be posting about the (recent) past playing catch up!

Wednesday was trailer day. Wow, the weather was so nice! However...the difference in temperature between London and Bayfield, where the trailer is located, is about 6 degrees. Here's why...

The ice on Lake Huron, which was especially thick this year due to our month or more of -30c temperatures, is still breaking up!

Despite that the temperature was a balmy 12c while it reached 18c in London. It was warm enough for me to be in short sleeves after raking for several hours. About 6 hours to be exact!

My yard was full of leaves...and I mean FULL! In the midst of my travail the original owners of the trailer stopped by, Ross and Linda, very nice people. They've offered to help me in any way they can as they've always been fond of their first trailer but have since purchased a year round trailer instead just down the road from me. How fortunate for me! However when they told me they regularly raked 30 bags of leaves.....!!!

This is the area at the back of the trailer - there is a nice cozy area where there is a swing - a quiet spot for a book and a glass of wine:) To the left of this picture is the shed which you can see in the next photo...

That's my fire pit and unfortunately there's a massive amount of my leaves...

Ross told me all about the shed...it was originally built as a bunkie with a large storage box on the left side which accommodated a single mattress. The shed has a couple of windows and a small porch on the front. There is also overhead storage which he showed me how to access. There's all kind of stuff up there so I'll have to explore next time I'm there.

I didn't get all the leaves bagged as I ran out of bags! But all of these in this picture are gone. I filled about 20 bags so far. Then I filled a few with the refuse left behind in the trailer. The previous owners, not to be confused with the original owners, didn't do a very good job cleaning it out. So quite a few more bags went to the dumpster with children's toys (they had 6 kids!) and crap from the cupboards and closets. Nothing I wanted to keep and use.

I took a lot of bins of stuff up to the trailer - towels, sheets, dishes etc but didn't unpack anything as I haven't cleaned inside yet. It could be another week before I get back as the mild temperatures we have been enjoying are not sticking around past tomorrow and the water isn't turned on yet at the trailer park. Tomorrow I have a 16km hike and then it's rainy and much cooler next week.  It was nice while it lasted - I went on several hikes and rode my bike twice - 2 hours at a time. My patio is all cleaned up and the kitties and I have really enjoyed being outside. The kittens spend most of their time trying to swat bugs out of the air - pretty comical!

CUTENESS ALERT!!

Gee, who does this remind of you of SonyaAnn? Lily looks a little concerned about the fact that she's making a cozy nest for herself in the messy linen closet. Or perhaps she's telling me to clean it up!

Luna almost disappears into the furry blanket she's napping on...

Lily's having a snooze on my lap - I love it when she lays on her back with her paws in the air:)  She looks pretty pleased with herself.

And that's a wrap for today. I'm off to volunteer at a fundraiser - there's an Elvis impersonator and everything!! More later!

Crabapple Landing

Welcome to my first post from my new desk at Crabapple Landing. A faithful reader, Barb, commented that "Crabapple Landing" might be a good name for the blog and I agree. There's something about "landing" back where I started that I find very appealing. It does my heart good to know that I can always come home and begin to find my way again. We all need that soft place to fall. Thanks for the suggestion Barb :)

I've been home for two weeks and I've been working like a trojan! I did end up getting the "assembly required" furniture from Tepperman's after looking on kijiji, going to 2nd hand stores etc as it best suited my needs. My sister reads my blog faithfully and she will be disappointed to learn that I received no help from my brothers. My one brother didn't exactly say no, but he didn't exactly say yes either and I hate asking for help especially when it's grudgingly given so yes, I assembled it all myself. The only help I received was from Kazi and her boyfriend who helped me get the boxes from the back of my truck and lug them up to my bedroom. It's ok Lannie, I found out that I'm amazingly strong and like our mother have the ability to follow instructions very well. Happily everything went together quite easily, it was just very time consuming. Fortunately, time is a commodity that I now have plenty of!! The parts are well made, the instructions easy to follow and TA DA, I'm finally finished!!

I'm glad I went with the selections I did, I think that my storage issues will all be resolved with the addition of these 3 pieces - I spent today unpacking about 10 boxes - books, office supplies etc and now have several empty bins. I'm not done shuffling furniture yet, in fact I'll be shuffling things around for months to come as only the main floor is finished (almost finished;) so I still have the 2nd floor and the basement to redecorate.  Boredom is NOT in the cards for me.

So....the pictures....

 Doesn't look that bad, does it??

Starting with this bookcase first, my - what a lot of hardware!! Eek!

Things are moving along fairly well.....I think....

 Yay!! I did it!! It looks swell! No mistakes were made assembling this bookcase - I was amazed at how easily it all went together. I was also surprised at how HEAVY it is. I did some shuffling around and maneuvered it into its final location.  OOF!!

So that was Monday. On Tuesday I started to put the tall bookcase together. So far so good.

Piece of cake except for the part where I lifted it from its position flat on the floor to a standing position. That's when I discovered that for a short little person I have muscles of STEEL!! 

Feeling very cocky I decided to start on the desk. That's the hutch coming together nicely.

 It was about here that I realized that I had to put the hutch and desk BOTH together on the floor as ONE piece as opposed to two separate pieces. RATS!!

 I think I should go into weight lifting. For my weight class I'd be right up there at the top! The one box said it weighed 150 lbs. So two boxes? Granted I wasn't lifting two boxes full as the drawers are not in yet but it's pretty close. I probably lifted close to twice my weight.

There, turned the desk light off so you can see better :)

 I started putting the drawers together and realized I'd done something wrong so at this point I called it a night. Not to mention a major storm was going on and the humidity level was excruciating! I finally succumbed and put the central air on. I'm such a martyr.

A fresh start this morning was just what I needed. I had to redo one drawer but was so happy when I put them into the desk and they fit nicely and smoothly! Woo hoo!!

Two and a half days of assemblage. So worth it too!

 Okay, these pictures show you what needs to be unpacked and organized on my two new bookcases plus desk/hutch. Lots of bins...

 More bins...

 Oh lookee, more bins...

and boxes...and bags...

This bookcase is OVERLOADED!!

 Wow, that looks better! (The other bookcase is now residing in the kitchen, details to follow.

 Sigh...I am breathing so much easier now... Lannie - see your painting??

 Desk area still needs a little work...

 There...that's better!! A new chair is in order though, don't you think? That chair has been in the family for YEARS!! I sat at my child desk on that chair 50 years ago!! My brother has a matching one!

More added to the tall bookcase - Kazi's grade 12 grad pictures up top - one bin left below for sorting.

A nice spot for relaxing with a book and a cup of tea. That little desk with the printer belonged to my mother. I refinished it (and also the chair!) - it had many layers of paint on it and when I stripped it I found out why it had been painted - a few burn marks, scars etc. But such gorgeous wood, oh my! I'll treasure it always!

So that's what I've been up to the past few days. Unpacking boxes, bags and bins that were packed to go to PEI was emotionally draining as well but I'm happy to have made so much progress. Tomorrow I'm going to take a wee break and go see a documentary at our local reparatory theatre - "Walking the Camino" as that is another walk I'm thinking about doing. Next year.

OK, feeling exhausted. It's 11:30pm and I've been hard at it since early this morning. I will sleep well tonight! I'm not going to show you the other half of the room (what a disaster!) yet, but soon. One of the reasons I love this condo is the size of the two bedrooms. HUGE!! I was reminiscing with Kazi today about how multi-purpose my bedroom was when she was growing up. Besides my bed I had a loveseat in here, a drop-leaf table that I used as a desk for my schoolwork, and a large TV and TVcabinet.

Good night my friends!