Colours of June - Ontario

We started our trip by visiting a vineyard with a wine tasting. This was a common sight for me when I lived down in Niagara in the '70s, row upon row of grapevines.

Walking on the Niagara escarpment, we saw some trees with damaged bark which made great patterns.

Vast skies and power lines, some very new. I didn't get round to sketching these new pylons, just snatched a photo from the car.

These salad greens are growing in a half barrel in a friend's tiny back yard in St. Catharines.

Colourful signage on the corridors at Brock University. This was always one of the great features when I worked there in the '70s. 

 

We got together with Bob, who had been my boss in the library at Brock and went down to the canal to look for passing lakers. This is the new fencing at the Lock 3 viewing platform on the Welland canal, complete with patriotic maple leaf topping. Not the nicest thing if you should fall against it!

I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like a type of raspberry. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. As it grows in the shade, not the easiest of items to photograph. The colour really zings when you see the flowers.

An exciting display outside a hardware store in Toronto. Presumably this all comes in each night and is displayed again daily. I loved the cards showing the prices for milk, ice cream etc. Click on the image to read all the options.

This amazing moth was lurking by the garage at Pia and Tom's place in Barry's Bay. This proved hard to photograph as there was little light. It was very obliging, and stayed still until I had fetched my camera from the house.

All the temporary bollards we saw had the same format, but with the contractor's name emblazoned on them. This wasn't the best name I saw, but getting such an item in focus from a moving car isn't easy.

A beautiful old car, colourfully painted, lurking near a yarn store with a fantastic name! 

This store is in Port Perry, and we only came across it accidentally, having taken a wrong turn. We were meaning to take a brief break, and turned into a shopping complex rather than up the main road. Coming out of the slip road this was lined up straight in front of us. I called out "We have to stop to see Never Enough Wool". They had moved down a few doors earlier in the year. Ian paused to look at some local history information about the lake, and I took a look at the inspiring range of yarn.

Now to hunt out my colours of July, back home here in Derbyshire.

Birthday treats

Birthdays often pass me by, but this year I celebrated many times.
On my birthday we were on holiday in Ontario. We arrived the night before, and stayed with friends in Toronto.

On the day we went with friends firstly to visit a winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and then on to lunch at the Skylon in Niagara Falls. See the view from our table below. At the end of the meal a slice of cake with a candle on it appeared. (Birthday cake no1.)

A week later, once more with Elle and Mart, we visited Pia, Tom and family. They live on the edge of a lake near Barry's Bay.

It was so relaxing, we wished we could have stayed with them for more than two nights. Their daughters made a fantastic cheesecake with grated Toblerone on the top. I should have asked for the recipe. (Birthday cake no2.)

Because we were away, I asked my Ravelry birthday swap partner KnitsOnVerandas to delay sending her parcel to me. So, last week it turned up, and it was well worth waiting for.

The yarn,  Fundy Footsee in the Warning Sky colourway is exquisite, just my colours. I've already started off some socks using it with another yarn in single row stripes. I wore the bracelet  all the rest of the day, despite wearing clothing that didn't go with it.

Back to birthday cake - last night at our Woolly Wednesday session at the Art Room, I was surprised to be given another cake. This time it was a ginger cake with lemon icing. I shared some with others at the studio, then cycled home in the rain carrying the remainders. (Birthday cake no. 3)

492 in three days!!!!

That's the number of gooseberry sawfly caterpillars I picked off one bush over the course of three days.

This bush is a rogue bush that was probably seeded by birds and landed in our rockery.

It is right by the fence, and we left it to see how well it would fare.

Unlike the other gooseberry bushes further down the garden, it was pretty much untouched by caterpillars earlier on in the year.

Getting to it isn't easy, as it means trampling some geraniums and then balancing on mostly unseen small rocks. Not to be done in sandals, only in trainers!

However there are enough fruits on the bush this year to justify keeping it for the time-being.