How Do You Like Dem Apples?

It's fall, and the leaves are turning orange and drifting gently to the ground. The air is certainly crisp!

Another source of crispness are the apples. They are one of my favourite things about this time of year in Canada. The variety is amazing and they just taste incredible!

So, on the weekend we decided to hit the road and go apple picking. There are a plethora of pick-your-own options about an hour's drive away. We decided to go to Chudleigh's. It is the most tourist-y option, but hey, we're still tourists. The forecast was for a cold, overcast day. What we got was an incredibly cold, blustery and wet day. But that's fine with me, you know I love that type of weather.

We hit the playground first, which was a great fort-style one with huge slides and haystacks to land in. Then we found a tractor ride and got ourselves out to the apples. The orchard went for miles and there were so many varieties to choose from. Our tractor driver gave us the head's up, apparently the Fujis made the best picking that day so we made a beeline for them.

Somehow, I seem to have gotten through life without tasting an apple straight from the tree. Thank goodness I've finally done it, I was completely blown away by them. Actually we just kept picking and eating them, but eventually remembered that we wanted to take some home as well.

Poppet really enjoyed the apple picking. She said that it was better than the playground! And now she's eating apples again because she picked them herself. (unfortunately she seems to know that bananas are only 59 cents a pound in Canada as opposed to $12 a kilo in Oz, so she's off them, sigh)

After the fabulous apples we strolled through the petting zoo. I had to take a shot of these forlorn looking dogs. They'd spent the night frolicking with a skunk and were in 'quarantine'. Hehe...

 

After a few more critters and a little more play, it was time to get out of the elements and head home with our beloved apples. 

I'm aiming to make an apple crumble this weekend. Do you have a favourite recipe? I'd love you to share it.

Sugar and Spice...

And all things nice?

Hmmm. We have a little girl, she has a little curl, not quite in the middle of her forehead.
When she is good she's very, very good and when she is bad....

picture from here

Well, horrid seems a little unfair. We have uprooted our child, made her move house/house/hotel/apartment and country and school and friendships, virtually overnight. And there is a price. Oh yes, indeedy. Poppet's temper. It is rather...frayed at the moment.

She swings from "you are the best mummy in the world" to "I hate myself, I wish I didn't exist, I think you should find me a new mummy" and today's bonza comment "are you telling me you haven't washed my shoes yet???!!!" (cue dramatic musical interlude and swoon here)

Such bliss.

But what can one expect? Poppet is a lot like her mother. Emotions run fast and high, but you don't often see them. From the outside things look happy and perky and swell and grand. But something boils and lurks underneath it all, waiting to surface and swallow you whole!

And after a whole day (which is a half hour longer than her previous school day) of behaving and generally getting the feel for things Canadian, it is Mum who really cops it. And why shouldn't I? It's my fault in her eyes that her world is so confused and I guess she's making sure at the moment that I am not about to do a runner and leave her stranded in this crazy place.

So, now is the time to focus on what's grand about it. To count the squirrels, to search for just the right snow boots, to encourage friendships and make sure there's some decent down time and early nights for all.

Our six-year old will be back to her old quirky self in no time, but for now I am Mother first and the rest will have to wait....

picture from pinterest

Decor-atin'

So, here's some pics from the house at last. We finished the flatpacking-torture on the weekend, and today the garbage men took away all the evidence of that. I've spent a day cleaning up bits of foam and cardboard and have finally started to unpack the work stuff I brought over. Yay.

I've decided to really embrace colour with this move. One of the advantages of relocating without your stuff is to chance to experiment with your decorating style. I scoured the internet and found these images on pinterest which really expressed what I was/am aiming for.

 

 

It's been a challenge as we're on a tight budget (the car budget blew out big time!) so we decided to stick to Ikea for the basics.  We even bought the exact same sofa which we had in Perth. But at $500 how can you not?!

In a previous post I discussed how we were considering swapping the dining and living areas around. We bought an extension for the cable tv and the results are great, the flow is so much better and it just feels nicer sitting near a bay window looking out at the trees and squirrels.

the old living space

over by the bay window, lots of sunshine!

Apologies for the quality of the photos, I had neglected to charge my camera properly. D'oh! But you get the idea. Here are some more detailed pics of my favourite bits...

detail from the purple glass lamp I picked up (not Ikea)

lovely pouffe featuring some great ikat fabric (not Ikea either)

and I'm rather partial to this $5 cushion (from Ikea)

So, it's coming along nicely. Starting to feel like home, I'll put some photos up soon of my work station and the dining room but I'm happy with the bones of it all. Now we can have fun finding quirky handmade local pieces for the walls and shelves. Considering how the previous tenants had it set up I think we're doing ok.

 

And after all that time spent seeking photos for inspiration, I realized that all I needed to do was to look at my crochet project.

I think blankie will fit in nicely if I ever get it finished...

Monday Monday

Lovely weekend. Very satisfying on the Ikea front. The husband worked very diligently to get it all done. Luckily it was a long weekend for Thanksgiving, and whilst there was a little turkey involved it was mostly sorting and building and cutting up cardboard boxes.

But we managed some outside time as well. The weather has been unbelievably lovely, a balmy 25 degrees yesterday, so we did our best to make the most of it.

At the end of our street there is a farmers' market every Monday evening, and we missed it last week because of all the shifting and re-arranging going on. We strolled down at about 4 o'clock and found a delightfully small, boutique and organic market. To the dulcet sounds of a harpist we purchased honeycomb and raspberry jam, steak and tofu. 

It was a lovely hour spent relaxing and musing over the merits of cinnamon in honey and trying to decide which cut of organic steak we needed for dinner. To think we can do this every week! Poppet was just so relaxed and groovy, she did a little dancing and had a lie down in the sun to relax. It is particularly nice at the moment to have the sun shining and the orange leaves falling. We feel very lucky to be in this wonderful city.

We came home with this bag of goodies. The jam is incredible!

And even better than that, we have a dining room! 

 

It's a little spartan but a great start. More on the rest of the house tomorrow, I'm off to buy some vegies and fresh flowers...

Roncy

Well, we've been out of the hotel and in our new suburb for a week. So much normal life has already occurred, particularly school kicking off, that it feels like longer. In a good way.

We are officially "Roncesvall-ians" now. We really love our neighborhood. It's a little big funky, a little bit suburban and a little bit grungy. Just the way we like it. Officially Roncesvalles is a Polish village. And you can certainly tell. Probably 60% of the local businesses on the strip are Polish, though a few years ago that figure would have been more like 90%. The area is slowly being taken over by families. But they're not always your typical suburban families, there are lots of stay at home dads, people who run music companies for kids, artists and performers. And generally the people who run the local businesses live in the area, if not above their shops. That breeds loyalty and general good will. I think Halloween will be a blast.

picture from here

picture from here

The businesses are quite an interesting mix. It's amazing that one village can sustain about 4 fresh fruit and veg stores, and there are soooo many places dedicated to pets! You can buy some groovy doggy biscuits, then take your pup for some grooming before dropping him/her off with a sitter. There's a couple of vets as well.

The bookstores are of the rare books and socially aware variety, though I still managed to pick up Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook yesterday. There are some lovely bakeries and cafes and the yet-to-be explored coffee houses. Once we've escaped the Ikea gridlock we'll do some tasting, probably next weekend.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned the not-for-profit, community-run local cinema!

picture from here

The area houses three public schools and one Catholic (on our street), so that gives an indication of how many families are around. There's a cute toy store called Scooter Girl, a candy store and a chocolate store (haven't dared pass that threshold yet). So, all in all, I am able to have a pretty interesting wander most days which is good as I rarely have the car. But that's the point of living in Toronto. Walking!

At the end of our street is a lovely park and playground, called Sorauren Park, which has a farmers market every Monday evening. Look forward to checking that out tomorrow night. And only a few blocks away is the awesome High Park playground I mentioned a few posts back.

Here are my pics of one of the local murals...

That's all for now, I have a date with an allen key...