30×30 Challenge: Days 20-27
Day 20: The Toronto International Circus Festival down at Harbourfront was such a blast that we went back again the next day and caught the big finale show. My husband joined us this time and he managed to get a great shot of two of the women on the ring. It was stunning. And outdoors! On the lake! And did I mention it was free? (Yes, I was inspired to drop a few bucks into the Harbourfront donation box so that we can keep seeing fantastic free programming like this.) The photo above was taken down there. The seagulls were clearly enjoying the day down at Harbourfront as well.
After the big show we walked around the area a bit, and the boys had fun on the Simcoe Wave Deck down there, which is great fun for kids, and just lovely to look at:
Before we went downtown I managed to clean up the yard and mow the lawn. And eat a meal or two outdoors. So… pretty much the whole day was outside. And I felt great for it.
Day 21: A lovely morning walk/run and yoga to start the day. Later that morning my eldest and I went up to the Farmers’ Market, then a quick trip to the nearby library there with friends, and afterwards the kids played outdoors for an hour or so before the rain came.
Day 22: Another early morning walk. It was misty and quite lovely, and the lilacs are fully in bloom now. I love this spot (below) in a nearby park that is lined with 6 different shades (white, light purple, mid purple, light pink, mid pink, dark pink) of lilacs. Turns out they smell slightly different, too. Mid pink is the strongest.
I noticed that someone has planted some delicious looking lettuce in their front yard, making me think I’m not so crazy to plant edibles out front.
I had to get downtown for some thyroid tests so I took the streetcar. I had the chance to check on the progress of the Saskatoon berries down by the hospital. Hopefully they’ll be ripe for my follow-up appointments in a week.
Later that day I drove out of town with the kids to visit family and had a walk in the woods by the river, which is always a treat.
Day 23: The only outside time I managed that day was walking to do errands after driving home, so probably I only had the required 30 (or maybe 45) minutes.
Day 24: Another day where the only thing that got me out was walking to errands in the neighbourhood, so I was limited to about 30 minutes outside. After 2 days of this, I was feeling pretty low, to be honest.
Day 25: I made sure to get up early and go for a good walk. I felt like I had to make up for lost time since I was so grumpy after a few days of not enough outside time and I sought out all of the little hidden green spaces in the neighbourhood (there are many within 3 or 4 blocks). Not official parks, but little woodsy areas that grow wild like this one:
In the afternoon I rallied the troops and we hopped on the streetcar to Riverdale Farm, because it’s nettle season. I had my thick canvas bag and some thick rubber work gloves for picking, and my pruning shears. I remembered to avoid the stinging nettles that have gone to seed, and brought home a good amount of nettles for soup. Delicious!
We also walked around the farm taking lots of photographs. Hubby got a good one of a sheep shown here on his photo blog. I think I had the most fun watching the painted turtles sunning. There were the 3 adults to start, and eventually the 2 smaller ones joined them as well.
It was a wonderful day. I was feeling good again and fully made up for those lost 2 days.
Day 26: Another great early morning walk/run and yoga. It was also the first day of our local farmers’ market! I took my youngest to see who was selling what and meet a friend and her daughter for a little outside time. Later it was time (again, after lots of rain this week) to mow the grass again and putter around filling the watering can from the overflowing rain bucket to water the new and old plants, which include onions, chives, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, rhubarb, coral bells, sage, spearmint, “mojito” mint (that’s what the label said!), tarragon, cherry tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, cilantro/coriander (I’ve finally learned that the trick to keeping these going is keeping them well trimmed – i.e. make sure I use some every week and they’ll just keep sprouting and not go to seed), curly parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, English lavender, and Provencal lavender. All still alive despite the crazy weather we’ve had in the past week. Another perfect day to make up for those two indoorsy and down days.
Day 27: Today it was time to deal with the winter woolies and do my hand washing. Which brought me outside for the drying.
I also took the boys outside to do their studies in the afternoon, which was a real treat. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and no bugs yet.
Green Me Up, Scotty! 