Our wonderful grandchildren

There isn't a day that goes by that we don't give thanks for our wonderful grandchildren and family.   This past weekend was Easter and we enjoyed a lovely day at Laura and Jay's.  We also were blessed with the opportunity to celebrate Hailey's 9th birthday.  Happy birthday to a very special girl.

Grenadier Pond

Today, for the first time in a long while, the sun was shining brightly.  The morning started out pretty cool but warmed up as the day progressed.  I had a few errands to run but thought I would take my camera with me in case an opportunity came up.  Since I was visiting the Cheese Boutique, I decided to drive into High Park.  I thought it might be nice to just sit and relax while looking out over the pond.

To my delight, there were some ducks along the shoreline so I sat down on a rock and pulled out my camera.  Last week a duck was in our backyard and we weren't sure what it was.  After looking it up in our bird book we were pretty sure that it was a female Mallard.  I was able to confirm that today and it was very similar to the females that were swimming in the pond.  These ducks were only about 6 feel away and they weren't frightened at all. It was nice and relaxing to simply watch them.

As I was watching, I noticed a swan coming around the bend.  I wondered if I might get a chance to get a few pictures.  To my amazement it swam right towards me.

Wow I thought.  This is great.  What an opportunity to practice.  I then wished that the sun would go behind some clouds so that there weren't so many shadows.  Can you imagine that?  I have been yearning for sunshine for weeks and now I'm wishing that it would go away.  It was a good opportunity to teach myself a few practical reminders when I head out. Make sure I have the proper filters with me and have patience.  I was rewarded with a beautiful display.  I sat quietly for an hour with the swan and ducks.  It was so peaceful and I was thankful for such a relaxing afternoon.

A visit to Kortright Center to see the Maple Syrup

We woke up this morning to the sun shining brightly.  It was a perfect morning for a visit to the Kortright Center.  We packed a lunch and headed out to enjoy a nice walk and learn about Maple Syrup.  The children really enjoyed themselves.  It was a beautiful morning and perfect for a walk. We finished just before the rain came.

The sap wasn't really running because the nights are too warm but we were able to catch this drop

Can you see any Sap?

Look Brody - what do you see?

Ready to start collecting.

The sap is boiling down into syrup. It will be ready in 24 hours.

It was a perfect day for a family race!

Go Brody go!!!

All smiles

Nice and relaxed

A day of rainbows

Today was a day full of weather changes.  Fog, sunshine, storm clouds, hail, rain and rainbows.  I couldn't believe all the changes that I was seeing.  I saw 3 rainbows in the period of 1 hour.  All this occurred as I was driving west to meet up with Jay and Laura and the girls.  We agreed to meet halfway where I would then pick up Laura and the girls so that we could spend part of the March break together.

There were bolts of lightning coming down from the clouds.  I wished that I had my good camera with me.  I wasn't too happy with the hail, but thankfully it didn't last long.  I suspect that I encountered two storm fronts coming today.  The wind was quite strong and before you knew it, the sun was out again.

Here are a few photo's that I took with my phone.

A day in NOTL

Our plan was to wake up at 4:30 this morning and try to catch a beautiful sunrise.  Sadly it wasn't to be.  All night long I coughed and coughed.  Poor Ralph, I don't think he got too much sleep last night. At 4:30 when I woke up, I told Ralph I wasn't feeling up to going.  This isn't like me at all as I love going out to take pictures.  I just didn't feel the greatest.  We slept till 7:00 and got up at that time. We had ordered some pies from the Pie Plate so we needed to go and I didn't want Ralph to go their all by himself.  Ralph made us a nice smoothie for breakfast and then we headed out to "Starbucks".  After that we drove towards Niagara on the Lake.  It turned out to be an amazing day.  I'm glad that we went.  We did some birthday shopping first and then headed towards the wineries.  It was nice to walk around and see how things are starting to grow.  From there we went to the Pie Plate and picked up our pies.  We contemplated having lunch there but chose to drive to Johnny Rocco's instead.  We enjoyed a really nice relaxing lunch and then headed towards Jordan.  There was an old boat that we wanted to photograph.  We had a great day!

Our grandchildren

This weekend we enjoyed a nice visit with Laura and the kids.  Jay is in Japan with work and won't be returning until next week.  It's nice to spend the time all together.  Tomorrow we're going to celebrate Brody's 3rd birthday. It's amazing how fast the time has flown by.

Morning Sunrise

As I have been driving back and forth to Barrie helping my Mom with her appointments I have been blessed with some beautiful sunrises.  This one was from Thursday of this week.  As I was driving up the highway the sky just burst into flame.  I was frantically trying to find a place to pull over and take a picture.  As I approached the gas station near King City I pulled off and drove to the far corner.  At this point in time the red was starting to fade away already. It's amazing how quickly the sun came up and the colour went away.