St. Jacobs' Market, Ontario

St. Jacobs' Market, Ontario

One sure sign of warmer weather in Canada is the opening of farmers' markets in cities across the country.



The farmers' markets are usually open on Saturdays early in the morning

The biggest outdoor Farmers' Market in Ontario

We visited the St. Jacobs' Market in St. Jacobs which is the largest and most interesting outdoor farmers' market in Ontario.

Since it is only slightly more than an hour's drive from Toronto, it is also a popular tourist place.

Indoor buildings allow the market to open year round

St. Jacobs' Market is open year round as there are a number of buildings allowing a huge number of vendors selling everything you can imagine.

Great selection of flowers and plants

The market  is a favorite place for many who are shopping for locally grown organic produces, meats. fabulous pastry and desserts.

There is always an excellent selection of flowers and plants.

Creative and unique garden decorations at the Market

Besides huge selection of agricultural items, the farmers' market is a great place to find interesting and unique items such as home and garden decorations.

Solar lamp and stand to brighten your garden!

A bird house made of scraps of wood

There are local crafts, pottery and wooden items. The place is quite big therefore we could not see everything.

Concrete leave  shape planters

Since it was such a beautiful sunny day when we visited, we spent our time walking outdoors.



We found these creative and unique garden decorations made of concrete.











These beautiful planters came in various sizes; some were filled with miniature plants while others were filled with water floated  candles.


They looked very pretty and we bought one too for our garden and I knew an exact spot where I would put it!

Imported sweaters

Besides produces, meats, desserts and sweets, flowers and plants,  clothing itms such as baby clothes, hand knitted sweaters, brand name hats, imported summer wear and fashionable dresses were on display and fpr sale as well.

Lots of place to rest our tired feet!

After walking for a couple of hours,  we rested our tired feet and sampled some delicious country cooking prepared by local Mennonites.

Pony rides for kids at the Farmers' Market

Free musical entertainment at the market

There were ample seating places for visitors trying to have a bite.




We even had free musical entertainment provided by amateur musicians at the market.

A farm tour was offered at a nearby Mennonite farm

For those who were interested in learning more about farming, there was a tour offered at a nearby Mennonite farm.

Horse drawn tour

For international visitors, St, Jacobs' Market is a great place to visit and shop for real Canadian products local artisan crafts and our famous pure maple syrup.









There are always a lot to see and explore at the farmers' market.
Next time when we visit again, we will plan to spend a whole day there!

R.T.
St. Jacobs' Market
St. Jacobs, Ontario

Achieving Her Dream - A Great Role Model for Other Women!

Engineering Dept.., Waterloo University, Ontario

Waterloo University is one of the few prestigious universities in Canada.

 Convocation 2014 -  Waterloo University's 108th Convocation

 Being accepted into the university is no small feat as the acceptance criteria is quite stringent.

Very often students will have to have average marks in the high 8o% before they are admitted into the university.

Engineering graduates at their Convocation Ceremony, Waterloo University, Waterloo, Ontario

An engineering graduate student at Waterloo U.

 Last Saturday was a very special day for us as we participated and cheered for Helen at her Engineering Department's Convocation Ceremony at Waterloo UNiversity!

Receiving her Master Degree at the Convocation!

Helen,  a mother who is determined to do her best and establish a successful life, landed in Canada and has been living in Waterloo with her son for only a few years.

Life is not always easy when  immigrants first arrive to Canada. There are so many barriers to overcome, new things to learn and to get accustomed to.

It can be lonely and challenging in a new country without the support from families and friends back home.

Joining the rank of  160,000 Proud Waterloo Graduates!

Starting a new life and finding professional employment are even more difficult when one's mother tongue is not English.

But Helen did not let any of these challenges overwhelm her or prevent her from achieving her goals.






She has been working very hard, learning the language, developing her skills, and jumping over every hurdle coming her way.

When she told me that she had enrolled herself in the Master Program with the Engineering Department at Waterloo University, I admired her courage, tenacity and determination.

Friends & family share Helen's happiness

My husband is a senior Electrical Engineer and has been working in the profession for over thirty years in Ontario. We both knew how difficult and demanding the engineering courses were in the Master Program. 

By the pond at Waterloo  University

We visit Waterloo once a month and Helen generously opens her home and receives us as her guests.

We saw first hand how hard she worked as she burned the midnight oil, putting her life on hold and pouring all her energy into her graduate studies while at the same time looking after a teenager going through a rebellious stage by herself.


We witnessed how much pressure Helen was under and how many challenges there were. There were times when we wondered if Helen could pull through. We prayed together; we prayed for her and her family.

Congratulations! All the best to Helen!

I wanted to scream! It was an exciting moment for us when we found Helen's name among the Master Degree graduates' list in the Convocation Program book!






It is true; Helen has done it!  She has now joined the ranked of the 160,000 proud Waterloo University graduates working in over 142 countries around the world!

This is quite an honour and an achievement! We are immensely proud of her!
Congratulations to Helen! May God bless you and guide you as you step into a new chapter of your life as a proud graduate with a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering!

Bravo!!! Praise God for His grace and mercy!

R.T.
Waterloo, Ontario

Remembering My Dad on Fathers' Day

  Today is Fathers' Day. It used to be a special day for us when we could take my dad out for dinner and spend sometime with him. Unfortunately, we could no longer do that. I would like to remember my dad with my memory of our last meeting before he passed away a few years ago.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The phone rang at 6:55a.m. ; right away I knew that something was wrong. I heard the tone in my husband's voice as he answered the call. My father passed away this morning! It was from my mother who hang up before I could get out from the bathroom.

It was a sense of shock. How could it be? We just saw him yesterday and spent nearly the whole day with him. As I raced to my parents' house in my car, I kept seeing my dad's face in my mind...

My dad was standing beside my mom, leaning on the railing on the porch waiting for us to pick them up for church yesterday morning. We got back from our Asian trip on late Friday evening; and we went to a banquet on Saturday evening for Ainta's birthday. Stan and I didn't even have time to adjust to the North American time when we got up a little later than we planned. We were almost 25 minutes late getting to my parents' house. My dad was clearly upset at us being late and he did not hesitate to let us know how he felt. We apologized profusely and got them to our church in no time at all.

That Sunday was the Summer Camp Sunday when children from the summer camp performed. I was asked to go the stage to talk about the project and introduced the staff and the program.
That was the last time my dad saw me giving a speech.

After church we took dad and mom to for lunch at his favourite restaurant. We talked and I told him all about my trip to China. He was very proud of me and again he lecture Sta on how to be a good dad to Jonathan and Er. He was loud and clear and he sounded good. How to be a good dad and be a role model to our kids; that was the last advice my dad gave to Sta and me.

After lunch, we took my parents grocery shopping. We did not want him to be walking too far, so Stan went to pick up the car while we waited. My dad was again leaning on a pillar and coughing a little. Seeing him in that fragile state, I held his hand and gave him a big hug and asked him how he felt. He replied gesturing under his throat" I can't breathe too well lately. I don't think I can last too long." To which I replied, " Don't say that, dad."

I held my father's hand and went into Stan's car and drove to a super Chinese grocery store. Not wishing my dad to wait for a long time and be bored, we bought him a newspaper and found a nice place for him to sit at the cafe for his tea. He enjoyed himself reading the newspaper while my mom and I went grocery shopping in the other part of the store. I kept looking over at him to make sure that he was fine. He was and Stan later also joined him there at the cafe.

We were at the store for about 45 minutes and we drove my parents home after the shopping was done. My dad , as usual, took his time and got out of the car gingerly. I went out of the car, give him a hug and kissed him on his cheek. He smiled, waved at me and went up the stairs to his house. That was the last hug and kiss I gave my father.

As I was recounting the last two times I saw my father, I was grateful that God gave me the opportunity to see him twice, on Saturday and again on Sunday right after we came back from our trip. I am immensely grateful that I got to see before he passed away. I am very sad that my father is gone now. I and the rest of our family will miss him dearly- his sense of humour, his love of sports, his eagerness to tell jokes and stories had delighted us and his grandchildren alike. But one thing we are glad - he believed in Jesus and he has eternal life and is now in heaven through eternity.

R.T.
Toronto

Playing Indoor Lawn Bowling for the First Time!

Reconnected with my friend in my garden

 Last week, I reconnected with a friend from my younger days and invited her to our house for coffee.


We sat in my garden, had a great time catching up with one another with the latest happenings.

Indoor lawn bowling

Today, B. invited me to go lawn bowling with her in a community centre in the city of Markham.

Each player starts with four balls

As it turned out to be a humid day, we were all dressed in our summer outfits ready for lawn bowling action. I had seen people lawn bowling  before but never had the desire or the opportunity to try it myself.

I thought I was going for lawn bowling outside, but to my surprise, it was indoors!

There were four people on our team today.  Each one of us started with a set of four wooden balls engraved with a different picture on top and bottom of each set.

At least one of the player's feet  must be on the carpet when playing

A piece of carpet was placed about 6-7 step away from the edge of the court. Each player must be stepping on the carpet when rolling the ball onto the lawn.

A yellow ball is placed at the other end of the court

 The goal of the game is to get your ball as close to the yellow ball placed on the opposite end of the lawn as possible.

The player with the ball closest to the yellow ball  wins

Like any game - it looks easy when you watch other people playing it until you try it yourself.



We did not have to hit the ball to win, just be the player with one of the four balls closest to the yellow ball.

Two balls with very similar distance to the yellow ball

At times, there could be two balls appeared to be the same distance to the yellow ball.
 In this case, the referee would pull out his/her tape measure to obtain the exact distance of each ball to determine the winner.









Though the game seemed slow and not a strenuous sport, I could feel my hamstrings being exercised!

Two hours of lawn bowling went by really fast as we talked and laughed with our team mates.

It was a fun and sociable game indeed!

R.T.
Markham, Ontario

Ideas for Beautiful Container Gardening

Habourfront, Toronto

I love gardening! It is my most favourite activity to do.
In my younger days, I would spend days and hours planting flowers in our backyard when springs come and the danger of frost was over.

I often saw flower containers but never really appreciate them before.  Now that my energy is limited, I have come to appreciate and enjoy the convenience and beauty of what container gardening can add to gardens.

Distillery District, Toronto

I enjoy taking pictures of container flowers in my travel so that I can learn how to plant my own in my garden.

Assisi, Italy

Italy

For those who are looking for ideas for container flowers, I hope these pictures will give you some ideas.

Harbourfront, Toronto, Canada

Downtown Toronto

 Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario

Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada

Birch trees are quite popular in Canada. Even after they are cut down, the branches are used in many ways to make beautiful decorations for homes and gardens.

Using birch branches and twigs, the native people in Canada make beautiful garden decorations.

Birch branches are also used often in container gardens such as this one.

Plants in containers decorated this church arches in Assisi,  Italy

Cacti Container, Phoenix, USA

For drier and less maintenance containers,
this cacti container we saw at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, USA, will do a fine job!

The Annex, Toronto

This ever green container with impatients still looked strong and healthy during our mild Canadian autumn in downtown Toronto.

Edwards Garden, Toronto

This autumn container with colourful fall flowers and ornamental cabbages welcome visitors to Edwards Garden in Toronto!

St. Jacobs, Waterloo region, Ontario

R.T.
Toronto
 Ontario

Remembering Shirley Cheatley - My Neighbour With a Spectacular Garden

I love gardening!   Our garden is my pride and joy!

It was a glorious spring day in Toronto! I was basking in the warm sun, caressed by gentle breezes while doing one of my most favourite and enjoying activities in the world: gardening in the backyard of our Toronto home!

There is nothing I enjoy more than puttering around in our garden, digging up overgrown perennials and moving them around like furniture and finding them new homes in various corners among our other plants and shrubs.

Cut flowers from our garden

Gardening is a de-stressor for me ; nothing calms me down and lower my blood pressure than admiring the greenery in my garden. With a coffee mug in my hands, every morning during the warm spring /summer days,  I take a princely walk and survey my royal subjects that bring so much pleasure in my life, I feel like I am the Queen in my own castle.  It is a heavenly experience for me!

I was singing and enjoying myself, immersed in  weeding and pulling up some perennials unknown to me. Umm,, I 'd better ask Shirley about these unknown perennial before I kill them all. Shirley, my neighbor since the early 1980\s, and whose spectacular garden was featured in the Home and Garden magazine,  had been my volunteered plant consultant for the past thirty year.

 

Shirley and I used to talk a lot over this fence

" Hi, Shirley, good morning! How are you? How are you plants and flowers doing this year?" I yelled over the fence to my neighbour, eagerly awaiting for our usual little exchange about our gardens, our husbands and what was going on with our families.

I waited. There was no answer. I waited again. It was complete silence.

She 's gone! I was brought back to the reality. She's gone forever from her garden and the house next to ours.

How I have missed our exchanges over the fence! I have missed that lovely smiling face that no loner peeked over our wooden fence covered with well grown shrubs that we planted more than twenty years ago. I've missed her friendliness, kindness, welcoming warm hello every time when I was in our  garden, her smart planting tips and wisdom on flowers, plants and all my questions on gardening, her spirit of generosity, her hospitality for the neighbours, the sing-along in the basement of her home during the Christmas party....

My neighbour taught me about growing perennials in our garden

We moved into our house in the early 1980's and Shirley and her husband moved in six months later. She was in her fifty's while I was in my late twenty's.

 She reached out to us, a young couple with our first born at the time. I distinctly remembered how she had a lengthy conversation with E.who had just turned three at the time. She had such an endearing way with little kids and showed genuine interest in everyone she met including very young children.

The following Christmas, she  brought over two boxes of gifts for our two boys - It was beautiful kids' clothes form Ellen Henderson, her own company. We loved how smart these clothes looked on our boys! Since then, we had established the tradition of exchanging gifts between our two families and our friendship began.

Shirley and I had a lot in common. We were career women; hardworking, determined to do well in our profession. She loved gardening which has been a hobby of mine. Therefore, we could easily talk for half an hour on our sidewalk whenever we saw each other. I did not have a lot of time for tea at her house saved for our annual visit of Christmas gift exchange. I would usually bring our gifts over and we sat and drank teas for sometime and caught up with our news.

Shirley and I spent some wonderful time in our gardens

I retired in 2009 and was looking forward to more frequent visits with Shirley. I did go over and had tea and cookies a couple of times and we  shared our photos in a leisurely manner for the first time in over thirty years!  I even had time to go down to her basement and saw what she was working on in her retirement years.

I noticed that Shirley's health was failing. I saw her less and less in her beloved garden. The last time I saw her was at the Bridgepoint Health Centre in the Riverdale area in 2010. Shortly after our visit, she passed away in the fall of 2010. The spring after her death, the house was sold and her husband - our neighbour for over thirty years moved into a senior condo.

The flowers are still here but Shirley is gone.

Still working in my garden and thinking of Shirley, I had tears in my eyes. I regret that I did not spend more time with my lovely neighbour because I was so busy with my life.

Shirley was my cheerleader; she was happy for me whenever I told her about the promotions I had in my career. As a woman entrepreneur, she encouraged me to achieve my career goals and shared her own challenges with me.   I thought she would always be there and that we could spend more time together in our gardens after I retired.

 I am here every morning in my lovely garden, but Shirley is gone forever.

Shirley, I have really missed you! I will always miss you. You are gone, but you will always be in my heart!

R.T., Your neighbour in Don Mills
Toronto