Our First Visit to Belleville, Ontario

 

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We went to visit our friends who have recently moved from Toronto to Belleville, Ontario.

We had an overnight stay at our friends' brand new home and our friends took us around town.

There are many big box stores within an easy 5 minute driving distance to our friends' house. 

These include: Lowes, Rona, Staples, grocery stores, dollar stores, Starbucks, Tim Hortons and restaurants etc.

My most favourite store we visited in Belleville was the Taste of Country Store. 

It is located close to where our friends' house.

I love visiting and shopping at country stores!

This country store offers a great selection of store made frozen dinners, family size packages of frozen fruits, veggies, freshly baked pastries and desserts. 

The country store also has a year round Christmas store!

It is stocked with items such as blankets, throws, ornaments, decorative pillows, serving wares and gifts.

There was a nice kitchen offering some delicious soup and sandwiches before.

But due to the COVID19 pandemic, it was closed.

Too bad for us this time as we were unable to try these delicious country food.

But we did start our Christmas shopping early at the store.

Another place we enjoyed visiting was the Zwick's Centennial Park by the lake.

It is a beautiful waterfront park close to the city.

It is free, open to the public and easily accessible. 

We had driven by the city of Belleville many times on our way to Ottawa before.

Yet, we had never stopped by to enjoy what this beautiful small city has to offer.

Thanks to our friends who introduced us to some fantastic places in Belleville on our visit this time to the city.

Killing two birds with one stone is always good.

We did just that visiting Belleville this time and had a great time visiting our best friends.

We also got to know the beautiful city of Belleville a little better!

We look forward to exploring Belleville

 and hiking on its trails in our future visit to this beautiful growing city!

R.T.

Belleville, Ontario

Visiting Our Retired Friends in Belville, Ontario

Due to the COVID 19 restrictions, we have not travelled much since March, 2020.

Therefore it was a treat for us when our friends invited us for an overnight stay at their new home 

in Belville recently.

It felt so good to be driving out of Toronto lastweekend! After visiting my nephew at the rehab hospital in the morning, we gathered our things heading to Belville.

Belville is about 200 km east of Toronto, a two hours drive. The weather was cloudy, but dry and there was no traffic jam.

It was a pleasant drive as we enjoyed the changing autumn colour of the trees.  

It seemed like in no time at all and we arrived at our destination .

It was a marvelous feeling seeing our friends  whom we have known for three decades! 

H. & R. used to live in Toronto but have recently decided to change their life style, and moved to a small town.

They traded their trendy downtown condo in Toronto for a spacious 3 bedroom detached home in Belville..

At the beginning, H. was reluctant to give up his city life.

 But once he has moved into this beautiful home,  he has warmed up to the idea of living in this small town. 

Our friends took us around town to visit their favourite country store. They also showed us other amenities offered by the city of Belville.

We love our friends' brand new house - its spacious, modern and open. 

The best feature is the view of the forest from the dining room as the house is back to a trail leading to a park.

We spent time catching up, enjoying super delicious dishes prepared by Chef  Roger.

I even learned how to make a yummy vermicelli dessert!

We could hardly wait for the next day when we would go exploring the city and the trails behind the house!

R.T.

Belville, Ontario 

Herb Gardening - Developing a New Hobby During the COV19 Pandemic

A few weeks ago, Ontario announced that our cities would gradually open as the government started to easy some of the lock down restrictions. We were so excited! The first thing we did after the Phase 2 opening was visiting a hairdresser! Both my husband and I had our hair cut at the hair salon in Waterloo. It felt so good as we looked better groomed and tidy!

Now, Ontario cities are in the Phase 3 of the reopening and things are starting to get back to more normal, we hope.

Though many of us complained about being isolated at home, I quite enjoy this quiet time by ourselves. With more free time at home, I am able to enjoy our beautiful house and garden.

 Before COVID 19, we were driving around here and there, visiting different places every week. For the past months, I was able to spend more time in our garden. With more time at home, we tackled a long overdue gardening project – turning a wasted space in a corner of our garden and creating a herb garden.

My husband and I worked on our newly created herb garden everyday for a bit, after a couple of weeks, we now have different herbs growing such as basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and chives. We even added tomato and hot pepper plants.

In our second home in Waterloo, we also tackled the tiny long neglected backyard by the previous owner and hoping to transform this tiny garden into a small oasis for us! 

With help from Doug and his brother, we laid new patio stones down in an afternoon. We transplanted some perennials from our Toronto backyard and used most of the old things found in our city garden. After a few weeks, the transplanted shrubs are thriving and growing well.

We can’t be too proud about our two gardening projects and grateful for the extra quiet time at home to accomplish the jobs!

R.T.

A Happy Gardener

Sharing Our Best Friends' Celebration in Barrie, Ontario

Due to the many social distancing restrictions imposed by our government, we have not seen or gotten together with our friends for any celebrations for the past four months.

Bus Station, Barrie Ontario

Fortunately, in Canada and the province of Ontario, we have three levels of  responsible  governments that have the common sense of  being guided by science and  listening to medical and public health experts' advice. We are glad to see that our governments have been working together and are able to start lifting restrictions gradually and cautiously.

 Meridian Plaza, downtown Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Since Ontario has entered Stage 3 of the economic re opening and with keeping our social circles in mind, Ontarians are able to start visiting friends again outside of their home city!

Barrie's landmark  - A sculpture by the Kempenfelt  Bay

Downtown Barrie, Ontario

It was such a joy to drive out of Toronto and visit our friends in Barrie, a small town of about  136,000 people, north of Toronto. We visited Barrie numerous times before; however, this time, it felt special! 

 

Visiting our  best friends and hanging out with them was precious!

We wanted to take our friends out for lunch on their birthday.   Heeding the public health guidelines, we preferred outdoor dining anytime we eat out at restaurants. 

However, it was quite a challenge finding a restaurant that allowed for dining in as a lot of them still operating take out business only. 

We went to at least three local restaurants before finding one that was open., The Little D Family Restaurant.

Covered in her mask, the friendly waitress served us outdoor.  The Little D family restaurant served some delicious homemade Canadians  dishes.  We had  souvlaki , Fish and Chips, soups and Canadian hamburger. It was a delicious  dinner and both D & D enjoyed it!

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After lunch, we took a stroll in downtown Barrie and along the waterfront.  We discovered Barrie's remarkable landmarks such as the Sea Serpent, a beautiful sculpture adorning the lake front.

 

                            Sea Serpent, a beautiful sculpture adorning Barrie's waterfront.

No matter where we are, we always have so much fun with our good friends whom we have known for over three decades.  

After the visit to the waterfront, we went back to their house. We presented to them their birthday gifts and we had the birthday cake for dessert.

 

We missed each other a lot and we had a fun time together. I think the most difficult part of the pandemic was not able to see our loved ones and good friends. Seeing our friends again during the pandemic was precious.

I was glad of making the drive to Barrie and celebrated our friends' birthday with them in person!

R.T.

Barrie, Ontario

08212020