This and that

I am up well before the birds today.  It is now 3:56 a.m. and I have been up for a couple of hours.

Coffee tastes great at this hour, and it certainly is very quiet.  Nobody on the street, only a few taxis cruising around down town. No pedestrians scurrying across the road at the lights, no dogs barking, no people lounging about in the park.

In short, quality time with a good cup of coffee and peace and quiet!

For the last couple of evenings, I have been going to bed about 8 or 8:30 and catching up on my sleep from the weekend in the country.  I need to rest up a little bit before my guest comes from Peterborough to visit for four days.  It will seem strange to have to cook for somebody else.  My friend is diabetic so this will be somewhat of a challenge to figure out what to serve.

I have made a plan for the time here and my friend Mohammad will go with us to Burlington to explore since he knows the area well.  We plan to take the Burlington bus to get there, and  then take the Hamilton bus in Burlington to get home.  This way my friend will see more of Hamilton.  My grown up children are also coming on the Saturday and all of us will enjoy time at the waterfront.  My friend and I will go to church on Sunday and then I plan to go to the event at Whitehern as my friend will leave right after lunch to visit relatives in Toronto.

It will be a busy time and I am sure I will need a rest.  Summer time is the time to visit people, not in the dead of winter, with winter storms brewing and snow falling!  I tend to hibernate at that time, just going over to the mall near me and sending more time in my cosy little apartment. Thankfully in that mall is the main library and many shops where I can get anything I basically need.

Speaking of my cozy little apartment, I continue to try and downsize, and over the last few days I have made a new arrangement for the sitting room which I think will work out better.  With so little space and large furniture, it is difficult.  I am so thankful that I do not have carpets on the floor or otherwise it would be extremely difficult to move heavy furniture!

I sometimes think that I forget I am elderly and believe that I can do things the same way as I did when I was thirty or forty years of age!  Then I used to change my much larger sitting room in Toronto at least every two weeks.  I love doing that as it gives a fresh look each time.  Better than moving and much cheaper!

My cell phone died yesterday.  I thought my service had been cut off as I hadn't checked my account for at least a year but I called Telus and no, everything is fine, in fact I have a large credit.  The dear old phone is the most simple model and I was the third person owning it.  It has done really well.  Telus helped me to find another simple one (no smartphone for me - too complicated) and I plan to purchase it today.  I need it for safety reasons.  I often go where there are no phones available and I keep it for emergencies only.  That is why I have a big balance. I still have not completely mastered the tablet that my son gave me but that is because I haven't been anywhere where there is Wi Fi.  I will get it.

I also may go to Peterborough in August or September for a short visit to my friend, and I was thinking of taking the train to Montreal but that is very tentative. I probably won't have the energy to do both.

Another friend has invited me to visit him in Toronto and that is a possibility as well.  He lives in the High Park area.  I have always loved High Park, especially the chipmunks.  The children and I used to go almost every week there for a picnic in the summer - that or Center Island. I would just go for the day though as it is close enough to return home.  Perhaps his sister would come over as we are very good friends.  It would be so lovely to see her as well. They are originally from India.

Center Island meant we would have to take the Ferry boat across the water which was wonderful for both myself and the children and it was quite reasonable at that time.  I don't know the price any more. High Park, of course, is free.  I also loved going to Ward's Island which has people living there in houses.  They are cottages and remind me of a more gentle time where neighbours knew each other and looked out for each other.  I remember the children and I taking a picnic lunch there and a fellow on a bike came over and said he was hungry so we shared our food with him.  I was glad to share and thankful that I had brought enough food along.  Those were the days when I would go all out with a picnic, potato salad, green salad and fried chicken.  Dessert too, of course!  If there was no picnic table available, we would spread a blanket on the ground and eat our picnic lunch there.

Now if I tried that, even if I could get down on the ground, which is very debatable, I certainly could not get up again!

Lots of plans fermenting in my brain for this summer, mostly I will spend time reading at the waterfront and going with Sami and Mohammad there.  The little free bus to Pier 8 will start at the end of June I believe and that makes it much easier to get down there.  I am so thankful for Hamilton's waterfront, the free bus, good friends and quiet and reflective times by the water.

The Pan Am Games are coming to Hamilton and I would imagine the traffic will be bad.  I am glad that I don't have any plans for that time.  There will be music both at Gage Park and Gore Park, all free.
The music runs most of the summer.

What a blessing it is to live in a smaller area where it is easier to get around and people don't seem as rushed as in Toronto.

Thanks for dropping by.

Best shot I think of the sunrise

Another view of the sunrise

Sunrise and sunset are gorgeous in their beauty.  Today it is threatening rain so the sunrise is not as beautiful as it could be.  It is interesting though.