A Friend Came Over For Music Making and Curry Eating and Brought Along a Very Cute Cake

↑ Anticipating a good time ↑

On Sunday our friend Andrea came over. We met her in May at this event at The Royal Conservatory of Music, having both been invited by our mutual friend Izzy.

We got along right off having some laughs at the reception. She is also a musician, playing keyboards, and we've been wanting to get together to play some music together since then.

Last Sunday was the day for this. She came over in the late afternoon and we jammed out some of Nick's original songs. She's really good and it was a lot of fun.

Road Trip to Farmland

Before the rain began over the weekend, we had a few days of stunning weather here last week. On the summer-like Wednesday, we decided to take a little road-trip out to the countryside.

We didn't have a specific destination in mind so just started driving west and then turned north (at Hamilton). In under 45 minutes after leaving our door we found ourselves in a completely different setting. Don't ask me exactly which roads we traveled because we just turned here and there wherever it felt right.

A Middle of the Night Adventure : Nuit Blanche 2013

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/downtown-buildings-at-night.jpg" alt="downtown-buildings-at-night" width="640" height="427" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19849 blk-brdr">Overnight on Saturday there was a big art show here in Toronto called Nuit Blanche. This was the 8th year it has happened and the 5th time I've set out in the middle of the night to see what was out there.I must admit that I suffer from 'the-fear-of-missing-out' where this event is concerned, and the times that I did choose my cozy bed instead of venturing out, I ended up with the distinct feeling of regret in the morning.Those years that I didn't go had a lot to do with my dislike of crowded places. While I love living in a busy city, I prefer to observe things from the outskirts of any large crowd. And I had found that there were too many people gathering around the displays for me to find the event fun.So last year I thought I'd try a different tact. Rather than going out between midnight and 3am like I had before, this time I'd go to bed early and set my alarm clock for 4:00 in the morning. I tried to wake Nick up to come out but he decided to skip it. Then I very nearly just went back to sleep myself, but I rallied and went out by myself.The weather was perfect and since the bar crowds had completely cleared away by that late hour, I was very nearly alone (except for all the security people, but they were discreet and in the shadows). The experience was very surreal and cool. (My pictures of last year are here).This year I went with the same plan, and set the alarm for 3am. And this time Nick did get up and came with me.There was a factor that changed this year versus last though, that kept it from being just as perfect, and that was the fact that the moment we stepped out the door, the gently misting rain turned to a full-on downpour.

Caught in the Act : Cat Gets His Prize

There's no doubt that I will miss sitting in this chair outside once the weather turns. By the look of the weather today, my sessions out there are numbered for this year. But you never know because a couple of days last week we had gorgeous sunny weather with temperatures in the upper 20s.These pictures were taken last Sunday. There was nothing on my agenda in the afternoon so I made myself a nice cup of Cafe au Lait, and brought it and my recently thrifted light flannel blanket, along with a book, outside for a spell.

Bits and Pieces : September 2013

Hello and welcome. This is the monthly post where I put a selection of the photographs I took during the month, which didn't fit in anywhere else. I hope you like them.

I'll begin with this mini series of flowers I found on the ground, all within the same walk. You can see that it started to rain while I was out ...