Wednesday Trip to Jones Falls Lock

On our way to Jones Falls Lock

It was such a lovely sunny day with no humidity and a cloudless sky so we took off for Jones Falls Lock.

It's just up ahead!

Steps from the parking lot to the lower level leading to the road to the lock.

Butterfly on a leaf

Jones Falls Lock

You can see the gates need to be replaced. We saw the replacements at Doors Open a few weeks ago. The replacement will be done this Fall.

 Gordon wanted to see the blacksmith shop (on the left in the photo below).

Our destination on the left.

Some serious trail climbing to get there.

The blacksmith was in residence.

The Smithy at the door to the blacksmith shop.

I had to traverse two of these to get there and back. Not my favourite thing to do.

Swamp iris

Sweet william growing along the trail.

By the time we got back to the lock I had shaky legs and we were both hungry and thirsty so we decided to try our luck eating at the Hotel Kenney. (Warning: this site contains a fairly long video.)

Hotel Kenney at the lock. Established in 1877.

We were early for lunch so walked around the hotel and took some indoor photos. It's quite an interesting old hotel. In the parking lot were all kinds of vehicles from various U.S. states. I was amazed that someone from the U.S. would have found this place but apparently it's quite popular with fishermen and people just coming to relax.

I thought this pig was kind of neat.

The living room and the lobby of the hotel.

The front porch (enclosed) with lots of rocking chairs.

This is a phone booth.

The bar/library.

Self portrait

I love rocking chairs (photo by Gordon)

We had asked at the front desk if they had anything gluten free and the lady was very knowledgeable about it. She said she could fix something up for us. I told her about my food problems and told her today was my 'salmon' day so that's what they fixed for me with a nice salad with avocado and dried cranberries just like I would have fixed myself at home. Cudos to Hotel Kenney!

Lunch in the dining room overlooking the lock (photo by Gordon).

The official greeter, Lennox.

Arriving home just before 2 p.m. I took myself to my swing with my book and spent a couple of lovely hours there.

New sink and counters

Kitchen counters are called Deepstar Bronze. If you click on the link you can see it better.

Kindred granite composite sink - white

You can see a strip between the old tile and the new counter backsplash. This is what we need to get our floor installer (also tile expert) in to work his magic. On the window side, he can use trim or tile might look nice there too. We'll have to see what he comes up with.

Happy Birthdays!

Today is my nephew and Godson's birthday. Happy Birthday Nick!

Also Happy Birthday to my friend Laura!

Today (Monday June 25th) our new sink and counter tops went in. They look wonderful except the counter back splash is not as high as the old one so we'll have to get the guy who installed our floor to come in and find a fix for that.

Photos to follow.

The chiropractor seems to have fixed my shoulder problem, at least for now. I do still have spasms in my ribs and numbness and tingling in my left hand but hopefully that will go away soon. The shoulder feels soooo much better. I haven't done much yet as I'd like it to have a few days before I start doing anything strenuous.

Haven't done anything about the fridge yet. We had another expense today. The last several days we've noticed water seeping out from under the downstairs toilet. We're thinking, Oh, no, what now? So we called, Donnie, our plumber. He was stumped for a while but finally located the problem. The hose from the air conditioner was just laying there leaking condensation. I guess when they redid the plumbing no one noticed the air conditioner hose and didn't route it to the drain. Anyway, that's fixed. What's next?

Our basement windows went in on Wednesday and they look great. Unfortunately the caulking smells really bad but that should be gone by tomorrow. Then we need to paint the trim pieces.

Friday was a beautiful day, humidity mostly gone and the sky had some interesting clouds so after Gordon finished at the dentist we took off for a drive. Below are a couple of barns we saw that looked interesting with the sky.

 The following photos of lupins, daisies and butterflies were taken at a new condominium subdivision being built near Murphy's Point Park called Otty Woods. The lupins and daisy combination in front of the pine trees was gorgeous!

This was another back road that we traveled down. Lots of hills but not a lot of scenery.

 It was a nice little outing. We hadn't been out for some time and today was perfect for it!

Before we went for our afternoon drive, I was out weeding and now my shoulder is aching again, not as bad but I had such high hopes!

More Visitors

This was family weekend. My sister, Betty from Toronto via the cottage at Lindsay arrived early Saturday afternoon to stay with us for a couple of days. My cousin, Terri and her son, Benjamin arrived from England at my sister, Margie's in Ottawa late Saturday afternoon.

After Betty arrived I gave her the tour of Smiths Falls and we looked around downtown. She even bought a pair of pants at Vickie's. Betty has lost a lot of weight over the past 1 1/2 yrs so she brought me lots of clothes. She is a shadow of her former self. Saturday evening she and I sat out on the swing and chatted for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful evening.

As you know I've had trouble with my shoulder resulting from a pinched nerve. The last time I saw the doctor last week she put me on Lyrica. I started at 1/day so Sunday I started 2/day. Consequently I spent 5 1/2 hours reading and napping outside on the swing while Betty went to Ottawa to go shopping with Terri, Danica and Margie. I can't walk very far due to the drag on my arm.

Monday afternoon Betty, Gordon and I piled into our Squirt and headed for my sister, Margie's house in Ottawa. I had brought my food with me as it was my 'fish' day. It's been a long time since we've seen cousin Terri and an even longer time since we've seen her son, Ben so it was great catching up with them.

Back row: BIL John, Husband Gordon, Cousin Ben
Front row: Sister Margie, Me, Niece Danica, Sister Betty, Cousin Terri, Nephew Nick, Nick's wife, Becky and Great Nephew Jack.

Ben with Jasper (the dog)

Terri

Great nephew, Jack, has grown since we last saw him at Easter. He's now walking and has 3 teeth! He's a really cute little guy.

 Betty left this morning (Tuesday) heading back to the cottage so we're alone again.

I went out looking at refrigerators today. Ours works ok but it's really old and is not an energy saver. I also have a chiropractor appointment today to see if he can work more on my pinched nerve. The joys of getting old!

Visitor from the Canadian West

A couple of weeks ago there was a tweet on Facebook that someone from Alberta was coming to Brockville, Ontario to visit a relative. We scrambled around with our calendar to see if we could make a visit with us happen. Usually we're wide open but the last couple of weeks with the flooring going in and preparing for my sister to arrive this coming weekend and my cousin coming from England to see us it's been a busy time. That on top of doctor's visits and my bum shoulder. Anyway, today was the day!

The visitor is Brenda Brown. I had no idea she had relatives within about 40 minutes from our house. We chatted back and forth about her coming to us or us going to her. We decided that Gordon and I would go to Brockville. Arrangements were made for us to pick her up at her nephew's house.

After picking her up we headed west on the Thousand Islands Parkway to Gananoque. Picked up some coffee and water at Timmie's and went to the park. Here are Brenda and I at the St. Lawrence River.

We spent an enjoyable couple of hours together, then dropped her back at her nephew's place and headed for home.

Although we've known each other through the rv-dreams chatroom, Facebook and one brief meeting in Kerrville, TX in 2009 it was great to get to know her better. She says next time JB is coming with her! Hope to see both of them soon!

New Floors

Since Tuesday of last week we've had a contractor here from shortly after 8 a.m. to sometimes as late as 7:30 p.m. installing new floors in our kitchen, dining room and bathroom and putting in new stairs to the back door.

We had looked at flooring at Rona (our Canadian Home Depot), gotten the quote and found that the contractor was able to start right away. He thought it would take 4 days. So far it's been 5 1/2 days and there are still a few things left to do. I have to say he's done a beautiful job.

We decided to go with vinyl. It has changed so much over the years. This is sheet vinyl and he managed to use one piece to do the kitchen and dining room so there are no cuts. It looks like wood and feels like wood with the texture of the flooring. I love it!

While he was doing the bathroom we decided to get a new toilet since the old one had been leaking and despite a couple of supposed fixes, it didn't stop leaking. Now we have a brand new toilet but elected to keep our wooden toilet seat.

Here are some photos:

This is the old dining room floor prior to our moving in - ugly cheap laminate, impossible to clean without showing marks

This was under the laminate

New floors-one piece through dining room and kitchen

Bullnose goes all around the railing and steps

Old steps were covered in the same laminate as the floor and they were cracking

New steps hand made by our contractor

Kitchen floor when we moved in (up until Tues)

Old linoleum under ugly blue tile

You can see the new kitchen flooring above in the dining room photo.

The bathroom had old white linoleum, not properly cut.

Our house had baseboards but no quarter round so we now have lots of quarter round. Looks great!

Next- basement windows
After that - Kitchen counter, granite composite sink and taps

A Tai Chi Celebration and Flooring?

Yesterday, Monday June 4th was a chilly day for this time of year with some sprinkles and lots of cloud. However this week is the celebration of Kingston's 35th anniversary of Taoist Tai Chi and Smiths Falls is part of the Kingston branch. Yesterday was the day that Kingston and the surrounding towns piled into a bus, headed to Smiths Falls complete with the Taoist Tai Chi dragon and conducted their celebration here hosted by our group. First on the agenda was for the dragon to walk a few blocks from the Seniors Centre where the tai chi group meets to Kinsmen Park in downtown Smiths Falls beside the Town Hall.

I have to say that Gordon and I were not part of the group. We have not attended since I got this pinched nerve in my neck (degenerative disc disease confirmed by CT scan) so we just attended to take photos. Because I had been on my feet so much in the last two days we only stayed for one demo of the 108 Taoist Tai Chi moves and then continued on our way.

Here comes the dragon!

Along Beckwith Street (main street downtown)

The head of the dragon - it's quite impressive

 Some of the tai chi moves

They were having a luncheon at the Seniors Centre as well but it was Chinese food and neither of us can eat it.

From there we headed to our local Rona (a very much smaller version of Home Depot) where we had received a quote to replace our dining room, kitchen and bathroom floors. We got everything set up and the installer dropped by last night and they're starting this morning! So last night was spent getting the kitchen cleared out as that's where they're starting - fridge, stove and dishwasher has to be removed. So we're living amidst all this for the next four days but it's going to look so good!

Stay tuned for photos!