Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post we moved over the winter. We bought our new house last year - put in the offer in October, and the offer finalized in November. The deal closed in the middle of January this year. We started moving during March and actually started living in the house near the end of March...we've been moving ever since though.

Two storage units and a 2-day garage sale later, we finally have the old house empty. What's left is just a few things in the yard to move out, and then go back and dig up the plants that I am bringing with me. Then it will all be over, except the crying.

I miss our old house - I think it's the first house I've ever missed. It's a little strange because we didn't raise our kids there, and we were only there 10 years. I also miss the neighbourhood; though living downtown had it's own brand of problems, the one thing we actually did have was more privacy than we've got now. Here, the neighbour's house (on either side) is maybe 3' away - the houses are so close that there's no windows on the side of the house. This new neighbourhood has a different feel - a lot of houses crammed into a small space with a lot of people in the houses. In the old neighbourhood we had one neighbour.

I like our house - I love it actually - it's open concept and easy to look after. It was, in fact, the house that drew us here. The neighbourhood is going to take some getting used to. I hope we can. So far, it's been way too cold to do much work outside but I'm worried that come summer it will be a noisy place to live - small backyards mean no privacy in terms of sound transfer, even with fencing. There's some dogs somewhere on the street behind us. Two of them bark constantly when they are outside. One day, it lasted the entire day. It almost drove me mad. I didn't have that to content with in the old neighbourhood.

Anyway, near the end of April we held a garage (one that lasted 2 days) to try and sell off the things we didn't need, and didn't have room for. Although the new house is pretty close to the same square footage (old house: 1500sf, new house: 1475sf), the old house had a cellar only good for storage and the new house has a basement (which we currently have under construction) that adds about 1100sf of additional living space. The thing is, we only have a single car garage and a small driveway, a postage-stamp yard means no room for outbuildings so there's no room for storage of things that have no use in the current house (ie: things we might want "later"...whenever later is). And, because the new house is open concept, there's not a lot of walls to place furniture, or install shelving, so there's no place to put a lot of 'knick knacks'.

The garage sale was highly successful - lots of people coming in out of the winter blues, and a lot of antique dealers too. We managed to sell most of the stuff, but still had a considerable amount to find a home for after it was all over.

Because we had so much we didn't need it literally filled up the main floor of the old house - hard to believe that amount of stuff was just the stuff we didn't need or want.

Anyway, it feels really good to declutter and simplify life...you should try it.

Some pictures of the "leftovers" just before the sale started.

Back in April (yeah, I know, I've been woefully behind with this blog) I took a walk down to the waterfront, just to see if the snow had finally melted and whether or not the lake was open. The Port was still mostly frozen in, the boardwalk was blocked off with construction fencing and the snow in the park had disappeared - all except for an unusual sight in the middle of the park.

There was a pond, where there had never been a pond. I couldn't tell if it was there on purpose, or if there was so much snow this winter, the ground just couldn't absorb it fast enough. Time will tell - I haven't had a chance to go back since then.

One morning last week I saw a person steal our garbage. Okay, yeah, sure...it's just garbage, but in this city you need a garbage tag (they cost money) to have your garbage collected. I've seen this particular person doing it before too, but until last week I had no idea why, or what was going on.  Instead of buying a sheet of garbage tags, he takes others garbage and puts it in his pail. It might seem like a small thing, and would be if it only happened once in a while, and you asked the neighbours...heck, if someone needed a tag that badly, I'd give it to them.

It happened again this morning - but not the same person. I started to wonder if the whole neighbourhood (save for those whose garbage actually had tags you could see) surreptitiously scrounges the garbage bags of others to save $1.50 (the cost of a tag).  Seeing someone steal your garbage...well, it sort of gives you the willies you know?

Anyway, the person this morning came to the door and let me know that my garbage was in their bin, and that they hadn't realized they were out of tags...this being garbage day you don't have time to run out and buy one. I mentioned that if they asked in future, I'd feel better and wouldn't mind, but just taking it is a little weird.

Okay, so it's still only garbage - stuff I don't want and have no need for, so why does it bug me?  It bugs me because I don't want to supply garbage tags to everyone who can't be bothered to buy their own that's why. So this week, we're heading off to buy a garbage bin of our own instead of a bag.

There are days when I encounter almost nothing that bugs me, and other days encounter only minor bugs. What happens to be a bug on one day, may not be on another.

Today, though, I encountered (not for the first time) one of the things that always bugs me. DRIVERS. Oh, not all of them of course, but those that appear to ignore the things that help to keep the rest of us save...things like traffic lights, stop signs and the rules like "pedestrians have the right of way".

Granted, pedestrians need to take a little care too - you can't just walk out into traffic and expect everyone to stop dead for you. Being a pedestrian and not a driver, I've learned over time (and a lot of "almost" incidents) that I need to take responsibility for my own safety too, because there's an awful lot of drivers who just think they can go wherever they like without worrying about those little things like people.

Today, at a crossing on the highway I waited patiently for the "red hand" (don't walk) to turn into the "white walker" (go). Traffic from the opposite direction was somewhat heavier than usual (well, it is Sunday and it was near noon). The light turned orange, then red from their direction, and my light turned green, then the walk signal changed and I was off...just as another car came through the red light - no stopping, no slowing down, didn't even look. Boy, that makes me hot under the collar. If I hadn't been looking in that direction I'd have been hit.

Coming home I walk through the large plaza complex that houses Walmart, Payless, Home Depot and a bunch of other shops. The entrance/exit for Home Depot is just before my last street crossing before I get to our subdivision (oh yes, did I forget to mention we've moved over the winter?). Most of the exits along the plaza have a large red stop sign for the cars coming out, but I guess the guy driving the truck that almost ran me down as I crossed the driveway must have never been there before, because he certainly didn't stop. I was lucky, and so was he. I'm not a small person - I'm an average size with long red hair so I'm not too hard to miss, but if I had been a child he wouldn't have seen me, and wouldn't have slammed on his brakes.

What is it with these guys?

As a photographer and artist I am often on the lookout for good places to purchase supplies - everything from photographic equipment and accessories to office supplies. Shopping the net can take longer than shopping locally, but the net has one advantage; it opens up the availability of world-wide shopping. That can be good for comparative purposes, or getting your hands on things you can't find in a small town.

When you shop locally you develop a knowledge of what's available, who has the best service, where the prices are most reasonable or competitive, and usually you can go home with your purchase in your hands. That can be a big plus when you're in a hurry.

Although some of those same things can be said of net shopping too - when you find good online shops you know where to go the next time, but finding that shop can take a lot of searching. As well, you have to wait for delivery, and often incur shipping charges and even duty fees if your order comes from outside your country of residence. The plus side is that you can order anytime of day or night, and if you aren't able to leave the house you can still get the things you need, because your order comes right to the door. The downside is that you often don't know what sites are trustworthy, or what sellers are honest.

Most of the time I opt to shop locally when I can, for a number of reasons. Shopping where you live powers the local economy. I'd rather spend my dollars in a shop that pays taxes to help keep our roads repaired or our street lights lit. Shopkeepers earn their income where I live; they also shop in other local stores, keeping the circle moving. There is a reciprocal relationship in local shopping - I buy in their shop, they may use my services, or send their friends or family to me.

The other thing I have found in shopping locally is that you can build good working relationships with the business community; you get better customer service in local shops too, particularly when you use the same shops on a regular basis. When you can't find something locally, many times the shop owner will go out of their way to find what you need and order it in.

Depending on where you live, shopping local can cost a little more, but I'd rather spend a few extra dollars in my home town and contribute towards making the place where I live a vibrant business community.

That being said, I do shop the net for things that just can't be had in a store; software mostly, large prints of my work sometimes, and greeting cards. A few examples can be found below.



Near Lagoon City, Lake Simcoe


Gull Lake from Gull Lake Park, Gravenhurst


Dawn Harbour, Port of Orillia


Downtown Living


Waterfront at Dawn, Port of Orillia


Sunrise on Harbour, Port of Orillia


Wasaga Beach


Langman Wildlife Sanctuary, Oro-Medonte Twp.

Here's another little winter annoyance - partly due to the snow, and partly the cold:



Little Bigfoot - found this little guy in the kitchen one day, climbing up my exercise mat which happened to be hanging over the top bar of another piece of exercise equipment. I can tell you that it freaked me out a little - a mouse isn't something I normally want to see. It took me a few minutes to recover and run for my camera, though I expected he'd scurry away as soon as he saw me moving. He (she?) didn't, he just continued climbing up that strap (which is only 3/4" in width). To give you an idea of his size, that black clip is only 1.5" from it's very tip to it's very bottom.

After a few minutes I realized he wasn't going anywhere and fired off a couple of snapshots - I figured nobody would believe that it was such a bold little critter.



Now, I've seen mice before - white mice, pet mice, even dead mice in the ceilings when we remodelled, but this is probably the first one I've seen with such big feet in relation to it's tiny body. "My, my, Mr. Mouse...what big feet you have!"

All in all, it must have sat on top of that exercise mat for well over an hour; I spent almost that long on my treadmill a few feet away, and it sat there the whole time. When my daughter came in it freaked her out a little, and a few minutes later my son-in-law came. Minutes after that the mouse finally figured out how to get down and landed on the floor...wandered around a bit and was trying to get into a plastic bag full of newspapers. By this time I was feeling a little sorry for it...it moved slow, seemed confused and frightened - it probably was sick (maybe even dying). We stuck a paperbag on the floor and when it was halfway in my son-in-law picked up the bag (of course Little Bigfoot fell into the rest of the way into the bag) and wanted to know what I wanted done with it.

By that time I didn't have the heart to kill it...we released him outdoors.



I'm pretty sure the reason he was indoors was because there was so much snow outdoors that finding food was probably difficult...finding warmth too. Our house is over 100 years old, and although the foundation and sill above it are in good shape, the front half of the basement is nothing more than dirt crawlspace. More than likely it would be very easy to access that area from the outside - the old furnace is in there too, so it's warm and comfy.

If there hadn't been all that snow, we wouldn't have had the mouse in the kitchen. In some ways, I'm not sure if that's bad - in the end I thought he was a cute little guy, and I didn't mind the visit, but I sure didn't want him living here.

Oh yeah, we do have a cat, but she slept through the whole episode.

Given the fact that we have been getting snow since last Friday (January 18th) I am beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by it. Firstly, I hate snow...absolutely hate it. Although it can be beautiful when it's still pristine and clean, it certainly has it's faults - one is that it's cold and I don't like the cold either; the other is that you have to shovel it.



For the most part I find shovelling snow to be good exercise (builds muscles in your back, legs, arms) and it gets me out of the house in winter (when normally I'd be hibernating indoors) it's gotten to the point where there's nowhere to put what you shovel. It's also getting sort of depressing to see so much of it, and apparently we will be getting more...right up until the end of the week.



The paper reports that as long as the snow continues falling at the rate they expect it to, we'll have received another metre of snow (that's just for this week folks) - a metre! Know how much that is? It's 39.something inches!!! The other day while I was out shovelling I ran in and grabbed my camera just to snap a few shots of the snow in the drive before I shovelled it all out. Yes, there is a car back there.



This one is a corner of our covered porch - a little tough to see at this smaller size, but it's still snowing onto the porch - that white thing? It's a wicker bird cage...or it was, anyways.



The fact that it's been snowing daily has put our moving plans into "holding" mode - it's a good thing we have that luxury right now, or our new house would be full of snowy boxes....melting all over the place.

From time-to-time I get the odd request for a quote to do a wedding. I don't do weddings...well, I have done the odd wedding (mostly for friends an family at a very reduced rate). There's a fellow photographer who lives a couple of blocks up the street from me (Farzin Solaimani) and HE does weddings. Having seen some of his work, I'd have no hesitation as recommending him - friendly, outgoing, personable and professional.

Have a look at his work, and if you know someone in or around Orillia planning their wedding, send them to Farzin for their photography!



Farzin Photography

Boardwalk at Port of Orillia (©J. Gracey Stinson)

In the last few years Orillia has noticed an influx of "city folks" - people coming from the large cities, buying up properties and taking on the "small town" life. It's been a while since Orillia was considered a small town - indeed, it's population ranks it as a small city.  Orillia has always made room for it's new residents, and people have been coming here from the city since long before I was born - from it's birth in the mid-1800s, in fact.


Samuel de Champlain Monument in Couchiching Beack Park (©J. Gracey Stinson)

The recent influx began with the building of Casino Rama, just outside of Orillia in Ramara Township on the land belonging to the Chippewas of Mnjikaning. The casino provided a lot of work in this area, and many people came here to live after acquiring work at the casino. That seemed to 'jump start' the migration  'north'. In the past, many people came to Orillia retire, but now we have young singles and families, as well as professionals seeking to become part of the life here.

That isn't the only reason though; as life in the cities (like Toronto) becomes harsher and the crime rate climbs beyond the place where people feels safe, many families look to smaller, safer places to raise their children. Orillia is not crime free; it has it's share of the pot in terms of drugs (seems to be no escaping that no matter where you live), assaults (most often between people who know each other rather than just random attacks), domestic violence, and break and enters. A few car/boat/atv thefts here and there, thrown in with the occasional murder (well, in truth we are lucky in that regard - I'd be surprised if there's one a year). Hardly a crime-less community, but certainly one whose statistics make people feel safer. Orillia is also home to the Ontario Provincial Police Headquarters.


OPP Headquarters (©J. Gracey Stinson)

As Orillia's long-time medical professionals approach retirement age, we have younger doctors (in all areas of medical care), dentists, nurses and administrators coming into the Orillia fold.



For some years now there has been a well-attended campus of the Georgian College here, and recently Orillia saw the opening of the Lakehead University (preparing to building their permanent campus in the coming year). That brings to "town" more professionals (teachers and administrators) as well as students.

As the population changes the demand for housing changes - for a few years the vacancy rate for rental housing hovered down around 1% or 2%. At times, decent affordable rentals were just not to be had. In the past couple of years, new subdivisions have been built at an alarming rate - well, alarming to me, anyways. I just kept wondering...where are they coming from? The people to fill all these houses...


The Orillia Opera House (©J. Gracey Stinson)

But Orillia is in a unique position - it is perhaps an hour and a half from Toronto's east end (less time from the west end); just about an hour from the airport; 20 minutes from Barrie; 45 minutes from King City (the home of Wonderland); less than an hour from Newmarket. People can live here and still commute to their jobs in the city. From the east end of Toronto to the west end takes more time to drive during rush hour than it does from Orillia. On top of that, Orillia's location between two lakes and surrounded by rural beauty makes it feel like a "cottage" community, but it offers all the benefits of a larger city. To make transportation matters even easier, Orillia has a well-established transit system, and the Simcoe airport is roughly halfway between Orillia and Barrie.


Simcoe Airport (©J. Gracey Stinson)

The historic downtown area houses many vintage buildings with unique boutique-style shops; the main street 'dead ends' in three connected, waterfront parks; we have a large, highly acclaimed and well-equipped hospital and Orillia is home to some of the finest artists in Canada - it has a large, talented art community. The Orillia Opera House is home to many productions, from plays to concerts by some of world's most popular entertainers. Numerous times throughout the year you can attend a Jazz Festival in Orillia; the Mariposa Folk Festival (a summer venue) boasts great entertainment and draws people from just about everywhere; April sees the Annual Perch Festival, with avid fishermen from as far away and the US coming to town; there's a Bass festival too, as well as events like the Annual Vintage Car show; and it has a Tribute Artist Weekend where you can watch tribute artists performing "Elvis", "Patsy", "Roy Orbison", "Shania Twain" and a lot of other favourites, complete with professional costuming. The yearly "Scottish Festival" draws over 15,000 visitors to Orillia each year.  The annual "Bike Show and Shine (for the motorycle lover in you).

These are only a few of the events in Orillia - throughout the spring to autumn months you'll find other things like the Home Show, the "In-water Boat Show", "The Cottage and Boat Show", the "Poker Run", sporting events like the Triathlon - essentially, every weekend has an event - sometimes more than one, and winter events like the "Winter Festival".


Cottage & Boat Show at Port of Orillia (©J. Gracey Stinson)

Cottage and Boat show at Port of Orillia (©J. Gracey Stinson)

cottage and Boat Show at Port of Orillia (©J. Gracey Stinson)

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 34 - they host many of these events. (©J. Gracey Stinson)

If you're an avid fan of winter sports, Orillia is the place to live - Orillia is a short drive from a number of ski-resorts offering downhill, and cross-country skiing, as well as tubing and snowboarding. Skidoo lovers can find groomed trails here - safe and well patrolled.


Wetland pond along Orillia's trail. (©J. Gracey Stinson)

We also have (besides the college and university) a sufficient number of highschools and, although there are some aging grade schools a new centrally-located public school is in the planning stages. Orillia is a multi-cultural centre, and as such has schools for Catholic and Christian education, as well as an Alternative School where single mothers can complete their schooling with a daycare on the premises - and also is a place for those who don't learn well under normal school auspices.

Downtown, Orillia has an excellent library - well stocked with everything from books to movies, and well-staffed. The library has outgrown the current building - a hybrid constructed from the original 1800s building with more modern additions at the front - and it's also in the final planning stages to construct itself a new home.


The public library with it's side garden. (©J. Gracey Stinson)

If you're health conscious, there's a number of good gyms in town (the newest being Genesis), as well as the YMCA and racquetball courts. There's dance studios, karate clubs, figure skating, gymnastics - almost anything you'd want to learn or participate in can be found here. Orillia's trail system winds along the waterfront areas - you can walk, or ride your bike for hours and not come to a beginning or ending, since it connects with the cross Canada trail system. Just outside of town is the Geo. Langman Wildlife Reserve; numerous provincial parks (Bass Lake, Mara, McRae Point), numerous private campgrounds (Heidi's). And of course, it's numerous beaches mean you can swim, or waterski to your heart's content.



Bass Lake Provincial Park (©J. Gracey Stinson)


Geo. Langman Wildlife Sanctuary (Oro-Medonte) ©J. Gracey Stinson

And on top of those good things - there's plenty of fine eateries - from the downtown's popular Ossawippi Express and Brewery Bay Restaurants, to Kelsey's, and Eastside Marios roadhouse style restaurants, and all manner of dining in-between, from the most expensive of steak houses to the fast-food outlets.


Ossawippi Express Dining Cars in Winter (©J. Gracey Stinson)


Sounds like a "dream place" doesn't it? In some respects, I guess it is, but when you live here, it has all the issues you'll find in many other cities - problems like road repair, complaints about the governing council, lack of family practitioners, neighbourhood issues (like whether or not a  "group home" or "retirement home"  should be built, or should we allow high-rise apartments and condos; how to develop (OR NOT develop) the waterfront areas; how much industry should we allow? How much commercial development and where? Water filtration, garbage collection, snow removal - you'll find plenty of complaints if you want to pick at the town - which you will if you live here.

On the whole though, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather live.

Back in October (2007) we purchased ourselves a new home - at long last. We had spent months looking - not that there wasn't plenty to look at, there just weren't many we wanted to live in that fell within our price range. Most of the time my daughter and I would do a "reconnaissance" by checking out the Open House listings and visiting those that held possibility - that started during the early summer months.

After looking at somewhere between 20 and 30 homes, we found one that had most of what we were looking for. We called our agent (Stewart McNeely) and made an appointment so my husband could see too...he liked it, but he is a little slow on the draw when it comes to getting himself together to make an offer. By the time he was ready, the house had a sold sign on it. Even today, after having bought the house we finally did buy, that first little house on Park Street would be my first choice.

The second house we looked into as a serious purchase was on Charles St. - I've forgotten how many times we looked at it - at least 3. By the time he was ready to make the offer...well, it had another offer that was about to close. Too late again. By this time I was feeling disappointed and very frustrated.

In the end, we settled on a newer home (about 3 or 4 years) in a newer subdivision - that was not what we had wanted; to live in a new subdivision where the homes are barely 3' feet from each other, with no mature trees...and quite likely a lot of kids (not that we don't enjoy children when they visit, but having a lot of little kids running around a subdivision can get a little nerve-wracking at times - my "alarm quotient" goes into high when I see kids playing near the streets). In the end though, the interior of the home won us over. It has a very flexible floor plan, and it was a "builder's model" home, so it contains many upgrades that other houses we looked at in that subdivision don't have. It's billed as a bungalow, but because it's the builder's model, it has the additional "loft space", which has a small sitting room, two bedrooms and full bath. The main floor has an open plan - living, dining, kitchen are all open to each other which gives the house a spacious feeling, even though it is not large. On the man floor is also a good-sized master bedroom (which I'll be using as a studio space until we are too old walk up and down the stairs), and a smaller bedroom at the front entry which will become my office space.  In the future, if we get too old to manage the stairs to the bedroom, we can move our master bedroom down to the main floor - there's a semi-ensuite: a door from the main floor bedroom to the main floor bath (full bath). It was this flexibility in living space that convinced us to buy this house.

What reminded me of all this...well, the deal closed on January 17th (yesterday) and we picked up the keys to our new house (picture below - which by the way, I didn't take - it was from the handout flyer at the open house).

Stewart was a big help in handling paperwork and other real estate stuff we know nothing about. He's been our agent for, oh, probably 15 years or more. He was even gracious enough to help me deal with a Toronto real estate agent who was selling my mother's condo for us - I think I might have killed the guy if it hadn't been for Stewart.

So, anyone from out of town looking for a referral to a good agent or company in Orillia - go see Stewart, or just go to his office at the Royal LePage/Real Quest Realty building on Andrew St. (#19) Orillia, or call them toll free 1-866-933-9733. He also hosts this cool little website with information about Orillia called Northward Living - you can contact him through there too.

Over the course of the 30+ years I've lived in Orillia, I've come to understand that what keeps "transplants" from the city living in Orillia is sometimes more than the unhurried pace of the life, the safer environment (not 100% safe - nowhere is, but certainly much safer than Toronto or other large city areas), the friendly people - sometimes it's just the sheer beauty to be found here. If you take time to stop and look around you, there is beauty in the houses, the downtown buildings, even the highway areas are surrounded by nature.

Take time to have a look at some of my efforts to document the passing of days and years in this place I call home. (To see the larger image, click on the picture).


A single swan on Lake Simcoe - not far from the narrows bridge in an area where the marshy reeds grow tall.





The Stephen Leacock boathouse on Lake Couchiching




A cold and misty morning at the Port of Orillia.





Dawn on the docks at Port of Orillia




A series of images combined into a triple triptych poster image of the passage of dawn over the Highway 12 & Mississaga overpass.





A dramatic evening at Bass Lake (near the end of the 13th Concession of Oro).





A rural road just outside of Orillia, in Oro/Medonte Township: the radiant autumn colours of Orillia.



(interested in these prints? click the image to view purchasing information).

One of my latest endeavours is creating greeting cards (RedBubble Cards) (Zazzle Cards) and I've just begun on a series focusing on local interest images. A few that are prepared and ready for sale:

Local Interest Cards - Orillia

Samples:

This time, the joke's on me - while shooting some family-type photos last weekend my daughter decided it was time for someone to shoot me - something you'll rarely find is me getting on the flip-side of the camera. I am not particularly photogenic, so I tend to run when someone else is pointing the camera. While I was busy shooting the kids, she was busy shooting me - frankly, I don't think she got my best side:

Having recently had a conversation with a fellow photographer about frames and mattes, I figured it was about time to post this. One place I find really great for ordering pre-prepared greeting cards with spaces forphotos/art is the Photographer's Edge - you can order from them by catalogue or on the internet; superb card-stock with a method for inserting your photos that is more professional than most I've seen - you can also order the cards with pre-printed backs that have your business info & name on them.

But probably my favourite shop for buying pre-cut mattes for smaller photos is the dollar shop on Mississaga St. in Orillia. You can buy 8" X 10" mattes (usually in pink, blue, black, red and ivory) with the opening cut to display a 5" X 7" photo - this size comes at $1 each matte - some have oval openings and some are square. They also have 5" X 7" mattes cut to display a 4" X 6" photo - these are usually 2 in a package.

The Dollar Store is probably also my all-time favourite place to buy 'props' for photo shoots - over the course of a year they have a large variety of small decorations, decor objects, garden trinkets and other paraphernalia that is perfect for small shoots - include in that list some interesting "junk jewelery" that looks good in a photo. They always have at least one aisle of 'holiday' fare - right now they have this holiday aisle filled on one side with Halloween related objects, and the other side has Christmas stuff already. For the stock photographer this means you can buy well in advance of the holiday in order to shoot and upload your stuff before the holiday arrives. The other thing I like about this shop is their "after-holiday" sale. If you wait til the holidays are over you can often buy some of the left-over or slow-selling stuff at 4/$1, and sometimes 10/$1, so you can buy after holiday and pack it away til you want to use it. I'll often do this; I bought some things last Christmas at 4/$1 and put them in my "tickle drawer" (sort of a take off on the old "tickle trunk") - a couple of drawers in my office I keep filled this interesting minutiae of things to photograph when the mood strikes.

Apart from the obvious for a photographer, you can also buy most office supplies here too - all manner of envelopes, paper, pens, pencils, art pencils and artists erasers, sketch pads (some pretty decent ones), measure tools of all sorts, stamps and stamp pads, scrapbooking supplies (for those who are 'into' that), ruled paper, notebooks galore - almost everything a small business needs to keep their office running - a smaller business doesn't need five thousand paper clips, even if they are a good deal - so it's nice to be able to buy things (like ballpoint and felt pens - even sales books, message pads, and fax papers) in smaller quantity as I need them.

The things I buy frequently in here are sunglasses (loads to choose from, often quality glasses like Foster Grants - at any given time I probably own at least 10 pairs in different styles with different lens colours) and reading glasses. I need glasses to read smaller print these days, but my vision doesn't seem to have changed enough for my eye doctor to order me up a prescription, so the dollar shop glasses fit the bill pretty well. Different frame styles and colors give you 'something for every outfit' for very little money - oh, and they make great props too...not to mention that if you happen to be like me (I can misplace a pair the minute they come off my face) you can leave a pair in every room in the house, and always have a pair at hand.

Let's see...oh yeah...this year I also got some really great t-shirts - white - in kids and adult sizes. Not the undershirt-type, but a nice soft easy-wear cotton blend t-shirt, which I use to iron on my business logo, web address and sample photos. I wear them when I am out shooting (for fun...I dress for business shoots), or when I am working out, when I am just out walking, or working in the garden - when we go for a drive - pretty much anywhere. It's good advertising for $1 a shirt

I also bought my granddaughter a very nice dress (brand name, which I won't mention) - black velvet with cute 'floatie' sleeves with bows on the ends; sometimes I can get good tank tops there for workouts - recently they've got some black "bbq" style aprons which would be good for promoting a business once you get your logo on them, and some heavy canvas shopping-style (re-usable) bags - blank - that you can do the same with.

Hands-down, this has to be my all-time, mostly-shopped store on the main street, or 'downtown'. (Don't forget your toothpaste/toothbrush, hair essentials and snacks while you're there!)

This is interesting...I can find no way to edit an already published blog entry...what's up with that?  Once again MS pretty much sucks at what it does...

The website link for The Computer Smith's was obviously wrong. Here's the right one:

The Computer Smith's website

Recommendations: The Computer Smiths

Here's a local business that gets my business all the time. The Computer Smiths - they run a "repair" shop to help your ailing computer, but it's much more than that. They also do upgrades, look for software when you can't find it, make housecalls, offer IT service, and generally just offer pretty good service period, at a time when customer service is lacking in many businesses - oh yeah, if you really want, he can even build you a computer.

Tom Smith owns the shop, and their offices are located on Mississaga Street - a few doors "up the road" from my house - which makes life even easier for me. You can find them right here:

118 Mississaga Street West
325-4200

or online at 222.computersmiths.ca

Well, I am woefully behind on this blog. Life in Orillia carries on, no matter whether you blog or not!

Sometime back in June or July (sorry, I've forgotten the date) Orillia experienced it's first "Bike Show'n'Shine" held in the parking area outside the Royal Canadian Legion. I made a trip down to the show to try and get in a few shots of the bikes, and maybe some of the bikers, but the appeal of those beauties (the bikes, not the bikers) was lost since they were all crowded into the very small parking area outside the Legion.

The event this year was hopefully only a harbinger of things to come - while there were quite a few bikes, this is an event that I'd like to see filling up the entire park area, with a thousand bikes or more.

I talked with a few of the owners that I knew - Murray (who rides an interesting converted bike - it's not a "trike") and Blue, who owns an amazing blue 1955 Harley. It has a lot of modifications - one I found interesting and photographed was the bottlecap from a Molson's Blue beer bottle.

Anyway, I managed a few photos of the general show, and took a series of Blue's bike (of which 3 are completed, but there's still 2 to complete, including the one of the bottlecap).

We live in town, right on the main street as a matter of fact. About a 5 minute walk from the main downtown shopping area, and directly across from the hospital. The street is busy, and dusty and you see all manner of things living here. Sitting on our front porch watching the world go by is an interesting pastime for us.

At various times through the year, the parades hosted on the main street go by our house; the Scottish Festival, the Santa Claus Parade, a few others I don't pay as much attention to. We have ringside seats.

During the spring to autumn months, vintage cars of all descriptions, as well as motorcycles, parade past our front door in a fairly regular stream. So do people on foot; the elderly, the young, the not so young, people with dogs on leashes, people with babies in strollers, even a lady with a dog in a stroller; people on crutches, people with odd clothing and incredible hairstyles, teenagers on skateboard, kids on bikes, people inebriated by their choice of alcohol and drug. Some of it's pleaseant, some of it's not, but most of it is interesting to watch on warm summer evening.

On a daily basis we pray as fire engines, ambulances and police cars scream by our house, sometimes stopping within site of our front door - sometimes we see fender benders, sometimes family spats, sometimes a 'raid', once, a 'standoff' a couple of doors up the street where a man had barricaded himself and his family in an apartment in a duplex.

Not long after we moved here we had people just walk into our home off the street - once a mistake, the man thought he had the artists studio next door to us, and another time a woman who had too much to drink walked in and ordered us to phone her a taxi. My husband showed her out the front door. From then on, we kept a latch on the screen door.

In the years we've lived here we've had a number of things stolen from the front (can't really call it a yard since it's a couple of steps from the sidewalk) - planters with plants in them, plants taken out of the planters, plants that have been dug out with a shovel from the garden, stepping stones, garden signs, a snow shovel, a hose, even rocks. Just ordinary rocks, not the kind you pay for, but the big ones you pick up anywhere in the countryside out of a ditch. Who would bother to dig up and steal a rock? Someone also took a liking to the city's "No Parking" sign on the boulevard out front - one morning we found it mysteriously missing.

I made my own garden signs and stepping stones from concrete and stained glass, the signs of hand painted wood, so I just kept replacing them for the first few years. After a while though, you get a little tired of it. Finally, the last garden stone I made had a large ring of iron embedded in it before the concrete dried and my husband chained it to one of the yew trees out front. I buried the chain in the garden so it looked fine. Two or three nights after I put it in the garden, someone tried to make off with it. I'm sure whoever it was ended up with a sore shoulder the next day. We found it in the middle of the sidewalk with one corner broken off, but still attached to it's chain. From the look of it, someone had grabbed and tried to run with it - when it came to the end of it's chain, it likely gave the runner a pretty good jerk. It's still in the front garden.

Besides having things taken, we've had things left - an unending stream of garbage and cigarette butts: candy wrappers, rubber gloves, kleenex, baindaids, paper bags, plastic bags, coffee cups, pop tins, gum, grocery receipts, cardboard from toys and games, socks and gloves, beer bo