Clouseau, the Velveteen Rabbit, and an eat in kitchen

I am a lucky woman. Yesterday Jeremy decided that it would be nice for me to have some down time and go shopping, while he cleaned the house. I found some crazy deals at Club Monaco- t-shirts for $5 kind of great deals!! Feeling great about the fantastic purchases, I came home to find our kitchen furniture totally rearranged!! Our centre island is now serving as a room divider, and we now have an "eat in" kitchen! I love it!

Last night we went for dinner at our friends house, and on our way home decided to take some pictures of some graffiti we had noticed a few weeks ago:

When we first saw this one, it was one complete shadow portrait (minus the car dragging a gangsta). I think it is of the Velveteen Rabbit...... What do you think?

students, students, students

Thank goodness for the time change. I think that this is one of my favourite nights of the year. Last year we were in the process of moving into our little coach house, and we completely forgot about the time change, until we were on our way to pick up the u-haul. However, tonight the time change is part of the plans, and we plan to savour every second of the extra hour. Yay sleep!!

And sleep is totally needed. I got 2 calls this weekend for new students, so I am now up to 25 students!! 7 at SCS, 8 at the studio on Saturday's, and 10 private students. Sixteen of them are half an hour lessons, one is a 45 minute lesson (although he might move up to an hour after Christmas) and 8 of them are full hour lessons, and just one of those hour students are at the studio. It's good. It's busy, but I find teaching to be incredibly rewarding. And it is always challenging- plus you never know what kinds of stories the little kids are going to tell you!!! So far this year, I've learned about 25 different pet names, know more kids favourite foods than I ever thought I would, and am constantly hearing about various adventures- from trips to foreign places to school field trips. My time teaching is always interesting!!! Another thing I am enjoying this year is that I now have a few advanced students- working on Grade 8 RCM or above. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to teach MUSIC. As much as I totally love teaching the cute little beginners, it has been fantastic to have a variety of levels and repertoire to work on.

So, I feel like I'm officially making it as a musician. I am playing gigs, doing some sub work, and teaching up a storm. It's been over a year and a half since I had a non-music job, and I have to say it feels pretty good to start to be able to make ends meet doing something I love. Now if only we had a house (with a garden), with a separate music studio so Jeremy didn't have to hide out somewhere while I'm teaching........ well, a girl can dream can't she??!!

one of the perks of teaching...

Pictures* from People's

Ahh, you have to love People's. It's kind of hard to see, but they are actually waving at us (from the window on the right) for this picture! Also- the caution taping is Halloween decoration, just incase you were wondering!!

Our friends Melissa and Michael, and a semi view of the kitchen (to the right), and the bar seating (behind).

Jeremy and I, totally full. I like this picture, because it's hard to determine just exactly what Jeremy is thinking!! Is he full and content? Is he looking wistfully at the Jukebox wishing we'd brought some change? Or is he enjoying the feel of the cashmere sweater he bought me for my birthday??

*Pictures courtesy of my new and amazing digital camera!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Bowling, Boxes and Brunch!

I had a great birthday weekend. Saturday night was so fun- bowling was a riot!! The first ball I threw was a strike, and it stayed pretty similar until my arm got tired toward the end of the 2nd game. Who would have thought?!! I won the first game, and Jeremy won the 2nd game. After 2 hours of glow in the dark, black lighting and disco lighting we headed out to the pub by our place, where we celebrated with a few drinks, and some fun conversation.

We slept in, and then after presents and phone calls, we headed out to our old neighbourhood and had brunch at the best greasy spoon in Toronto- People's. Melissa stayed with us for the weekend, which was such a nice surprise and it was lovely to have her as our guest and to have brunch with her and Michael.

A luxurious nap in the afternoon was followed by a rehearsal last night with the Toronto Wind Orchestra, and I was again spoiled by my friend Laura who surprised me with cake (complete with flaming candles) and a bottle of scotch.

It was my best birthday since I moved to Toronto, and I would like to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and cards and wishes. I love you and miss you!!

I like packages

For (I think) the first time since Jeremy and I moved into our coachhouse, we got packages delivered to our door!! In the past I have had to trek to the not so close post office to pick up parcels and such- but not today!! And thank goodness- because it is raining and grey outside.

So now I am faced with a predicament...... do I go crazy and tear with excitment into my packages right now? Or do I wait until Sunday...... crazy tearing or patience, crazy tearing..... Personally, I'm all for the craziness...... but maybe I should wait until my actual Birthday! 2 days to go.

It's been a busy month. I am doing a ton of teaching, and loving every minute. My students are a varied range of ages and levels- so it is always interesting and challenging. I just started teaching a 12 year old boy this week, (at his house- can you say PETS galore!! They have 2 dogs, and 4 cats!) and tomorrow I have 3 new students starting at the studio. So I'm up to 22 students now.

I had my shellfish allergy test a couple weeks ago- and was disappointed to find out that I am not a mutant freak, and am still severly allergic to shellfish. Boo. No busting out to Red Lobster in celebration- instead Jeremy got to toss the tempting shrimp ring in the trash. Believe me, there were tears shed.

There are exciting plans for my Birthday weekend!! For the past 2 years, I've had gigs for pretty much the entire day and evening, but this weekend I am free!! Tomorrow night we are going 10 pin glow bowling, which should be a riot. I'll bring the camera. Before that we're heading over to our great friends Matt and Michelle's to have pre-bowling dinner and drinks. After bowling we'll hang out with friends at the local pub. And then Sunday is free for breakfast and presents. And to top it off, I just found out last night that my friend Melissa is in town for the weekend, and will be staying with us!! YAY!

Time to tidy up and then get some groceries!! Must resist the tempation of the temptingly tempting packages........

Girl vs Treadmill

Okay- I know I'm supposed to be cleaning...... but I was just taking a quick break, browsing a few blogs- and found this. It gets funnier the more you watch it. I love the sounds..... I promise to write a real post soon......

maybe an excitingly exciting new hobby......

For the past few days I have been working on a new update for my teaching blog. I wanted to add something new that my students could learn about, that was both fun and flute related. Maybe some Thanksgiving flute trivia? Well, surprise, surprise, there is not an abundant amount of fun Thanksgiving flute trivia floating around out there. This got me thinking. "What could I post about, that I find interesting, that most students might find neat, that they don't know about already?"

Enter my dizi- or chinese flute!! With a few fun sound samples and pictures, there's a new bit of trivia over there that you might want to check out. I'll post the answers in a few days. To check out Fun Flute Trivia #1, click here!

The most exciting thing about this for me is how EXCITED I find myself getting when I listen to this instrument!! I love the quality of the sound. So...... I'm thinking about taking some lessons, since the Conservatory now has Traditional Chinese Instrument classes!! Click here to see their web page. It's just a thought right now, albeit a very tempting and exciting thought!!!

one of my favourite things

I love autumn. It is one of my favourite times of the year. I love so many things about it. The leaves changing colour especially out here in Ontario!! It is so RED! I love the crisp air, cardigans, being able to wear my mukluks again, and the way the floors start to creak early in the cold mornings. I love watching the steam from my tea or coffee while wrapped in a blanket, and I love seeing the first signs of Halloween- (my favourite Holiday other than Christmas!!). I love eating the fresh squash and baking things with pumpkin, and eating warmer heartier meals like stew, soups, and curries. Of course I get excited because my Birthday is in October..... But I also get excited at the thought of wearing toques and mittens and scarves! Today I'd like to share one of my newest favourite things about fall (I just discovered them in the past 3 years!) with you.

Chinese Lanterns!!
Enjoy!

he's not so eeency weency.....

But he does have only seven legs!! We're thinking about keeping him and naming him 'Lucky'.... or maybe 'lil' ocho'....

the eency weency spider climbed up the water spout

Okay. So, I don't really like spiders. I'm not the type who screams and runs away when I see one, I can manage to kill them if I have to (re: if Jeremy is not around) and sometimes I actually let them be or even set them free. It really depends on 1. my mood, and 2. how creepy and big the spider actually is.

So, it's obviously Fall now. Cooler nights and days. The perfect time of year for bugs wanting to come into your house to avoid freezing. Except the HUGEST spider I've seen wasn't in the house (thank goodness- HUGE sigh of relief here). I opened the door to our laundry room (just below the apartment) and thank goodness I was carrying the laundry basket. Otherwise I would have walked into the hugest mass of spider web EVER. Luckily the laundry basket managed to deflect most of the icky sticky web.

Eeewww, I thought. Now.... I had to ask- where is the spider that could create such a tangly, thick web? Answer- on the door- just beside the doorknob on the inside. Crap. This is a freaking big spider. I saw a big (wolf?) spider the other night crawling up the driveway- and even stopped to watch him for a while, so huge and grey and fascinating. But this spider, that I am now face to face with, is even bigger than the (wolf?) spider. And it is not cute in any way. It was fascinating to watch him collect up his demolished web. But I really didn't want to try to move him, or risk further disturbing him by moving my bike out of the way to get to the laundry. So, I continued to watch him. I ran up to get the camera- (which is still out of batteries- CRAP!!) but I managed to (maybe) squeak in one picture.

You know that part of the door that comes out the side and you can push it in an out, and it connects into the wall when the door is shut? (what is that part called?) Anyways- our little spider friend could WALK OVER IT- and have all of his legs around it, and his body on top of it. Spindly spider legs, and a MASSIVE 2 section body. It was kind of pretty in a strange way- brownish gold, and a silverish and cream pattern up it's back.

It was definitely too big to kill (I have some kind of strange respect for something that has lived long enough to grow that freakishly big). And too big to attempt to move. So, laundry will have to wait, and hopefully the spider will pick a different area of the garage to build a new web, so I don't destroy it with the laundry basket again tomorrow. Although I will definitely be opening the door carefully just incase..........

sweaty betty's and the carnival car woman

It has been a few busy weeks here at the coach house!! I am still in the process of trying to organize my last few students, which will mean that I am teaching 21 students (so far!) this year. That is between my private teaching on Tuesday, the private school, and the studio I teach at on Saturdays. I still have room for a few more, so if anyone knows someone who wants to take some flute lessons...... let me know!!!

I booked the venue for our year end recital. We are doing it at a retirement home, which has an AMAZING recital hall!!! Cushy theatre seating, a raised hardwood stage, and a grand piano. It should be a great experience! Unfortunately they were all booked for December, so I still need to find a venue for my student's Christmas recital. Any ideas? I might try to do it at the private school I teach at- since they are just finishing building a new recital hall.....

The past few weeks have also been socially busy for Jeremy and I. We've had a few games of poker, seen our friend off to Florida at a pub, and had an excellent dinner at our good friends Matt and Michelle's. But the most interesting story is probably about our time at (and after) a place called Sweaty Betty's.

We met up with our friend Liza, and some other musicians at an interesting bar called, you guessed it, Sweaty Betty's. We had a great time, and I especially enjoyed watching the pretty diverse crowd of people. We were pretty tired, and didn't want to stay too long, so we decided at about 1 that we should go catch the streetcar home. While we were waiting for the street car we experienced the most hilarious thing!!!

This woman pulls up to the red light in her green mini-van. Her music is blasting. Now, this is not your typical music blaster type of person. This woman must have been in her late 50's or 60's. She was wearing a large floral print polyester top, which I personally hope was actually a Muu-muu. The windows of her van were rolled down in true music blaring fashion, but instead of blasting rap, hip-hop, metal, opera, oldies, or classical, she was blasting CARNIVAL MUSIC. Like the kind you hear playing while you are riding the merry-go-round. Jeremy and I looked at eachother in disbelief, and then burst out laughing once she had driven away. Too funny.

Grocery shopping awaits....... if only I had a green mini-van......

Toronto to 1950's Baltimore in 5 minutes

Finally some time for an update!!! It has been a few very busy weeks, teaching and assisting at camps, and I am very glad to be back home, and able to unpack my suitcase without packing it up again right away. The laundry I'll be doing later today gets to get put away- in the drawers and closet instead of back in a suitcase! Although I had a great time travelling and teaching, it is nice to feel settled again.

Yesterday was my first day back from camp, and we had a great day!!! My close friend Chris stayed with us, and we had a relaxing morning, with a delicious breakfast and real, non-camp, coffee. mmmmmm. Feeling refreshed, we spent the afternoon wandering around a film set close to our house. They are going to be filming 'Hairspray' and the whole street has been converted back to the 50's, complete with 50's street lights, parking meters, storefronts, signs, and cars. Even the gas station has been restored!!

Here are a few pics from our excursion:

I've fallen flat on my face and I have to get up as fast as I can before anyone notices...

It seems my body got tired of feeling healthy, and thus decided it was time to inflict more damage upon itself. The other day on my way home from Noah's (a health food store here in Toronto- how ironic is that?) I fell. Not just a normal scrape your knees kind of fall, or even a slip off the side of the curb and twist your ankle kind of fall. A friend of mine recently had an accident in Spinning Class, and sprained her ankle when her bike pedal broke and her foot got stuck in the strap and continued to spin around and around out of control. At least she has an excuse!! I however, have absolutely no poor sucker to place any blame on. No spinning bike to push over in a post accident rage. Not even a nice rounded curb to kick in post fall anger.

The other day, coming home from Noah's with my 2 bags, I exited the subway station via my normal route- out of the 'illegal' exit over the street car tracks, thus saving valuable time (maybe a minute?) on my way home. Really, it's not that bad. Tons of people do it all the time. You just have to make sure that the bus isn't coming and that the street cars haven't dinged the bells announcing their departure.

So, there I was carrying my 2 health food bags, halfway out of the station, when the streetcar driver decided to ding his bell. No worries, I was half way to the exit, and would be out of the station before he even started driving. Just incase though, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up the pace a bit. The next thing I knew, I was down on the concrete. I didn't trip or stumble- I wasn't at the track yet, so I didn't fall over that. I just hit the ground with full force for no apparent reason. This was not a normal fall. Apparently my body had decided that it would be a fun thing to randomly belly flop onto and then slide along the pavement.

So there I am, down on the ground. And what is the first thing that goes through my mind? NOT am I injured in any way, NOT did I just wreck my beloved miu miu sunglasses, NOT did I just spill the entire contents of my bags all over the place. Nothing rational like that. My first thought was- "Oh CRAP!! I hope nobody saw me!! I better get up before anyone comes to help, or before the street car driver notices that someone is out for the count on the concrete just beside his tracks!!" And as fast as I went down, I was back up again and hauling ass out of the station. I remember trying to put my sunglasses on- but they seemed to be bent, so I just held on to them. And the crazy thing is that I still had my grocery bags in my hands!!

Feeling a little shaken up, and realizing with each step that I had totally crushed my left knee cap, I tried to maintain a bit of composure as I walked past other pedestrians on the sidewalk up to my place. And then I was home. I looked in the mirror as I walked in the door, and started LAUGHING!!! I was totally covered in black filth. My bags had dozens of mini tears from the force of hitting and sliding across the ground, so different bits of boxes and groceries were poking through in some attempt to escape. My wrists were amazingly only scraped up and bleeding a bit. And through some sort of miracle, my linen/cotton blend pants although looking black instead of cream, were not even ripped!!

I quickly changed out of my blackened clothes and began the clean up. I picked out the rocks and dirt stuck in my wrists, washed off the dirt on my face- realized I'd also hit and cut my upper forehead, so I cleaned all of that. Then, while giggling away at myself, before I even attempted to look at my knees, I decided it would be a good idea to make sure I hadn't lost any of my groceries. I got the receipt, and lined up each corresponding item on the counter- all in a neat, organized row. Everything was there. So then, (maybe in a bit of shock??) I thought it would be a good idea for me to lay out my dirty clothes on the bed, so that when Jeremy got home, he could see the aftermath of my big bail. Weird, I know. I didn't even shed a tear- until Jeremy walked in the door- and even then, it was some weird giggling, sobbing, followed by more giggling kind of tears.

I am much better today- although still moving a bit slow, and with not quite the range of motion I would like in my neck!! Well, what can you expect, really, when you belly flop on concrete??

Because of the flash, you can't really see how dirty these actually are!! There's even an imprint of a metal washer on them!!

washer!!

This picture cracks me up for a couple reasons..... it is so funny I just had to show it!!! Notice the purse strap line? Or how the dirt kind of looks like an angry face?
hehehe ;)

That's all for now- time to do laundry and pack!!

bang, bang!

I have a ton of fun stories for you, but you will have to wait until tomorrow! For now, you can check out here, for a couple new pictures and some fun stories from camp! (Once you're there, just click on TSMC Band Camp (now with pictures and updates), under Current Flute News)

Okay, okay- here's one fun photo! At camp this year we had an event called Camp Hollywood. All of the faculty and counselors dress up as various celebrities and walk down a red carpet signing autographs. The kids then get into their teams, and participate in various game shows- like So You Think You Can Dance, Family Feud, The Price is Right etc, etc. Three of us female faculty dressed up like Charlies Angels (hence the snazzy candy gun). And this is a photo of me posing just before our red carpet debut.

That's all for now- I have to go investigate a strange new bird call coming from outside!!!

no more big fun buns

Today was the big day for my 6 month hair cut. I decided to branch out and try a new person and place- not that there was anything wrong with my old place or stylist- I just felt like I needed a change. And a change is what I got. It's still longish, not mid-back though, but it has so many layers that all that is left for a pony tail is a little stub. booo. I was quite enjoying sporting a big fun high bun. Oh well. The nice thing is that all of my curls have more shape and bounce. My hair looks thicker- and my new longish bangs are pretty fun. I think it will look great in a few weeks, and should grow out well. If I ever get around to charging my camera batteries, I'll post a picture. Ooohhh- yet another reason to charge my batteries- Karmen is coming for a visit tomorrow- and I will HAVE to take some pictures!!

I went to Zara to find the perfect summer dress today- but they were all sold out. And, did you know that they no longer phone from store to store to do merchandise checks?? How convenient. And the reason, she said, was so they could be available to give better customer service...... Needless to say, I was not very impressed. Yet, I plan on going to a different location tomorrow to continue my search.

Time to go play with my new hair......

mmmmm chunky almond butter

We have a new addition to our fridge- chunky almond butter. Which, when applied in copious amounts, is absolutely delicious!!! Add some homemade crabapple jelly, and you are in for a taste so decadent it's hard to believe it's just toast for breakfast!!! mmmm.

Last night we stayed in to watch the baseball game, and Rockstar SuperNova. The game, well, not so good. But Rockstar SuperNova was great. Love that show! Such a step above all of the 'idol' shows. To accompany our tv evening, I made some yummy chinese food. Chow mein noodles with bean sprouts, yellow zucchini, mushrooms, fresh grean beans, and some red pepper- colourful and delicious. I also had a craving for ginger beef- but since we've been eating quite a lot of meat recently, we decided to try out ginger tofu instead. I marinated the tofu in some organic hawaiian ginger, soy sauce and garlic for a few hours, then, to really get the crispy feel, made some tempura batter to dip the tofu in before frying in almond oil. It was pretty good- although the almond oil was a bit salty. I'll opt for safflower or even sesame oil next time. Overall, it was a pretty good tv meal.

Not too much on the go today. I plan on practicing for a couple hours, and then I'm not sure what to do. There is a dress at Zara I want to try on- it is the perfect summer gig dress. But I don't really want to tempt myself.... or maybe I do...... And today is the day I start writing my book...... maybe I'll head to a coffee shop and do some people watching and latte drinking while I write.....

Tomorrow I'm getting a hair cut!!! Just a trim- I want to keep it long, but I am in need of a new funkier style for fall. I'm trying a new place and person........ keep fingers crossed!! (No more 'baldy' incidents please!!!! although in this heat a cute pixie crop is tempting.........)

13 days left until I fly to Calgary! I can't wait to take a road trip up to Edmonton with my Sister and my Mom. It's been at least 6 years since I last visited my old home town. I can't wait to drive past our old house!!!!

Okay, enough procrastination- time to practice, plus I just realized that Jeremy taped the final episode of Canada's Top Model for me while I was away and I still haven't watched it..... the addition of trash t.v to my day just made it so much more exciting!!!!

It's 46 degrees with the humidex

I don't know if I've ever experienced heat like this. It is 36 degrees outside. Feels like 46 when you factor in the humidex. Thank goodness there is wind- I can't even imagine what the heat and pollution would be like without it. Walking outside is like walking into a sauna- really. When you walk out of the apartment you are hit by a wall of intense heat. The last time it was this hot on August 1st was in 1955.

I had to do some running around this morning- I walked to High Park, and took cover in the trees for awhile, then got some groceries for dinner tonight (chinese food!), and some yummy (I hope!!) soy 'ice cream' sandwiches for desert.

Jeremy and I had an awesome weekend. While I was away at camp he discovered a pub nearby, which he thought was fantastic. So, on Saturday night, with our friend Gilles, we decided to head over to the pub. It was awesome. They have a great, small, 2nd floor, backyard patio- complete with trees, flowers and bushes, and cedar benches. They have a great selection of beer, and an even more impressive selection of Scotch- Jeremy and Gilles befriended the bartender (who we now think might be the owner), and were given very generous pours, as well as samples of his favourite scotch.

Like today, yesterday was also too hot to think- let alone cook, so we decided to go and get some falafels from the corner falafel place. Lured by the thought of a cold pint, we changed our minds and headed over to what promises to be our local haunt, and had a cold one and burger (2 for 1 burgers on Mondays!!) on the back patio. Again, we had a great, great time- and we are planning on going back on Friday with some other friends, and when our very missed friend Karmen comes to visit, we plan on having a long evening there as well. Such a great pub!!!!

My roses are exploding in this heat. I was initially skeptical to buy miniature roses, for fear of them being too easy to kill- but they have done amazingly this summer!! My other plants are doing well, although the violas are looking a little wilted in the crazy heat. Pictures to follow!

something is eating my sweet peas!

There are strange things happening to my plants. Actually, not to the plants themselves, but to the dirt around the plants. While I was gone, Jeremy mentioned that he thought something was enjoying burrowing in my pot of sweet peas. Every morning he'd get up and there would be some holes in the dirt around the plants. Well, today on his journey to take the recycling out, he discovered that the pot was turned upside down and was on the step below where it should be. Weird!! What kind of crazy creature could be doing this??! The bizarre thing is that it seems to be only one pot that it is attacking. The rest of the sweet peas lining the steps are undisturbed, and every morning look peaceful and refreshed- quite unlike the one unlucky pot which is quickly starting to resemble some kind of volcanic dirt eruption. hmmmm. I'm not really sure what to do next!! Do I toss the pot? Do I try to salvage it? Rent and set up a night vision video camera a la nature show to find out what sneaky predator is destroying my plants??

In other news. Camps 2 and 3 were great. The kids were great, the weather was great, and being able to see amazing stars at night was great. Deer flies, horse flies, black flies, flies in general, mosquitoes, wasps and dodgy food during weeks 1 & 2, were not so great. Thank goodness for the fabulous pub, where we all regained our sanity once or twice a week with some amazing food and a delicious pint. yum.

It looks like I've already got one new private student (from camp) lined up for the fall, and today I am going for an interview at a music studio not too far from my home. One of the teachers at camp is moving to Bermuda- and was kind enough to pass along my name to the studio where she has been teaching. So if all goes well, it looks like I will be teaching flute and recorder on Saturday (not too early) mornings. I didn't really want to teach on the weekends, but having the studio on Saturdays gives me more time during the week for private teaching.... and having some extra $$$ is always a good thing!!!!

In other non music news....... I'm going to write a book!!! That's all I am going to say about that for now.

Practicing awaits.........

knock, knock.......

Am I ever glad to be back home. Jeremy was even able to take 2 vacation days, and so we've had a great couple of days off. We're having some friends over to play poker tonight, and we're bbq-ing some fabulous steak we bought today at the Bloor Meat Market. Great Store.

I have many more exciting stories and news to write about- but I plan on doing that tomorrow once Jeremy is back to work. For now, here's the previously promised pictures of the wild turkeys!!

wild turkeys and stars at night

Phew. What a week it has been. I got home yesterday afternoon from teaching band camp, have today to do some laundry and re-pack and eat as much good food as I can, and tomorrow morning I head back up for camp #2.

Camp was pretty good. The kids were awesome- and I had a great time teaching them all things flute. We also spent some time listening to some recordings of flute music, and watched a dvd of a flute concerto. They loved it. For more camp/teaching stories- check out coach house music flutist

Camp #1 is the longest camp- 9 days. Camp #'s 2 and 3 should fly by- as they are only 6 days- with Tuesday being the intro day, and Sunday being the Concert. Hopefully I won't be as exhausted after those camps. I got home yesterday just in time to watch the world cup game, and promptly fell asleep on the couch for 3 hours.

While I was gone Jeremy was in charge of our plants, and I have to say, he did a fine job of taking care of them- they are still alive!! And, the sweet pea seeds I planted (I know it was a little late in the season, but I don't care!!) have all come up and are growing like crazy!! I'm hoping for some blossoms in a few weeks- just in time for me to be finished band camp and have 3 weeks off to enjoy them. I can't wait.

Oh- one camp story for you. If you don't know this about me already, you will soon discover that I am a HUGE fan of birds. I love birds, and since last year, I've been looking forward to going up to camp to see some of the birds you don't normally see in Toronto. Finches, warblers, hummingbirds, turkey vultures, hawks and eagles, an owl if you're really lucky, and countless other types of birds I still need to identify. So, to my delight, I was thrilled to find out that this year the park has been over run with wild turkeys!!! They are so huge and ugly, and hilarious when they try to fly, and I think they are GREAT!!

One early morning I went for a walk before teaching, and to my delight I stumbled across 8, yes 8!! wild turkeys all together. I think they must be a family. Now, for those of you who have never seen a wild turkey, they really are huge. They come up at least to my waist- if not higher. So, naturally I felt a little apprehension finding myself only a few feet away from 8 enormous turkeys!! I could just see the headlines- "flute teacher found, attacked by wild turkeys", or something of the sort. Anyways- after a moment of these ridiculous thoughts, the turkeys (being really stupid) decided to make a break for it, and before I knew it they were gone, and I was left alone with just some bird songs, some insects, and the wind blowing through the wild flowers and trees to listen to.

I'll post an awesome picture of a wild turkey within the next few days.

Time to do some laundry, and then a nap!!