RETIREDRAGON: The Family

Showing posts with label The Family. Show all posts

12/06/2016

Eaton's Goes To War

Recently, while riding the subway, I noticed a poster/advert about the men who served in World War One.
It was posted by the City of Toronto, and contained a web site address for the Mackenzie House.

Here I could see that they were interested in collecting personal stories about the Eaton's employees who enlisted in the war.

It had a link that allowed you to view the soldiers and their portraits.

Apparently, Eaton's took pictures of all their employees who left for the war, and displayed them in the Toronto store.

I was delighted to find my uncle's picture among the hundreds of other portraits, and I"snipped" it for my family collection.

So I sent off a little note and included my only picture of Henry William (Cecil) Axbey to the folks at the Mackenzie House.

I received a fairly prompt response, and was asked if I would agree to an interview.

Of course, I said yes, and arranged to meet Mr. Beaton on the following Monday.

I put some information on a flash drive, and took the Memorial Cross with me to the interview.

He recorded the little bit that I knew (from talking with my Aunt Doris) and took some pictures, then scanned my picture of Uncle Cecil.

When we were done, he gave me a pass to the museum, and advised me that the exhibit would be ready in September of 2017.

9/27/2016

Muskoka

My sister came in from B.C. in August.
She wanted to have everyone together during that time, so she rented a cottage near Georgian Bay.

Unfortunately, the Wrights could not make it.

But my niece and her two girls were able to stay for a few days.

So Leona and I took Lucy and Nico out in the canoe.

The cottage had a BBQ, so we had chicken and fresh corn on the cob....delish!

Nico made a shark from a few objects found on the beach.

After Michelle and the girls left, Leona and I hiked along the dirt road and came upon some hummingbirds. During our trips in and out of the cottage we saw two small black bears foraging for berries along this roadway.
Later that day, the setting sun provided us with a very picturesque dappling across the bay.

On another day, we traveled into Bala and toured around....admiring the falls.

Enjoying ice cream at a local shoppe....

We also took time to tour a Cranberry Marsh and Farm, nearby.

They also made wine from the harvested cranberries. After tasting their wares, we purchased some Blueberry/Cranberry wine and some White Cranberry wine.

All in all we had excellent weather for the six days, and we were treated to some gorgeous sunsets!

12/10/2013

Halloween

Last Halloween, Nico, my youngest grand niece, dressed up as Maneki-Neko, the Japanese beckoning cat.

I recall buying this little white cat for her birthday last March.

This is what she looked like before going out to "Trick or Treat"

Now, when I look at her, and notice how she has grown these last few years, I am reminded of my mother.

I resurrected an old photo (a little blurry) of my Mum when she was young (18 or 19), and working at Willard s Chocolate factory.

There is definitely a family resemblance.

3/13/2013

Nico's Fourth

Sunday, March 10 was officially Nico's fourth birthday....but the party was the day before (on the Saturday).

So friends and family gathered in the party room at Michelle and Adam's condo building.

There was lots of space for the kids to run and they seemed to enjoy the freedom to play and colour.

There was snacks, cake, ice cream and Nico got some nice presents.

Although she does not look very happy about getting a wrapped gift from Liam Bao.

BTW - The white Chinese lucky cat on the table is my gift to Nico this year.

I generally give the grand nieces and grand nephew books, but this year, Nico really wanted a cat that waves its paw.

2/18/2013

Caitlyn's Birthday

Yesterday there was a birthday party in Cambridge (Hespeler) for Steve and Jennifer's youngest, Caitlyn Michelle.

The theme for this celebration was "Tangled", a Disney computer animated fantasy film (Trivia Alert: it was the 50th animated feature from the Disney Studios). It's based on the fairy tale known as Rapunzel.

Once everyone got settled in, food drinks, etc., it was time to open all the birthday gifts. Jennifer helped her daughter with the cards and the paper, while Liam helped his sister with the rest.

Len got the birthday girl a purple dress.

The oohs and aahs could be heard around the room as Jennifer held up the pretty party dress.

Len seemed more than satisfied that he had selected an appropriate gift for his grandaughter.

Here's the Axbey girls with Michelle (Nico is hiding from the flash).

The final present of the day was from Caitlyn's parents. Her very own pink bicycle with training wheels.

Here's cousin Lucy instructing Caitlyn on the intricacies of balancing a two wheeler.

3/15/2011

Nico's Second Birthday

Last Saturday Michelle and Adam invited friends and family over to their new condo to help celebrate Nico's 2nd Birthday.

Below is Jennifer (my youngest niece) with her youngest - Caitlyn.

The picture here is just a bunch of people with kids crawling all over them.

There seemed to be a lot of kids wearing pink.

Adam's brother (with the glasses) has his little girl, Penny, who is conversing with Adam. Then there's Nico's back and Jennifer.

This is the very camera-shy Lucy - Michelle and Adam's first and she will be four in August.

Here we have Michelle, who is helping Nico to open her pretty cards and presents.

Missing from my photos is Liam, who preferred to play in the girls' bedroom with all the toys.

Maybe all these women just overwhelmed the little guy.