Last Sunday we headed off for Wolf Trail, expecting more snow. We did see some, but it was mostly in the shady areas. Nothing compared to what we saw on Saturday morning.

And you know how it is when you’re hiking and you get mud on your hiking boots? You kind of think that maybe you might as well walk THROUGH the mud instead of trying to go around it. After all, that’s why I have poles, to test how deep it is and keep me from falling over.

Well, this is the result:

This from the Wellington West Business Improvement Area:

Community Meeting
Event Date: November 17, 2009
Event Time: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Location: Fisher Park School Cafeteria
Re: 199 Holland Avenue/Ottawa Mission community meeting

A community meeting has been requested by the Ottawa Mission to discuss its new housing initiative at 199 Holland Ave (at Byron).
The meeting will take place on Tuesday November 17, 2009 from 7:00-8:30 PM at Fisher Park School in the cafeteria (Holland at the Queensway).
The Ottawa Mission has purchased the building at 199 Holland Avenue. The property will be managed by District Realty and operated by a separate Board of Directors under the name “Holland Properties Association.

The Association will move people into the building who have come through programs at the Mission and are working or job ready.  Residents will be moved in as existing tenants leave.  The building is expected to house a mix of tenants some of whom will pay market rent while others will require a rent subsidy.  The objective is to bring this mix to a 50/50 split.

The meeting will be chaired by Councillor Christine Leadman.

And another blogger’s perspective on the proposed housing arrangement. It’s not statistical, but nobody cares about statistics when you personally live through a bad experience.

It’s our standard “quick, we need to hike” kind of hike because it’s close to the city and well maintained. There can be mud, but it’s the pitch that keeps us going back.

When our hiking season first starts, this hike is filled with “water breaks” after each steep climb. Given the lower temperature and what we hoped were hiking legs we figured we could do it quickly today without water.

Thankfully we did think to bring our poles. These were essential when we realized that yesterday’s city snow had actually accumulated in the Park.

We’d only brought the cell phone, so the pics aren’t the greatest, but they do prove that we did see snow today!

Well the sales office must be opening soon because the India Food Centre sign is gone from the building and the road sign now has been replaced by a large picture of what the condo tower will look like and a web site that doesn’t seem to be working yet: www.thewellingtonatislandpark.com.

Will try to grab the camera tomorrow for a few pics and retry the site.  Theberge Homes is the developer. More to come …

In a previous post, I mentioned the Sisters of the Visitation were for sale, and then mysteriously nothing happened. In a discussion with Uniform about why one of the workers was urinating on the sidewalk at the end of the day, I asked whether they were interested. His reply was that the neighbourhood appealed to them, but there are so many challenges with heritage designations.

According to Ken Gray, Ashcroft is the buyer, for more than $10 million. They’ve also bought the building that used to house Billy’s Appliances and another house. Strangely, it’s not in today’s newspaper, only on the Bulldog’s blog. Supposedly Ashcroft is going to start by meeting with the community first.

I’ll definitely be going to share my thoughts. What I’d like to see:

• buildings, no higher than 4 floors surrounding the original site
• stone incorporated into the architectural exterior features
• some green space
• underground parking for any new buildings
• more vrtucar spots
• retail on the ground floor that faces Richmond
• a nice English pub in the old building … could call it The Convent or The Sacred Sisters, The Nunnery, The Stone Chapel, The Fallen Wall

More thoughts and updates to come.

Started this morning without coffee because we’d run out and forgotten to drop by Bridgehead to pick up more. As a result, we stopped by on our cycle ride home from work.  I stayed out by the bikes while Nosyneighbour went it to buy coffee.

Standing there I noticed that the Linden Tree across the street has a large sub-lease sign in its window and the Cambridge gallery beside it has a new sign on its store front. Riding slowly down Wellington, I also noticed Petit Bill’s patio has been dismantled for the winter — yes the “w” word — and that Irpinia kitchens has its sign up with a note in the window … opening soon.

I also forgot to mention that the DQ/Orange Julius has opened in Westboro, where the Westboro Market existed for a short period of time. I’m sure the DQ won’t have a hard time surviving. Who doesn’t like icecream?

So … no coffee in the morning leads to neighbourhood gossip by the afternoon.

Because we’re both still recuperating from colds, today’s hike was a short one. We’d also walked back from Landsdowne Park last night so didn’t feel the need to go too far.

We started off by Old Chelsea at the bottom of Ridge Road and hiked up to the lookout where the trail turns a sharp right and links up with the Skyline Trail. There and back in and an hour and 10 minutes.

On the way back down we saw lots of leafers. One of them, clearly having started at Penguin and just beginning his first climb, even asked if there was a Tim’s nearby. Buddy, have another donut! But I suppose at least he was making an effort.

So, it was a quick up and down, with not many leaves left on the trees. Fall is definitely upon us.

I’ve been meaning to post about the sales office opening up on Wellington at Carleton, beside the Istanbouli. Rumour has it that CVL bought the property from Tamarack, but is having Theberge Homes build and sell the condo. All the zoning and plans were approved but have since been taken down from the city’s site. Must remember to save the files next time.  The sales office is going in where the Indian Food Centre used to be. It looks like they may be including a model floor plan. The sales office should be open in mid-November. It will be sad to see the Istanbouli go.

Uniform Developments St. George’s Yard continues to progress every day. The model home opens tomorrow (so check back for some pics in the near future).  I wonder if our new neighbours will be as friendly as the existing ones. Or will they see our houses as the “welfare” side of the road, just like the houses on the other side of Byron look down their noses at us.

Update following the open house: Have to say I’m disappointed in the quality of workmanship. If you go to the model home, try to open the corner base cabinet in the kitchen. It’s the one beside the stove. I was curious to see if there was a lazy susan. Guess what? It doesn’t open at all because the stove sticks out too much. There were already scratches on the cabinetry too. The rooms are small, and the dining room is in an odd spot.  And there is no powder room in the basement either.

Glad I’m not the one paying $650K.

It had been closed for “rehabilitation” according to the NCC, so we’d been putting off a hike around one of the best trails to see the fall colours. Given that it was Thanksgiving weekend, an early start was a must, so we set off at 8:30, and were at the start by 9:05.

Three cars had beaten us to the parking lot, so we guessed either the trail still hadn’t reopened or that most people were still lying in bed. The air was really crisp this morning. The frost warning chime came on in the Mini as we approached Meech Lake. Glad we had thought to bring gloves at the last minute.

A large sign greeted us at the bottom of the trail which explained the work being done and the detour hikers could take. It seemed that it was supposed to have been finished, but then why not take the sign down? We continued onward and upward, Nosyneighbour trying out the new hiking boots and backpack he bought yesterday, and Gozzygirl wearing the new Icebreaker top bought at the same time.

At the split we continued right to do the trail counter clockwise. I forgot that it’s really a hike done best in the afternoon to get the full splendor of colour. Our focus today was trying not to get wet, either by stepping in really deep mud or slipping in it and falling. We were lucky on both counts. In our two hours on the trail we saw maybe 10 people until we approached the last 1 km to the parking lot. That’s when the leafers appeared, lots of them.

I wasn’t sure what to expect  with the “rehabilitation” of the trail. It wasn’t until after we had passed the Tawadina Lookout that the improvements suddenly sprung up out of nowhere. Here’s one of three new bridges added to the section, which has also been raised and leveled. Definitely not as challenging anymore.

But one of them had a very unusual companion tagging along.  A very cute cat, that looked a bit like Timbit but without the white. He was getting a drink at the water and so we chatted with his parents. His name was Angel, and for some reason he loves going for walks with the  leash. So they thought they’d see how far they could get him. I was quite impressed. Maybe tomorrow we’ll take Timbit somewhere.

Day two of hiking … done.  A total of 8.3 km with 400 m of elevation gain completed in just over 2 hours.   North Americans always overestimate the time to do a trail. Here’s the proof:

Again, another beautiful day for hiking. I wonder whether New Zealand will be this sunny and crisp? It seems a long way off for now. Today was a great day for hiking, and even though we’d left a bit later than planned — and the 148 is still full of potholes we could drive the mini around in — there wasn’t a big crowd when we set off to hike up the falls.

Unlike last weekend, we planned to go a bit farther seeing as our legs were still fresh. We added another 5 km of hiking across the top to have lunch at McKinstry Hut.The falls were much louder on our approach. In fact, we could hear them as soon as we left the parking lot. It seems odd to see that much water this time of year, but it was spectacular so we couldn’t complain. When the falls have that much water you know the trail is going to be wetter and slipperier. And it was.

It took about an hour to get to the top, and then another 45 minutes to get to the hut. Along the way we saw three cyclists twice (going each way) and another couple heading towards us. And that was it. We had feared that the Ottawa Citizen recommendation in today’s paper would get throngs of people on the trail, but it seems most people started later or turned around at the top (if they even made it that far).

A group of four was just finishing off a hot cooked meal. I’m guessing they started from the east and hiked west. They had the only picnic table outside, so we had our fruit and nuts inside before turning around and going back to the firetower.

On our descent, we saw lots of leafers (you know, the people who go out to see the leaves and don’t have proper footwear on, and carry their Tim Horton’s coffee with them). Nosyneighbour coined that term. And I like it.

The parking lot was full when we returned, and large groups were gathering having picnics and BBQs. I stopped to take a few photos of some of the brilliant colours in the picnic area, and then it was off back to the house to start working on the garden. Maybe we should be like our neighbour and garden in the rain in the evenings?

Today’s pics: