Our Most Excellent North American Adventure Comes to an End

Its official, Mac flies home to Auckland next week and we will follow just a couple of weeks later ending our most excellent adventure in northern climes. Its been six wonderful years of exploration, new friends and experiences.

From the moment we heard Pip's Dad died we knew our time in the Northern Hemisphere was on borrowed time. Since returning from New Zealand last month I've been organizing our exit strategy. As of last Friday we have all the pieces of our jigsaw in place.

Dear little McGregor has been through a barrage of tests and inoculations to allow him back into his homeland, the paper work had me completely unglued at first. I felt quite overwhelmed by the mountain of red tape and fine print but with the help of our pet shipper, Ruthy in Vancouver, we now have it all straight.

McGregor Wood, the intrepid world traveller!

His journey will be far greater than ours as it will be over a month, just two days before Christmas, before we can pick him up from the Quarantine station in New Zealand. We hate doing this to him but can't wait to see him back on the green grass of home! Watching for frogs and rabbits will quickly replace his long time confusion with squirrels. Not the sharpest pencil in the box our boy, its taken him 6 years to work out that squirrels run up trees when chased!!

Toronto has turned on a glorious fall season with sparkling crystal days for our last, the autumn leaf colours possibly the best yet. Our street is still golden with drifting leaves.

Amongst the planning and packing there is time for some final Canadian memories. I'm doing a final Xmas window at The Cookbook Store as a finale to my association with the wonderful gals there. Friday night I  was lucky enough to photograph Nigella Lawson at the gracious old Royal York Hotel at the Icons of Cooking event in the lovely Ballroom. Nigella launched her new book Kitchen, a personal account of the food that warms her heart, that she shares with her loved ones. She outshone every woman in the room, those eyes are exquisite, her curves legendary, she loves to chat, shoes and getting her kids to eat were key topics as she signed about 300 cookbooks before the gala dinner began. Alison, famed manager of the Cookbook store, interviewed Nigella on stage after dinner. The 250 strong guests were entranced by Nigella's candid responses and felt she would have been happy to chat on all night long. What they didn't know was that she was totally exhausted and battling a cold after a grueling book signing tour of the States last week.

 

Nigella and Julie; Jennifer Grange, Nigella Lawson,Alison Fryer, Julie; self photo; table setting; Menu, Kitchen; Nigella signing books for Guests; The Ballroom at the Fairmont Royal York Toronto, Chef David Garcelon, Flowers, Alison and Nigella on stage.

Last weekend I attended Opera Atelier for the last time. The production was the pastoral opera Acis and Galatea (Handel), the sets and costumes designed beautifully by my friend Gerard Gauci with the pre-opera talk given by our dear friend Dr Roberto Nickel. Ultimately a tragic tale of love and loss, the opera was gorgeous with glorious ballet and singing from the large and very beautiful corps and stars. The Elgin theatre is a jewel of the old style, its location on Yonge Street directly across from the Eton Centre, Toronto's largest and most frenetic shopping Mall. 

 Gerard Gauci's costumes Acis and Galatea

Roberto, Julie and Gerard in St Germaine 2007

I was lucky enough to spend a week in Paris in 2007 with these talented men, visiting house museums, galleries and chateaux as Gerard, a well known artist in Canada, researched locations for his wonderful paintings of 17th and 18th Century French rooms.

The Oeben Desk, Musée Nissim de Camondo, Acrylic on Board,14.5"x18.5" 2007 by Gerard Gauci; images I took at the Musee Nissim de Camondo in 2007

Recently we attended the Westie Walk at Mississauga. 250 Westies all in one park make for a serious attack of cuteness. Organised by the Foundation for Westie Rescue, it was surprising to see how many of these wonderful dogs had been rescued, these little chaps and chapesses where presented with ribbons and did a special red carpet walk! Mac and Henry made friends and generally had a great time, true to form they were most interested in the hotdog stand, hoping for fallout from the bbq or kids hands! These super cute cupcakes were simply irresistible, presented in a black dog bowl all proceeds went to the charity.

Westie Rescue Cupcakes; McGregor and Henry; Julie and Mac, Pip with Mac for the group photo

Two weeks ago we had my kiwi niece Bex and Brit. boyfriend Matt to stay over Halloween. Bex had spent three weeks driving across the States and Canada, camping out and couch surfing after a summer spent in BC cherry picking and in Alberta working with a famous horse whisperer. They'd come to Toronto to spend Halloween with friends. Bex created a cute Halloween costume inspired by peacock feathers. Before the party we drove the hour and half down to Niagara for a lazy afternoon wine tasting and visiting the falls.

 Bex in Halloween kit; feather headband;feather mask;Pip, Bex, Mac and Julie at Niagara Falls; the Horsehoe falls from the Canadian side of the river.

Toronto's local elections took place in October, I did my bit by being loosely involved with a candidate for city councilor for our local ward, putting together a fund-raising cocktail party for him in the lovely home of ex Lieutenant Governor General of Ontario. It was so much fun doing flowers and working with super clever caterer Tracey Pritchard from Pan Bagna in a gracious old Rosedale home. Ultimately the candidate was not successful in his bid, out polled by an experienced campaigner.

Fall colours and berries; lilies by the pool; patio arrangement.