Trinity Bellwoods Park - Autumn 2014

Fort York - Toronto - Farm to Fork On Common Ground

Grab your cameras and bring an empty stomach to celebrate harvest season, September 24th weekend at Toronto's Historical Fort York.
 Farm to Fork On Common Ground is a family friendly feast of Food,Culture and Fun!

Shop at the organic farmers market, create some art, or just sit back and enjoy the music and dance.

For more information on the festival visit http://www.torontonongmocoalition.org/

Click here for information on Fort York

A freshly baked pie from the Fort York kitchen - TORONTO

1951 Canadian Census advertisement #Genealogy

Flooding in Belleville

How Canadians watch hockey

Feb 6.2014 Snow and sheep

Another day, another squall warning. Our city has been hit with so much snow and bad weather this season...but hey! Its winter...and we are in CANADA.what do you expect?

 I do have a confession to make..I actually am loving this weather. I love storms of all kinds and so I say bring it on. (No hate mail please)

This week in the newsroom a few of us went down to Prince Edward County to cover a barn fire. It was a an old barn that housed mostly pregnant sheep and nursing lambs. Close to 250 sheep were killed as a result of the fire. We spent most of the day on scene with the farmer and his family and this is an experience that will stay with me for a while. The sounds, smells and visuals are hard to get off my mind. Photojournalist Justin Greaves was on scene with us. Here is the link to his story on the fire that appeared in the Pioneer.

I wrote a shorter version for QNet News that you can view here with video by reporter Alisa Howlett.

There was one little incident that was pretty scary!


Walls fall down: BLOOPER from Alisa Howlett on Vimeo.

Thankfully Alisa has great reflexes and even managed to save the camera.

Feb 2.2014 - Fire at Mount Albert Fire station

The Mount Albert fire station on Princess street is currently on fire. I lived close to this station not long ago. It is a volunteer run station and from the amount of sirens I heard on a daily basis living there, a busy one.

Pretty scary when a fire station catches fire.

Mount Albert is a wonderful community and this will be a big loss to them.

Another view of people running to the blaze at the Mount Albert fire hall thanks to Derek Swain! pic.twitter.com/w1kXeINoDo
— Lyndsey Vanstone (@VanstoneL) February 2, 2014

The Mount Albert Fire Hall is going up in flames. @CP24 @YRP #fire #notgood pic.twitter.com/Q8XD5XjUY2
— Jessica (@beatty304) February 2, 2014

BREAKING: Mount Albert fire hall is fully ablaze. Crews working to extinguish the fire. Photo by @thekettfamily pic.twitter.com/QN2iealLrf
— Josh Casey (@JoshXFMNews) February 2, 2014

The Mount Albert fire dept is, erm, on fire. That's distressing. http://t.co/DnumBnlhRq
— Greg M (@DrTed77) February 2, 2014

Pictures of the fire hall in Mount Albert that's fully engulfed in flames thanks to Derek Swain pic.twitter.com/pr36AjCyVq
— Lyndsey Vanstone (@VanstoneL) February 2, 2014

Sad day for mount Albert !! Saying good by to their fire hall pic.twitter.com/KCtYngrNn4

— bambam&tumtum (@thekettfamily) February 2, 2014

Update - Blogging family history - Google Patents

I have been having so much fun turning all my family history into a series of blogs. I find it a much easier and more interactive way to share my research.

I love that I can add a post and share something exciting that I have found much faster than editing a website. I can post a photo in real time from an old cemetery and get reaction or questions about the post right away, something I couldn't do with a traditional website.

I do plan to add a little more creativity to my blogs. I think I play more with the layout and features than I actually post at the moment. The amount of photos and records I have to scan are unreal and I want to make sure the layout is easy to navigate to find everything.

Google Patents

I have added a post on my Blakely blog about my great grandfathers inventions. I knew about the inventions from a newspaper story but I didn't know that my grandfathers drawings and patents existed on Google Patents.
I found the link during a random name search of my grandfather and am just amazed by this treasure filled database that I have somehow missed until now.

 Try searching a name on the page to see if your ancestor invented anything or browse through and look at original drawings of the things we use every day.

 Some of the most recent submissions are pretty cool too. The ones that caught my eye were: The Smart Toothbrush. The Cage A Cat bath (Huh?) and  The beer flavored alcoholic beverage containing dietary fiber. (HINT: Clicking view PDF on the patent page will bring up the related drawings)

Genealogy Pages

After more than 20 years of researching my family tree and procrastinating about publishing it, I have finally decided to turn my research into a series of blogs. I have far too much information to cram into a book and seeing that most of my family is online and on social media, doing it via blogs seemed to be the most logical way to go.

I am going to do a blog for each main branch of my tree starting and I am starting with my maternal grandmothers side.  I have just started putting the first one together so check it out and let me know what you think. http://bainthorntongenealogy.blogspot.ca/