October in a nutshell

Greetings! I was looking forward to spending October to explore and enjoy what my home city has to offer before I travel overseas again. It turned out to be a beautiful and fun-filled month in so many ways.

First off, autumn colours were at their peaks in October. I love the different shades of yellow, orange, and red on the trees. I got to see them every day during my walk! Then there were a few fun happenings, such as our Thanksgiving on October 8th, my blog's second anniversary on October 10th, my guest post on Sue's blog on October 18th, and a 5K race on October 21st.

Without further ado, here's my October in a nutshell:

FITNESS:

My October wellness goals, as posted here, kept me active every day. Since I was at home for the whole month, I was able to use the gym, yoga classes, the swimming pool, and consistently complete my daily fitness activities.

On October 21, I participated in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront 5K race with close to 7,000 other participants. It was a chilly morning with temperature hovering at 2 Celsius (35F). We started our run at 8 AM, shortly after sunrise. I chose to run at a steady pace, not fast but evenly paced without a walk break.

I really enjoyed the race and finished it feeling strong, as if I could run a few more kilometers. Out of the near 7,000 participants, there were only 270 female runners in my age category. I'm satisfied to finish in the top 14% of my age category without sprinting.

My 5K finisher's medal and new running shirt

ENTERTAINMENT:

Concerts: I was able to attend eight excellent concerts in October, each lasts for an hour, all with free admission. Most of them were piano, or voice and piano. The amphitheatre at the Canadian Opera Company (COC) is a remarkable space, and to listen to Sofya Gulyak's solo piano concert there was a wonderful experience. Look up her name and read her impressive bio if you like.

R. Bradshaw Amphitheatre, COC

Movies: In October, I watched four movies as a weekly social activity with my neighbours. Billionaire Boys Club did not hold my interest so I left early. Skyscraper, Ant-man and the Wasp were entertaining, and Mama Mia Here We Go Again was a fun musical.

ARTS:

Art Works: I continue to be in awe of the rich art scene in my home city. In October, I had the pleasure to view several diverse art exhibits, all with free admission. I wrote about them here and here.

Purple by Vera Dernovsek

Books: In October I resumed reading books that I borrow from the local public library. Within three weeks, I finished three thriller novels, about 500 pages each, all written by Linwood Barclay. I'm now on to his 4th novel titled The Twenty-Three. I look forward to finishing it before I travel to Morocco.

Gardens: I visited two gardens in October. The Toronto Music Garden looks ready for the holiday season with the light decorations. Allan Gardens Conservatory had an artistic and beautiful autumn show. I'll write about it in my upcoming post.

Toronto Music Garden

Language Lessons: I continued with my French and Spanish online lessons throughout October. I spend about fifteen minutes on each language every day. The short duration works for me and the consistent practice helps my progress.

SOCIAL:

Blogging: I wrote six posts in October and one guest post as featured here. When my blog turned two on October 10, I asked readers for help. Thank you to everyone who provided comments. I took the feedback received from that post and got to work with some of my own ideas. So far, I made the following additions and may make a few more changes:

• Added the About Me page,
• Updated the Countries Visited page with links to the destination posts that I have published,
• Added the Recent Posts gadget to my blog's side bar - Five recent posts are listed by default,
• Added the Through My Lens gadget to my blog's side bar with one of my photos that will be updated periodically. 

Through My Lens: Autumn leaves

Extended family gatherings: We enjoyed two big family gatherings in October, one was for our Thanksgiving and another one on last Sunday when we had our cousins visiting us from overseas. Plenty of good food, fun conversations, and best of all everyone is healthy.

Trying new restaurants: I ate out twice with my family and had a fun lunch date with my friend. All three restaurants (Joe Bird, Joey, and Taverna Mercatto) offered very good service and nice seating. I'd have the tuna salad at Joey and the marguerita pizza at Taverna Mercatto again. They were very tasty.

Tuna salad at Joey restaurant

TRAVEL:

My trip to Morocco is coming up next week! The weather forecast at my destination looks good, with warmer temperatures than Toronto. I look forward to sightseeing in Morocco.

MY CONCLUSION:

October was an awesome month in my book, with the right amount of variety and at my pace. I gave it an A plus! I look forward to enjoying life as fully as I can in November.

How was your October? What good things happened? I'd love to hear your updates.

An InLinkz Link-up

Discovering Gallery Arcturus

Greetings! I've got a question for you. When was the last time you explored something new and found it to be a total delight? I mean something that made your mouth and your mind smile. I experienced this recently.

I mentioned in my post last week that I visited a new-to-me art gallery called Gallery Arcturus. It is located at 80 Gerrard Street East, by Ryerson University, in downtown Toronto. Admission is free.

Gallery Arcturus is actually a public art museum with five galleries in a multi-storey house. When I arrived at the front door, I needed to buzz to be let in. The staff on duty gave me a quick overview of the Gallery and let me wander on my own to view the art works on exhibit.

I was there at mid-day, mid-week and had the five galleries to myself. Think "a kid in a candy store". From the ground floor to the top floor, everything seemed to be well-curated and tastefully displayed without making the visitor feel overwhelmed.

Although there were many art items on display, for this blog post, I included just a sample of what was on exhibit that I thought was interesting. We all have different tastes for arts and our mood also affects what we see so I'll let the photos "speak" to you and perhaps you see something you like.

THE GENESIS GALLERY: This gallery displays installations and new sculpture titled A Serious Matter and overturned by debbie harris. The artist displays her name all in lowercase.

A Serious Matter by debbie harris

overturned by debbie harris

overturned by debbie harris

blown away by debbie harris

THE COLLAGE GALLERY: "from the street" sculpture and cards by Joseph Lammirato are displayed on all the walls in this gallery. There is a paper handout that lists the titles of what's on display on each wall. His sculpture will be on the telephone poles of the city in the next month or so.

Art creations by Joseph Lammirato

THE UP NORTH GALLERY: This gallery displays art work by Claustro, McConnachie, and Kimura. Claustro is the husband and wife team (Carol Currie and Stuart Leggett). Eric McConnachie is a northern Ontario artist who has adopted the medium and tools of one of his mentors, Tom Thomson. Most of McConnachie's works are done on small wood panels showing nature and how it changes through all the seasons and light.

Silver Peak by Carol Currie & Stuart Leggett

Paintings by Eric McConnachie

THE ASCENDING GALLERY: This gallery displays art work by Kimura, Kuptana, and harris. I like the bright colours in Kuptana's paintings.

Painting by Floyd Kuptana

Sculpture by Floyd Kuptana

FLOYD KUPTANA GALLERY: This gallery displays sculpture and 2-D work by Kuptana. There is also a library and seating area here, perfect for admiring Kuptana's art works and browsing books.

Sculpture by Floyd Kuptana

Seating area in Floyd Kuptana Gallery

I'm glad I decided to give it a whirl and visit a place that I have not been to before. This is my new whirl 2018.10 edition! It's a total delight to discover Gallery Arcturus. In addition, upon leaving, I received the staff recommendations and a list of nearby museums and galleries with free admission. I look forward to eventually visiting them all.

Have you explored something new recently and found it to be a total delight? I'd love to hear about it.

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumn fun list update #1

Greetings and happy Sunday! About four weeks ago, I wrote a post on my Autumn fun list. Today I'm reviewing my list and providing an update on my progress. Before I get into the details, I want to share with you a photo of a red maple tree because I love autumn colours in Ontario.

AUTUMN FUN LIST UPDATE #1 (September 22 to December 20, 2018):

1. Attend ten concerts: 60% done so far. I was able to attend six excellent concerts performed by:

• Frédéric Lacroix (piano) and Norman Brown (baritone)
• Walter Buczynski with pianist Younggun Kim
• Artists of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio "The Best of Rossini"
• Cathy Yang (solo piano)
• Sofya Gulyak (solo piano)
• Lisa Tahara (piano) and Brenna Hardy-Kavanagh (violin)

All of the above performers have very impressive bios. They have performed at prestigious events in Canada and abroad so I feel very fortunate to listen to their performances live. Plus, admission to these concerts is free.

2. Visit three art exhibitions: 100% done and more! When I wrote my Autumn fun list in September, I was hoping to visit three art exhibitions. It turned out that I was able to visit more than three. All of them have free admission as follows:

• Insights Incite exhibition at FCP Gallery
• Visual Arts exhibitions Fall 2018 at Harbourfront Centre
• World Press Photo 2018 exhibition at Brookfield Place
• Art exhibits at Gallery Arcturus

Gallery Arcturus was new to me and what a wonderful discovery it was! I plan to write a separate post on it. In the mean time, I'm including a sample of the art work that I've seen at the first three places mentioned.

October Roses by Vera Dernovsek

Change Enables Growth by Tracey Lawko

The Peacock's Tale mural by Ola Volo

Glazed ceramics by Anders H. Ruhwald

Rockhopper Penguins, photo by Thomas P. Peschak

WP Photo of the Year, Spot News by R. Schemidt

Aside from the art exhibits, I also attended the Indian Residential School Survivors (IRSS) Cultural Gathering and Celebration at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. More than twenty painted teepees were set up around the square to offer educational programming and drop-in workshops throughout the three-day event.

Teepees at Nathan Phillips Square

The event also included the unveiling of a commemorative sculpture of a female turtle crawling over top of a boulder, to signify overcoming struggle. The shell of the turtle has tiles to represent the 13 moons and 28-day cycle. Turtles are symbolic within multiple First Nations creation stories. The sculpture, created by Anishinabe artist Solomon King, is the planned centrepiece of the IRSS Legacy garden.

Turtle sculpture at Nathan Phillips Square

3. Watch ten movies: In progress, 30% done so far. I watched Billionaire Boys Club, Skyscraper, and Ant-Man and The Wasp. My verdict:

• Billionaire Boys Club didn't keep my interest so I left about 45 minutes in
• Skyscraper is entertaining unless you dislike fires and super high-rise buildings
• Ant-Man and the Wasp is also entertaining unless you dislike ants and wasps :)

4. Try three new-to-me restaurants: In progress, 33% done so far. We dined out at Joe Bird, which has a quirky decor (an RV at the entrance, and casual decor inside), nice lake view, and good service. The food was average though so we won't be rushing back anytime soon.

Camper van at Joe Bird entrance

Lake view from Joe Bird restaurant

Chicken taquitos

5. Enjoy Thanksgiving with my family: Yes, 100% done! Our Thanksgiving was on October 8. My brother and sister-in-law hosted a beautiful family dinner with turkey and all the sides. We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone and a lot to be thankful for since everyone in our family is doing well.

6. Meet up with my friends for coffee or lunch: In progress. I had one fun lunch date with my friend this week, a second lunch date booked for next week, and a third one booked in early November. My friends' work schedules sometimes change at the last minute so it's great when our dates go as planned.

7. Write a guest post for another blog in October: Yes, 100% done! I'm honored to be the guest writer on Sue's blog on October 18. My topic was Thriving by Diversifying as posted here. Thank you to Sue for featuring me and to all readers and bloggers who left comments.

8. Take a trip to explore Morocco in November: Pending. I booked my flights and accommodations. I've been reading on a few places that I plan to visit in Morocco. I'll continue with my travel planning checklist until departure date.

From my list, I counted three items completed, four in progress, and one pending. In November I'll be in Morocco for part of the month so I'll resume going to the fun events in my home city after my trip.

Speaking of resuming...I've returned to read paper books. I used to read books all the time then paused to switch to online reading. Now I'm back to books that I borrow from the local public library. I'm currently reading Linwood Barclay's thriller novels. I just finished No Time for Goodbye which grabbed my attention from the beginning to the end. I'll start reading the trilogy Broken Promise, Far from True, and The Twenty-Three this week.

How are things going with you? What good things happened? I'd love to hear your update.

An InLinkz Link-up

What I've Gained by Diversifying My Activities

Thank you to Sue from Sizzling Towards 60 & Beyond for inviting me to be a Guest Writer on her site. It is an honor to be part of her Over 50 & Thriving Series.

The terms "diversify, diversifying, diversification" often come up in investment portfolios. They aim to optimize return and reduce risk. I apply the same concept to my Fun and Wellness plans!

To find out the Top Five Benefits that I've gained by diversifying my fun and wellness activities, please join us at Sue's site.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Postcard from Auvers-sur-Oise, France

Just over half an hour's drive from Paris and the Orsay Museum, lies the artists' village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Admirers of Vincent van Gogh and other 19th century landscape painters come here from all over the world to be in the very spots depicted in so many well loved paintings. The village is 7 kilometers long (about 4.4 miles). The best way to discover it is on foot.

We made our first stop at the Auvers-sur-Oise Tourist Office to pick up a map and asked a few questions. The weather was cloudy with good chance of rain so we decided to walk the short pedestrian circuit of two hours, as opposed to the longer circuit that would take up to 4.5 hours.

On this walk, we started from Van Gogh Park, discovered places painted by Vincent van Gogh, and ended at the cemetery where the graves of the two van Gogh brothers are located. Below are my photos from Auvers-sur-Oise:

#1) Van Gogh's statue designed by the sculptor Ossip Zadkine in 1961. It is located in Van Gogh Park just outside of the tourist office.

#1) Vincent van Gogh statue

#2 and #3) Auvers-sur-Oise Town Hall which was depicted in van Gogh's La Mairie d'Auvers painting. The town hall is across the street from the inn, Auberge Ravoux, where van Gogh spent his last seventy days.

#2) Auvers-sur-Oise Town Hall

#3) La Mairie d'Auvers copy

#4) Van Gogh's residence at Auberge Ravoux, 52 Général De Gaulle Street, where Van Gogh's room has been left untouched, giving visitors a good idea of the artist's living conditions at the time. There is nothing to see in his room other than a small skylight and an old bistro chair. During his stay at Auberge Ravoux, Vincent van Gogh painted seventy eight paintings. Among these were a dozen or so portraits, two of which depict Adeline Ravoux, the thirteen-year old eldest daughter of the innkeepers Ravoux.

#4) Auberge Ravoux

#5 and #6) Walking towards the church Église d'Auvers, we passed by the Daubigny Museum and the steps where Vincent van Gogh painted L'escalier d'Auvers.

#5) The Daubigny museum

#6) L'escalier d'Auvers copy

#7 to #9) The church, Église d'Auvers, in the Romano-Gothic style surrounded by a bell tower, is characteristic of the region. Vincent van Gogh painted it on June 3 and 4, 1890. It is now a master piece of the Orsay Museum. We were able to go inside the church and took photos. The church exterior was under restoration and had some scaffolding behind the bell tower.

#7) Auvers church tower

#8) Auvers church door

#9) Église d'Auvers painting copy

#10 to #12) The houses in Auvers-sur-Oise looked pretty with their painted windows and doors, or greenery and flowers along the walls. Part of the walk is uphill, providing a good view of the village.

#10) Red doors and windows in Auvers-sur-Oise

#11) Flowers in Auvers-sur-Oise

 #12) Blue doors and windows in Auvers-sur-Oise

#13) The graves of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Théodore in the Auvers Cemetery: Vincent van Gogh arrived in Auvers on May 20, 1890 and died on July 29. He was 37. His younger brother, confidant, and primary supporter, Théodore, died of syphilis six months later at age 33.

Vincent and Théodore van Gogh's graves

The weather forecast was right. As we approached the cemetery, it started raining, first lightly then it became heavier. We were pleased to complete the short pedestrian circuit and saw several key landmarks in Auvers-sur-Oise on this visit.

Are you a fan of Vincent van Gogh's art? Which of his paintings do you like most? Please share.

Wellness Wednesday October 10

Welcome to our 10th Wellness Wednesday link up in 2018! In this post, I'll share my September wellness goal updates and my October wellness goals.

After I returned home from France, I enjoyed having access to a gym and a swimming pool again. When I'm at home, I can do all my fitness activities consistently, unlike the modifications that I need to make when I'm traveling abroad. So let's see how I did in September.

September wellness goal updates:

1. Meditate 15 minutes daily - Yes, this got done first thing in the morning and/ or before bed.
2. Smile or laugh daily - Yes, and I'm grateful for all the positives in my life.
3. Walk 45 minutes or more daily - 100% done, as I enjoy my morning walks, and walking is my primary mode of transportation.
4. Work out in the gym three times a week, one hour each time (Mon/Wed/Fri) - Done nine times out of twelve dates. The other three dates I modified my workouts when I was in Paris without access to a gym.
5. Practice yoga twice a week, one hour each time (Tues/Thurs) - Done eight times out of eight dates. I did three yoga sessions by myself, and attended five instructor-led Hatha yoga classes in September. I'm mixing self-directed yoga with instructor-led sessions to give myself variety.
6. Swim one hour weekly (Saturday) - Done four out of five Saturdays in September. I missed one when I was in Paris without access to a swimming pool.
7. Run 5K and do stretches one hour weekly (Sunday) - Done four out of five Sundays in September.

October wellness goals: I'm keeping similar goals as in September, except goal #7 as shown below. I signed up for a 5K running race which is coming up on October 21. It's a big race with thousands of international 5K, half marathon, and marathon runners. My preference is to run in much smaller races but there isn't one close by and this may be the last race before the weather becomes too cold to run outdoors. I hope it will be dry and not too windy on the race day.

1. Meditate 15 minutes daily.
2. Smile or laugh daily.
3. Walk 45 minutes or more daily.
4. Work out in the gym three times a week, one hour each time.
5. Practice yoga twice a week, one hour each time.
6. Swim one hour weekly.
7. Finish a 5K running race.

The optional prompt this month is Cancer care tips. According to the Canadian Cancer Society web site, cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada and is responsible for 30% of all deaths. However, there are steps that we can take to stop cancer before it starts. I'd encourage you to review the It's My Life! presentation here to learn how to reduce the risk.

The web site also offers many ways we can help someone with cancer (or someone who is caring for someone with cancer). I've referred to this page for information when I helped someone in my circle of family and friends going through their cancer treatment program.

Your turn...How are you doing with your wellness goals? If you have any cancer care tips, please share.
 

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy 2nd blog year

Greetings! My blog's second birthday is on October 10. I've got a photo of a seasonal cupcake to mark the occasion. Natalie the Explorer readership has grown well, based on the volume of comments that I've received. My sincere Thank You to everyone who has read my posts and sent me your comments. I greatly appreciate our virtual dialogues in this space.

What's my intention for this blog?
When I started Natalie the Explorer on October 10, 2016, I intended to use the space to document my explorations in my home city, my travel adventures, and my attempts to live a healthy and fun life as fully as I can. Two years later, my intention stays the same. I have ideas and experiences to write, just not enough time to do them quickly enough, and that's OK with me.

Where is the fun so far?
I enjoy the creative process of writing down my thoughts, sort and attach some photos to my posts, and publish the finished posts, without accumulating paper as I used to do when I maintained my journals.

I enjoy reading other blogs and experiencing the unique writing styles as well as how different each site looks. I also enjoy the virtual dialogue that occurs when I receive comments and reply to comments. Best of all, I feel that I'm making connections with a few bloggers across the miles, and I'm hoping that we'll meet in person one day.

What's next?
In the next few weeks, I plan to do some general clean up on this site, such as choosing a new design theme, removing outdated posts, organizing my labels, and giving more thoughts to what I'd like to focus my writing on in the new year.

Would you be able to help me? If you feel inclined, please let me know:

1. What do you like most about my blog?
2. What format or content changes would you like to see made on this blog?

I value your opinion, and look forward to receiving your honest feedback.