creative jewish mom

Croghan, New York A Mennonite Dry Goods Store And Gladiolas With A Story

Okay, really? Stalks of gladiolas for just 50 cents each, where is that? Well dear readers, you can certianly guess that I picked up a huge bunch for myself! These beautiful flowers that i once thouight only belonged in funeral parlors (no longer, love them now.....) were grown in the garden of this Mennonite family, who has a dried goods store and sells veggies and flowers from their garden. Truly charming and a lovely step back in time, in the town of Croghan, New York, in the southwestern foothills of the Adirondacks, and in the heart of dairy country. Ah yes, and right next store to the town of Lowville, that I shared with you a few weeks ago.

Take a little peek at what life looks like in rural upstate New York.......just i time to plan some of your summer adventures! (These photos were taken last August.)

Lowville, New York: Historic Charm And Cream Cheese!

Since we are still in the week in which we celebrated the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and ate all things cheesecake related,sharing with you our visit last August to the town that happens to be the home of the Philidelphia Cream Cheese factory sure is timely! As you may or may not know, New York State happens to supply the majority of milk for dairy consumption in the USA, so if you travel around the state a bit (which I highly recommend, so many great things to see!) you will very likely encounter dairy farms, and more dairy farms. No complaints here, I love rolling farmland and pristine silos........especially in the summer time as that also means farm stands!

We actually stayed in neighboring Croghan, New York, (which I chose as it was the first stop on our road trip from Toronto, and a roughly three hour drive) and visited Lowville in order to go the Walmart there. I had heard from one of the locals in Croghan that many of the folks work at the Philidelphia Cream Cheese factory, or the AMF factory which still makes wooden bowling pins, and I was so excited to see them both, though the Kraft factory was certainly more interesting with shiny clean silos, and this lovely cow next door!

A Visit To Fort York Toronto With Kids

This past August we spent ten wonderful days in Toronto, Canada and one of our favorite afternoons was the one we spent on a visit to historic Fort York, which is located in downtown Toronto just on the edge of the Entertainment District, and just a hop, skip and a jump from our vacation rental. Fort York, was the fort that protected the town of York, later to be called Toronto, in the war of 1812, and we really enjoyed stepping into this little slice of history. And do visit in the summer if you can to enjoy period war music and lots of demonstrations on site. In the mean time, have a look at my photos, worth a few minutes certainly!

A Visit To CN Tower, Toronto, With Kids

I am slowly but surely sharing with you photos from our month long trip to Canada and the USA this past August, and now I thought I'd share with you our visit to Toronto's CN Tower. I'll admit, I tend to steer clear of tourist attractions, (faving you know, inspiration from architecture and city life) but with kids in tow, I do realize that these famous spots are the ones they'll most likely remember, so up we go!

A Visit To Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a classic and world famous tourist destination, though on account of its location I had never been there until this past August. My kids really wanted to go, but I'll admit I was a bit sceptical as to whether indeed it would be interesting to a seasoned traveler like myself. Not that I had much choice as Niagara Falls is certainly a lot closer to Toronto than to anywhere else we've visited, so it was time to take the proverbial tourist plunge, knowing also that a location such as this would certainly be more memorable for my kids than meny of the locations that excite me!

And guess what, surprise, I wish we had planned to stay there overnight, or at least spend a whole day there, such that we could have visited the falls at least twice and taken advantage of some of the more obscure attractions! Now, put on your rain poncho and put away your water sensitive electonic devices, and join me for a little introduction to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada!

Modern Architecture In Toronto

If you are a fan of modern architecture, as I am, you will surely enjoy taking a look around Toronto, as there are many examples of daring and not so daring modern architecture that will surely delight! The photo above is the architect Dahiel Libeskind's extension of the Royal Ontario Museum called the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, completed in 2007. This project was so controversial tha tit was built such that the new extension could be disassembled if need be, namely it does not touch the old building in any destructive way.

A Visit To Allan Gardens In Toronto

On our visit to Toronto last month one of the things that caught my eye as I was researching sites to visit was the Victorian era conservatory Allan Gardens. We got lost trying to find it, but once we did it I was truly happy that we made the effort to visit this very special spot a bit off the beaten track. And to my great surprise, my kids actually enjoyed the visit as well!

Many of the plants that we saw growing in the conservatory can actually be found in our own container garden here in Israel, so that was fun for my kids and I think made the whole experience just a bit familiar.  And now, would you like to go inside and see for yourself? Lets go!

Eleven Great Tips For Assembling Stunning Containers

On our trip to Toronto at the beginning of August one of the things that I found remarkable about this lovely city on the lake is their love of flowers and the quantities that one sees around the city, simply amazing! Rather than just show you photos of some of my favorites I thought I'd use this opportunity to give some advice and point out why each of these examples is successful. Ready, this is going to be a good one. And if it weren't pitch black outside right now I think I might be inclined to run out and put some of my own advice to use, enjoy!

And now I present to you, Eleven Great Tips For Assembling Stunning Containers! Go for it!

1. One great container can do the job! This tall fluted container (above) works perfectly set against this historic brick building playing off the color of the darkened bricks, and the colors of the plantings work nicely with the blue door. Not something that makes you say wow, but something that has a unique personality and works scale-wise and interest-wise. This planter is a great example of putting the no-fail great looking container formula thriller,filler and spiller to use, right?

Public Sculpture In Toronto

 A few years ago I shared with you a collection of some fantastic public sculpture in Vancouver which was such a treat, and I'm happy to report that the support of public sculpture is also alive and well, infact thriving in Toronto as well. I can't say that I was able to photograph it all, but here is a nice selection of some of the sculptures that I enjoyed. And from the looks of it, above, my boys may have been weary of mommy's desire for exploring the city by foot but I do think that if they ever see another sculpture they will surely stop to take a look!

Top 25 Reasons To Visit Toronto!

I am just back from a month unplugged and a month traveling around Eastern North America with my family, which was fantastic. The jet lag is still fully intact, but it is time to start sharing some of my adventures with you, so I'll start with out first stop Toronto, Ontario, Canada! I'll admit, when my mother suggested we meet in this Canadian city on Lake Ontario I was a bit sceptical, as having loved our visit to Vancouver I was afraid that Toronto just wouldn't measure up. Surprise, surprise, while Lake Ontario isn't the rocky and forested Pacific Ocean coast, it is a huge body of water which is lovely in itself (we had to remind ourselves that this wasn't the ocean!)

Toronto is  a charming, interesting and accessible city full of lots of activities (and friendly, helpful people) to keep you busy. We didn't even begin to tackle them all during our 10 day stay! Do keep in mind that visiting Toronto is like visiting any large metropolis, just on a smaller scale, so in my opinion one should come equipped with an interest in exploring neighborhoods, learning about the city's history, and generally observing the whole mechanics that make a big city function.

Okay, lets get started, here are my top 25 reasons why you too should put a visit to Toronto on your bucket list. And no this post is not sponsored by the Canadian Tourist Board, but that probably would have been a good idea.....maybe next time.

 1. There is a fun Toronto sign right next to the city hall, and the fountain seen here becomes an ice rink in the winter. My kids climbed into the letters and I got some precious shots. This sign was only supposed to be temporary when erected so no promises that it will be there always. That is why I have listed this reason as number one, meaning get a move on it! Not to worry, we only ended up actually visiting this sign on account of not getting onto a greyhound bus due to summer crowding, but more on that later in reason number 13.