Trenton Marina and Fraser Park

Beauty of a house in Carrying Place - across the street from the Bay of Quinte!

Can you guess the price? It's over 3200 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, huge indoor sundeck, inground pool, lush perennial gardens, double garage, 150 x 146 foot lot, fireplace, modern kitchen and bathrooms (2 ensuite), view of the Bay of Quinte from the sunroom, central air, main floor laundry, and even a beautiful sounding address!

Did you guess? Alrighty then. Did you guess $389,900? Yes, that's right! It's under 400,000!
Taxes $3240/yr.

Why oh why do people still want a house in Toronto?!

Here's the listing:

6 Carriage Lane

I went to the open house today and was absolutely blown away. The pictures just don't do this house justice, to use a time-worn phrase. Inside and out, it was sheer perfection! And....there was an offer in on it, which happened just an hour before the open house. I looked around the property and house with a heavy heart, knowing that now it could never be mine (because the new owners would be crazy to leave it)!

The mature and gorgeous perennial gardens alone would cost tens of thousands of dollars to put in if you started from scratch. Same with the stonework patio and the area around the pool. It is truly a garden of Eden!

Country quiet, the bay right there, yet the feel of a lovely neighborhood of houses spaced wide apart. The expansive lawn on both sides and in front of the house was green and lovely and made a picture postcard bucolic setting for the home.

The present owners' beautiful calico cat inside completed the picture. She greeted me and then jumped on a couch, curling her body against the sofa cushions.

That the owners had decorated the inside so appealingly - they have very good taste - and updated all the bathrooms, kitchen, and most of the inside, made it possible to imagine yourself living there (which I have been doing ever since I left the house!).

Only 10 minutes from our home in Quinte West, but definitely "in the country", the drive to the 401 from Carriage Lane is about 8-10 minutes too, just far enough out that one can enjoy its pastoral ambience, yet get to other places relatively easily. The folks who are buying the house are lucky indeed!

Here are the pictures I took before I left:

Birthday greetings

It's my birthday today and I am happy. It's never been the custom in my family to lavish each other with expensive gifts; on the contrary, we present each other with small tokens to commemorate the occasion and a cheesecake with candles to have as a platform for singing the birthday song in both languages.

But I must say, I do like to receive birthday cards!

Since facebook started reminding us when our friends' birthdays are, we've been able to instantly greet them with lovely sentiments, either a simple Happy Birthday! or a considered reply wishing the recipient a great day. I just love this!

After each greeting I get, I like to add my reply, and sometimes this evolves into a nice little conversation.

I so appreciate that my friends and acquaintances leave a few words. It's not hard to do, but not everyone does it. Those who do make me feel warm and fuzzy and loving and happy. It doesn't take much to make a person smile, and that's one of the nicest things you can do on the internet!

Trenton farmers market has a taste of Russia - yummm!

I go to our open-air farmer's market this time of year for gorgeous red rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, garlic scapes, hydroponic tomatoes, and fresh farm eggs. I also go to get the tasty hot cabbage rolls served up by Igor, a native of Moldova, who calls his home-cooking business "A Taste of Russia".

Igor and I found a common thread as we chatted for the first time. Igor's sister lives in Vilnius, Lithuania, and I am, of course, Estonian, which is one of the three Baltic countries (the third is Latvia, which sits between Estonia and Lithuania).

Some of Igor's family, including his sister, like my husband's aunt and cousins, were sent to Siberia by the Communists back when our native countries were being invaded and held as captive nations. So, with the horrors of the past to unite us, we struck up a friendly customer-vendor bond.

Igor's wife is the saint who slaves away in the home kitchen to prepare these treats for the 13 farmers' markets Igor sells at each week, from Kingston to Peterborough. He's in Trenton every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 7AM to 2PM.

Feta-spinach triangles

Cheese blintzes

So far, Igor has made my taste buds dance with feta/spinach triangles, cheese blintzes, potato-cheese perogies, and the apple-blueberry strudels his wife makes.

Apple-blueberry strudel

I've yet to eat Igor's borscht, apple dumplings, and a couple of other homemade specialties. I can't resist starting with his cabbage rolls each market day because I just love them. If I have money left over after seeing what the other stalls have to offer, I return to Igor for some of his other goodies.

The apple-blueberry strudel makes a great bring-along when you're going to someone's cottage or house on a summer's evening. That's why I bought it the first time and it was eaten with great enjoyment. It's delicious with a cup of coffee or tea, sitting on the deck or by the bay, lake, or river.

Igor is an affable, soft-spoken, lovely man with a smile on his face for everyone. He's been seen to give out free samples to folks who stop by his table, and especially to those who buy something.

When I buy my two cabbage rolls, he has thrown in a perogy or a feta-cheese pastry for me to try.

Igor knows how to market his brand very attractively, with a custom-made logo that appears on his t-shirt, signage, and three sides of his van.

His burner and grill are hard at work heating things up all day as he cooks onsite. The aromas around his table really work up an appetite! Igor is ready with dollops of sour cream, if you want it,  for most of his ready-to-eat foods, as is the European custom. He always looks like he really enjoys what he's doing. If you want to take any goods home to enjoy later, he has lots of frozen product on hand, too.

Cabbage rolls

Hot, steaming cabbage rolls! Lightly covered in sauce, the cabbage leaves envelop a mixture of ground meat and rice. I eat these delightful treats right there in the parking lot, in my car! There's no fast food better than this fast food! So, so yummy!

Igor's Russian-style perogies are little pockets of cheesy, potato-ey deep-fried pleasure. The taste is a blend of flavours that tickles your palate and satisfies both the smoothly creamy and crackly crunchy requirements for comfort food status.

Potato-cheese perogies

I found out about Igor and his "A Taste of Russia" in the local paper. I hope after you read this blog post you'll visit one of the farmer's markets he sells at. You'll have a happy tummy!

This is the view from my car as I eat my cabbage rolls and sip my coffee (who says you have to leave home to get away?):

Ah, summer in Quinte West, at the top of pastoral, wine-rich, Prince Edward County. So much to enjoy and explore!

Roman Toi - 94!

Today is the 94th birthday of Estonian composer/choir director Roman Toi. He is a man of great dignity with a wry sense of humour and old-world good manners. He is also a beloved family friend.

I pay tribute to him today and to all he has accomplished and continues to accomplish. He has written three symphonies, nine cantatas, and over 80 choral works, many becoming permanent parts of the repertoire of Estonian choirs all over the world. He is a respected professor of music at the University of Toronto and is the organist of St. Peter's Estonian Lutheran Church. Of all the organists at Estonian churches, his choice of key for every hymn is always the most comfortable to sing in!

I wish many more birthdays for Roman Toi and the good health that makes each day worth living. You are truly an Estonian icon and idol! Ta elagu, ta elagu!

Alex Wong!

SYTYCD's present season with 11 competitors starting to vie for top spot today brought us the remarkable ballet dancer Alex Wong (who I first saw dance 10 years ago) in a piece so artfully choreographed and performed it brought tears to everyone's eyes at the competition, and mine, at home. I was almost sobbing, it so touched my heart.

I knew Alex was incredible - that was already evident 10 years ago - but this, THIS dance clinched it for me.

Woe to Alexie who had to follow Alex's unbeatable WOW! performance. If her stagework had had any pizzazz at all, she would have come off okay, but her dance and effort were a big formulaic ho-hum, both in choreography and characterization.

Toronto's too expensive - look for your new home in Trenton!

Where else (within driving distance to Toronto) can you get a 3000 square foot house that looks like this, and is on the best street in Trenton, for $379,900?

Here are the details for the house above: 

http://www.remax-oa.com/on/trenton-ward-real-estate/21-bridlewood-lane-qton_2101964/

Or, how about this 3400 square foot, ravine lot house, which is directly across the street, with an asking price of $429,000 (down from $479,000):

http://www.youronlineagents.com/davidweir/viewlisting.php?id=221171

Or, how about a waterfront house for $799,900? What do you get for that price in Toronto? Exactly!

But look what you get here, at the top of Prince Edward County:

http://www.century21.ca/Property/ON/K0K_1L0/Carrying_Place/County_Road_3/2254

Here is a typical Trenton house at a typical Trenton price, $204,900:

This four-bedroom house has a gas fireplace, inground pool, ceramic and laminate flooring as well as carpeting, central air, and a finished basement - just your everyday Trenton house with the extras that make life comfortable.

http://www.quinterealestate.ca/listing/350433/6-o%60neil-crescent/

The drive to Toronto from the first two and the last house takes less than one and a half hours. These homes are in my neighbourhood and I've been known to get from my house to Don Mills in 1¼ hours. If not Don Mills (on a trafficky day - when isn't it trafficky once you reach Toronto?), then Scarborough. The first traffic I usually encounter is on the turnoff the 401 to the Don Valley Parkway. If you live in T.O. you know what's that like!

I don't work in real estate nor do I know any agents personally (although the guy who sold us our house still sends us a calendar at Christmas). I just scratch my head over why so many people have to live in Toronto when we've got fairly priced houses here, just an hour and a half away. Wasn't the computer supposed to make it easier to work anywhere?

Here, we live in suburbia within the country. We have Wal-Mart, Shopper's Drug Mart, Metro, Royal and TD banks plus Bank of Nova Scotia as well as local credit unions. "Big city" Belleville, with all the big box stores you could possibly want, is 20 minutes away. An even smaller town, charming-as-all-getout-Brighton, is only 13 minutes away. We have farms with horses and farmer's markets in the summer, and we're surrounded by water.

Best of all, we're right on top of wine country - Prince Edward County! And, of course, there's Sandbanks Provincial Park with 3 golden-sandy beaches. 

Brighton has beautiful Presqui'ile Park, almost 4 square miles, a haven for migratory birds and monarch butterflies. There are almost 400 camping spots in the 8 campgrounds there. It's a fabulous park for walking in year-round and for cross-country skiing in the winter.

The region we live in is known as Quinte West and we've called it home for 6 years, after 32 years in Toronto (hubby 38 years). I would find it hard to go back. Whenever I drive in (four of our children still live there), I get stuck in traffic somewhere and have to wait in endless lines at the supermarket and other stores (which I avoid whenever I can). Here, whether in Wal-Mart or Metro, the "lines" consist of one to three people, tops. Same in Belleville. And Brighton, where I like to shop at Sobey's. 

Why would anyone continue to torture themselves by staying in Toronto when they don't have to?

Pronouncing words correctly

We took our son out for his birthday tonight. Our destination was Tomasso's, an Italian restaurant in our small town of Trenton, Ontario. Our son had bruschetta for openers. Except that the waitress pronounced it "bruusheta" as many do. I felt compelled to correct her, so I did it light-heartedly, telling her an Italian friend of mine told me the way to pronounce it is "bruusketa". I also know this is right because all the cooks worth their salt on the Food Network pronounce it this way. Since this is an Italian restaurant, I figured, if anyone, then they should be saying it the Italian way.

The waitress was light-hearted right back and I have no quibbles. I wonder, though, whether she will change her pronunciation of it. I sure would, because proper language is important to me. I am a nit-picker and think more folks should care about the way they write and speak. In a world where the correct answers are at our fingertips with a few taps on the keyboard, why would anyone not avail themselves of this remarkable resource?

The Grind

As promised, I checked out The Grind today. I am so pleased to see such a beautiful coffee house in Trenton.