september

Some pictures of our new apartment, which we have arranged keeping in mind that our sole focus for the next few months will be on being hermit-y grad students. Ergo there are a lot of books and desks and comfy chairs, as well as a lot of places to store said books.

We dragged 6 boxes of books across the country, so one of the first things we bought was a new BILLY bookshelf. I haven't had time to arrange the books alphabetically or by subject or anything (what kind of aspiring librarian am I?), but they are all, at least, on a shelf of some kind (not pictured: two more smaller shelves). So it's still all a bit cluttered ... 

There are nice heaters in each room, which I am looking forward with much anticipation to using - too bad it's still 25'C every day! Ughh.

Somehow there is a lot of WHITE throughout. I think I'm okay with this (except in the kitchen, where I can never seem to keep the white floor tiles clean).

Here is My Desk. While E seems to be able to work anywhere (sprawled out on the bed, couch or in the bath), I need a clearly defined "surface" in order to concentrate.

This week we are officially back to school / work / real life. September has always been an exciting (and/or terrifying) month for me. Even the years without school, the 1st of September has always felt more like "a new year" than January 1st.  So, "Happy New Year," I guess!

peaches

On our way back from Niagara we stopped at one of many road-side fruit stands for some peaches. I whined here once before about how hard it is to find a decent peach. Well - as I suspected - they're all in Southern Ontario.

The cute little basket lasted us about a week; every day I would eat another one and think to myself "NOW they are PERFECTLY ripe. THIS is the best peach I have EVER EATEN," only to have the same experience the next day. 

Something about peaches and coffee seemed like a good idea, and as a result I have gotten myself hooked on caffeine again (hence all these blog updates).

centre island

We've made a couple of trips now to the Toronto islands. I love the ferry ride (and the Trillium, the 100-year old paddle ferry) and I love escaping to a place with actual trees/green things.

Lake Ontario is so big that if you squint (actually, you don't even need to squint) you can pretend it's the ocean. There are even little waves to bob around in. 

But, actually, it's lake-ness is growing on me. I still can't get over swimming in a body of water that isn't unpleasantly cold - it's SO NICE.