Goodbye temperamental spring, Hello sweltering summer.

 My weekend began with some R&R on Friday. I stayed at work a little later so on the way home I decided not to make plans and to pick up some plants for my pots and have a fun night in the backyard getting dirty (who doesn't like to get dirty?). I picked the plants up at Lowes, they had a very healthy selection in their garden center so I figured, why not, I did purchase an additional pot too.

The plants in total came to approximately $50, I had the intention of spending $30, but I also had to buy some soil, not a big deal :P
Gardening is such a relaxing past time, I can't wait until I have a huge garden of my own, its better than redecorating a home in my mind because you get to watch the plants grow and flowers bloom. If the rabbit doesn't come by and knock the planters over like it has in the past I will successfully have placed the window planters on the stones lining my walkway in the second picture. I also found some sunflowers coming up where the birds must have dropped seed, always a pleasant surprise. Once I pulled the weeds out of my center garden I discovered the lilies I planted last year too, can't wait until they bloom!
For those who don't know, Friday was the longest day of the year, summer solstice, which marks the first day of the summer. Friday wasn't too hot, but Saturday and Sunday came in with some heat. I was ready to leave spring 2013 behind, that's for sure, it has been a busy one, so I'm happy :)

Above and to the right you will notice two of the little reptiles at Reptilia in Vaughan, ON. The little turtle was soo cute, he was trying to eat his food and his tongue would come out to try to pull the lettuce in. He was quite the aggressive little guy for a turtle, I'm guessing he was hungry. This place was neat, they had different types of snakes, frogs, iguanas, alligators and turtles. I found the snakes to be the coolest, even though I don't really like snakes, some of their markings were pretty cool, they had a few different types of pythons and cobras. It was a fairly rainy day so I was lucky to spend time at the zoo :) Even if I got my butt handed to me in a few games of pool.
Here are a couple of shots from the restaurant on Queen W I was at Saturday night named Swan Restaurant, I had a bourbon bread pudding and my friend had the espresso chocolate mousse. They were both quite good, we shared a main dish together and then got dessert. Walked around downtown for a bit, witnessed a guy climb a gated entrance to a park which was at least 25 feet tall. He was obviously intoxicated, we weren't waiting around to see if he fell. I've always said, climbing is the easy part, it's getting back down that becomes tricky!

Today we woke up, made somewhat of a gourmet breakfast and headed towards Hamilton for a hike in Waterdown called Smokey Hollow. The hike is approximately 10km, we did at least 7km, almost the full two hours. This hike features quite a few little waterfalls and one major (Great Falls). It was a bit humid today to be walking up and down the slopes of the Niagara Escarpment, but it was worth it to have a nice day out of the city. I'm going to attach the pics as well as what I made for dinner tonight once I got home and showered. I made zucchini fritters and turkey sliders without buns, a yummy bacon chive sauce for the sliders, the fritters didn't need a sauce. Enjoy! The rock formations along this hike were cool.

Amanda kept noticing these crazy bugs! They were some sort of flying beetle. Then she picked up on the snake slithering through the path and up the hill.

Above are the Great Falls, they were very inviting, especially after hiking through the escarpment. Below are some of the rock formations I mentioned and part of the creek.

Zucchini fritters, mushrooms and turkey sliders (tasty)!