[dawson bridge]

[capturing downtown edmonton]

 

 

 

[downtown edmonton on whyte ave]

I've been told that there's some great people-watching to be done on Whyte Ave in Edmonton.

This is what I spotted the other day:






Yes, that is a man, walking down the street with a snake around his neck. And yes, that's a young girl petting the snake.

[canada day in london]

[harpenden farmers' market]

A lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday morning; strolling through a pretty town and doing food shopping without dodging crazy trolley drivers in a crowded supermarket...ah, and it's all local produce.

[italian deli]

Who knew that tucked into a small, mostly residential road in a "village" I would find a lovely and authentic-smelling Italian deli?

The Silver Palate Delicatessen in Harpenden is everything a foodee would love. It is somewhat cramped making customers more aware of the shelves packed with tasty morsels ranging from real Italian pastas, olive oils, to fabulous San Pellegrino sparkling lemonades (and that's the *real* lemonade, not the 7-up stuff) and assorted selections of things "sott-oglio."

The deli counter displayed a huge selection of Italian salumi including my favourite Ventricina (although the person working there didn't know what I was asking for and I had to point to it...) which is a specialty of my home-town Vasto


as well as loads of cheeses and home-made bread and fresh pasta.
For those looking for more than a few bits and pieces to take home, The Silver Palate has a few tables scattered about (inside and outside) complete with tasty-sounding offerings on the menus, waiting for weary customers to plonk themselves down.



If you're ever in Harpenden do check out this authentic Italian deli.

[wheathampstead farmers' market]

[stanborough park]

A sunny day just begs for a walk next to water...

[vasto]

A quick scoot over to my home town of Vasto, Chieti (in Abruzzo, opposite Rome on the Adriatic coast) while my mum was visiting from Toronto.

[amsterdam]

A couple of days in Amsterdam, how could we not experience the red light district? Very educational...Apparently, as with airports (as noted by Chris), no photos can be taken....but oops, I think I accidently slipped:

As we ambled about the canals we heard some fantastic Beethoven booming. At first we thought someone was blaring it from speakers for some kind of nouveau-cool party but slowly a car towing a piano AND painist crept into view. Sadly I was too slow with the camera so the photo doesn't do this eccentric episode justice:



look behind the tree: