Before we moved to Ottawa friends of ours from Edmonton who were living here at the time said that if we come to Ottawa for a year that we should really stay in the neighborhood called the Glebe. We looked into it and, although it was a bit pricier than we wanted, we decided to go for it, mostly on account of the amazing walkability and quick access to most things, including work, and also because we heard about the Glebe’s notorious community spirit.
It hasn’t taken long to get an appreciation for the many very kind people who live in and around this part of the city, including old Ottawa south.
There is a certain mature-hipness to the area that pervades, and there seems to be no shortage of family events to go to, be it a farmers market, street festivals, musical shows, book fairs, or community parties.
Halloween says a lot about a neighborhood and tonight we were blown away by the kind hospitality of our neighbours as they patiently tended to the teeming masses of children on this mild Oct 31st evening.
Below is a short clip from one funky house, the home of “Broccoli Man” (this guy actually gave out broccoli all night) and below that is a few seconds of our boys at the neighborhood Halloween party, where there were a dozen different activities for the kids to have fun with, including bean-bag tossing, bowling, etc. Interestingly, I bumped into a federal cabinet minister at the party and gained a little insight into the busy schedule that they keep and how such intense jobs make it difficult for them to spend much time with their families.
As an aside, I found out today that I have shingles. No, not the kind that come in heavy bundles and are stapled to your roof, but the painful kind that make your skin tingle. I noticed an irritating rash on my back the other day and today it had spread around to the front. I may have caught it time from advancing since I was prescribed an anti-viral. So far the pain has been fairly minor but it is starting to hurt a bit more than before. I think it might be time for some pain-numbing loot from my son’s candy bag!
Oh, Happy Birthday to my grandma!
