Some Danish Hygge and Little Libraries in Oakville

We met up at the Gairloch Gardens at 1306 Lakeshore Rd E to stop and smell some roses.

Then we drove over to The Danish Pastry House 487 Cornwall Road,  for some baked goods and coffee hygge. 

We shared a Viking slice. Pastry filled with almond custard cream and slathered with a dark chocolate topping. Wonderful. 

Afterwards it was off for some walking and visits to local Little Libraries. Visited 5 today, didn't stumble upon any.  There was a section south of the Danish bakery that had 3 little libraries. As usual, each book box was unique and impressive. Wandering the Oakville neighbourhood was very nice, even in the rain. We didn't bring umbrellas but it was raining lightly off and on, until one point on our walk (see below)....  

Our first Little Library visit on Second Street

Didn't take anything. Left a Dr Who colouring book and our booklet. 

Douglas and Palmer

We thought this big little library was gone
as we stood on the corner scanning the streets.
Then we turned around and it was about 3 feet away. 

Inside the Douglas and Palmer dollhouse little library

This is the teacup style
little library in Grimsby. 

Maple Avenue
Looks like it came straight out of
Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
It's a similar to the one we saw in Grimsby.
Here's an article about this Little Library.

After the Maple Ave library we drove over to
Sedgewick Crescent to the French immersion school.
The library was filled with french language books. 

Village Wood Rd
We parked here and walked around the neighbourhood,
taking a trail through Chalmers Park and ending up on Riverview Street.

Then the skies darkened and it started to rain.
It rained hard. Teeming down.
Standing under a tree was lightning risky. Plus the tree wasn't doing much for cover,
so we ran over to this house and stood under the porch roof.

Then the door opened.
A daughter and dad poked their heads out and invited us in!
We were also greeted by a beautiful blond labrador retriever.
The young lady kept us company as we peered out at the rain.
She even offered us a ride back to the car if the rain didn't stop.
But the rain was letting up, so we thanked her for saving us from a drenching
then set out on our merry way.
What a great moment. One we won't forget.

Back to the car, and a drive back to the Danish bakery (where we left the other car).

We each picked up a rhubarb cake to take home, which I'm eating as I write this blog entry.

We stayed for more coffee, a couple of treats to share, and a gab with the Danish bakery assistant, comparing Denmark to Canada.

Danish Tree Logs Traestammer
Rum ball filling inside,
raspberry around the rum ball filling,
marzipan outer layer,
ends dipped in chocolate

Danish pastry with an apple custard filling and chocolate dip

Little Free Wine

Spotted this box on a tree in Dundas, Ontario. I think this may be a new craze similar to the Little Free Library trend. :)

Little Free Wine boxes!

I stopped to check if there was wine inside. None. Maybe the home owners are hoping for donations.

Finch's Rules For Wandering

Hey sister, 

This is almost what we practice. 

We wander with much the same guidelines:

• We use a map of Little Libraries as goals, but no carved-in-stone route
• Strict Finch's Rules wandering would mean no phones to get us there, but I can not be trusted with a paper map
• We alternate choosing places to go and are willing to go where the road takes us--grand, small, bizarre, beautiful, ugly, and surprising
• At each site we leave something, as an offering--our booklet

Finch's Rules for Wandering is an excerpt from a book called "All The Bright Places". We'll have to keep an eye out for it in a Little Library.  ---Sister -R-       

FINCH’S RULES FOR WANDERING

1) There are no rules, because life is made up of too many rules as it is

2) But there are three “guidelines” (which sounds less rigid than “rules”):

a) No using our phones to get us there. We have to do this strictly old-school, which means learning to read actual maps.

b) We alternate choosing places to go, but we also have to be willing to go where the road takes us. This means the grand, the small, the bizarre, the poetic, the beautiful, the ugly, the surprising. Just like life. But absolutely, unconditionally, resolutely nothing ordinary.

c) At each site, we leave something, almost like an offering. It can be our own private game of geocaching (“the recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object by mans of GPS coordinates posted on a website”), only not a gamed just for us.
The rules of geocaching say “take something, leave something”. The way I figure it, we stand to get something out of each place, so why not give something back?
Also, it’s a way to prove we’ve been there, and a way to leave a part of us behind.