Oakville

The Oakville Marina is as gallant as always, expensive boats float on the water, it all seems still and calm, just like nothing happened. More patios opened along the Lakeshore stretch and people are enjoying a drink and a meal together. The flowers and ambiance along Lakeshore in Oakville downtown add colour delighting our eyes, but if we look beyond the fancy wrapping paper there is more to it that needs to change to get back to what we call “normal”.  An abundance of shops closed due to the pandemic, now showing covered windows with “For Lease” signs.  A few new ones will be opening soon in the hopes to bring back the posh downtown. An impromptu visit to a couple of shops proved to be a happy outcome.  Retail people are resilient and happy to open the doors to customers. 

Visiting Nyla’s Room, an authentic Italian Café that offers gelato and British tea is now opened with limited capacity.  Employee Olivia Savage says, she is happy to have people come in, have the store opened longer hours and sell as much gelato as possible.  Before the re-opening, they were doing call in on-line orders, tea service as take-out tea boxes for online tea parties and zoom calls.  Olivia says” we hope a lot of people come down for a gelato this Summer.  We are opened for business.”

Coffee shop out of business.

Darlene Janeiro Design was opened and working hard on a Monday, the owner Darlene Janeiro was delighted to enlighten us with good words about her work during the pandemic.  “Business has increased, due to the fact the families are spending more time at home and working from home.  Our job is to create healthy environments for our clients and looking at how to refresh and model some of their living spaces to improve them so that it becomes their oasis and their way of living.” 

They missed having people visiting the studio but at the same time it has been great being able to help them through the pandemic by restoring and refreshing their living spaces.  “We recently opened, we moved into the stage with 25% capacity, we can have clients in, so I was here this weekend, and I was able to meet with clients coming through.  It has been great to see people coming in this past weekend.” Affirmed Darlene with a smile. (Photo 3). In my neighbourhood, everyone that works from home now owns a dog and let me say, the garbage bins are full… the Town of Oakville can’t keep up.  At least we are picking up after our pet, who is picking up after the humans? (Photo 4)

Stella Jurgen/MS