Walking Weekend Part 2 - Saturday

OK, so I've been a really really bad blogger!

I wrote this back in early July, and delayed posting because of wanting to add Photos. And it's taken until now (September 26!) to actually get the post up, with a few additions to the original.


Last Saturday [July 7] morning, we met up with a friend from Abu Dhabi/Kuwait, who calls Hamilton home. Donna's on her way to Kabul to work, and is back home for leave.

We met Donna at Union Station and TTC'd up to the ROM. I'm one of those who is not at all impressed by the Michael Lee Chin "Barfed Crystal" attached to the ROM. But we've heard so much about how wonderful the light is for exhibits inside, that we decided it was worth checking out. Plus, we had an out-of-town guest, so to the ROM we went. You now enter the ROM through the Crystal - just a big white and grey open space - no atmosphere at all. We did walk down to where the old entrance lobby was - it has so much character and really set the tone that you were in a special place. I hope the have some interesting plans for that space.

That sense of wonder right from the moment you enter the building is lost now, in a sea of grey and white.

We wandered through a number of the exhibits in the main ROM building, but the building, and the exhibits, seem to have lost much of the character and old feeling they had. It just felt sterile to me.

We then decided to go see the inside of the Crystal. That was a challenge all in and of itself - No, you can't access the Crystal directly from this floor, you have to go to that floor, and then around that corner, and around another corner. The main bank of elevators isn't working yet, so you get up in the Crystal via a freight elevator - Lovely!

We finally found a nice open (so far exhibit-less) area and were impressed by all the natural light coming in - what a wonderful exhibit space!

Then we followed the signs to a special exhibit - the History of History - what a joke! It was just a few items with no descriptions. The items themselves are supposed to speak for themselves. Oh, and all the natural light? Most of it had been blocked out by blackout curtains fitted to the windows and skylights and the exhibit was lit by potlights - something about the natural light would damage the artifacts. Well, so much for all that nice bright light and white walls and the whole reason for the Crystal!


OK. Enough of my griping. I didn't like the Crystal when I first saw it a few years ago under construction, and the steel girders looked like a kid's game of Pickup Sticks. And I still don't like it. Inside or out.

After an hour or 2, we'd had enough of the ROM and headed back out into the wonderful Summer Sunshine and west on Bloor towards Spadina and then Bathurst. We stopped in my favourite pub in the area - Dooney's - for lunch. They have the most amazing version of Huevos Rancheros (I think they call it Huevos Dooney's), and some pretty excellent Eggs Florentine. And beer. I think Frank had a Roast Beast sandwich of some sort, and really enjoyed it. (He's not emotional about food as I am, unless he hasn't had any - then he's really emotional: Me Eat Now!)


We wandered over past Honest Ed's, but didn't go in. In hindsight, given the passing of Ed this past week, maybe we should have - it may never be the same again. And over to Markham Street. I was surprised that South of Harbord, Markham becomes a totally residential street, with some quite large homes and huge old trees. South of College, the homes become a bit more modest, but still quite interesting.


This house must be owned by someone with some sort of OCD. I'd love to spend some time talking to the homeowner and finding out all about their collectibles and assorted plants.










And then, just before we got to Queen Street, I saw this absolutely awesome residential street. I had no idea Toronto had such interesting areas. I don't think the photo does it any justice.



And just down the end of the street, around the corner to the left, what did we find, but Kensington Ice Cream! I'd heard about this place, but never knew where to find it. And finally we did!


Wow! Such amazing flavours! Hot Ginger Ice Cream and Rhubarb-Apple. Even "ordinary" chocolate has a twist to it. Yum! I'll be back.


We finished our walk by heading west on Queen Street through a number of Art Galleries and Boutiques, right down to the Gladstone, where we hopped a Streetcar back to Union Station.

All in all, a very good fun (tiring!) day with a special friend.

Walking Weekend - Part 1, Friday

Wow! What a wonderful weekend!

I had Friday off work, but due to a big project I'm involved in, I went in for the morning. So, noon comes, and off I go on the TTC! The only silly thing is that I didn't carry a camera on my Friday excursion. Sorry - with photos, I wouldn't have had to write so much.

First stop - City Hall for the annual Art Exhibit. Lots of people were there, and it was interesting seeing what other people take for art. I guess I'm just not an "art" person. But all the colours and ingenuity and activity were wonderful! I love to see this city so full of activity.

So then I wandered along Queen West, stopping in various shops as the spirit moved me.
I bought a wonderful top at La Cache - their Summer Sale is on!

I also stopped into Americo. They have such wonderful yarns!! Except that they are only sold by weights, with no yardages on them. I would really love to knit up a cable afghan this winter, and something from Americo might fit the bill, but I really don't know... And yes, I know that size doesn't really matter for an afghan, but still. I'm just not comfortable enough with my ability to gauge yarn weights just by looking at the strands.

From there, I headed up into Kensington to Lettuce Knit, where I picked up a girl's Tulip Cardigan kit. I looked at some of the sock yarns, and was very glad I picked up the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock last week, because the colourway that I loved was gone. That's the next sock - a boudoir sock of some kind for my grandmother.

On the way to Lettuce, I passed through the park in Kensington. Some people were playing guitar and singing; the wading pool was full of kids; and lots of other people were outside enjoying the sunshine and the park.

From Kensington, I headed up Bathurst and poked around a bit in some of the interesting little shops along Bloor.

Next stop - St. Clair. And I wimped out and took the Bathurst Street bus - that hill up Bathurst is Brutal!!

I thought about stopping in to see Haley at Knitomatic, but I was just there a week or so back, and I really don't need anything right now. And yes, I know that yarn is nothing about need, but I already had the yarn for the Tulip Cardigan in my hot sticky little hands, and really didn't want to carry much more on my ramble.

The bus dropped me at St. Clair & Vaughan, and I headed west towards Alterknit. That whole stretch of St. Clair West, from Bathurst to Lansdowne, has a wonderful community atmosphere.
Along the way, I stopped into Zia Mosaics, a cute little Mosaic studio where they will host parties/events around a mosaic theme and teach you how. Sounds like Fun!!

It is so wonderful to have an afternoon's worth of hours with really nothing to do. If you're open, you see all kinds of interesting things and people. I wish I'd had my camera to capture some of the things that moved me. Like flowers - I saw these amazingly yellow-orange daisy-like flowers in a yard along St. Clair that was absolutely bursting with flowers. I didn't know what many of them were, but there were Yarrow and Canterbury Bells among them.

I got to Alterknit about 5, which is where Frank and I had decided to meet whenever he managed to get away from work. Our evening plans were to experience Corso Italia (the Italian street festival along St. Clair W). Revetelle, proprietor of Alterknit, (I'm not sure that's how you spell her name, but I hope it's somewhat close) was extremely friendly and accommodating. I had an Iced Americano (Yum!!) and sat and visited with her while other customers came and went, and while she went through closing up the shop. Finally, just as we'd decided that Frank might not arrive for a while and decided to lock the doors, there he was!

Thank you Revetelle - I really appreciate you allowing me to "camp out" on your stool for so long. (Not only are they friendly over at Alterknit, but they make some pretty wonderful Waffles on Sunday morning - covered in fresh berries and cream. They also make a pretty mean Iced Americano.)

When Frank and I got to Corso Italia, they were still setting up, so we just meandered from Dufferin over to Lansdowne looking for dinner, finally settling on a sandwich outside Big Ragu (on Lansdowne, just south of St. Clair). They had some Italian name for it, which I don't remember, but the sandwiches were full of tomatoes and bocconcini cheese and basil, and Frank's had Prosciutto as well. I poked my head inside the restaurant, and looked at the menu and the reviews, and we will definitely be back! It appears to be a nice family-run place. Nothing fancy, but with good basic food, and not too expensive.

What had first attracted us to Big Ragu was the band outside - they had a really good guitar player, who reminded us a bit of Levon Ichkhanian, and an awesome percussionist/drummer, Armando, who we have run into several times before.

Once they'd finished their set, we wandered back out onto St. Clair for more of the festival. Project Phoenix was just starting their 2nd set, and so we listened to some really good funky R&B (70s-style).

We got pretty lucky with the buses/streetcars, and finally made it home about 11.

Boy was I tired!! And I had no idea I was going to do it all again tomorrow...

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Knitting for the Cure and All Jazzed Up

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post!
Let's see now...

Last week, on Friday Night, I joined the Downtown Knit Collective's Knit for the Cure night at the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life. What fun!! There were 10+1 of us knitting pink scarves through the night (6pm Friday to 6am Saturday). The scarves we knit that night, plus scarves knit by many other contributors, have been donated to be given to women who've been diagnosed with breast cancer, as a Hug from us to them. What a cool idea.

And speaking of cool - it was definitely cool that night! We were wearing every piece of clothing, blankets, etc. (except for one sleeping bag, kept in reserve), and still froze. Thanks to Wannietta for the Tim's run in the wee small hours of the morning. The hot coffee definitely helped to warm us up, and keep our spirits up.

I don't remember the exact number of scarves we donated, but it was a large cardboard box full.
Check out Wannietta's blog and the DKC Knit for the Cure Blog for more information.
And in addition to the scarves donated, our DKC team raised over $4,179, taking 2nd prize for highest number of team pledges. We received a copy of Dr. Marla's book "Life in the Balance." I'm looking forward to reading that, and sharing it, too.

This past week the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival has been on, and I've been downtown (at City Hall) catching some awesome music most days. It started with Noon on the Friday of the Relay and Brian Barlow's Big Band. Monday evening, my DH and I saw Holly Cole - she really put on a great show. Michael Kaeshammer opened for her - Wow, what Amazing Piano Playing!! His fingers just fly over the keyboard, sometimes with his 2 hands doing different rhythms, and I would go just about anywhere to be able to see him again.

Tuesday at noon was Russ Little - he's one of my favourites! Thursday I saw the Toronto Blues Society Competition Finals - it's so nice to see young/ undiscovered/ struggling talent get recognized and promoted. And Thursday night was the United Trombone Summit - a bunch of old-tyme jazz trombonists who really know how to put on a show. They were followed by Roy Hargrove on trumpet, but it was getting really late, and so we left after 2-3 tunes. I also think he's highly over-rated.

Yesterday (Saturday), we saw Colourblind Brian and the Blainettes down on the Danforth, for some wonderful blues with intelligent lyrics. One of my DH's favourite songs is known as "Chicken Cordon Blues". It's about this couple, and when they first got together, she fed him on chicken and wine and steak, but now she's become vegetarian, and only buys 10-lb bags of brown rice, and granola, and he's looking jealously at the dog down the street who's smiling because he has meat. It almost sounds like the story of our lives!

And tonite we have tickets to see Mavis Staples. We're both really looking forward to seeing/hearing her (and yes, I'll have my knitting with me!).