Toast

January 2020 - Toronto ON

Here's a link to last week's StreetArt display at the Market Gallery.

Another pretty quiet week.
Since we had a snowstorm on Saturday, I thought it would be fun to have a picnic of fried chicken with honey garlic sauce and potato salad.

Tuesday I went out for some groceries.
Ah the joys of a city snowfall...

We watched an interesting but disturbing movie, The Torture Report.

Very glad I didn't have to go anywhere this morning on public transit.

First, a car followed a streetcar into the subway tunnel and then got stuck. This resulted in shuttle buses being used instead on Spadina.

Then the subway on Line 2 from Jane to Ossington was shut down both ways all morning.

Union Station always has something on display.

It turns out this installation is the latest from Canadian cannabis company Aphria Inc.
The company is hoping to fight the seasonal blues by hosting what it calls a Plant Positivity Winter Garden.
This “pop-up greenhouse experience” features a 30-foot tunnel lined from stem to stern with a collection of cold-weather plants.

We met a friend and headed to a dinner hosted by our financial advisor. It was at the National Club, a private club founded in 1874 for business professionals. Seemly they did a reno in 2013, but I'm not sure where. It felt like a funeral parlour as you walked in and everything seemed dated. After cocktails, we had a soup (opinions vary, pea or squash), chicken that was actually quite nice and a espresso creme brule, which committed the ultimate sin of not having a crisp shell to be cracked with a spoon!!
There were two interesting presentations. No photos taken.

I did finally get to use the Uber app on my phone for our friend!
We took the streetcar home.

Thursday my BFF and I finally went to lunch and got all caught up.

Friday John and I walked to St. Lawrence Market and picked up steaks, boneless leg of lamb, ground pork and stocked up on vegetables.

And we have a rainy weekend ahead.

MENU

Fried chicken with honey garlic sauce and potato salad.

Mushroom stuffed flank steak, mashed carrots and sauteed cabbage with mushroom gravy. Recipe called for the meat to be cooked for 45 minutes covered and then 30 minutes uncovered. This was way too long as the meat was too well done.

Lamb koftas  with sliced red onions, cabbage and carrots. Homemade
and 3 ingredient naan. I have made this flatbread before but this time it just wouldn't work.


Pork belly, cauliflower rice and green beans.

Dinner out. See above.

Sticky chicken thighs with cauliflower rice and broccoli.

Steak, baked potatoes and broccolini.

BOOK ENDS

Bloor St. W Toronto

Started The Broken Girls, I probably wouldn't have picked this book if I realized it was a ghost story, but I'll see if I can stick with it.

LINKING UP WITH

Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.

Sunday Salon

Seasons

Say Cheese

Monday Walks

Monday Morning Blog Club

January Squares

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.

Leggy Light?

January Squares

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.


May 2019 - Epernay France

Red light, light at the end of the tunnel. Imagine the plight of the men building the tunnel. But it was a delight to ride the champagne train. The highlight being a glass of champagne afterwards.

Weekend Roundup

Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler


1. Starts with "D"
2. A Favorite
3. DARK- chosen by Tom

Starts with "D"
DANG!

DUNDAS West Toronto coffee shop.

Favourite

Canadian coffee order 2 milk 2 sugar.

DARK

DARK Horse King St. West Toronto

Déjà Brew

DESAYUNOS  breakfast in Madrid Spain 2018.

Weekend Reflections

Posting at Weekend Reflections

Black Creek Village Toronto ON

January Lights

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.

Hotel stair lights May 2019 Dijon France

Summer

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge


Signs of Summer in Toronto!

January Squares

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.

Bellagio skylight Las Vegas NV

Trees

Dutch's Photo Challenge TREES



There are trees in this post!

In November 2011 we were on the Big Island of Hawaii, a favourite of ours.
We'd been to the Volcano National Park many times but always enjoy going there.
When we were finished we thought we would go to the Lava Tube but there wasn't any parking at the Lava Tube so we decided to head back to the condo.

As we passed the road for Mauna Loa we decided to take it, wondering where it went.

A very quiet road, lots of trees.

The drive is 13 miles at 15 miles an hour. After 3 miles it becomes a one lane road. 

Once at the top there are two cars also parked. 

The most interesting view from the lookout is towards the Volcano National Park where the steam is escaping from the crater.

Time to head down as it is around 4pm and it will be totally dark by 6pm. Lots of koa trees line the road.

The road cuts through the lava.

As we wind around the bend, back on the 2 lane section of the road WOW!!!

This had come down probably just after we passed it on the way up as we were the last car at the lookout!

How much noise would it make as it crashed????

Another car appears behind us as we call 911 - it is now gone 5pm so they are not sure when they can reach someone.

Cyclist managed to get around.

Ranger arrived shortly. He asked if we knew if there were any other cars and we said we had seen two at the top, the third car arrived then.

Examining the top of the downed tree with the ranger. It had lots of growth and buds on the top of it.

Road crew arrives around 6:15PM and it is pitch dark. In the interest of safety they say that they will come back at 6AM and get it cleared by 10am.

The road crew takes one couple into Volcano where they are staying. The four of us get into the ranger car and he takes us into Volcano where we hope there will be rooms available at the Kailua Lodge. They don't have rooms available but the manager makes a call to another lodge that does have a holiday home available. The ranger points out that the four of us are not travelling together and he has a better idea.

He takes us to the Kailua Military Camp KMC which he explains is for the use of the military and their families to while visiting Hawaii.

He gets us checked in and we get a rate of $66 a night. He then takes us to our rooms while pointing out the various buildings. He suggests we go to the Lava Lounge where we can get beer and food.

We take his suggestion and head over to the Lava Lounge under an inky black sky full of stars. The other couple from California join us and we then engage in conversation with some Scots that were staying there.

We we get up this morning we were able to walk around and get some photos and breakfast at the Crater Rim Cafe.

We called the ranger station and were told they had not yet completed moving the tree but would let us know. Imagine, to our surprise our ranger from last night, Andrew drove up to our room!! It was only 9:30am and the tree had been cleared. He took us back to our cars and we were on our way.

We had left our keys in the cars so the crew could move our cars out of the way.

We're amazed at the cleanup job done by the crew. The tree is now on the side of the road. Andrew explains that they will move the wood to another spot to prevent poaching of the koa wood as it is used for making furniture. He thinks the park services may give some of it to artisans in the area for carving.

January Squares

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.


Headlights - Toronto subway mural.

Tuesday Treasures

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Travel Tuesday
Our World Tuesday
Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World


When we were in Sedona in November 2012 we stopped by an art gallery and found the amazing works of James Muir and we became mesmerized by his incredible talent. We had seen one of his sculptures The Dance  in uptown Sedona a few days before unaware at the time of the artist.