Signs

  Joining Tom at Signs2.

Random-osity

Wordless Wednesday Wordless Be There 2day

October 2020 - Toronto ON

Even though it is starting to show its age the historic red sign that has hung above Williams Pawnbrokers on Church St. since 1950 is rich in history.

It has had the Williams name for all its 70 years – currently owned by Howard since 1982. Howard first got into the business as a way to stay out of trouble; but being a pawnbroker has since turned into his passion – leading him to run one of the longest operating and most successful pawn shops in Canada.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

October 2020 - Toronto ON

Still taking a small break from Toronto Lanes, but I'll get back to them.

The Athenaeum Club (167 Church St.)

Originally an athletic club built in 1891, this building was known as the “Labour Temple” from 1904-1968 after the club was purchased by the Toronto Trades and Labour Council by selling shares to members of associated unions. “A library was set up, many unions had their offices located here, and for the 64 years it operated as the centrepiece of the Toronto labour movement, and many meetings held here to discuss the key issues of the day,” says David Kidd, a CUPE member and labour historian who has led labour-themed walks through Toronto. Those issues included public ownership of the TTC and Toronto Hydro, and whether to support conscription during the two world wars. Today the façade of the Athenaeum Club is preserved as part of the “Jazz” apartments.

The Athenaeum Club 1891 Built for the Athenaeum Club, this façade was designed by the architectural firm Denison and King in a Moorish Revival style, rare in Toronto. It features intricate brickwork, several Moorish window arches, and in the balcony, a cast-iron column with an exotic capital. From 1904 to 1967, the building was the Labor Temple - a home to the local labour movement, and host to key debates in Canadian labour history.

photo credit, courtesy of Bob Krawczyk

Sculpture Saturday

 Sculpture Saturday

Toronto ON

The AIDS Memorial reflects a particular place and time. It is a physical monument in a park in a neighbourhood that was devastated by AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.

In the mid 1980’s a group of gay men, led by Michael Lynch, developed the idea for the AIDS Memorial in response to the isolation and fear that so often characterized the experience of AIDS. Volunteers constructed a temporary memorial every year on Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, while working with friends to raise funds in the community to build the permanent AIDS Memorial. The permanent AIDS Memorial, designed by Patrick Fahn, opened in 1993 in Barbara Hall Park, behind The 519 Community Centre. Over time. the Memorial became a place for everyone infected and affected by AIDS in the broader Toronto community. Names of those to be honored are engraved and installed each year, by mid-June.

“Cry” by Michael Lynch and “Circle of Stones” by Shoshanna J. Addley are engraved on the first pillar of the Memorial. This plaque recognizes the deaths of those unnamed.

“We…will not endure these waves of dying friends, without a cry,” Canadian AIDS activist Michael Lynch wrote in his 1989 poem “Cry.” And the late poet and professor certainly did not.

Circles of Stone
To Those Unnamed
We stand at this place; among earth and stone, branch and birch –
In darkness and in light, through sun and storm, rain and trees,
leaves and breeze: Life and Death.
Our strength, though withered and sapped, regenerates here.

Colour

 One Word Sunday

July 2020 - Toronto ON

Church St.

Self-Isolation Week 17

Weekend Cooking is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader!

Sunday Salon

Seasons

July 2020 - Toronto ON

AROUND TORONTO

I'm wondering if I should continue calling these weekly updates as self-isolation? For the last month we both have been getting out, John golfs three times a week, we do weekly day trips and we have been going around town. But we avoid crowds and do not mix with anyone other than the odd sales person.

Toronto is in stage 2 since June 24 but I don't plan on getting my hair cut or having a mani-pedi until I see how the first two weeks go of people "embracing their freedom" to sit on patios.
The numbers from the States that opened up too quickly are staggering and scary.

SOURCE - NY TIMES JUNE 29 2020

Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, put it this way: “From the very beginning, this outbreak has really been mismanaged in terms of what the government response should have been.” That quote appeared in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation article headlined: “The lessons Canada can take from the U.S.’s mishandling of Covid-19.”

Restaurants are reopening in outdoor spaces all over Toronto as the city enters stage two of reopening, but it's still going to be a Footloose summer: singing and dancing is banned on patios.

The Senator, one of the city's oldest restaurants, has found a workaround. Starting Friday, June 26, it's launching a new live music series from its balcony. The Serenade From The Balcony will bring live jazz to Victoria Street every Friday from 4 to 6 pm.
Senator Restaurant Balcony Music



Many restaurants in the city did/will not survive this pandemic. NOW Magazine is carrying an ongoing list.

Our local market within walking distance.

The biggest news was Tuesday when Mayor John Tory and city council voted in favour of face coverings in indoor spaces effective July 7 and what you need to know about mandatory face mask policy.

Masks mandatory on TTC (public transit)  starting July 2; all-door boarding, cash fares return. I took the streetcar after this went into effect. Most are wearing masks, but there seems to be a group of middle-aged people who think wearing a mask under your chin counts.
I saw a man get on with a mask, and ask the man sitting near him (maskless) if he wanted a mask, guy says "nah,man".

Then we have the shameful issue of COVID cases among migrant workers in the Windsore-Essex area.
The advocacy organization, Justice for Migrant Workers, is calling for an immediate shutdown of Ontario's entire agricultural industry until every workplace is fully sterilized to stop the spread of COVID-19 among its workers.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1,000 agri-farm workers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 across the province.

Migrant workers at an Ontario farm struggling with a major COVID-19 outbreak “hid” to avoid getting tested when health officials visited recently, Premier Doug Ford said Thursday, refusing to name the business.

Ford said fears among temporary foreign workers that they would not be paid or sent back to their home countries if they tested positive for the virus are hindering efforts to address the outbreak at the farm in the Windsor-Essex region that has seen 191 workers infected with COVID-19.

Obviously our fearless "leader" has no idea what it is like for these migrants. fearing deportation, loss of wages with no health care available.

Ford says they have nothing to fear.

But I am happy that the museums are opening with reduced hours. You must purchase your tickets ahead of time, online. 

AGO has cute description of the rules.

OUT AND ABOUT SAFELY

The weather has been hot and humid without any rain. Temperatures have been in the low 30s (Celsius) with humidity making it feel 37-40.

Saturday and Sunday were spent at home since we were out every day during the week.
Monday John golfed and I got on a Molly Maid frenzy and did all kinds of chores around the house.
Tuesday John went to bottle his wine and I planned on going out, but as it got to noon I decided that I'd stay in as I prefer going out in the morning when there are less people around.



WEDNESDAY HAPPY CANADA DAY

June was Pride month but it was quiet with no parades or crowds of tourists.
We took a drive and did some rambling about the Gay Village and Cabbagetown.

Interesting architecture in this area.
Salt and Tobacco is a casual Cabbagetown pizzeria specializing in Roman style pizza. They offer gluten free

NO MASK NO ENTRY

Pride colours at TD Canada Trust.

As we walked by this takeout joint, no one was social distancing.

A new COVID mural.

 Lots of rules.

Take-out window.

RBC Royal Bank of Canada Pride poster.

Another TD bank.

Clever advertising.

At the corner of Church and Alexander stands an two-and-a-half-metre-tall bronze statue of Alexander Wood, the early Canadian merchant who owned much of the surrounding land that has since become the Church-Wellesley Village.

There is no known image of Wood, except for a vague Georgian silhouette portrait, and the absence of any definitive likeness freed sculptor Del Newbigging to take some creative liberties with the monument. Newbigging’s version of Wood casts him as a dandy, and he appears quite debonair: in one hand he clutches a top hat and leather gloves, and in his other he carries a walking stick. His coat billows out behind him dramatically.

Nani's ice ceam. We had sampled his ice cream last summer at his truck and were so happy to go to his new bricks and mortar location on Charles St.

John tried the first three gelatos and I had the next two. The mojito was amazing as were all the others. Vegan or not they are delicious.

Thursday was hot! We headed to St. Catharines and picked up fish (1 gluten free) haddock and chips at Union Jack and took it to Lester B. Pearson park for a picnic.

Click here for our day trip.

Today's mission were murals.

Masks must be worn!

Enough walking around town, crossing the Welland Canal, still closed to visitors.

We went back to a winery from the first week when most weren't open.

Malivoire.

We stopped at Cornerstone's, which wasn't even on our radar. A great small winery, inexpensive. She gave us a sampling of all of these, no charge.

Our booty!

Friday John and a friend headed off for their annual round of golf at Wooden Sticks.

I went to Spadina to poke around.

It appeared that this McDonald's was open for seating which seems odd.

New mural reminding us we're all in this together.

COOKING

Saturday John requested Chinese chicken curry.

We have started tasting our wines from the Niagara Region where we have made weekly trips over the last month. Click here to read. In light of that, I thought I would create an ongoing wine diary.

Sunday breakfast - I mentioned that I have undertaken this responsibility. The plan was a Spanish Tortilla but the more we looked at recipes we decided it was better to make it for dinner. So John took over and made bacon and tomato.

So dinner went from a Spanish tortilla to a rosti to just the hot Italian sausage I bought a week ago with a Caesar salad and our new favourite (and so easy) dressing.

Fresh strawberries with fresh whipping cream sprinkled with dark chocolate.

MONDAY
I had bought avocados on Friday to make this pie. I had a remaining gluten free pre-made pie crust (don't like them, rather make my own) to use up, as well as some leftover frozen coconut milk and we always have limes.
Avocado key lime pie OMG so good! No bake!!!
My avocados were not ripe enough, it would have been much creamier but WOW fantastic!!!!


 Dinner - lamb chops, Greek lemon roasted potatoes and broccolini AND pie!

TUESDAY slow cooker pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce (no ketchup) and salad. The pulled pork wasn't as tasty as when we use ketchup (but I don't want to use it) I think it needed a little more brown sugar. I might end up combining three of my recipes, one uses cola along with homemade BBQ sauce.

You know how one thing leads to another? I was reading a blogger who mentioned cinnamon bread and I felt the need to make a cinnamon raisin quick bread, which was delicious. I reduced the amount of sugar and didn't mix any sugar with the cinnamon. I only made one loaf, if future I will do the two loaves the recipe makes. So good and no photo 📸📸📸

I am such a huge fan of the gfJules gluten free flour I placed an order on Amazon which should come on Thursday. I intend to be fully stocked for the next lockdown!




WEDNESDAY

Crispy fried chicken and potato salad. I used a different chicken recipe and think it's time I created my own from all the bits and pieces.

Wet mix for the chicken and the double yolk eggs continue, so far there have been 8 in this carton. Too weird for words.

THURSDAY

Since we had fish and chips for lunch we had leftover potato salad and Caesar salad with toast and the dipping sauce I had bought in Niagara.



FRIDAY
I had leftovers while John dined on this at the golf course.

I bought some new bowls for the kitchen. They all have lids.

ICE CREAM SCOOPS - 2020

Click here for 2019 Scoops!

Monk's Grimsby

Pink grapefruit and raspberry lemonade

Nani's Gelato
Last year we tried carrot and cream and sweet potato as samples at his food truck so it was top of my list for 2020.

Indian chai and espresso liqueur

Mojiito (V) chocolate raspberry (V) ricotta strawberry

READING

I finished Middle England and was sorry to see it end. I am thinking about re-reading the first two books in the series.

But then (from reading the acknowledgements) I discovered that there is a series The Rotters Club and I can watch it on Dailymotion!

I started a book about Jeffrey Epstein, so far it's not capturing my interest.