Happy Goat Coffee Company

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share
Sunday Salon

May 2025 - Toronto ON

Ottawa ON

Saturday and it isn't sunny but it's not raining!  Scratch that, it poured mid afternoon. 

We both looked forward to our lazy Saturday, after chores got done. Laundry, vacuum (technically Parnell the robot does that), mail a postcard, book a show,  fill soap containers, clean the kitchen, sorted the freezer, you get the idea.

Sunday

We tried this recipe for gluten free egg noodles and it did not work! I ordered some (expensive) gluten free Italian flour.

I worked on some posts and booked our whales and puffins tour.

Monday Mural was from Ottawa last weekend.

John was up and made bangers and eggs for his breakfast and a sandwich to go for lunch as he headed out to meet a friend to go golfing in St. George ON.

I hadn't seen this plaque before, outside Winner's at College Park. I wrote a post about this Eaton's store.

I was waiting for the streetcar to Allan Gardens.

I can't believe I haven't been here since December 2019!!

The iconic Palm House at Allan Gardens Conservatory reopened to the public mid May after closing for vital restoration work to preserve the structure's architectural heritage. 
Construction began in October 2022 on the historic conservatory building, one of Toronto's oldest attractions. The Palm House, designed by City of Toronto architect Robert McCallum, opened in 1910 and is the third horticultural pavilion on site.
The Palm House features a wide array of palms, banana plants and other tall specimens. It showcases a variety of palm trees and other tropical plants like cycads, gingers, hibiscus and seasonal exotics. 

They were busy removing the spring flowers.

Okuda's mural is peeking out in these two shots.

I walked back to the Bulk Barn and was quicker than the streetcar. I picked up peanuts (NOT Virginia) and popcorn.

This plaque was outside the old Maple Leaf Gardens.

Tuesday I had intended to go out early, however, we got caught up on the King's Speech from the Throne.

Mark Carney is a man who is respected globally which will serve him well as PM! 

He's also pretty damn smart and strategic for bringing King Charles III to deliver the throne speech. 🇨🇦🍁

After lunch we lost our desire to go out and instead watched the latest three MasterChef Australia episodes.

I also bought tickets for The Sound of Our Nation at the Canadian Stage Company on June 14. We haven't been there in ages!

Wednesday John's golf was rained out again (last week also). I did some decluttering in the middle room (2 pillows, decorative umbrella (I bought in California and did nothing with), glass battery candle - all went to T). We threw out 2 covers for headsets, and a couple of posters.
I only went to Longo's for some items on special and chicken quarters for dinner. I was going to make fish coconut lime soup if John had been golfing and the weather was better.

I've never seen this before.

John booked golf for Friday.

Thursday we got this note:

Dear Residents, 
Effective today, a combination lock is installed on the entrance gate to the tennis court. This measure is being implemented due to repeated incidents of non-residents from neighbouring condominiums accessing and using the court without authorization.

John bottled his wine and then we went to St. Lawrence Market and picked up steaks, ground lamb, and some vegetables. I also picked up those sweet drops that I had mentioned a few weeks ago.

Some interesting fish options.

We went to Balzac's on Market St. for a white flat.

Friday John golfed at Remington. I went to the Reference Library to see their display of old Toronto postcards.

Longo's lies, the price tag says "product of Mexico" but the boxes say "Product of USA.". I sent them a note.

I bought some balsamic vinegar, not the usual one, this was twice the price for half the size. But we don't use it a lot and shouldn't skimp on some things.

My birth certificate arrived!

COOKING

I usually have a loose menu plan for the week ahead. However, not really for this week. 

I do enjoy those days when I have no idea what to have for dinner and then a plan comes together.

Instead we had four new recipes that we enjoyed and are adding to our rotation. I have already added the fried chicken and Mexican pulled pork to My Recipe Box.

On Monday I felt I had to do something with the pork butt we bought on sale at Longo's with plans to make slow cooked Mexican pulled pork. I had thought to use pork chops to make the pork schnitzel but then cut two pork slices from the butt instead. Pork butt is also on the cheaper cut.

 On Tuesday, I realized we had our last package of chicken thighs, looked at Pinterest and decided to try the paprikash, which led me to the one lone sausage in the freezer which I added.

I don't often buy chicken quarters, I don't know why, as they are a relatively inexpensive meal. Five chicken quarters were $10 so that would be five dinners for us. Then on Thursday I still had no ideas until we were at the market and I saw three pounds of ground lamb for $20 nd made koftas/kaftas.

Saturday roast beef, potatoes, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts 

Sunday leftover beef, green peppers onions stir fry with rice (since the noodles didn't work out)

Monday pork schnitzel with Dijon gravy(NEW/ADDED) mashed cauliflower/sprouts potatoes and fennel. Delicious!!! Perfect pork schnitzel GF!

Tuesday chicken Paprikash(NEW) I added a hot Italian sausage that was languishing in the freezer.

Wednesday oven fried GF chicken quarters (NEW/ADDED) and salad 

Thursday lamb koftas (NEW) with tomatoes, tzatziki, salad and flatbread

Friday steak baked potato asparagus (roasted with balsamic vinegar and parmesan) and chimichurri

WATCHING

Fred and Rose West A British Horror Story 2025. There have been so many versions of this true story but it is always interesting. Recently discovered police recordings and first-person accounts tell the story of Fred and Rose West, two of the UK's most prolific murderers.

Mobland is a British crime drama television series. The series stars Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza, a fixer for the Harrigan crime family led by Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve Harrigan (Helen Mirren). Guy Ritchie, Anthony Byrne, Daniel Syrkin, and Lawrence Gough serve as directors for the first season.

Ratings IMDb 8.5/10 Rotten Tomatoes 74%

The Continental In 1970s New York, a young Winston Scott recruits a team to confront a vast conspiracy sparked by his brother's attack on the hotel-for-assassins The Continental.

Hard Home  A mother who is deeply saddened lures her daughter's killer into her smart home in order to take revenge, and gets involved in a distorted game where life and death are at stake.

READING

The Bee Sting is such a good long read, after a string of DNFs. I was immediately absorbed by this extraordinary story about the derailing of a once prosperous Irish family. 

List of 20 websites where you can download unlimited books for free:

1. Planet eBook

2. Free-eBooks. net

3. ManyBooks 

4. Librivox 

5. Internet Archive 

6. BookBub 

7. Open Library

8. BookBoon 

9. Feedbooks 

10. Smashwords 

11. Project Gutenberg

12. Google Books 

13. PDFBooksWorld 

14. FreeTechBooks 

15. Bookyards 

16. GetFreeBooks 

17. eBookLobby 

18. FreeComputerBooks 

19. LibriVox 

20. ManyBooks

Paramount

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share
Sunday Salon

May 2024 - Toronto ON

Cheyenne WY

Saturday I had my first ride in the new car as we ran some errands.

Unfortunately our Maple Leafs lost last night in game 7.

Sunday and we're not going anywhere as the Toronto Marathon is on and we are on the route so roads are closed around us. Plus is was a very foggy wet start to the day.

However I found Masterchef Australia season 16 2024 to watch online!!!

Cinco de Mayo so I cooked Mexican.

Monday John had his annual Wooden Sticks day of golf which included dinner.

I thought I was heading to Yorkville (Yonge subway stop) but on impulse got off the subway at Wellesley as I wanted to see the newly renovated clock tower/new condo incorporation.

This turned out to be a 11,000 step walk.

This clock tower was originally part of the Yonge Street Fire Hall. It later stood over the St. Charles Tavern, which was a symbol for Toronto’s gay community. 

The Yonge Street Fire Hall was active for 56 years. It closed in 1928 and the building became a car wash, then a tire dealership. In 1948, racehorse owner Charles Hemstead purchased the building and redesigned the ground floor to open the St. Charles restaurant and cocktail bar in 1950. Hemstead sold the business in 1958 but it continued to operate, serving drinks and Chinese Canadian food. The St. Charles could legally stay open when other bars had to close for dinner. Patrons at the nearby Red Lion Room, nicknamed the “Pink Pussy” by the gay community, often moved to the St. Charles to eat. The St. Charles grew popular with gay men and it held many drag shows, but it was not always a safe space. Police were hostile to the community and surveilled inside. In the 1970s, the tradition of Halloween drag shows began to attract malicious crowds, forcing drag queens to enter in secret or be pelted with eggs. Several discos used the upper floors in the 1970s and 1980s, including Maygay, Charly’s, and Y-Not. The St. Charles closed in 1987, but the building still housed nightclubs such as the Empire Dancebar. In 2022, the St. Charles clock tower was restored and incorporated into a housing development.

Just sidewalking.

Facing Yonge Street is the well loved, red brick, 1888-built Masonic Hall/Gloucester Mews building, which is being fully rehabilitated as part of The Ivy. it was occupied by the House of Lords hair salon for as long as I can remember.

Facing Gloucester Street, the Charles Levey Houses, has, however, been disassembled and transported in panels to a warehouse to be cleaned and restored before be returned to the site and reintegrated into the base of The Ivy, but attached to a modern frame.

The property at 8 Gloucester Street is associated with Timothy Eaton (1834-1907), who relocated to Toronto in 1869 to open a dry goods business that evolved into one of the city's first department stores and the longest privately operated one in Canada. Eaton and his family resided in the easterly portion of the semi-detached houses) following their arrival in Toronto, a eriod when the entrepreneur formulated novel retail concepts for Toronto consumers, including fixed prices and cash sales.

BUT we knew it as Olympic 76 Pizza, our long time favourite pizza place since the early 1990s. A boss I had when I worked at Bay and Bloor used to take us there for lunch when it was first a tiny hole in the wall across from this location.  

The first Olympic pizza (it became a Jamaican spot) was in a row of small businesses now occupied by this condo, The Clover.

I snagged this photo form Google street view of the strip where the original Olympic was.

This is how the block looked before The Clover was built.

Here are our photos of Olympic Pizza taken in 2016.

I can't believe this is still around! Many a BMO event took place here.

Look at this antique! When did it go to a dollar for a call?

In 2007 it went from 25¢ to 50¢

In 2013 a federal regulator (CRTC) blocked a Bell Canada plan to raise the cost of a local pay phone call to $1.

So what is this sticker?

I stopped into the Reference Library to see their latest display. Click here for lots more photos.

Tuesday I did a quick shuttle bus run to Longo's for a couple of things for dinner. Blueberries were $3 if you had a loyalty card otherwise they were $6!

I baked lemon raspberry crumble bars for the first time and they were good!

Wednesday we ran a personal errand and then looked for geraniums, but they didn't look great so I bought 3 other plants instead.

We also checked up on the status of the Blue Goose. The Goose is back!

2023 photo

2020 photo. When John played fastball for BMO this was their watering hole.

John went golfing and I headed (again) to Yorkville, I should have planned my week better. It was 21C but should  didn't feel like it with the winds, when I stepped out of the subway it had rained! But the sun did come back out. 

I went to see the Fleurs de Villes floral displays.

Our steak order was delivered and I marked them properly so we can decide what is our favourite.

Thursday we had free tickets to a Jameson Distillery event at Stackt, but it was a gloomy morning so we decided not to go. But I was doing my Fleurs de Villes post and felt guilty that I had missed some so John and I headed (again) to Yonge and Bloor and did the rest, click here for another Fleurs de Villes post.

My favourite.

I was walking right by this until John pointed it out. Another Homeless Jesus!!!

Click here to see other Homeless Jesus sculptures. 

Homeless Jesus are designed by Timothy Schmalz, a Canadian sculptor and devout Catholic. Schmalz was inspired to create the statue after seeing a homeless person sleeping on a park bench in Toronto in 2012.

We both had mocha, too sweet for us. 

Gluten free baked products!

In my Toronto Reference Library post I mentioned/linked above, Eat In Dine Out I mentioned The Pilot Tavern, so I got a photo today!

After a dull day we had a magnificent sunset!

Friday John had an appointment so he went to Longo's to pick up what we needed.

I stayed home and did some chores and repotted the new plants which led to other plants being repotted.

The hostas in black and white basket are new.

Red boots had been empty for a while, it used to have a snake plant in it.

The Boston fern, middle red container is also new. It held my geraniums for a few years but they died out this year. Next up is the balcony.

COOKING

Sat roast pork (in freezer) roast potatoes carrots and turnips

Sun May 5 CINCO DE MAYO shrimp tacos guacamole 

Mon John out lamb shanks Jackie Saturday's leftovers

Tues pork doner kabobs with pita and tzatziki and Greek salad

Wed halibut oven potato wedges. The halibut just wouldn't bake!

Thu 

Fri steak and balsamic garlic roasted mushrooms with baguette.

 

WATCHING

Basic Instinct watched it when it came out, was fun to watch again.

Mr. Bates and the Post Office Great!

A Man in Full

Twister Alley

Hollow in the Land

READING

I started Best Friends Forever, it seems like a good storyline.