Morning Meditations

 

ANIMAL

  One Word Sundays         

   Cellpic Sunday      

Lake Chapala Mexico

Forthcoming One Word Sundays            

13 September: Blue

20 September: Geometry

27 September: Power

October: taking a break

1 November: Back

8 November: Laundry

15 November: Afloat

August Recap

 AUGUST 2026

JULY 2026
JUNE 2026

L'Amour du Pain Aug 8

The Lazy Barista Aug 15

Harumama Aug 22

Birdie Aug 29

TRAVEL

St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador 4,212 kilometers 2,618 miles 

Day 1 LINK

Day 2 

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

ACCOMMODATIONS

Doubletree Hilton St. John's NL

We saw everything that was on our agenda that we hadn't covered in 2022.

We ate great food at a variety of places, Oliver's, Yellowbelly's (2), Cojones (meh), Hilton Sparo, Ye Old Goat, Cupids (bay trip), Mallard Cottage.

We had cod tongues with scrunchions, salmon, lobster roll, cod bites, fries with dressing and gravy, red curry mussels, pizza, pasta with shrimp, scallops and salmon,smoked salmon, sweet potato and carrot soup, fishcakes (2 Mansard Cottage the best), fish and chips, Spanish tapas, crepes with ice cream and local berries.

We had incredible breakfasts at the Hilton.

MURALS

TRAVEL YEAR TO DATE

✈Toronto to Charlottetown (return) 1,654 miles ·2,663 KM 5 days

🚄Toronto to Montreal (return) 680 miles 1,090 KM 4 days 

✈Toronto to St. John's Newfoundland Labrador (return) 2,618 miles 4,212 KM  7 days

TOTAL DAYS 11

TOTAL DISTANCE 4,952 miles 7,965 KM

ACCOMMODATIONS

Rodd

Doubletree Hilton Place Desjardins Montreal QC

Doubletree Hilton St. John's NL

EATING OUT - TORONTO

Pigeon Pigeon for brunch, Pizzaioli, Jason George Pub, Pizza Olive, Fancy Burger (not worth a mention), Cherry St, BBQ, Box Car Social coffee.

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YEAR TO DATE FAVOURITE FOOD

PIZZA - Pizzaioli

BURGERS -  Cabano's (3 years running)          WORST Fancy Burger

COFFEE - Neo

SUSHI

DINER

THAI - Senla

MEXICAN - 

THEATRE

Ones - The Beatles

SHOWS TO DATE

ONES The Beatles

Candlelight Leonard Cohen

A Beautiful Life Neil Diamond

Inside American Pie

AROUND TOWN

We checked out the newish Sutton Place Hotel.

The feature film adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, directed by Sarah Polley and starring Billie Eilish, Carey Mulligan, and Connor Storrie, was filming on Bay Street on August 3, 2026.

Beaver Quest - we did it! Found all 51 plus the bonus Maple Leafs. The Quest was in Old Town Toronto so we spend some time around there.

While looking for the last two beavers, I took photos of historical buildings that I posted for a Tuesday Treasures.

MIRVISH VILLAGE

Mirvish Village is a new, mixed-use rental and retail community at Bloor and Bathurst Street. Built on the old site of the famous Honest Ed's discount store, it features residential towers, restored heritage houses, public spaces, and local shops.

Housing: Nearly 900 purpose-built rental apartments, including affordable and family-sized units.

Retail and Food: Commercial spaces for restaurants, micro-retailers, a food hall, and local shops like Book Bar and Pizzeria Badiali.

Public Space: Pedestrian-friendly alleyways, restored heritage buildings, and the newly opened Honest Ed’s Park.

KOREATOWN

We definitely need to go back for a meal!!

BIIDAASIGE PARK

Biidaasige Park (pronounced bee-daw-sih-geh) means "sunlight shining toward us" in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwemowin). Located in Toronto's Port Lands on the island of Ookwemin Minising ("place of the black cherry trees"), the name reflects the hopeful light of a new day shining on waterway restoration, reconciliation, and ecological healing.

Spans roughly 60 acres along the newly renaturalized mouth of the Don River on Toronto's eastern waterfront.Ecological Purpose: Serves as a vital flood-protection infrastructure project while restoring natural wetlands, habitats, and traditional medicine plants.

FAN EXPO

MURALS we found this month

Monday murals can be found in the weekly recaps.

We found so many murals in August it would be impossible to show them all, so this is a sampling. We had been in the lanes around Bloor and Bathurst, which were a treasure trove.

AROUND HOME

John took several walks around Lake Ontario.

I thought I had written a post about the Air India crash memorial.

 A large Air India Flight 182 Memorial Sundial inspired by the flag of India, featuring the 24-spoke Dharma Chakra wheel on its face.

Honors the 329 victims of the June 23, 1985, bombing that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.

We replaced our 14 year old mattress from Sleep Country.

We found the Skechers' factory outlet and got a good deal on shoes, BOGO 50% off. I also found a sweater at Winners.

We had an unexpected visitor! Luckily, it managed to fly away on its own.

COOKING

I didn't cook for a week while we were away!

We bought Argentinian steaks at the market along with bavettes, changing up our Friday Steak Night! We really enjoyed the bavettes.

I made another lasagna, had pizza a couple of times, made spaghetti and meat sauce, and a chicken Alfredo, me, who was never an Italian food fan!!!

MY RECIPE BOX YEAR TO DATE

Ice Cream (updated)

Spicy Thai basil pork

Pork Tenderloin

Gingerbread my mother's recipe. This has been lingering in my drafts forever!

Classic lasagna

Caesar salad

Look who's 60!!

Morning Reflections

 

Fresh Roasted Coffee

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

Weekend Coffee Share
Sunday Salon

Sherry's Pickings

T Stands for Tuesday

4 September 2026 - Toronto ON

                                                           

FREDERICTON NEW BRUNSWICK

SATURDAY

It was supposed to be a sunny day, but now it says rain. Oh, well, we don't really care, we have no plans other than home things. And then the forecast changed to no rain! John went for an early morning walk before making delicious bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch.

I did a good cleaning of the kitchen and put laundry away.

John grated parmesan cheese for our shakeable container.

I went through our "extra" spices and filled up what needed, I also made a list of what we need.

That decluttered one more thing in the back of a cupboard.

I shortened the sleeves on two tops, yay me!!!! while I watched the Paul Anka (Canadian) movie that John recorded months ago. I knew most of the hits that he performed, and knew he wrote for many artists, including My Way for Frank Sinatra, but Michael Jackson and Drake (Canadian)???

I didn't know that Justin Bateman was his SIL, Anka had 5 daughters from his first marriage and 2 sons from his second.

We continued with The Morning Show.

Bring it on!

SUNDAY

White - One Word Sunday

Blue Rodeo

The rain was here when we got up late - 8AM!! We puttered the morning away, reading.

I cleaned the bathrooms and watered the plants.

I worked on blogs and organizing photos. I got rid of leftover embroidery thread from various kits.

I picked up my embroidery again while watching Luther, season 1, and it stars Ruth Wilson, a favourite of mine. We both began watching it together.

I got some new baking trays, I had gotten rid of most of my a while ago, they'd gotten old and worn. I was down to one super big one and a small, small one that had gotten rusty.

So I cleaned out that cupboard.

MONDAY

Monday Mural - St. John's NL

Foto Tunes

My view at 7AM this morning and it rained and stayed foggy all day, so much for John's golf.

We are trying to wean ourselves away from Google for various reasons. 

I did a back-up of my blog, it only took a couple of hours. But as it was doing it, I realized that I had many posts I have no interest in backing up, mainly from years ago when I did so many specific link ups, Pink Saturday, Saturday Shoes, Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Skywatch Friday and on and on. So I ended up deleting aver 3,000 posts, I'll continue this before I do another back-up. BTW I did learn something, how to do bulk deletes!!

We both had Paypal account that we never use, so we deleted those accounts.

John is working on alternate systems for Play Store, Google docs, maps etc. Always good to have alternates.

I decided it was a good day to go for a haircut and had a good chat with Nicole as she had just come back from Prague, where she is from. She was commenting that all the museums are free for kids under 12/14, as it is a great way to learn. However our museums are so expensive for families.

Since we decided to watch Luther together, I needed something for kitchen watching.
We Were Dangerous is a 2024 New Zealand drama film. Three rebellious teenage girls—Nellie, Daisy, and Lou are held at the Te Motu School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls, overseen by a strict Matron.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 1

T Stands for Tuesday

Tuesday Treasures

We were going to see Odyssey, but then realized we'd be better going once the kids are back in school!

I got us set up to vote by mail for the municipal elections coming up.

John went for a walk, it was hot out, 100% humidity! And the fog is hanging around.

We thought about going to the museum, but then instead John came to Longo's with me. A good thing as we spent $76. But I did get ground beef, pork ribs and another (bigger) pork roast like the one we had for dinner on Saturday, it was really good. Everything else was fruit or vegetables.

"Our" garden.

I actually bought some pants on Amazon, I like them and they fit, they do need shortening. I am exchanging the light grey, for a dark grey.

I started watching Restaurant Impossible in the kitchen. Aarón Sánchez, a favourite chef of mine, is the host who is in Toronto rescuing local restaurants. After telling John about it he wants to watch it so we'll do that next weekend.

WEDNESDAY

Signs

We spent the morning looking at Google replacements. We went with OnlyOffice to replace Docs, we tested it for documents and spreadsheets as well as sharing capabilities. For sharing I downloaded OnlyOffice docspace. We tested converting and creating files.

I also deleted more published posts. I also renamed a bunch of posts that were relevant but appeared to be challenges.

I went out after lunch to the Eaton Centre, I walked up there and back. 

In FCP print shop, on the left, The Gladstone Hotel and the right is The Wheat Sheaf Pub.

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I decided to take the tunnel across Queen St. W from the closed Hudson Bay store. I had posted mural photos along the Path a while ago but I still found more upstairs. As Tom said, he'd never get out of there.

Crossing the bridge, I never knew it had a name!

Looking down on Queen St. W and the construction I wanted to avoid by using the Path.

This is major underground excavation and station building for the Ontario Line rapid transit project. : Crews are excavating deep underground shafts (up to 40 meters down) to build major transit hubs like Queen Station.

I had written about the new line about a year ago, when we were on Danforth and saw the work at the Pape station.

The stores were packed with high school and university students shopping for back to school.

I looked in Simon's for some clothing options to buying  US(think Jockey) and got some ideas.

I poked about in Indigo (Canadian), don't tell me bookstores are out of date, it was packed and many were American tourists. 

I went to T&T for Singapore curry, a few months back I got the last cans on the shelf, I was hoping that they had restocked. Nope, I bought this instead.

Photos in T&T.

Beef finger meat (also known as rib fingers) consists of the long, narrow strips of highly marbled meat cut from between the individual bones of the beef rib cage. Because it comes from the rib primal, it is packed with rich beef flavor and fat, making it incredibly juicy but inherently tough if not cooked properly. Now I know!!

I really wanted to buy this, but it is frozen and I didn't know how long I'd be out.

And boy did we get hit!! I got caught but I was on the bus. A worse storm came through around 6 PM. GTAUdate had loads of reports of wires down and transformer fires.

John managed 9 holes of golf.

And then the calm after the storm.

THURSDAY

Click here for photos of last night's storm and cleanup. The tunnel we take every time we go downtown.

My teenage idol and mentor, I read everything she wrote.

I think Pinterest needs some grammar lessons.

This link is for John, from a Jeopardy question last night, New River Gorge.

I headed out to College Park. John was supposed to golf but got stuck in traffic on the 427 and decided to come back home.

Never have I seen these before - Metro

FRIDAY

I completed August recap.

I was awake at 5, and up at 6:50! I did some more blog cleanup and draft posts. I have almost finished sorting St. John's photos for backup,

John went to Costco, nothing exciting, paper towels, vegetables. However, he did stop and get us cannolis (pistachio and salted chocolate chip) at Holy Cannoli!! We haven't had these in a long time.

I went to the tailor to get those pants shortened, I had a 15% coupon that was about to expire. Then I returned the light grey pants at the TBC post office.

John got $5 from Rakuten this week.

This guy was busy on his phone at the bus stop when I got off and was still there when I got back!! I wonder how long it took him to get his hair this long!!!

I did some mundane housekeeping in the afternoon.

We're still watching The Morning Show and Luther. John is catching up on his shows.

COOKING

I am going to use my own random food photos for this segment.

HORRORS! We are out of Frank's Hot Sauce, we buy this at Costco's and I can't believe we didn't have any in the pantry!! Luckily, we had a back-up, a little bottle we bought on a trip!

Two large bottles were purchased at Costco this week!

The leftover roast pork was Sunday's lunch. The curry used up some bits and bobs in the freezer.

I really need to do some baking. We have a lot of soup stock but it is going to be too hot for soup, well, John would say it's never too hot.

I did defrost some beef and chicken stock to use instead of commercial stock this week.

Saturday - pork roast, roast potatoes, broccoli

Sunday - leftover bavette steak, broccoli and rice with sauce made from homemade beef stock.

Monday - curry chicken and naan bread (leftovers for John's lunch Tuesday)

Tuesday - chicken stew - using frozen rotisserie chicken

Wednesday - corn on the cob, fresh bread oven corn recipe added to My Recipe Box

Thursday - encore corn and bread

Friday - steak, garlic toast (bread freezer), mushroom green peppers and onions

READING

The Doorman I could not put this down. I quote "Chris Pavone delivers a gripping thriller where class divides run deep and power is wielded through wealth. With a very well drawn-out cast spanning all socioeconomic backgrounds, Pavone masterfully blends suspense with social commentary."