One of my lasting memories of Istanbul was having mid-morning tea after a rainy morning.
This is my favourite photo.
I used Lunapic to make these. This one is my favourite.
Çamlıca Hill is in Üsküdar district of Istanbul, Turkey. Situated on the Asian part of the city at 268 m (879 ft) above sea level, Çamlıca Hill has a panoramic view of the southern part of Bosphorus and the mouth of Golden Horn.
The bridge that takes you from Europe to Asia!
The hill is a popular visitor attraction. There are historical-designed teahouses, cafes and a restaurant inside a public park with monumental trees, flower gardens and fountains, run by the Metropolitan Municipality.
It was November so the gardens and trees were bare.
Tea Time
Requisite photos.
Why are we/the women posed like that, with the hand on the hip?
Before Istanbul we were in Greece and our tour group was bigger. Among that group was an attractive woman, Grace, who didn't mix with any of us. However, we all noticed and laughed among ourselves as she posed again and again at every single sight we saw. And she always posed sideways with her hand on her hip.
She was one of those who always jumped in front of everyone, she posed in front of the Acropolis, the Pantheon, Delphi, the incredible monasteries of Meteora, it didn't matter, there she was.
Ten years later, and John still says "is that your GRACE pose?".
I have been collecting photos of Toronto lanes for a while now with an idea to post them. I will post here on a random basis.
Just 10 per cent of Toronto's more than 3,000 public laneways have a name. Usually the titles recognize community figures, events or local traditions, but many are delightfully strange with brilliant backstories.
Surely a contender for the happiest lane in all Toronto, Ice Cream Lane off the Danforth at Dawes Road is named for the Maple Leaf Dairy located nearby.
This home owner put his address on his blue garbage bin.
Famous for its outlet store that serves massive portions of fresh ice cream in the summer, the business was founded on St. Clair in the 1930s but moved south in recent decades.
The sign outside - "May All Your Days Be Ice Cream Days" - best sums up the old-school little parlour with its bare-bones wooden interior and the lane it gave its name to.
In keeping with the mural tribute to the front line workers I found another on Danforth.
Jessey Pacho has been a professional graffiti artist since 2007, and has since incorporated other artistic elements like portraiture and landscape into his murals. He’s been working with Petro-Canada since 2018, and encouraged them to participate in this StreetARToronto project—they chose to reimagine the side of a gas station near Danforth and Woodbine. Jessey wanted to stick to his roots of graffiti, honouring front-line workers while also paying tribute to the form of artwork that he says has paved the way for much of the public pieces now popping up in the city. He came up with an extensive list of front-line and essential workers, and created a design involving layered lettering, with worker titles sitting on top. Services and personnel from four societal pillars—health care, transport, community service and the arts—are repeated across the mural (the repetition shows how there’s strength in numbers). With a closer look, you can spot jobs like long-term care workers, bank workers, teachers, garbage collectors and transit drivers.
Monday we attended a funeral virtually. My uncle's funeral, in Montreal, was shown on Youtube.
I took a few photos as we watched. It was great for his many relatives in Ireland who were able to "attend".
Strange times we live in, in the span of a week we attended our first virtual dinner party and our first virtual funeral.
John played golfed and took this photo.
We took the subway to Danforth and Woodbine to look for some murals. A few weeks ago we had done the same trip but by car and got too frustrated with traffic.
BTW this was meant to be a walk from one subway stop Woodbine to the next stop Main St. and then home. Instead we walked 14,500 steps and finally got on the subway at Coxwell.
Like their hours "to 1 PM ish".
Always something interesting to find.
We saw three Bell boxes being painted.
We were hungry and John had the bright idea we should go to Sarah's in our old neighbourhood. I looked online and their patio was open but they were not taking reservations. It was full so we went next door to El Sol, a Mexican that we often frequented. A case of looked open, had sign "Open for Lunch: but once the server consulted with the owner, we were told they were not open. Eight years later and the owner still has not learned any time management skills.
When hungry, fries will always work, and sitting outside in the sun made for a pleasant break.
You never know what you will find! This was a 7-Eleven that had been here forevvvver. But the company started closing their Canadian locations in 2017.
Paining was taking place, Flips is known for his swirls.
And around the corner Elicser was busy painting!!
Wednesday John golfed early and I walked over to get a mani-pedi. What a glorious day it was!
This guy had just finished his early morning paddle on the lake.
I then took the subway downtown and wandered into Winners and the $ store.
The subway was empty!
Thursday I decided that we should stock up for the second wave. I used Instacart to pick up my order from Loblaw's. Nothing exciting, but all heavy canned items such as coconut milk, canned corn, tomato juice, canned tomatoes, beef and chicken stock, canned clams, water chestnuts, pumpkin puree etc.
I had my delivery within two hours after I placed my order. Very impressed.
While I waited I made a huge batch 100 cowboy cookies so I could bring some to my BIL and nephew that we were meeting for dinner.
We headed out to meet my BIL and nephew for dinner at the Brogue Inn. I had made a reservation. This was our first inside restaurant meal since March and the first meet up with anyone as well.
Only half the pub was open for service and the tables were reduced by at least 50%.
Great evening catching up!
Friday strolling down King St. West. Check out the door handles.
On Spadina.
This billboard made me smile.
Got home and then thought "we need ice cream". So I wandered over to Lola's.
