Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Happy Birthday, John!!!!

 

I hope you have a wonderful day EVEN in lockdown!!!!!






Monday, March 29, 2021

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Timeless Thursdays is hosted by Stevenson Que


March 2021 - Toronto ON

Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.

Shady Lane so named as it is blessed with more shade than many neighbouring lanes.

Shady Lane just happens to be a few steps from one of the weirdest/oddest houses in Toronto! Check out that link!



"Sandra Shamas Lane" Sandra Shamas is a comedian, writer and award-winning theatrical performer with deep roots in Toronto theatrical community. 


Born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1957, Sandra moved to the Bloor/Bathurst area of Toronto in 1985. She began her theatrical career with Second City comedy troupe, worked in Improv theatre and doing stand-up comedy, then worked as a puppeteer for the legendary Jim Henson (the Muppets, Fraggle Rock). 
In 1987, Sandra was inspired to write and produce a series of one-woman autobiographical shows. Her first show, entitled My Boyfriend's Back And There's Gonna Be Laundry, debuted at the Edmonton Fringe Festival, where she performed it to sell-out crowds. It was her first experience in solo theatre, and as she later said, the first time she had stood alone on a stage for more than seven minutes in her entire life. 
She brought the show back to Toronto, where she produced and performed it at Factory Theatre. Again, it was very successfully received. Encouraged by Its reception, Sandra wrote, produced and performed a second show, entitled My Boyfriend's Back And There's Gonna Be Laundry: The Cycle Continues. 
Sandra Shamas describes these formative years in this neighbourhood as among the happiest of her young life. 
 A third show, entitled Wedding Bell Hell, followed on the heels of her first two shows. To date, Sandra has written, produced and performed seven one-woman shows. She has taken her shows to the USA and to London’s Old Vic Theatre. She has won a Gemini Award for Best Performance in Comedy, an HBO Comedy Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, was nominated for a Stephen Leacock Award, and in February 2018 Sandra Shamas was appointed to the Order of Ontario for her immense 30-year contribution to the arts in Toronto. 
 She remains deeply rooted In the BIoor/Bathurst/Christie neighbourhood of Toronto where her theatrical legacy was first conceived and developed and where she first found a safe and supportive community for her art to develop and thrive.
 Consent was given by Ms. Shamas, the named party.


Monday Mural

  I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

February 2021 - Hamilton ON

Before I show this week's murals I have to share a sad Toronto mural story. Some perverted individual(s) defaced a series of historical murals.

We walked these murals in 2016 but for years before that I had passed these murals on the bus going to work.

I had posted these murals a few years ago. There are 25 murals in a 5 block area.


Back to this week's finds in Hamilton, click on the link to see more murals and Hamilton sights.

Another Lester Coloma - to see more of his work click on the tag/label Coloma underneath this post. 
We stumbled upon this at King St. East and Ferguson. I haven't found any mention or images of this magnificent piece of art online!!
It spells out HAMILTON.











We found ANOTHER Coloma a few blocks away. 







Saturday, March 27, 2021

Old School

March 2021 - Toronto ON

March 2021 Old School CafĂ© Toronto ON







Monday I was able to book John's vaccine appointments and I am on a pharmacy waiting list. A friend got her first shot this week.
The website was excellent, providing waiting time and then being very easy to navigate. He will go to a mass vaccination centre downtown.



John played his first round of golf today! It was the warmest March 22 in history, went to 22C.




I went downtown, had the bank machine eat my card so ended up in the branch to get a new one.

The Bird X pigeon deterrent balloons are doing their job so far. We've had some days with zero intruders and some with one or two. 





Mind you, it does help to actually READ the directions. I was about to throw out the package when I noticed it said "affix the shiny eyes.." OH!!! Luckily I hadn't thrown out the garbage and I retrieved the eyes. AND the instructions said to tie those red shiny ribbons (I had put them aside) so now the eyes reflect and the ribbons blow in the wind!



Tuesday and John did a Costco run.
Tuesday's Double Feature was two excellent movies. And the popcorn was great too.


Wednesday we stayed in and did the usual household maintenance, laundry, baking, watering plants, emptying dishwasher and so on.

Thursday to Hamilton for fish and chips for John, I tried their lobster roll. I did not like the gluten free roll they used but loved the lobster mixture, and it came with fries.


Random drive by mural shots. Some required the driver to go around the block.


This mural deserves a closer visit.



On King St. East. Hamilton is soooo confusing to Toronto. In Toronto you always know south is facing Lake Ontario. In Hamilton it is the opposite.




The corner of King St. East and Ferguson is full of things to see, murals, signs, train station.













1932: Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw opens the first official birth control clinic in Hamilton even though it is illegal to do so.


Still at King and Ferguson, some cute kids' murals.




Walking along King St. East








Popeye building at 11 King St. East. There is a ghost sign that refers to Mills China Shop which was located in 11-15 King St. East. It closed in 1985.





Victoria Hall is a former ​3 1⁄2-storey commercial building on King East. It is a superior and rare example of a commercial building with a decorative architectonic sheet metal facade, which is completely hand-made. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1995.
For many years, the building was home to Gerhard Heintzman Pianos, A. Carey & Son Radio, J.H. Herring tea brokers, the Empire Newspaper, Canada Cycle Company and Bessie Brown Hats. A high-fashion women's store named Foster's moved into Victoria Hall in 1952 and about 10 years later it also took over the MacKay space next door. Since then, they've been treated as one property and apparently they even lean on each other.

Additionally, the building is an irreplaceable element in King Street's continuum of commercial architecture dating from the pre-Confederation era to the present and is likely one of the oldest surviving sheet metal facades in the country.

See, John, it was an interesting looking building!











John cancelled his Friday golf game as it was raining, cold, windy and just miserable until mid-afternoon and the sun came out.



COOKING

Saturday Cocktails VII

We tried a vodka Sidecar, it was sour!! But it grows on you. 





SOPHISTICATED SHAKERS - TO DATE
Mai Tai with orgeat which is new to us
Tequila Sunrise
Rob Roy required bitters which we had never bought
New York Sours 
Gin Fizz
Rusty Nail

Saturday's dinner was roast chicken, potatoes and carrots all done in the oven.

On Sunday the chicken carcass went into a soup pot.
I then made a haddock shrimp chowder for dinner served with focaccia.


Tried two new recipes on Monday garlic butter mushrooms and cauliflower and cilantro lime chicken thighs both from Damn Delicious. I had all the ingredients available! Both were great and I had made them together as suggested. However, it kind of felt like two separate plates. The chicken would have gone well cooked with the butter sauce and the vegetables would have been good with the cilantro lime sauce. 

Tuesday leftover chowder.

Wednesday short rib and lamb kidney stew in the crockpot. The stew made Friday's lunch as well.
I also made a lemon loaf and since we have a Costco sized bunch of lemons I took some and zested and juiced them into an ice cube tray.

Thursday we had a big salad with lots of vegetables, ham and egg.



Friday is Friday, Steak Friday.


I don't know if this belongs under cooking, watching or reading!
I binged on Nadiya Bakes (2021) on the weekend. I want to make almost every recipe. 


Marg of The Intrepid Reader alerted me to these new episodes.


This cheesecake recipe made with bananas instead of cheese blew my mind because I always have bananas in the freezer.

And then this teriyaki chicken and noodles - she doesn't cook the noodles but bakes them in the oven!

Her galette pastry looks really easy.


WATCHING

We finished Wanted and  Seven Seconds which was a very disturbing series.


We then started Intelligence a Canadian series set in Vancouver. Available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.



Tuesday we scored big with two outstanding movies.

Death of a Ladies Man starring Gabriel Byrne (what could be better) and featuring the music of Leonard Cohen (even better), filmed in Montreal where I grew up and in Ireland where I was born.

There is even a site called Byrneholics for fans and it lists the filming locations for the movie.

The use of Cohen's literary or musical work is a recurring motif in Matt Bissonnette's work, also seen in his 2002 filmmaking debut Looking for Leonard and his 2009 film Passenger Side.


The second movie was A Call to Spy.
I can only ask why I have never heard of these two extraordinary women??? Virginia Hall and Noor Khan??????? This movie highlights these women's incredible lives just as Hidden Figures did.



READING


I am reading Outtakes from a Marriage and find it a quick easy and sometimes funny read with some profound truths about marriage.

I finally went through my new purchase, The Atlas Cookbook and was a little disappointed as I didn't mark as many recipes as I thought I would.

I flipped through The French Menu a step back in cooking time with recipes like boiled pigs' tails, grilled lamb's heart and kidneys. Don't get me wrong, I like heart and tails and we had lamb kidneys this week and we both remarked on how much we like them.