Picnic

July 2018 - Toronto ON

Saturday
Cee's Odd Ball Challenge


Around our building.

The hottest day of the year and John asks for pot roast! So in the slow cooker it went.
Lemon cheesecake with lemon curd for dessert.

Sunday
Inspired Sunday
One Word Sunday
#RoofSquares - Final
Monthly Theme - Spirit


A lazy day with some baking.
Carrot coconut bread with lemon cream cheese icing - perfect, moist.


CANADA DAY

Monday
Monday Mural Liberty Village
Foto Tunes Gordon Ligthfoot
Wordless

Enjoying the warm weather sitting on the balcony on a holiday Monday.

Tuesday
Tuesday Treasures Gordon Lightfoot and Massey Hall

I headed out to College Park and scored some t-shirts for John at $15 each in Winners'. Got a shelf for the kitchen to store the coffee mugs.

The food court opened yesterday at Union Station, they hadn't opened last year due to all the construction, nice to have it back.

There is entertainment as well.

Wednesday

I headed out for a mani-pedi and then picked up fruit for our breakfast tomorrow.

John  went golfing and I went out for lunch where I ran into a cousin in law so we ate together.

Union Station

A Plain Jane from Harry's Burgers, delicious.

Then to Dundas Square to check out the sales, nothing bought.

Thursday
Thursday Doors College St.

We decided to have breakfast by the lake. We made fruit salad with yogurt dip, brought the coconut carrot cake and a big carafe of coffee with our books and spent a couple of hours enjoying the peace.

This was the view looking west, as people headed into work at 8 AM.

And our view as we had breakfast.

It turned out to be the hottest day of the week as far as I was concerned. We took the car to the east end to try out a pizza place that made its own gluten free pizza dough, Queen Margherita. They have three locations but I chose this one thinking we could wander Queen St. East but the air was stifling.

This is Italian style pizza, not your North American chain type. There are also blanco pizzas but we ordered rosso.

Quiet, because we came in late afternoon.

This was my pizza, their homemade tomato sauce is very good also.

John's gluten free - he really enjoyed it. In a pinch, I would eat that crust too.

Great mural across the street.



Leslieville began as a small village in the 1850s, which grew up around the Toronto Nurseries owned by George Leslie (1804-1893) and sons, after whom the community is named. Most of Leslieville's residents were gardeners or were employed at one of the brick-making factories in the area.

Alexander Muir, the composer of The Maple Leaf Forever, was the first principal of the Leslieville Public School, one of the first buildings in the village. Muir was inspired when a brilliant maple leaf fell on his jacket from a Leslieville tree.

Click here to see another Leslieville mural honouring Muir painted by Elicser.

 When we lived in this area we frequented this garden centre, overpriced but stunning plants.

We had a fantastic thunderstorm around 9 PM, a spectacular light show. Photo taken as storm was passing over and the sun started to set.

Friday
Weekend Roundup
Weekend Reflections
Cee's Which Way Challenge

Lunch with my BFF and some shopping. The 2018 Brain Project has begun! We found some at City Hall but the lighting was not right for photos. I'll go back next week.

The Art Show is on this weekend, I had planned on going tomorrow but it really was too hot to enjoy it. But we did a quick lookaround.

By far my favourite pieces by Emanuel Pavao, done with household tape!

BOOKS

Birdo Bloor St. West Toronto 

I may have found a new favourite author with Wild Abandon.

My commute read was Eight Flavors The Untold Story of American Cuisine.
Then I started Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, whom I always enjoy.

I began In a Cottage in a Wood. I'm getting rather tired of whiny, thirtysomethings moaning about their deadend jobs and thinking the world owes them something.

I had read SweetBitter a while ago and didn't really enjoy it. But I watched the series and preferred it, which is unusual.

SHARING WITH:

Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy.
Sundays in my City
Seasons
Monday Walks
Monday Morning Blog Club
Through My Lens Monday
Photo Souvenirs
Our World Tuesday
Wanderful Wednesday #wanderfulwednesday

Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global

Travel Photo Thursday

Good Random Fun

THE TCHOTCHKE HOUSE, 37 BERTMOUNT

Leslieville’s doll- and stuffed-animal-covered house is so famous it was written about in the UK’s Daily Mail. Owner Shirley Sumaisar reportedly began showcasing the collection after the death of her husband.

Rubber duckies on a food wagon Canada Day at Harbourfront.

Queen St. W

Linking up:
The Good The Random The Fun

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural hosted by Oakland Daily Photo.

In honour of Canada's 150th birthday today, July 1.

"The Maple Leaf Forever" is a Canadian song written by Alexander Muir (1830–1906) in 1867, the year of Canada's Confederation.He wrote the work after serving with the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto in the Battle of Ridgeway against the Fenians in 1866.

Alexander Muir was principal of the public school in Leslieville, an area of Toronto named for his friend, horticulturalist and postmaster George Leslie.

For many years there was a mural painted by some students from nearby Ralph Thornton Centre. Twelve years later the crumbling wall needed fixing.The peeling paint was tough to match and people kept changing Muir to look like the Joker or Adolf Hitler.

A new mural was unveiled in 2016 depicting neighbourhood pioneer Alexander Muir, sitting under a famous maple tree done by artist Elicser Elliott.

Muir was said to have been inspired to write this song by a large maple tree which stood on his street in front of Maple Cottage, a house at Memory Lane and Laing Street in Toronto.

Photos taken 2009

The tree which inspired Muir's song was felled during a windstorm on the night of 19/20 July 2013.Residents have expressed their hope that the city will be able to start a new tree from one of the branches.

During the early 1870s, Alexander Muir was an elementary school teacher in Newmarket, north of Toronto. When the cornerstone of the Christian Church in Newmarket was being laid on June 25, 1874 by the Governor General, Lord Dufferin, Muir brought his school choir to the event to sing his new composition, "The Maple Leaf Forever", its first public performance.

It has been asserted that Muir's words, however, while certainly pro-British, were not anti-French, and he revised the lyrics of the first verse from "Here may it wave, our boast, our pride, and join in love together / The Thistle, Shamrock, Rose entwine" to "/ The Lily, Thistle, Shamrock, Rose, the Maple Leaf forever" – the thistle represented Scotland; the shamrock, Ireland; and the rose, England – adding "Lily", a French symbol, to the list. According to other accounts, this was actually the original wording. Muir was attempting to express that under the Union Flag, the British and French were united as Canadians.

"The Maple Leaf Forever" is also the authorized regimental march of The Royal Westminster Regiment. Additionally, it is the Regimental Slow March of the Fort Henry Guard.

The song makes reference to James Wolfe capturing Quebec in 1759 during the Seven Years' War and the Battle of Queenston Heights and Battle of Lundy's Lane during the War of 1812.


A slightly revised version of the lyrics, with the fourth and fifth verses omitted, was sung by Anne Murray before the final game played by the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Foto Finish

Cat Patches hosts this weekly meme. Her theme this week is YELLOW.

This wall mural is in a section of Toronto called Leslieville. I took this photo in June 2012 while wandering around the area.
LESLIEVILLE began as a small village back in the 1850's. The village grew up around the Toronto Nurseries owned by George Leslie and sons, after whom this neighbourhood is named. 




The mural includes Leslieville's first public school principal, Alexander Muir, who composed The Maple Leaf Forever. Muir's poetic verse was inspired when a brilliant autumn maple leaf fell from a Leslieville tree onto his jacket. That maple tree is still standing today and has become Leslieville's most famous landmark, designated by an historic plaque at the intersection of Laing Street and Memory Lane.

Chorus:
The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear,
The Maple Leaf forever!
God save our Queen and Heaven bless
The Maple Leaf forever!