Cream of the Crop

This week's food truck - I ate here this week!

University and Dundas

Saturday

This was a day of chores and errands with some relaxation thrown in.

Finally fruits and vegetables are a decent price! This huge broccoli was only $1.39.

For dinner we had beef Asian wraps, our go to favourite these days.

Sunday

6 Word Photo

inSPIREd Sunday

One Word Sunday

We headed out to Midland, about two hours north of Toronto to see their murals, 39 in all! Plus the largest, outdoor, historical mural in North America.

Click here to tour the town. You'll have to stop by on Monday to see more murals.

Thanks to Violet Sky for the tip about the murals!

We had a delicious lunch, ahi tuna for me and a chicken Greek salad for John.

A selfie with this HUGE trumpeter swan. Trumpeter Swan sculpture by MIchael Taylor honours the work done by the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre and other conversationalists who reintroduced the threatened species to Georgian Bay. The sculpture has a wingspan of 25'. 

Oh, yes, THAT mural!

This mural measures 80 ft high and 250 ft wide and is the largest outdoor historical mural in North America. It displays Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons as it would look like in the 1640's.

With the abundance of local produce we had corn on the cob for dinner.

Monday

Monday Mural

Foto Tunes

My birthday and a significant one at that. I snapped a few pictures on my way to get a haircut.

I met John with plans to go to Canyon Creek (Canadian chain) for lunch. Not a fan of chains, but they do a mean prime rib. Seated, and server informs us that they didn't get their beef delivery so no prime cut of any kind, no steaks not even a beef stew. Well, we left shaking our heads!

We decided on an old favourite owned by Michael Bonacini, who I have mentioned here before as he also owns Canoe where we usually celebrate birthdays. But it was a nice day and his grill was perfect as we could sit outside as we finally had a REAL summer day.

The view of new and old across from the restaurant.

This plaque was outside the office tower that the restaurant is in. It seems there was a hotel on this spot called the American Hotel.

Inside the restaurant the walls are lined with white books (wallpaper).

We both had steak frites which was great.

Then we walked over to the two buildings I had blogged about last for John to see them.

After that big lunch we had a light supper of salad.

Tuesday

Tuesday Treasures - Back at the Museum

City Daily Photo Monthly Theme Young at Heart

Where's My Backpack Weekly Theme

John headed out to an appointment and I walked from Union Station to University to track down some sculptures and buildings.

Here are the details, this post includes photos from last week and this week.

And more architecture.

I had lunch at the food truck I showed above, Curb Crave.
Honestly this was so good that I Instagrammed it as I was eating it! The roti was absolutely delicious!

TanDo Roti Taco
Perfectly marinated tandoori chicken served on a tender paratha roti, and topped with roasted peppers & onions, mozzarella, greek yogurt and cilantro.

MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded in Toronto in 2000. Its stated goal is to commercialize publicly funded medical research and other technologies with the help of local private enterprises and as such is a public-private partnership.

The Heritage Building (formerly a wing of the Toronto General Hospital),

Taken from University St. looking south, the Shangri La Hotel, CN Tower and Canada Life building. 

The bus terminal has been given a facelift.

 I happened upon this Henry Moore Three Way Piece #1 Points in the Northern Ontario building.

Dinner was chicken divan (had to use that broccoli) however, I made my own cream of chicken sauce rather than buy Campbell's. 

Here is link to both the soup and chicken divan recipe. Not pretty but delicious!

Wednesday
Wordless in Midland

I had an appointment in the Davisville and Yonge area, so I stopped to get a Presto card. John had gotten his yesterday.

PRESTO is an electronic payment system that eliminates the need for tickets, tokens, passes and cash. PRESTO works across local transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and Ottawa, making paying for your trip simple, convenient and secure.

Since I was early and had read that there was a sculpture park in the area I set out to find it to little avail. I did find some pieces.

Like this bright orange something or other, I'm still researching it.

And peppers appeared on my hot pepper plant!

Dinner was chili and Greek salad.

Thursday

Thursday Doors

I met a friend for lunch and she suggested Ninki in Scotiabank Tower.

It was perfect, I even told John I am taking him there soon!

We both had a bento box that was a huge value for the price. 

It began with also came with miso soup, which I don't care for. We also both selected the chicken and it was incredibly moist and crispy!

bento box A $15

shrimp, imitation crab, vegetable tempura, 3 dumplings, steamed rice & 6 pieces california roll AND choice of: chicken, salmon, beef or pork

My photo isn't great.

I met John and we had planned to go to the Distillery District but we waited and waited on a bus and decided to just stay downtown.

So we found some more brains in Brookfield Place and Bay Adelaide Centre.

Brookfield Place is absolutely stunning for photographs.

The Clarkson Gordon Building, also known as the Heritage Building, is a distinct part of the Brookfield Place complex. The property's façade was disassembled stone-by-stone, restored and reconstructed in order to be incorporated as part of the Allen Lambert Galleria.

Click here for the brains we found.

Downtown is packed with tourists. Caribana is on this weekend.

The National Bar Association was holding its national and its first international convention here.

And the National Bar Association was taking advantage of Caribana and hosting their own party on August 2nd at the Royal York Hotel.

The National Bar Association is the nation's oldest and largest national association of predominantly African-American lawyers, judges educators and law students.

From there we decided to have a drink in the Library Bar in the Royal York Hotel, always on our to-do list, now done.

This may become a regular stop as we only have to cross the street to get our bus home!

Dinner was leftover chili and salad.

Friday

Friday Finds

Weekend Green

Weekend Reflections

The morning was spent cleaning and running errands, planning to go the the Distillery District (which we didn't get to yesterday) for lunch. Nope, the skies opened up.

And so the day continued, rainy. We decided to hop on the bus and go downtown for some groceries and a housewarming gift for a friend.

We wandered around the stores before coming back home.

BOOKS

I had started The Good Sister set in contemporary Mexico expecting an interesting read. I persevered but eventually gave up. I loved the descriptions of Mexico City and Mazatlan, places dear to my heart. Everyone raved about the book on Goodreads, but it just couldn't get to me.

I started The Torment of Others and am enjoying it as I have read a lot of Val Mc Dermid and have always enjoyed her books.

SHARING WITH:

Friday Photo Journal

Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.

Make My Saturday Sweet

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy.

Sundays in my City

My Sunday Photo

Seasons

Monday Walks

Monday Morning Blog Club

Through My Lens Monday

Our World Tuesday

Wanderful Wednesday

Outdoor Wednesday

Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global

Travel Photo Thursday

Faraway Files

Budget Travel Talk

Weekend Travel Inspiration.

The Weekly Postcard

Weekend Wanderlust

Toronto Architecture

August 2017 - Toronto ON

Some more of my wanderings around town.




Other buildings/sculptures closeby and definitely worth a visit.

Canada Permanent Trust
Concourse Building
Old City Hall is in this area and there are links to it below.
City Hall or Nathan's Square just a sample.
 Sculptures at City Hall



Details from the Historic Toronto site.

The Graphic Arts Building is located at 73 Richmond Street, a short distance west of Yonge Street. Built in 1913, for over a century is has survived, and is now nestled among the high-rise towers of the financial district. The amazing Graphic Art Building would not appear out of place amid the temples of Rome or Athens. Its classical facades contains Ionic columns and the cornice has classical designs. The four-storey building has a limestone base, the same stone employed in the cornice. Its architect was Francis S. Baker.

For many years, the building was the headquarters of “Saturday Night” magazine, originally founded in the 1873 by a cartoonist, J. W. Bengough. At one time he had been employed by the “Globe” newspaper, which in later years became “The Globe and Mail.” “Saturday Night” was a satirical weekly publication that became known as the voice of Liberalism in Canada. Bernard Keble Sandman was its editor in 1932, and remained in this position until 1952.

An historic plaque on the building commemorates his tenure as editor. The magazine featured such writers as E. Pauline Johnson. Archibald Lampman, Stephen Leacock, John McCrae, and Robertson Davies. Margaret Atwood received her first national exposure through stories published in the magazine. Robertson Davies began his literary career at “Saturday Night,” and was its editor during the 1940s. Later, Robert Fulford was an editor. Such artists as C. W. Jefferys, Tom Thomson and other members of the Group of Seven worked at “Saturday Night.”

Saturday Night eventually relocated from the prestigious building on Richmond Street. It ceased publishing in 2005, and today the building is a mid-rise condominium, with 65 loft units.

Across the street is the Victory Art Deco Building.

it was built on the site of the old Gaiety Theatre. Following the demolition of the theatre, they planned a 29-storey skyscraper, designed by the architectural firm of Baldwin and Greene. This company also designed the Concourse Building on Adelaide Street. They began work on the Victory Building in May of 1929 and worked feverishly through the summer months and early autumn. However, construction stopped when the stock market crashed in October of that year. It had been completed to about the 20th floor, the bricks reaching as high as the 18th. It remained in an unfinished state for 8 years. One of the the newspapers at the time referred to it as a ghost tower, a reminder of better days. When completed in 1937, it was topped at 20 storeys, shorter than originally planned. The first tenants moved in April 1, 1937, enjoying year-round air conditioning and heating from equipment supplied by General Electric.


The Victory Building in 1936, when construction was halted at the 20th floor, with brickwork complete to the 18th. This was a high as the structure was to extend. When construction resumed, the bricks were simply added to the two top floors. The view looks east on Richmond Street toward Yonge Street. Photo from the City of Toronto Archives.

Chapman and Oxley was a Toronto based architectural firm which responsible for designing a number of prominent buildings in the city in the 1920s and 1930s.
They also were responsible for the ROM or Royal Ontario Museum.

This is the Northern Ontario Building at 330 Bay St.with Old City Hall in the background.
Click here for photos of Old City Hall and here for details about the bells.
And even more photos here.

In the lobby a piece by Henry Moore called Three Way Piece # 1.