Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural

Toronto ON

Random murals languishing in my archives.

Yonge St. 

MURAL UPDATE

This is what this wall used to look like in 2019.

Riverside Broadview Ave

Alquimia’ (Spanish for ‘alchemy’) is a mural in a semi-abstract style. Paying homage to the Riverside neighbourhood, the mural is an interpretation of the quote “This river I step in is not the river I stand in” that speaks of the inevitable nature of all things: Alchemy and change. “Everything moves. Everything transforms into something else. It is a connection to the past while celebrating its future, progress and growth of the community,” said artist Jacquie Comrie.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

Toronto ON

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

CORKTOWN LANE

The neighbourhood's name originated in the early 19th-century, when the area was an enclave of Irish immigrants, both Protestant and Catholic, said to be primarily from County Cork.

In the 19th century, most Corktown residents found employment at one of the local breweries or brickyards. Some of the original workers' cottages can still be seen in the area. Examples of late 19th-century British-style row-housing can still be seen lining Corktown side streets such as Bright Street, Trinity Street, Wilkins Avenue, Ashby Place and Gilead Place.

Gilead Place, a tiny one-block thoroughfare that runs south from King St. east of Parliament St. In recent years, it has been transformed by the appearance of a row of townhouses.

Gilead Place in 1912. Houses now cost upwards of $1,000,000.

The first Roman Catholic church in Toronto, St. Paul's Basilica, is found in Corktown. St. Paul's was originally built in 1822. The current St. Paul's (at Queen St. East and Power Street) dates from 1887. St. Paul's Catholic School is the oldest Catholic elementary school in the city, founded in 1842. Beneath its schoolyard and adjacent to St. Paul's Basilica is an unmarked graveyard which served the Catholic community until 1857.

Protestants could not afford the lofty pew rents at nearby St. James Cathedral (Anglican) and this led to the building of their own Little Trinity Anglican Church in 1843 on King Street East. Little Trinity Church is Toronto's oldest surviving church building, its cornerstone laid on July 20, 1843.

Stonecutters' Lane was named after a nearby pub, the Stonecutters' Arms, a defunct Irish pub.

In the early 1960s, a significant amount of Corktown was demolished to make way for several elevated roadways, including the Richmond Street off-ramp from the Don Valley Parkway and the re-routed Eastern Avenue overpass. Among the most significant buildings destroyed was the House of Providence (1857–1962), an institution run by the Sisters of St. Joseph to care for orphans and the elderly poor.

Once one of the city's largest centres of charity, the House of Providence stood nearby for over 100 years. It was initiated by Toronto's Roman Catholic Bishop, Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel, in response to the plight of the desperately poor, including many Irish immigrants. To provide shelter and food for those most in need, de Charbonnel enlisted both the help of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the generosity of the surrounding community. Operated by the Sisters, the House of Providence opened in 1857.
Nearly always filled to capacity, the House of Providence would eventually quadruple in size to provide for about 700 residents, including the elderly, the unemployed, orphans, widows, and newcomers to Canada. Some stayed only a few days; others, for years. At its doors, daily meals were given out to the hungry, particularly during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

According to a historical pamphlet about the House of Providence, written by Mabel Pillar for the Sisters of St. Joseph, the early years were a struggle, and the sisters went door to door to collect money and washing, which they were paid to do. She also tells a story of a time the sisters were low on money and couldn’t afford flour.

So the Sisters of St. Joseph prayed and they prayed. Meanwhile, a farmer was returning from a mill where he had brought his wheat to be ground into flour. When his team of horses approached the gate of the House of Providence, they slowed down and refused to pass the gate. The good farmer then let them turn in. Needless to add, the farmer was welcomed with a refreshing cup of tea… and the Sisters got their flour!

The House of Providence in 1855. Picture from the Baldwin Collection at the Toronto Public Library, call number JRR 308 Cab III.

Meet or Meat

 One Word Sunday

Butcher shop on Queen St. East Toronto ON

Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural

November 2020 - Toronto ON


Toronto Humane Society on Queen Street East by Uber5000, you can see his trademark yellow birds peeking about.

Weekend Roundup

 Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler

My last rounds were coffee and beer. So it's time for some food and sleep!

1. Starts with "T"
2. A Favorite
3. TWO - chosen by Tom

Starts with "T"

2020 TORONTO TERTULIA Espresso Bar

A Tertulia is a gathering of friends who come together to talk about things like art, culture, books, life; whatever is of interest.

No indoor dining is allowed at the moment, but they have a sweet secluded terrace.

FAVOURITE

TINY

TWO

Déjà Brew
A catchall for leftover beer, coffee and whatever catches my fancy!

Take Out Only

 Weekend Cooking is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepidead Rer!

Sunday Salon
Seasons

October 2020 - Toronto ON

Adelaide West Toronto 

I am bored with counting the self-isolation weeks (32) in the title! So I will track the weeks here and write more inspiring titles, food related.

I should have kept with the self-isolation weeks as a title since we are back in a modified lockdown!!! Indoor dining of any sort is closed for a month. Even food courts, although you can pick up your food, there is nowhere to sit.

THIS AND THAT

This makes me sad. I spent most of my working years in Toronto using the PATH.

Even now it is my favourite way to get around downtown, no traffic and idiot drivers, no smokers.

For those who don't know Toronto's PATH:

The PATH is a mostly underground pedestrian walkway network in downtown Toronto that spans more than 30 kilometres of restaurants, shopping, services and entertainment.
The walkway facilitates pedestrian linkages to public transit, accommodating more than 200,000 business-day commuters as well as tourists and residents. The PATH provides an important contribution to the economic viability of the city’s downtown core.

But sadly in these pandemic times it is deserted underground. BlogTO recently published this sad commentary.

Another sobering article about the impact of Covid and it became clear the burden of the illness is being carried by racialized communities, Black communities, people who are vulnerable and poor,” said Safia Ahmed, executive director of Rexdale Community Health Centre (RCHC). “So the rest of us can stay home, these people find themselves in situations where they contract COVID. People are worried about rent, about food. These people don’t have the luxury to take time off work. What systems do we put in place to support people like that?”

And then there's this, south of us...

AROUND HOME

We don't normally go out on the weekends but it was a gorgeous day so we headed out early 10AM and took the car. We're staying away from public transit during this first week of modified lockdown.

I usually put together a plan of where we are going for this kind of outing.

First stop was Chester Hill Lookout. How did we live in the east end for all those years and not know about this.
Get a great view of the Don Valley Parkway and the downtown core from Chester Hill, located off Broadview, north of the Danforth.

Brick Works - look at those murals we have to check out!

Some of the houses in the neighbourhood.

Back in the car driving down Broadview.

Parked on Queen St. East which is getting very gentrified. 

We are now in a neighbourhood known as Riverside.

Check out these balconies. The building has been converted into condos.

The very renovated Broadview Hotel, on our list to try once we can dine indoors safely.

A coffee stop.

We had their lovely patio to ourselves.

The Conboy Company made the transition from the horse and carriage era to the automotive era since they built composite bodies on Hudson and Rolls-Royce chassis. In the early years of the automotive industry, the purchasers of upscale automobiles often arranged to have the car bodies custom built for them by local firms. Conboy also built the first production bodies for McLaughlin-Buicks on the introduction of that car in Canada. The company evidently did not survive World War I, which curtailed automotive manufacturing in favour of the production of military materiel and vehicles. By early 1916, the building was described as an “unused factory”. By the time the war was over, car companies had become much larger and automotive assembly lines handled the complete manufacturing process for their products.

As you come along Queen Street East from Toronto’s downtown core, you enter Riverside as you come over the Queen Street bridge. Formally named the ‘Queen Street Viaduct’ and affectionately called the ‘Riverside Bridge’, the Viaduct, represents the past, present and future of Riverside. It has always been an important passage to the East end, originally built in 1803 as a wooden bridge operated by the Scadding family, which owned all the land east of the Don from the lake to present-day Danforth. In 1911, the bridge was updated to the steel truss structure you see today, and you can still see the makers mark on the steel trusses that were imported from England. This bridge is also higher in elevation than previous bridges here, and Queen Street on each side of the river was graded higher to meet this new elevation. The bridge greets those who venture into the once-wild east side, where tanneries, glue factories, brick yards and slaughterhouses were sited away from the genteel noses in the west end.

In 1996, the Riverside BIA commissioned a public art project and Eldon Garnet (among others) contributed their artistry to Riverside with the installation of the ‘Time and a Clock’ series. Most notably, “This River I Step In, Is not The River I Stand in” was installed atop the Riverside Bridge. The artwork not only made this an iconic landmark in Toronto but sparked a revitalization of the Riverside neighbourhood and unified the people within the community. The art references the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus’ notion that you cannot step into the same river twice.

Johann Albrecht Ulrich Moll, who adopted the name William Berczy, was born in Wallerstein, Germany, in 1744. Leading a group of settlers to York in 1794, Berczy, an artist, architect, writer and engineer, created the first roads and buildings in the town, built Yonge Street and founded Markham Township. In 1803 he drew the plans for a wooden suspension bridge for this location. It was 33 m long and 7 m wide and of a very advanced design.

AHA I know the name William Berczy! Click here to see a sculpture donated by the family on Front St. in a park named after Berczy, the park also contains the dog fountain!

On June 5th of 2015, the Riverside Gateway Bridge Project, a 3-year $500,000 capital improvement project was completed to stylishly illuminate the bridge, including the iconic art, each night. The colourful Riverside wayfinding art on the posts you see on each side of the bridge was also added at that time.

This was taken on the way home on Queen St. West, simply because I liked the colour.

Click here for the murals and more photos of our morning.

Sunday, Monday - Thanksgiving, and Tuesday were spent at home.

We did the increase in cases we are limiting our outings.

John went for a walk.

Instead of the plain green stands for the share a ride bikes they've decorated them.

On our grounds by the lake.

Wednesday John golfed.

I went to get my flu shot at the Atrium and do some shopping.

For the first time they are offering a high dosage for "seniors". I was surprised by the number of young people I saw signing up for their flu shot.

I had planned on checking out the new Farm Boy at College Square but there was a line up.

It was so hot inside I took the outside route to Farm Boy on Bay.

Police Headquarters. Click here to visit the museum inside. And here to see the sculptures.

I;m all set for winter. I also got John a hoodie.

The floor contractor and installer came to do the final measurements for our flooring replacement which will begin November 2! I finalized the paperwork for the condo office.

He lifted the threshold to determine the difference in height.

Taken in the afternoon.

Thursday, a rainy, grey miserable morning, John and I headed back to the Rexhall pharmacy in the Atrium so he could get his flu shot as the pharmacist had mentioned that they may soon run out of the high dosage. Then we dropped his old transponder at the Post Office as he had received his new one.

A transponder is a small electronic device that you attach to the interior of the windshield behind the rear-view mirror. It is used for travel on the 407 highway which is a toll based highway.

We went into Winners where I picked up packages of gluten free pizza and cheddar biscuit mixes as they were only $3.99.

Friday was a much cooler but very sunny day. John headed out to golf and I did a quick one hour shopping right downtown near the bus stop. I caught the 12:30 bus and returned on the 2 PM. We were two passengers going and coming.

Decided we needed some ice cream so took a walk.

COOKING

October 2020 - Parliament St. Toronto

A blogger friend, Nag on the Lake, posted Artist-Chef has drawn every meal he has eaten over the last thirty years. 

Saturday and we ordered pizza again. We've decided that we will do take-out some Saturdays. Our restaurants are dying with the latest restrictions of indoor dining.

I got the thicker crust this time and it was good.

It is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and we have been advised to spend the holiday only with those in your immediate household. That works for me as I love cooking a turkey dinner. We had it on Sunday so we can have leftovers on the Monday holiday.

For dessert I used up the strawberries we had and topped them with whipped cream and chocolate.

I don't know if I've posted this substitution chart for eggs before. I often use this because I usually have leftover applesauce from something. I always have bananas frozen in freezer so it is a good way to use these up.
I made this cranberry pumpkin loaf using applesauce to replace the two eggs.

This had the best cream cheese icing recipe.

Wednesday I used the leftover turkey to make a stew with cauliflower, carrots and onions with gluten free cheese biscuits.

Thursday roasted pork and potatoes and carrots.

Friday steak, shared a baked potato, sauteed green peppers, onions and mushrooms.

BOOKS

Thanks to Marg, at The Intrepid Reader Facebook page, for this delightful meme.

As she said, we might have to buy some of these travel guides.

I read an interesting series of essays about Expo 67, I had a season pass for this, the Montreal World's Fair. How I wish we had digital cameras back then!

I tried reading Edna O'Brien's The Little Red Chairs but I couldn't get into it. The plot was so convoluted and the characters so ridiculous.

But then I started Save Me the Plums and I was enthralled.

Ruth Reichl's website includes recipes from the book along with excerpts of the chapters that featured the recipes.

Marcella Hazan's shrimp with pasta 

Spicy chicken with peanuts