Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader
And with this post I reached 10,500 published posts!!
7 August 2026 - Toronto ON
Last Week's Post (CLICK LINK)
BLOG UPDATES
I added some updates to Toronto Public Library to include Osgoode Hall and the Writers' Room Bar plus some local bookstores.
SATURDAY
Continuing with my Birthday Week!!
It got its quirky name from a playful and self-deprecating sense of humor. Founder Jonathan Dresner chose the urban bird as the mascot and famously uses the tongue-in-cheek tagline "world's worst coffee" for branding, even though the cafes serve high-quality drinks, food, and brunch.
Photo taken 2023 location in Brookfield Place.
Back on topic, we were delayed as there was an afternoon Blue Jays game, Caribana parade which attracts thousands of tourists, and Taste of India festival! But we made it within our 15 minute grace period and were seated immediately. It is much tinier than I thought it would be!
We attracted dirty looks from the two tables beside us, already seated earlier, when our orders were taken first, however, I had heard the host telling the server to serve us as we had a reservation.
John - Breakfast Sandwich: Egg, lettuce, tomato, cheddar, and spicy mayo. You can choose to have it served on a flaky croissant (or a challah roll) and it comes with side breakfast potatoes.
Jackie - Smoked Salmon Avo Toast: Smashed avocado, poached eggs, smoked salmon, pickled onions, and lemon hollandaise,
Link above shows the outside of the hotel and a comment that we needed to check it out ✅
Cool photo from their website.
The Westinghouse Building (located at 355 King Street West) is the historic, designated heritage structure that now forms the base of the modern tower housing The Sutton Place Hotel Toronto.Built in 1927, this building is a landmark piece of Toronto's architectural and industrial history. It was built as the Ontario head office and functional warehouse for the Canadian Westinghouse Company, a giant in electrical manufacturing.
We are only a block away from the Princess of Wales Theatre so we took a stroll around the block, not an easy thing to do with all the blue rinse crowd lining up for the show.
After more than 100 performances across North America, Toronto-created "Ones – The Beatles #1 Hits" is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its biggest Toronto run yet at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
Toronto-created Ones – The Beatles #1 Hits is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an eight-show run at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre.
The production features 30 Beatles No. 1 hits performed by 22 musicians, alongside archival photos and video chronicling the band’s rise from 1964 to 1970.
The show is now co-produced by Mirvish Productions, marking a major milestone for the independently created Canadian production after more than 100 performances across North America.
Creator Frank Zirone hopes the Mirvish run will open the door to future engagements, including additional Canadian dates and a possible European tour.
Written and produced by Toronto musician Frank Zirone, the “note perfect” production tells the story of The Beatles’ arrival in America in 1964 through their breakup in 1970.
“The number one singles are in effect a chronology,” Zirone tells reporters, the evening before show kick-off. “I thought what a perfect way to tell that piece of history between 1964 and 1970 because I have all these highlights as No. 1 hits as a focus of my story, and so they become a thread.
“I try and make the show as Canada-centric as I can. I’m Canadian. I grew up with The Beatles in Toronto. There are two songs that are specifically Canadian No. 1s [‘All My Loving’ and ‘Nowhere Man’]. The remainder tend to be No. 1 hits in the U.S. and the U.K.”
Photos were allowed!
Another bookish mention! Paperback Writer!
John Lennon - I had done a post on his birthday in 2024 (click here) with links to other Beatles spots/shows we have seen.
We caught the streetcar home.
We watched a cute older movie Chef. When Chef Carl Casper faces a career crisis, he hits the road to rediscover his passion for cooking.
Note to self - top Chef Canada is on Prime or Global Flavour Network.
SUNDAY
What a miserable wet and dreary day for a summer long weekend! We had plans but played it by ear, as the thunder and lightning skirted around. We were hoping it would give us a break.
We decided against going on a Heritage Toronto walking tour called Bad Girls. Hopefully they will do it again. I did do a post for Women's Month about a book I read about the jail.
Explore how women challenged social expectations—and the institutions that sought to control them—in one of Toronto’s most rapidly changing neighbourhoods.
Long before Liberty Village became a hub of condos, cafés, and creative industries, it was home to Canada’s first women’s prison. This walk uncovers the stories of women whose lives intersected with the Andrew Mercer Reformatory, where ideas about morality, gender, race, and respectability shaped who was deemed “criminal.”
Along the way, we’ll explore the remaining traces of Mercer Reformatory and the Toronto Central Prison, while uncovering stories of factory workers, immigrant women, reformers, and inmates whose experiences reveal a different side of Toronto’s history. Together, these places illuminate how women navigated work, freedom, surveillance, and resistance in a rapidly industrializing city.
It was nice to have a day at home. I could have done laundry but didn't even bother!
I tried to catch up on my posts of the last week!
We have 59 episodes of S18 MasterChef Australia downloaded.
We continued watching Lucky .
MONDAY HOLIDAY
The Civic Holiday is a public observance celebrated across most of Canada on the first Monday in August, providing a mid-summer long weekend. It is officially termed a statutory territorial holiday in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, while other provinces and cities use unique local names. Whether it is a paid holiday depends entirely on whether the province or territory classifies it as an official statutory holiday.
Provincial Names and Traditions
British Columbia: BC Day
Alberta: Heritage Day
Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Day
Manitoba: Terry Fox Day
Ontario: Civic Holiday (locally called Simcoe Day in Toronto or Colonel By Day in Ottawa)
Nova Scotia / PEI: Natal Day
Northwest Territories and Nunavut: Civic Holiday
The Civic Holiday is not celebrated or recognized as a statutory holiday in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Yukon.
We decided to go beaver hunting and have pizza. We were getting off at Adelaide and Yonge, as we crossed Bay we say it was closed off and filled with vintage cars, so we walked over.
The feature film adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, directed by Sarah Polley and starring Billie Eilish, Carey Mulligan, and Connor Storrie, was filming on Bay Street wrapping up on August 3, 2026. The production transformed downtown Toronto into 1950s New York City using vintage yellow taxis, period costumes, and classic vehicles.
This is now our official favourite pizza place! Pizzaioli Canadian owned since 1940! There are many locations around town and they deliver!!
We've eaten at the one on Toronto St and Yonge/Adelaide.
Canadiana!
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This is the Lumsden Building, a historic structure located at the northeast corner of Yonge Street and Adelaide Street East. Completed in 1910 and designed by architect John A. Mackenzie, it was originally celebrated as the largest concrete-faced building in the world. The building features distinct heavy decorative detailing around the windows and was designated with heritage status by the city in 1973.
This is the coat of arms from Toronto's Eighth Post Office.It was originally located at 38-42 Adelaide St E, completed in 1873.The artifact is currently on display on the south side of Lombard St, west of Victoria St.
This redbrick structure is the Residences on Lombard, a rehabilitated heritage building in downtown Toronto. The building features Romanesque Revival façade elements, including detailed windows, and was nominated for a 2024 Heritage Toronto Built Heritage Award. It houses ground-floor retail spaces and residential condominiums above (generally cost between $840,000 and $1,500,000).
Before its residential conversion, this structure actually comprised two separate late-Victorian commercial printing houses built in the 1890s to serve Toronto's rapidly expanding publishing industry. The brick facade is a combination of two distinct historic properties: The R.G. McLean Building (Left Half)Completed: 1890
The Barclay, Clark & Co. Building (Right Half)Completed: 1894
Purpose: Built directly adjacent to the McLean building, it housed Barclay, Clark & Company, another major lithographing and printing firm active in the city's booming commercial core.
Visual Highlights: It is distinguished by rows of smaller arched windows on the top floor and an ornate copper roof cornice
Back on King East. These beavers have been locked up in St. Lawrence Hall for the long weekend.
D & E Lake Ltd., a dealer in fine books and antiques.
It is a historic three-story Victorian structure designed in the Georgian Revival style. It originally served as a commercial building and merchant house in the late 19th century.
Like many properties in Toronto's historic St. Lawrence and Old Town area, the ground floor was built to host local commercial shops, while the upper levels provided administrative office space, storage, or residential quarters. The building underwent massive restoration inside to clear the upper floors after a destructive third-floor fire occurred shortly after the current owners purchased the site.
Finally! We tracked down that elusive beaver on the outskirts of the neighbourhood.hunt boundaries!
On Richmond walking west as we make our way to the streetcar. We haven't been along here since we moved in 2012!! We only ever use to drive along here!
This is the ROQ City development located in Toronto's Moss Park neighborhood.The project features two new residential towers rising above preserved 19th-century warehouse facades.
The preserved 19th-century warehouse structures visible at the base of the towers historically housed a piano and organ factory.
We both kind of remembered that this was market of some sort.
Nope...The low-rise white structure in the foreground was a commercial building used as a car dealership showroom, with a new condominium behind.
112 Sherbourne Street (Left / Center)Architecture: This property features striking Queen Anne Revival styling, immediately recognizable by its steeply pitched asymmetric gables, vibrant green decorative wood framing, and decorative brickwork.
Commercial Use: Historically known for its "Turn of the Century" framing/lighting business, this multi-story brick structure features wide display storefront windows facing the streetscape.
Our photo 2015!
This structure is the historic Kormann House, also known as the Canada House Hotel, located at 229 Queen Street East. Constructed in 1897, the three-storey building features a Renaissance Revival-style brick facade that has deteriorated after being abandoned for roughly two decades.
Future development plans involve integrating the exterior walls of this heritage building into the base of a new 45-storey condominium tower.
The Tavern Era: While it originally opened as the upscale Kormann House Hotel in 1897, the building was renamed the Canada House Hotel and Tavern in the mid-1910s.
The Reputation: Over the decades, it evolved into a notorious live music venue and a rough, dive-bar neighborhood fixture. Regulars and local musicians remember it for hosting underground rock bands, serving cheap draft beer, and carrying a gritty atmosphere.
The intersection of Queen Street East and Sherbourne Street in downtown Toronto's Moss Park neighbourhood is the site of major urban intensification.
Major Development Projects
Ontario Line Construction: The fenced-off site seen in the image marks the ongoing construction for the Moss Park Station on Metrolinx's upcoming Ontario Line subway project.
245 Queen East Condos: Occupying a massive assembly of land between Sherbourne and Ontario Streets, this major master-planned development by One Properties includes plans for three high-rise towers (ranging from 24 to 37 storeys). The mixed-use complex will ultimately deliver over 1,200 residential units along with significant office and retail podium space.
The surrounding area blends new high-rise transit infrastructure with historic 19th-century Victorian brick buildings. This includes the heritage-designated Carlyle Block (built 1883) and surrounding commercial rows located right along the Queen East corridor.
Followers Mission Church, a non-profit charity and drop-in center.
We're watching Lucky. A reformed criminal is forced to confront her past and return to illicit activities for one final job, hoping to secure her freedom and leave her former life behind for good.
We also started
We also started MasterChef season 25.
John mentioned that sunset is getting earlier. I said, we lose a minute a day. Sunset was 9:02 PM on June 21 (when I made he get up for sunrise), the longest day of the year and today it was 8:37 PM.
The Blue Jays traded all of Daulton Varsho, left, Kevin Gausman and Jeff Hoffman before Monday’s MLB trade deadline.
TUESDAY
Tuesday Treasures Osgoode Hall Tour
Window cleaning begins this week.
John golfed.
I updated our final 8 beavers' map to finish the quest this week!!
I also did some administrivia stuff.
I went to Longo's, Winners and $ store, the first time in two weeks. I also had a good chat with a building friend.
Pork tenderloins were on special. I also got some anchovies and clams, I need to get a few more as they are not easy to find.
I'll admit, some tears were shed during the final, final episode of Grantchester, it has been a great eleven seasons!
I also started watching Anniversary. WOW what I thought was going to be a cute family dramedy turned out to something heavy!
Anniversary is a 2025 dystopian political thriller directed by Jan Komasa. It follows the Taylor family gathering for a 25th wedding anniversary. Their lives fracture when their son introduces a new girlfriend tied to a rising authoritarian movement called "The Change".The Manifesto: The movement is entirely built upon a bestselling book titled The Change: The New Social Contract, written by the antagonist Liz.
Corporate Backing: The movement is heavily financed and normalized by a powerful, faceless mega-corporation called the Cumberland Company.
National "Solidarity": On paper, the movement markets itself as a way to unify a highly divided country by eliminating multi-party political gridlock. Its symbol is an American flag with all the stars consolidated directly in the center.
Authoritarian Control: In practice, once the movement gains power over a five-year period, it systematically eliminates opposition, jails dissenters, tracks citizens via aggressive tracking censuses, and forces a mass exodus of academics, journalists, and scientists.
Corporate Backing: The movement is heavily financed and normalized by a powerful, faceless mega-corporation called the Cumberland Company.
National "Solidarity": On paper, the movement markets itself as a way to unify a highly divided country by eliminating multi-party political gridlock. Its symbol is an American flag with all the stars consolidated directly in the center.
Authoritarian Control: In practice, once the movement gains power over a five-year period, it systematically eliminates opposition, jails dissenters, tracks citizens via aggressive tracking censuses, and forces a mass exodus of academics, journalists, and scientists.
Widow's Bay is an American comedy horror television series. The series is set in the fictional New England island town of Widow's Bay, which is afflicted by a centuries-old curse that brings various supernatural evils upon the island. Cute.
WEDNESDAY
Signs from Writers Room bar last Friday.
I did another Longo's run, I wanted chicken quarters for dinner and didn't have room yesterday. When I got home I repackaged yesterday and today's meat.
I also decided to do some plant mothering, I repotted the plants I bought last week, which meant moving another so I could use its pot! I had bought a basil plant and that needed repotting as well. Then I did some pruning on a couple of others. All that meant I had to sweep, swiffer and wash floors.
Another load of laundry and then the loathsome job of putting it away!
THURSDAY
Next was to try to complete the Beaver Quest, we are now only missing two and AI screwed that up with misleading directions!
Station A, a major 19th-century coal gasification and processing complex for the Consumers' Gas Company Purifying House. Built starting in 1887 on land that once held Upper Canada's first parliament buildings, this industrial site featured basilica-styled utility structures designed by Strickland & Symons.
Beaver spoiler!
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Only a partial shot, as a homeless person had set up home in the lane.
We stopped at a pub for lunch, we've never eaten here. The Jason George.
The property was built during the mid-19th century as part of the rapid economic intensification of Toronto's original Old Town waterfront district. It was designed in the standard 19th-century commercial warehouse typology.
Completed just five years before the 1845 iteration of the St. Lawrence Market across the street, it is significantly older than other neighborhood landmarks like the nearby 1892 Flatiron Building.
As pubs go, it was decent food, although a little overpriced. We even had to pay for extra salsa and sour cream, considering how large the plate was that seemed a little gouging.
Off the the market, to Di Liso's, where the young butcher mentioned trying the Argentinian steaks for a change, we're game! We also took 2 of his bavettes to try and a pound of his ground steak.
Then some vegetables and cheeses. Loaded down, we headed home.
John packaged up two golf clubs for trade in. He "earned" $12.85 from Rakuten, not bad for no work! Rakuten is a free online rewards platform that pays users a percentage of cash back on purchases.
FRIDAY
I spent some (a lot of) time cleaning up my London England 2009 and 2010 posts. I strained the chicken soup stock, put the laundry away, put another load in and took my birthday vase to the loading dock.
I also packaged an embroidered (by me) baby quilt as a gift for a special someone who works in our building!
John went out for replacement kitchen lights and to send off his golf clubs.
I had planned on going out but then decided to plan a quick trip to St. John's NL and St, Pierre. AI was a total waste of time for this. I had booked some hotels and excursions and flights only to find out that nothing was available in St, Pierre in that time frame!!
Look at the ridiculous AI results.
No, we have no desire to take a van for a 10 hour return trip between Fortune and St. John's to the ferry, no matter how much I want to go to St. Pierre France!!
But we decided we'd still like to do St. John's again, the last time was 2022, we drove there and John had a sore hip that limited his walking around.
So I have booked a couple of things we didn't do last time, including a boat trip that was cancelled due to incoming 2022 Hurricane Fiona!
I started watching The Wire, never seen it! But it stars Dominic West! Perfect for kitchen/cooking viewing.
The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.
John is working his way through Ted Lasso and is really enjoying it, judging by the amount of laughter!
We started Sugar, Sugar is an American neo-noir mystery drama television series, starring Colin Farrell in the lead role, who also serves as an executive producer.
Described as "a genre-bending contemporary take on the private detective story set in Los Angeles", it follows John Sugar, a private investigator recruited by a wealthy movie producer to investigate the disappearance of his granddaughter.
COOKING
It never ceases to amaze me that, although being retired for a number of years, Friday evenings still feel great. We usually propose a toast at Friday's dinner.
Somehow, we always end up with a small amount left in the sour cream container that goes bad, so I used it up (before going bad!) in mashed potatoes, delicious.
I used the Longo's stewing pork that I had bought on sale. I had never bought it before, it was delicious in tacos!
Saturday - steak baked potatoes
Sunday - Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and garlic bread
Monday- liver bacon onions sour cream mashed potatoes
Tuesday- pork tacos
Wednesday- BBQ chicken quarters, roast potatoes and carrots
Thursday- Caesar salad and garlic toast
Friday - Argentinian steak, chimichurri and poutine.
Ruth was a probation officer, and has worked in prison with offenders guilty of serious crimes, including stalking, rape and murder. I'm in a marathon with her books at the moment. Her story lines are really scary and yet feel real.
