Tea Break

"There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.”
― Charlotte Eriksson

July 2018 - Toronto ON

Saturday
Cee's Odd Ball Challenge
Lens - Artists Challenge
Six Word Saturday
Pink Saturday

After a busy week we both just enjoyed a day at home.

I had an urge for Indian but no desire to go shopping for ingredients. I had some chicken thighs so there's curry. Onions therefore we had onion bhajis.
I haven't made samosas since we went gluten free, but this video used rice paper and they turned out great. OK I did go to the convenience store to get frozen peas, you can't have samosas without them!

Sunday

One Word Sunday
Inspired Sunday
Shadow Shot Sunday

I took a walk to the grocery store now that our tunnel connecting us to the Queensway is finally open again after TTC construction.
Looking towards home.

I'm binge watching High Maintenance now that I've finished Tell Me.

Dinner - (crappy from Sobey's) roast pork, potatoes and carrots.

Monday

Monday Mural

Foto Tunes 

Wordless

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge

We need rain!

On my way to a hair cut I cut through the TD, Toronto Dominion, complex.
These cows, The Pasture, created by a Canadian, Joe Fafard, who also did the Van Gogh we saw a few weeks ago across from the AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario.

In the heart of the Financial District the TD and BMO showing their colours.

After my hair cut I stopped off at City Hall.

Dragon Festival 2018 is a mind-opening cultural event with the core purpose of promoting Canadian multiculturalism by sharing Chinese traditional culture and arts with Canadian mainstream society.

Then I hit the sales at The Bay.

John went to Costco which means time in the kitchen as we pack and store meat and fruit into manageable portions for two.

Cherries are in season right now so John had to pit them to freeze.

How to do without a pitter, not a problem!

Dinner - burgers

Tuesday

Tuesday Treasures

So many blueberries led to pancakes and sausages for a late breakfast.

Then I somehow spent hours in the kitchen, laundry, cleaning out fridge, organizing spices, making vegetable soup from the freezer, time flies!

We went to The Secret Chord at Soulpepper's Theatre in the Distillery District.

Appropriate box since we were going to the theatre.

Soulpepper is a theatre company based in Toronto. Its artistic director was Albert Schultz, who has served in that position since the company's founding in 1998 and until early 2018.
Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists who dreamed of a company that would produce lesser known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has since become an important part of Toronto's theatre scene. It often presents Canadian interpretations of works by such noted playwrights as Harold Pinter, Thornton Wilder, Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard and Anton Chekhov.

Located in the historic Distillery District 50 Tank House Lane Buildings 49 and 50 stored Gooderham & Worts alcohol in great copper tanks for over a hundred years. Known as Tank Houses 9 and 10, the original structures were designed as a pair of free-standing structures in 1888 by David Roberts, Jr. Their construction was part of the great campaign to increase storage facilities to meet the Government of Canada’s 1885 regulation that whisky had to be aged for two years. (Before that, whisky could be – and often was – consumed almost immediately.) During this period, about a dozen barrel and tank storehouses were constructed at various locations around the site. Buildings 49 and 50 completed the north side of what became known as Tank House Lane.

Their website description:

THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE
One of Soulpepper's most popular concerts returns to celebrate the legacy of Leonard Cohen. An extraordinary line-up of Toronto musicians bring his timeless words and music to life in a way you’ve never heard them before.

Click here to read the program.

WOW what a show!! Ninety minutes of pure entertainment. Tower of Song was done by Alana Bridgewater! Click here for the video.

A first for us, we walked to Queen St. and took the streetcar home.

Wednesday

John off to golf after lunch and I headed to the Farmers" Market at City Hall.

Pop up Toronto souvenir shop.

I had seen the sign Lost and Found last night while on the streetcar so went to investigate.

The exhibit transports fragments of the city’s lost buildings to the garden of Campbell House Many of the stone slabs were brought to Scarborough’s Guild Inn by conservationists Spencer and Rosa Clark when the original buildings were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.

Click here to see the exhibits.

From there I walked along Queen St. West, with no destination.

I had also seen this new billboard last night.

Luckily I had to wait for the light at John and Queen and looked idly towards CP24 and WHAAAAT???? The "new" Elicser mural from last summer is gone!!!

Click here to see it and the previous one!

More to come.

Moseying along Queen I decide to go to the Spacing store. 

And then I spot a new mural that was on my bucket list!

I will show it on Monday.

A stop at Spacing, a store with all things Toronto, and picked up a street art book.

Popped into 401 Richmond Street West, a restored, heritage-designated, industrial building turned arts-and-culture hub in downtown Toronto. It is home to over 140 artists, cultural producers, social innovators, microenterprises, galleries, festivals, and shops.

There was an excellent exhibit on Toronto murals.

Texture display

More exhibits.

Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography is a non-profit artist-run centre committed to photography as a multi-faceted and ever-changing art form.

 

Another mural in the works at Spadina and King, Apple rents this space.

After a stop at the Bulk Barn I notice this repainted ghost sign at Peter and King.
You can read about the restoration here.

King St. across from Roy Thomson Hall.

What a day of surprises. At first I thought there was a wedding at St. Andrew's, but then noticed it was a movie shoot.

There are currently 22 movies and TV shows filming in Toronto.

Movie is No Sleep 'Til Christmas

Snow and winter coats on a hot summer day.

Obviously takes place in Chicago and license plate is Illinois. Woman in hat is not part of the crew.

Snow making.

Twitter had some other photos.

Dinner - Lemon pepper roasted chicken thighs, roasted potatoes and balsamic mushrooms and tomatoes.

Thursday

Thursday Doors vacation July 26 and August 2

Up bright and early to head to St. Jacob's and traffic was heavy.

Part of the huge St. Jacob's Market.

We boarded the Waterloo Central Railway for the ride to Elmira.

Mennonite family waiting for the train, we would see them waiting for the return train in St. Jacob's after they did their shopping.

We then boarded a farm wagon pulled by a John Deere to take us to a Mennonite farm.

They asked that we not take photos of them. Her gardens were wonderful.

We went inside and she had a table set with (delicious) bread and butter, pickles, salami and cheese with apple juice, later she served cookies.

We were then invited to ask any questions we would like about the farm and their lifestyle as Mennonites.

Approaching the highway as we left the farm and continued our journey back to the train.

John mentioned it reminded him of our visit to a Mennonite Village in Steinbach Manitoba. Click on Steinbach in the tags below for more of that excursion.

Back in St. Jacob's we wanted lunch as it was 1:30 after a drive we decided on the Crossroads and John had gluten free chicken fingers and and I had an egg salad sandwich.

Traffic was worse heading home so we took the longer, more scenic route and finally got home around 5:30 after a stop for fruit and vegetables at Lanzarotta, our usual spot.

Friday

Weekend Roundup

Weekend Reflections
Cee's Fun Foto Challenge
#NoBlankBrains WIP no new brains this week!

A lazy morning, John is busy watching the Open.

I decided to go to St. Lawrence Market for steaks for dinner. But first I went through FCP then I took the King St. streetcar.

Look! A Frida puzzle, but the store was closed...

Guessing this block is on the chopping block (ha ha) for yet more condos.

This also had a condo proposal on it.

The streets were teeming with tourists, shouldn't complain, but when you are on a mission and they are gawking!

REMINDER
September Squares

BOOKS

Found a lending library at 401 Richmond, mural done by Elicser!

Not even sure where I am, not much done this week.

I did start Fragile Lies today and it looks like a good juicy summer read.

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
Our World Tuesday
Wanderful Wednesday #wanderfulwednesday

Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global

Travel Photo Thursday

Mural Archive Exhibit

July 2018 - Toronto ON

I happened upon this exhibit at 401 Richmond this week. Since I participate in Monday Mural and have posted weekly murals for almost four years, I was thrilled to see this display.

The Toronto Mural Archive Exhibit reflects on the history of mural art in the city. The Toronto Mural Archive is a research project and touring informational exhibit, the first of its kind to survey the history of mural art in Toronto. Mural Routes has gathered articles, information and stories, taking time to reflect on the field of public mural art’s developments so far. We have combined our research together to share ‘the story’ of murals in Toronto in a touring exhibit. The archive provides context to both critically reflect and inspire the future mural art movement in Toronto, and to provide a template for other Ontario cities to follow.

Toronto's StART webiste is an excellent source.
Mural Routes Canada is a great source for Canadian murals with an interactive map.

This was probably the first mural I ever saw, in our first month in Toronto in 1991, we went to a work function with a group and drove north on the DVP, Don Valley Parkway and saw this rainbow. Since then we have passed this thousands of times, but don't have a photo.

This would be the second mural I recall ever seeing. One that we have many photos.

We've been here recently, Drake's Commissary on Sterling Road.

Some graffiti  in Graffiti Alley.

On Kingston Rd. and featured on Monday Mural in June 2017.

Two murals highlighting Toronto's music history now adorn this building.

We haven't explored this area as yet.

These took three posts.
Underpass People
More Murals
Monday Mural

Church and King - I didn't show it on Monday Mural but did include it in this 2015 post.

On my agenda.

 We tracked this one done on a walk.

Read and see more details here.

Lost and Found

July 2018 - Toronto ON

Wandering Queen St. West I found an outside exhibit at Campbell House.
Click here to go inside this historical home and here for more.

In the postwar era, many of Toronto’s iconic downtown buildings were demolished to make way for modern office towers. Rosa and Spencer Clark, passionate supporters of the Arts and Crafts movement and eager to preserve examples of handcrafted masonry, rescued architectural fragments from some of these buildings and relocated them to their Scarborough home, now known as the Guild Park and Gardens. Some of the salvaged stones were transformed into sculptural installations that can be seen on the grounds of the park today. Other pieces, however, were relegated to long-term storage. For the first time in fifty years, a selection of these salvaged stones has returned to the downtown core for Lost & Found: Rediscovering Fragments of Old Toronto, a year-long exhibition in the Campbell House garden.

Gorgeous gardens in the heart of a busy intersection University and Queen.

Another garden tucked away near the back.

This guy was having his lunch and watching me take photos, but did he move, nope.