Fortress Toronto and a Bird Battle

We braved a trip to Fortress Toronto to take in a baseball game yesterday. This weekend the leaders of the G20 nations are meeting downtown, and the whole place has been turned into an impenetrable armed camp. Just being near the G20 security zone without proper ID can get you arrested.

A three-metre-high concrete and metal fence stretches for 3.5 kilometres around the security zone.
Over 5,000 Police and RCMP officers are patrolling city streets with full riot gear at the ready.
Theatres, stores, restaurants and museums are closing for the duration of the lockdown.
The Toronto Blue Jays have moved their next three home games to Philadelphia.
Trains won't be stopping at Union Station, the city's main rail terminal.
And all this is costing me (and the rest of the taxpayers in Canada) more than $1 billion. I hope I can afford it.

I hope you realise I may be risking a lengthy jail sentence by posting these pictures.

We walked from Union Station to the Rogers Centre (formerly known as the SkyDome until Mr Rogers bought it) along the Skywalk.... lots of security evident but an easy walk with Callum in the stroller.
He was pretty excited to get into the stadium.

The Jays were playing St Louis Cardinals... Blue Birds vs. Red Birds. An Avian Assault. A Birdy Battle. Weather was perfect, warm, blue sky, a gentle breeze off the lake. The game was good too... three home runs for the home team, always exciting! We had great seats between third base and home plate.

Callum spotted the Jays Mascot lurking in the back row.

"B.J. Birdie, Hi! B.J.Birdie, hello!" He's waving like crazy, standing on the seat, and amusing all the baseball fans in the vicinity. "B.J. Birdie, come here! Hi, B.J. Birdie!" He wouldn't give up.
Finally B.J. Birdie (who seems to have changed his name to ACE about 9 years ago without me hearing about it) noticed the small boy in the red Tshirt and came over to visit.

OlderSon almost got squashed by the Birdie armpit.

Then in the 5th inning Fred Lewis hit a foul ball from Adam Wainwright straight into BJ Birdie's hand! Birdie (or ACE, whichever you prefer to call him) immediately headed in our direction and, to the delight and cheering of the crowd, presented the ball to Callum, and now I think the two of them are BFF! Callum got his picture flashed up on the giant TV screen.... fame at last!

Oh yes... almost forgot.... Jays win 5-0!

Dontcha love baseball?

Earthquake Alert!

Sitting in front of my computer at about 1:45pm today, the walls started to sway and creak and the venetian blinds started flapping, only a few seconds and it was over, with more creaks and groans from the walls of the 110 year old house a few minutes later. People out in the street didn't seem to notice and just carried on with what they were doing.

But OlderSon felt it too, about 4okm away. Weird feeling! Made me want to run outside. But earthquakes just don't happen here in S Ontario.... or do they????

The Globe and Mail says it was 5.0 on the Richter scale. Here.

Blooming Lovely

Back in the frozen past of last January, YoungerSon and The Bride moved into their "new" house, a solidly built 4 bedroom brick house of at least 25 years vintage.
The trees and bushes were bare of leaves and the gardens were covered in snow, with no indication of what plants might be lurking under the snowy blanket, waiting for spring.
But as the snow melted, it became apparent that the previous occupants liked to have flowers in their garden. The front beds erupted with red and white tulips and blue iris, and the wiegela shrubs soon produced sprays of pink and white blooms.

And now that summer is well on it's way, all sorts of colourful surprises have appeared. It's quite astonishing to The Bride, who says she knows nothing whatsoever about gardening. But all it needs is a bit of weeding here and there, and water from their new rain barrel. Perfect!

Good News, Good Friends

The Good News is that our Callum went home from hospital on Friday. He still has some medecine to take, and a puffer to help him breathe, but he's back to his normal cheeky energetic two-year-old self. A big weight off Mummy and Daddy's minds. And Nana's too! Thank you, fellow bloggers, for all your good wishes, I'm positive it made a difference!

The Good Friends are these lovely bloggers from Nain Bay. They were stopping over at Toronto for a couple of days on their way from Labrador to Australia, so we arranged a meeting for coffee and a chat at the hotel.

I was supposed to meet them the evening before for dinner, but things didn't work out that way, so we met for breakfast instead. It's amazing how the time flies when you're with interesting people. Our conversation covered everything from A to Z and I'm sure we could have carried on yapping all day, except they had to check out and head to the airport.

Have a great stay in OZ, you two, maybe we can catch up again on your way back.

Getting Better.

Our big little boy has been having trouble breathing and has spent a few days in hospital. He doesn't like it much. It's no fun at all having to stay in bed for a whole week, and put up with the nurses poking and prodding him, and as for that face mask.... well.... definitely not his idea of a good time.

He's been very brave. Mummy and Daddy and Grandma and Nana have been there to read stories to him. And Thomas the Train and his train friends Gordon and Bill and Stanley and Victor do a great job of cheering him up if he feels sad.


He can put up with all the inconveniences of hospital life as long as he gets some new toys every day. Fingers crossed and knock on wood, only another couple of days and he'll be right as rain, and running around at home, terrorising Leon the cat.
Thank you, doctors and nurses, for being so caring and kind and looking after our Callum so well.

What's the Buzzzzz....

"Now, if I wasn't so darned fat I could squeeze in even further to reach the really sweet stuff....

.... note to self: must stop sneaking all that extra honey from the kids!"