Island Life

The view of the city from the ferry across the harbour to Toronto Island.

A family picnic on Toronto Island, and what a view! The Rogers Centre stadium roof was open (formerly known as SkyDome before Mr. Rogers purchased it) for the Blue Jays game. YoungerSon bought a family pass for Centreville, the small amusement park, and the kids spent most of the day on the rides. A lot of happy faces. More pictures to come.....

Pour Me a Cold One

Summer days on the way, and I'll soon be sitting out on the deck under the sun umbrella sipping a cold one. But first I have to buy my beer.

Currently, if I want to buy a case of bottles or cans of beer in Ontario to take home, I have to go to the Beer Store which is foreign owned, or to the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) which is operated by the Government of Ontario. Sale of alcohol has always been strictly controlled here!

At my local Beer Store, here are my choices along with the prices.

The process of buying beer is: look at the board, decide what you want, tell the cashier, pay for it, and then your chosen case of beer comes rolling along a delivery chute from the nether regions of the store.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne recently announced that there is going to be a big change in the rules, and beer and wine will soon be available on the shelves of up to 450 grocery stores! Not all grocery stores, just a few, but that's better than the current arrangement. Will beer and wine ever be available in neighbourhood convenience stores, like in Montreal? Probably not for a long time.

Meanwhile.... the fridge is out of beer and the sun is shining...... I'm off to the Beer Store.

Star Wars Day

In a galaxy far, far away.......

Can you believe the first Star Wars movie was released 25 May 1977!

I remember lining up with OlderSon and his friend outside a cinema on Bloor Street, Toronto, with a huge crowd of parents and kids, all so excited to see this brand new movie we had heard so much about. The boys were both about 6, and as often happens with 6 year olds, they suddenly needed to visit the loo, and consequently we lost our place in the line. Grrrr!

However we got in, and saw the film.... we had never seen anything like it before, and the boys became instant Star Wars fans.
The next movie from George Lucas in 1980 was The Empire Strikes Back. I can't remember where or when we saw it, but I recall seeing the third film released in 1983, The Return of the Jedi, when we were on holiday in Daytona Beach, Florida.

There have been a few more Star Wars movies since then, and I believe a new one is scheduled for release later this year.  In Toronto today there are some special Star Wars events planned for those who like to dress up. Star Wars fans will be appearing as Darth Vader and Jabba the Hut. Storm Troopers, Wookiies, Obi Wan Kenobis and Anakin Skywalkers will be popping up all over the place.

Meanwhile..... Grab your Light Sabre..... May the Fourth be With You!.

Edited: My oldest grandson Callum wore his Darth Vader Tshirt to school today!

Arty Stuff

The local Gallery holds a Juried Art Exhibition every spring and invites artists in the area to submit works in whatever form they use.... paintings, photography, fiber arts, sculpture, etc. Three jurors, usually artists or gallery curators, look over all the submissions and choose the pieces to display.

Here are some of this year's winners. I loved everything on display, except one painting (not shown). And this is just a small sample of the paintings I liked.

I'd be happy with any one of these hanging on my wall.

It's quite amazing to me, that there are so many talented artists in this area.

Happenings...

I lost my blogging ambition for a couple of weeks, lots of reasons. Did you miss me? Hmmm... I thought not.
Reason One: the weather has been so cold. We even had SNOW on the ground two days ago. I thought this was spring! I know I don't have to write my blog outside, but somehow the really un-springlike weather completely brought me to a standstill.
Reason Two: I was sewing, and once I get the sewing machine warmed up I have to finish. I made a pretty summer dress for my only granddaughter, the beauteous Emma, and made a funky Tshirt for me, made from 4 recycled Tshirts from the Sally Ann Thrift Shop. Oh this is such a bad picture.

Reason Three: Some surgery. Parathyroidectomy. Sounds very impressive, doesn't it. Just one night in hospital, lots of TLC from the nurses on the 11th floor and the hospital food was surprisingly edible. Home the next day, feeling great now. I was in Toronto for a follow-up appointment at the hospital so I took my camera along.

Toronto City Hall. Designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell and built in 1965. Home of Toronto City Council..... and former home of notorious Toronto ex-Mayor Rob Ford... remember him?

The Countdown Clock for the Pan Am Games to be held in Toronto July 10 -26 2015.

The CN Tower was completed in 1976 becoming the World's tallest tower... but lost that title in 2010. It's now the 3rd tallest. The light on top of the weather beacon on the Canada Life building glows red for rain, green for fine and white for snow, and the lights on the actual pylon scroll up or down according to the forecast temperature. Clever.

The Red Rocket ... one of Toronto's many streetcars, 248 of them in fact. 

Outside the law courts.... the lion and the lamb. Every Individual is Equal Before and Under the Law and has the Right to the Equal Protection and Equal Benefit of the Law without Discrimination.

Whether the Weather...

The Weather Man was right about the high winds and the rain.......

.......... but he needs to check his spelling!

This 'n' That 'n' t'Other

I think Canadian Spring might be just around the corner here in the Great White North. We actually had two back-to-back sunny days, but it's back to cold weather again today.
I took TessaDog for a run in the forest last weekend, but it was too icy to go far. I'm afraid of falling and nobody finding me for a week. I'd have to eat the dog to survive! YoungerSon wouldn't like that.

Just a few more of those glorious sunny days and this view will change to green instead of white.

Auction Sale season has started. Every year there's an interesting Good Friday sale at the local Community Hall, so I went along to do some people watching (always a good sport) and to see what was on offer. I bid on a few things, but didn't actually part with any money, prices were too high, and there was nothing that I really needed.

A carved totem or symbolic mask from the West coast, possibly Haida. It sold for $750.00.

The auctioneer has a contact in the Persian carpet business, and always has a large number of carpets and rugs on offer at the auctions. The large ones go quite cheaply, as nobody has room for a 30' x 20' rug, and carpets with a big pattern aren't fashionable any more.

This one sold for just over $200.00. Listed price was over $1500.00. A bargain for someone.

These sweet little 1950s Dutch dolls sold for only $12.50. I was tempted, but do I really need dolls? After they were sold, I wished I had bid on them..... but then I saw sense and was happy I didn't. Indecision, indecision. 

Browsing at the local Care and Share junk charity shop, I noticed this shoe box up on a high shelf. Chandler is one of my family names (my mother's maiden name) so I was instantly interested. I wonder if these Chandlers are long lost relatives? And do their shoe shops still exist? According to the box lid they had addresses and stores all across the USA.

The town of Ilfracombe in North Devon (England) is where I spent some of my school days, and two new state of the art web cams have been installed looking at the harbour. I can spend quite some time just watching the people and the boats. If you see a large blue and white boat tied up at the dock, it's the MS Oldenburg, the ferry to the island of Lundy. The web cam is here, well worth a look. You'll also see a view on Cam2 of Rapparee Beach, the site of a disastrous shipwreck in 1796 and also a fistfight in 1878 with the Crown Prince of Germany who apparently was a bit of a twerp.

I've been painting again. The colours haven't photographed well in this photo. A bit fuzzy.

That's all folks..... until next time!     Happy Easter.