Month: October 2014

Undeterred by suddenly chilly weather, Danica and I blanched the nuit away, checking out luminous art on carefree, car-free Toronto streets. At first we tried to map our route, but quickly learned to flow with the crowd and pause wherever something looked interesting.
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This year, exhibits seemed to be smaller but more numerous than in previous years. I think we prefer fewer and bigger. We couldn’t possibly get around to everything, anyway.
Buskers and hawkers were playing a bigger role than they have in the past, and food trucks were doing brisk business.
Nuit Blanche feels like a parade-in-reverse, where the art installations act as the floats and the audience does the moving. Queen Street and Spadina Avenue were wide open for walking and huge crowds filled them.

We likes to alliterate our Fall Fetes here on the Hill, and we likes reasons to throw them. The official unveiling of artist Mediah’s painting on the local rail under pass provided a good one. That’s Mediah leading the crowd in the photo.
A fete without food is hardly a fete. Nothing like a Potluck Feast provided by neighbours. Competitive cooks (there’s that alliteration again) entered a contest while others contributed anonymously. I had to leave before the judging, but I can get the results here.

Toronto public transit is pathetic, but we’ll have to learn to add a half hour to the hour we already allow to get anywhere. If it rains and you get a seat, it may be wet. Streetcar windows leak. Don’t worry, you’ll probably be standing anyway.

Danica and I eventually reached 502 Queen Street West, just west of Spadina and met Kathy Bertrand for lunch at the Epicure Café. Danica: Calamari, Kathy: Grilled cheese sandwich with apples and bacon, Me: Mushroom, spinach and feta omelette with fries. All delicious, priced reasonably and served cheerfully and efficiently. Nice menu touch: You may choose to mix your side order, half salad half fries. Good find, Kathy.

After lunch, we shopped Queen West a bit. Of special note: The Outer Layer gag and gift store. Novelties that are really novel and the only place to buy your push-button profanity generator. “Shut the F*** Up”! Danica bought one but passed on the cat book (See inset)

We have a luncheon/shopping tradition wherein the ladies laugh loudly at raunchy products and greeting cards while I keep my distance and pretend I don’t know them.

I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this amusing clip, taken from a longer piece called Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould. Glenn Gould, who happened to be a musical genius who happened to live in our Beaches area over on Southwood, wasn’t always a serious as the music he performed.
http://youtu.be/JUNYgoOgcRI

Jude died this morning in the hospital, a few short weeks after learning that he had cancer. He was a friend I was always glad to see and I’m going to miss his gentle, playful sense of humour.
Jude’s life was a full one, thanks to his many skills and talents. An accomplished hospitality chef, award-winning stage actor, long time member of the Toronto Irish Players and knowledgeable gardener, he didn’t waste the time he had. The Irish Cultural Society of Toronto will need a new president.
The relative suddenness of Jude’s death makes our loss hard to believe. He was just in his early 70s, not all that old by today’s standards, and had such a positive attitude, we hoped for a better outcome. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

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 Today’s slides are about a misty morning ride to the plateau overlooking Bluffers Park. Once upon a time, it was an apple orchard and some trees are still there, unsprayed and filled with natural bounty.
The bluffs are eroding, sometimes dramatically. In the bikes shot, you see two fences. The older one has posts dangling in space over a big 30 foot chunk that cleaved off. More recent cleavages come right up to the new fence.
It’s a natural, inevitable process, but attempts are being made to slow it. The shoreline is shaped with rocky quoins, to break up wave erosion. Streams and rivulets that eat away from the land side are channeled into pipes, then out to the lake.

The benches outside the Riverdale Hub on Gerrard Street East do not have the stingy middle “armrests” that city benches have. If you want to lay down and stretch out, you are welcome to. Just be responsible about it, please.
The little sign engages users in a light, inviting way, expecting responsible cooperation. The benches themselves are made of heavy offcuts, formerly beams inside the renovated and restored Hub space.The wood has been valued, not discarded, and has been beautifully put to use.