Author: Bill

If you’re not on Peter’s mailing list, you may have missed this remarkable performance by a 9 year-old singer in Holland.

How do you get from the cycle path along the bank of the Mighty Don…

to here… the Riverdale Farm?

Answer:

[Notes] I only rode to the base of the stairs today. The photo of the sheep is from the Google Map of Riverdale Farm.
After the climb up the stairs, carrying your bike, there’s more climbing to do… up a fairly steep hill to the farm. Well worth a visit, especially in the Spring. Baby goats are my favourites. They dance on the heads of long suffering sheep. Pure joy.

There’s a new art show up at my favourite café. Like the show that preceded it, this one is colourful, well executed and light-hearted. Rob Elliott’s monkeys are acrylic originals on canvas… small ones and larger ones.
“I’m not afraid of colour”, proprietor/artist Andrew Horne said to us one day. His own work is similarly bright and you can see the paint job on the café exterior. Andrew brews good coffee, too, and sells fresh-daily baked goods made on the premises.
Getting into the spirit of Diwali, Andrew adapted his place to the Little India strip by erecting a driftwood sculpture, cleverly tied together with big zip ties. You can see how he added colour. There are red and blue bulbs for night time. Festival of Lights, you know.

The bikes will go into storage this month, so walking is definitely more year-round. Bikes are more fun than walking and they get us down to the lakeside more quickly and frequently than our shoes have done. Would not have wanted to miss this today…

I notice more detail walking than I do riding, though, and walking is simpler. Put on your hat and coat, and off you go. With a bike, there are keys and helmets and locks and backpacks. On foot, you can just pop into a coffee shop. The bike needs locking up… significant locking up in Toronto. Sidewalks feel a lot less nerve-racking than bike lanes.
Without the mechanical advantage of the bicycle, I work more (and different) muscles and get better blood pressure readings. The bike wins on cardio and it wins on range, taking us farther, to interesting sights. It definitely lifts spirits higher, especially on nice days. The bike is a brilliant invention and we’ll continue to use ours enthusiastically, but in the final analysis, walking wins for health, cost and convenience.

When you are struggling with a tough problem, take a little break and have a little think before you try again.

The kids were playing outside the library, sheltered from the drizzle. I did my best to hold my Playbook steady. Happy Diwali!

Museum Access Passes (MAP) are available, free of charge, to holders of Toronto Public Library cards. New batches come out each week on Saturday and some are more popular than others. If you want a pass for the Science Centre, Zoo or ROM, you have to get up early and wait for an hour or two before selected branches open.

I went a couple of months ago and scored a ROM pass for visitors who were staying with us. It was never used, so yesterday Danica and I used it before it expired. What a lovely place to spend a few hours. Too much to see in just one visit, so we concentrated on early Canadiana, plus a tour through the ever- popular dinosaur exhibits.
This gives me an opportunity to try out a new WordPress plugin for slides.

It didn’t work for Nixon, but Harper hopes to tough it through his credibility problems with sheer bluff and bluster. Does he have any other option? A frank disclosure of the facts? I don’t think so, not this late in the game.

GORE-tex… Mmmwwwwaaahahahaha!

[Note] Kathleen’s “Muddy Buddy” comment relates to the rainsuits her grand daughters wear in England.
Here’s a cute example.
Here are Kaitlin and Charlotte in their Muddy Buddies. Costumes by Chrissy.

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By Helen Andersen. These small pieces all date from the 80s.

First slide: Abandoned Mine, Salmo
Second: Mt. Newton, Saanichton
Third: Mt. Newton X Rd.
Fourth: Fun Thing 1
Fifth: Fun Thing 2
Sixth: Invention #1