Bruce and I were on holiday this past week and elected to remain in the city because the place where we stay has a good bed and the food's OK.
We covered off some household matters - had a locksmith in to upgrade the door hardware with space-age key technology, had our HVAC system inspected, did some hard core cleaning (that was fun) - and then goofed off for the rest of the week.
One of the venues we chose in which to loiter pointlessly was Tommy Thompson Park (formerly the Leslie Street Spit, see: http://tommythompsonpark.ca/). The park is, fundamentally, a landfill for building demolition debris. It was once going to be a new harbour for Toronto. But, when those plans failed to work out, and the place was left to collect wind-blown and bird-delivered seeds, it became on its own a thriving wilderness and sanctuary for birds and other wildlife. It's easily been five years since we were last there and the place has changed a lot. It has a beaver pond (!) a turtle pond (!) and, at the very southern tip where debris is still dumped fresh daily, people have created an impromptu sculpture garden, including this rendition of a superhero:
Due to bad planning on our part - we foolishly counted on the overcast day to protect us from the heat of the sun; we didn't bring any water or food; we underestimated by about 200% how long we would be on the spit - by the time we'd returned to the park entrance at the foot of Leslie Street, we were hungry, thirsty and surprisingly sun burned.
We stopped at the first likely-looking spot on Queen Street East and had the best wood-oven pizza and beer lunch we'd had in our lives.
After lunch, we walked through eastern Toronto neighbourhoods, gawking at houses and speculating about real estate values, but never more than when we saw this:
Those are plastic, plush and cloth figures of M&Ms, Simpsons characters, Disney characters and dolls.
I am never going to complain about my neighbours again.
Have a great week!
Karen
