So long, it's been good to know ya!

Well, here it is - my last post from Doris Avenue. It's been a long winter but now the sun is shining and the grass and trees are refreshingly green - it all happened very suddenly as May arrived. Temperatures flipped from 'Brrr!' to 'Phew!'. It's still pretty changeable - we had snow flurrries again last weekend!

I have paused in my sorting and packing to get this up to date. I'm bringing as much as I can home with me on Saturday as the items for shipping won't be leaving yet and it's quite tricky working out what I might need in the meantime! I'm definitely bringing my favourite potato peeler! Eamonn's job situation isn't resolved yet so he will arrange the shipping after he gets back from his short stay in London. I'm hoping to leave everything well sorted and organised so he won't find it too bothersome! He'll also have the headache of selling all the furniture and the car - I don't envy him that.

 Back in February, while the snow was still lying in heaps everywhere, I led a Newcomers' visit to Spadina House, one of the few, genuinely old properties in Toronto. Pronounced originally 'Spadeena', from the native name for 'hill', it is usually pronounced 'Spadinah' now. This is a beautifully restored house, dating from 1866, owned by three generations of a wealthy Toronto banking family. It originally stood surrounded by 80 acres of farmland and orchards and gardens. The last member of the family handed the house over to the City in 1978. What made this such a pleasure to visit was that the house is so authentic - almost everything in the house was originally owned by the family. I have visited another old house here owned by an important Toronto figure but it contained only one chair actually used by the family, the rest was of the period but not original to the house so Spadina House has a very genuine feel. It shows how styles changed from the mid-Victorian times to 1930s Colonial revival and includes pieces from the Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Much of the furniture was made here too. Coming from England, where we're surrounded by so much heritage I was glad to have such a satisfying tour. 

 

The weather was so punishing in February and March that there were many days I really didn't want to go out and then the swimming pool was out of action so for a large part of that time I thought I might take root on the sofa! Fortunately, I have got to know some lovely women here and they were wonderful at motivating me to get out and about - even if it were just for a cosy chat over coffee in a weather-protected mall! I finished my art history course too which gave me another excuse not to go out. I have enjoyed the Newcomers' Walk-Fit sessions and the one in early March was 8km of a gruelling stomp through deep frozen snow! It's very tiring walking in frozen footsteps! But at the end of this walk we were invited to the home of a lovely Japanese Newcomer, who restored us with her home-made cakes and sweets and pots of tea and coffee, all delivered in elegant Japanese style!

 One weekend Eamonn and I went to a local park which provides small-scale skiing for the locals.

Gradually the days got brighter and we enjoyed a lovely day out at Easter in a woodland area with two young expat families here. We even had hotdogs toasted over an open fire! We were also given s'mores - a yummy sandwich of  toasted marshmallow and chocolate between biscuits - they have to be Graham's crackers for some reason! It's a traditional campfire treat eaten particularly at scouting and girl guiding camps.

We had a lovely meal out with friends on my birthday and then we had a quiet Easter - Eamonn had bought some birthday daffodils for me and I bought some little eggs for us but what a disappointment they were! The box clearly said 'egg', the picture showed an egg but inside they were just 'Bounty' shaped lumps of chocolate! It just wasn't the same!

 

After Easter I went to a maple syrup festival at  a local Conservation Area, Kortright. We were shown the method used for making maple syrup by the early pioneers and then we saw the more modern technique. In the past, the maple sap was collected in buckets by tapping the trees. The water in the sap was then boiled off - the sap looks like water and is almost tasteless but after this process it achieves its distinctive colour and flavour. The modern means of collection involves a grid-like network of plastic tubes connecting the trees which run from the taps joining larger tubes, using gravity to flow into a tank in the processing shed where it is boiled and bottled. There is a very short season for the collection of maple sap and Quebec is Canada's largest producer. At the time we were there it was still bitterly cold so that the sap had stopped running and had frozen in the buckets!

 

A great highlight for my birthday was going to see Lianne La Havas in the Opera House, once a classical music venue but now a place for 'young people's' events. Gemma had arranged it for us. This young London performer is touring over here and is doing very well - she has a lovely voice and a charming way of communicating with the audience; she writes all her own material. I was rather nervous about being surrounded by so many young'ns but we realised there were some oldies like us upstairs, so we found ourselves a rail to lean on and had a great time! Eamonn even splashed out on a taxi to get us home ($50 later!).

A great thing about being part of the Newcomer activities is that we learn a lot from each other but sometimes we have opportunities to learn a bit more from the professionals. The Photography Group had a walk along the Lakeshore with a professional photographer who gave us tips on how to get more out of our cameras - whether iPhones, point-and-shoots or SLRs like mine. It was fun having time just to experiment and try things out - some of them even crouching on the ground to get some interesting angles! I can't say I learned much as I forget what I've tried almost straightaway!

 

Along the Lakeshore are 3 'wave decks', just fun places to walk around. There are also sailing, kayaking and canoeing schools here. I've seen some people learning paddle boarding here too.

Here is one of the memorials to the Fire Service: it shows a fireman carrying a baby from a burning building.

The city has at last realised that the Lakeshore should be a place where people can relax and should not be hogged by the developers! But what this little beach area needs is a little hut selling ice cream and tea!

When a well-loved member left Newcomers recently, after 4 years here, she was given a quilt of signatures. She is a lovely Japanese lady who went to almost all the activities and became the Club's photo archivist, recording everything that has been happening! The quilt making was top secret, co-ordinated by the very talented ladies in the quilters' group and it was presented to her at a special tea. Considering that this involved a large number of women, the secret had been kept and it was a complete surprise to her! She was a member of the quilters' group too so that was even more astonishing!

The last Neighbourhood Walk that I led was to a small area of Toronto called Wychwood Park, which was set up as an artists' colony in the 1880's by an Oxfordshire painter. It is still an exclusive, gated community where the homes, new or old have to conform to an accepted style, although the owners are free to change the interiors. A lake is at the centre,  created by the damming of a local creek, and the houses are arranged around a winding road. The house numbers follow no pattern at all!  

Many of the houses have an interesting history, having been owned by well-known artists. While we were being told about one particular house, once owned by George Reid, the owner happened to be sitting in his front garden and he invited us in - all 20 of us. His family has lived here a long time and they have really looked after the house, keeping it as it was designed. He also had some artefacts owned by George Reid. The idea for this estate is based loosely on our garden suburbs but as you can see the landscaping isn't as manicured as we're used to! 

 

I have spent a lot of time recently making the most of the early summer weather by going for walks with Gillian during the week and Eamonn at the weekend. Of course my mid-week walks are punctuated by visits to coffee shops and we have built up quite a repertoire now! It's much more fun to seek out the independent coffee shops and avoid Tim Horton's and Starbucks! 

 

Osgoode Hall (Law Courts) and the Canada Life Building, complete with weather beacon.



Interesting fact: Insulin was developed at the University of Toronto by Banting and Best.

 The Gladstone Hotel - a trendy boutique hotel with art exhibitions and music.


 A giant inukshuk by the Lake.





















Strolling by the Lakeshore.

It makes headline news here when the blossom appears on the trees in High Park. It's a popular place to walk and relax for families throughout the year but the Newcomers always try to time one of their walks to coincide with this blossom show so, in the end, less of  a walk-fit and more of a stroll!

For those few days the park is heaving but it's still easy enough to get away from the crowds and enjoy the space.






















It's very popular with photographers and there always seems to be a bride!
 
 








The Lake, a popular spot for the red-winged blackbirds.





 
 

Sculpture of  'Immigrant Family' by Tom Otterness, Downtown.

< The view south down Yonge Street at the end of our road which is to the left. 

There will be a new shiny building in the foreground where the ramshackle take-away food shops are. The reflection shows where we first lived when we arrived. In the distance you can see an almost-complete development which has grown since we arrived. Yonge Street will eventually become a corridor!

But a short walk from us is this little fountain in the cemetery. There are lots of fountains around the city but most of them aren't switched on before summer.

Last night Eamonn and I saw 'This House' via NT Live, a really entertaining look back at the 1970s in the House of Commons. We were a young, newly married couple then and were blissfully ignorant of so much that happened; we certainly didn't realise that so many MPs died in that time, many of overwork, particularly those MPs who had come into politics from mining and heavy industrial careers.

Well, my last days here have been happy with companionship and coffee. One friend arranged a little tea party for me in her garden and another friend took me on a coffee shop crawl for the day! I am looking forward to getting home to enjoy home-making and being able to make myself useful somewhere but I have fantastic memories of my time here, getting to know women from all over the world. We have so much in common but our differences make us so interesting to each other. It's hard to know how to finish but I can only say a big 'Thank you' to all those who have shared our journey in any way. Thank you to Michael and Gemma for visiting and being there on Skype! Thank you to our new friends for giving us such happy times and Thank you to old friends for all your support. We just have to hope that Eamonn won't be too long following me back! 

Looking forward to seeing you all again,

With love,
Mary and Eamonn