Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Taste of the Danforth – a food and music street festival Opa!

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It’s that time of year again when people flock to my neighborhood in droves for tasty Greek food, music and cultural experiences. Yes … it’s time for the Taste Of the Danforth – one of the city of Toronto’s biggest street festivals.

The festival, which started yesterday at 6 p.m. and ends on Sunday at midnight is just blocks from my home. It’s nice to have such a big – mostly free – event so close to my home. Luckily we live far enough away that we hear little noise from the Million or more people that attend the Taste of the Danforth each year.

I wasn’t feeling so hot today … to tell the truth I’ve felt pretty awful for a couple of weeks straight now (thanks Crohn’s!) so as much as I wanted to attend the Taste of the Danforth I just couldn’t. Perhaps I’ll feel more up to going tomorrow, however I’ll have to battle the heat tomorrow as it’s supposed to reach 32 c with high humidity so it will feel like it’s over 40 Celsius (104 f)!

Even though I haven’t gone to the street festival yet this year I’ve still had a taste. My husband was out early this evening with his sister and brother in law who’d come into Toronto to see a Blue Jay’s baseball game. He met up with them downtown for drinks and as he was coming back home by subway I suggested that he stop off on the Danforth on his way home (two blocks from the subway station he got off at) and pick us up some food.

So he brought home 2 Gyros (mixed meat sandwich wrapped in pita), Spanokopita (spinach pie/filo pastry), Baclova (very sweet dessert) and one chicken souvlaki stick. Just a taste of everything. Delicious!

Our dog got so excite at the smell of the food when he came home that she started jumping around and almost knocked over the tv stand. Lucky for us it only teetered a bit before settling.

If I do feel well enough to go to the Taste of the Danforth tomorrow I might try some of the other types of food available. People probably think that it’s mainly Greek or mediteranian food that you can get there, but you can get Thai, Indian, Sushi, Mexican, Spanish …. just about everything. After all, the Danforth is one of the most multicultural areas of the city – so why not experiment and try new foods?

If you are in the Toronto are this evening or on Sunday I strongly suggest that you stop by the Taste of the Danforth festival (on Danforth Avenue from Broadview to Jones). You’ll love the experience!





Still wiped out

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Well I thought I’d be recovered by now from having a house guest and a big family barbecue last weekend, but I don’t think I am!

Last night Chris and I decided to go to the Street Festival part of the Toronto Beaches Jazz Fest. I seriously thought I was up for it .. but a few hours before we went we had a huge storm – 30 mm + of rain in an hour or so, and oh buy did the humidity ever rise!

That humidity zapped me as we walked the crowded street passing and stopping to watch multiple bands play jazz, blues and funk. Oh I had fun! the music was fantastic, and I’ll post some photos in another post soon … but I just wasn’t feeling well last night. Not at all.

It’s the Crohn’s of course that’s doing me in. When it’s active I can’t do a lot of activities – not just because of the pain and other symptoms … but because the more I do the sicker I seem to get. I also get tired really easy too. There are days I’m so wiped out that I couldn’t even read a colon cleanse review or anything else for that matter!

Chris is on holidays this week and we don’t have any specific plans … however, I think for my sake, I’ll just try to take it easy for the next couple of days and maybe I’ll feel better.

Are any of you on holidays this week? What are your plans?

Jazz in the Park – every Wednesday

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In keeping with our plan to attend at least one of Toronto’s many interesting events or festivals once a week throughout the summer, Chris and I went to an outdoor Jazz festival last night.

It was Chris’ birthday yesterday and he loves Jazz music so he suggested we go to the “Mosaic Does Jazz” Jazz in the park festival that’s being held every Wednesday evening from 5 pm until 8 pm at the Coxwell Parkette from July 1st to Sept. 2nd. It’s close to our home and man, was the music ever fantastic!

We saw the Terra Hazelton Quartet and as I said the music was great. The singer had a beautiful bluesy voice just made for singing Jazz songs. She was accompanied by a Jazz guitarist, a bassist and a drummer.

We had thought that the music was to start at 8 pm so we didn’t actually get there until about 7! Oops! We brought a friend from work, our dog and three folding chairs and parked ourselves about 15 feet from the center of the stage.

I didn’t realize that there would be other things going on in the small park, but when we got there we noticed that there were a couple of vendors selling food like hotdogs and hamburgers, a coffee shop, a person doing massage, someone doing therapeutic touch and a jewelry booth with lovely pearl jewelry. I’m sure there were a few other tent booths that I missed.

There was a good crowd. Probably people that lived in or who were shopping in the neighborhood. Lots of kids too. One little girl, maybe a year old, kept trying to climb onto the stage! Oh and our dog barked whenever anyone applauded and that warranted a “woof” from the singer. LOL

Oh and in response to the person that commented on my post “time to stop letting life pass me by” where I first talked about attending a Toronto event once a week …

He said “An event every weekend? Isn’t that kind of overdoing it? Doing nothing can feel like a waste of time, but doing too much can be too.”

My response … well I’ve been sick and on medical leave from work for the last few years. Believe me, I haven’t done too much and I’m sick of it. Toronto is a great city with tons of things to do in the summer (despite the garbage strike stinking up the place!). Believe me, I won’t overdo it as my body won’t let me. Going to a park to watch musicians play won’t overextend me nor will going out for a couple of hours to one of Toronto’s many food festivals. I just want to get out and do things when I’m feeling up to it and as I said summer in Toronto is the perfect time to attend events, try foods that you’ve never tried before and just get out and feel alive.

Time to stop letting life pass me by

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My poor poor blog. I’ve been neglecting it lately! I’ve been neglecting my regular readers as well.

It just seems that I got so busy over the last month or so that I haven’t managed to do much writing in any of my many blogs. Life got in the way, you might say!

IMG_5901 For some reason my garden has kept me busier this year than the last few! Maybe it’s just that I feel more like working in it? Anyway … over the last two weeks or so my husband and I managed to add about 30 big bags of mulch to the garden beds (after weeding of course)! No wonder my back has constantly been aching lately!

We’ve also taken our dog to the beach for a swim in Lake Ontario a few times, plus we’ve attended a few events that have been going on in Toronto. Namely – the first annual Beach Ribfest and the Toronto Ribfest, the Mississauga Waterfront festival where we saw Bruce Cockburn play, Woofstock in early June and I think a few more things.

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Even though my Crohn’s is still flaring and makes me feel awful a good portion of the time I’ve decided to stop letting life pass me by. Toronto is a great city, with lots to do, especially in the summer. There’s something going on just about every weekend!

So, a few weeks ago I said to my husband lets try to attend one Toronto event every weekend. Provided the event is of interested to the two of us of course. So that’s what we’ve been doing. Hmmm maybe this weekend we’ll try to view the Molson Indy (we don’t have tickets). There’s also the Toronto Fringe Festival and the Outdoor Art Exhibition this weekend. Summerlicious is on too (gourmet meals for a deal of a price) – maybe we’ll eat out as well!

If you live in Toronto or within driving distance and you’re looking for interesting inexpensive things to do check out the Toronto Festivals and Events Calendar. I’m sure you’ll find something that suites your tastes.

We didn’t do anything special this past weekend, but last Wednesday was Canada day and we had a friend over. Actually it’s a guy that Chris works with at the hospital. So I was entertained by two talented guitar players (Chris and our friend) as they played guitar in our backyard for a few hours.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing garbage and city workers strike here in Toronto Canada Day festivities were canceled. So no fireworks … but it seemed that many of our neighbors bought their own Fireworks and set them off on the street or the park just down the road from us, so we could see fireworks all around our house!

Odd that all the rest of the big Toronto events (Gay Pride parade, Molson Indy etc) can all go on with the garbage strike and city worker strike, but national festivities for Canada Day were canceled? Unfair!

It’s Chris’ birthday on Wednesday. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, but I think Chris’ parents are planning on coming into town for a visit sometime on the weekend. When Chris was talking to his mom the other day she said they wanted to take us out to dinner, so i guess along with the other multitude of interesting activities that we might do this weekend, going out to dinner to celebrate my husbands birthday will be on the list.

Anyway … if Chris and I stick to the plan we’ll be doing something new and interesting every weekend so even though I might be a little busier than I have been in the recent past I’ll try to blog more often and I should have some interesting tales to tell about the things we’ve been up to – photo’s too!

Do you find that life gets busier in the summer? Do you try to attend various events or festivals going on in your city during the summer?

BTW A belated Happy Canada Day and 4th of July to my Canadian and American visitors!

We took our dog to Woofstock today

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I’m exhausted! My husband and I and our Labrador Retriever Midnight went to Woofstock today and after all that walking around in the hot sun I’m tired!

Woofstock is the largest dog festival in North America and it’s going on this weekend here in Toronto.

Instead of driving downtown we decided to take the subway. It was Midnight’s first time on the Subway so it was an adventure for her. She did well, but didn’t like all the long, steep sets of stairs that we had to go up and down in the subway stations. Why … well we don’t let her go upstairs with us in our house or go into the basement, so she isn’t used to climbing big sets of stairs. Otherwise she did really well on the train.

It had been an overcast slightly cool day when we set out for the subway, but by the time we got downtown the sun had decided to come out so it was quite warm walking in the crowds at Woofstock.

Midnight had a ball meeting all kinds of other dogs. Luckily every dog we met was fairly friendly. The only dogs that we saw not getting along were two un-neutered males that got too close to each other.

We came home with a ton of treats for Midnight. Two big Mammoth bones, a beef knee, 6 pigs ears, liver treats and two types of special baked dog treats.

We also bought two more leashes – the same kind that we bought last year at the show. It’s a leash that has rivet holes in several places and hooks at each end so that you can wear the leash around your waist as you walk your dog, or attach one end of the leash easily to a pole when you need to leave your dog outside a store for a moment or adjust the length of the leash in anyway that suites you. Obviously we loved the leash we bought last year so much that we wanted to make sure that we’d always have one!

We also got Midnight a new collar. It’s vinyl or rubber. It will be great to use when we take her to the lake for a swim as it won’t soak up water, stretch or get smelly like her current collar does whenever it gets wet.

Just before we left Woofstock we took Midnight to this area that had small pools that the dogs could wade in. She was hot (we’d been giving her water all afternoon and there were several water bowls near most of the booths) and needed a good soak. She got right into the small pool and the lady that was there managing the pools sprayed her with a hose. I took some pictures but I’m too tired to transfer them to the computer, crop them and upload them just now … so pictures of our day at Woofstock will follow in another post.

Midnight was wet when we got on the subway since her soak in the pool happened only minutes before we left the event. She’d shaken herself off a few times, but just as I feared she did a good shake while we were on the subway and got water droplets all over a lady who was reading some kind of diet pill review pamphlet. Oops! Luckily she didn’t mind!

Our dog is sleepy this evening, just as I expected. We wore her out!

Tomorrow if I feel up to it (remember I’m tired out too!) we might go down to the waterfront and see some of the final LuminaTO events. There’s going to be performances by Cirque de Soleil members in two areas of the Waterfront / Harbourfront area. I definitely want to see that! Being an outdoor event I’m pretty sure that we can take our dog with us, so she’s going to get some more outdoor activity tomorrow – more than likely!

Does your city have a lot of outdoor activities and events throughout the summer? Ours does! That’s one of the reasons I love living in Toronto. There’s always something interesting to do.

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