Fall Flashback: Montreal

Time has flown. It was only a few weeks ago that I spent a good weekend in Montreal. Here are some pics... from my hotel room window along Boulevard René-Lévesque, a sculpture near the Fine Art Museum, a charming doorway, and the Santa Claus Parade... more accurately it was for Péré Noël!

The parade was charming to begin with, with Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer sung in French, etc., but turned very creepy as I was almost crushed to fainting by an out-of-control crowd of dolts who refused to back off in any direction. Several of us were scared out of our wits. We survived. I don't like crowds. But I like Montreal. I shopped. A lot. I'm on a shopping diet now.
 

A Trifling Resolution

Yes, I made a resolution. A January 13 one. Starting tomorrow morning I will wake up at 6 and do a workout before work. Yep. That's it. I'm resolved.

Oh, and here was New Year's trifle, courtesy of the world's best and most beauteous mother. Her classic recipe was topped with Godive chocolate pearls and I, in my vulgar way, plopped a dark Lindor ball in the middle. Heaven in a bowl. Pass the spoon. The BIG spoon.

No Dishes!

It was different this Christmas. After the service at St. James' Cathedral, we strolled over to the King Edward Hotel for their groaningly expansive Christmas Lunch buffet, and WADDLED back to my home. Ok, I didn't waddle. My heels were hurting so I took a cab and got there ahead of everyone which was nice, as I could turn on the lights and get the refreshments going (like we needed any more)! I recommend the buffet, but... only if you're in the mood to indulge. Stretchy waistbands are also recommended.

Cool Toronto: Coulbourne Lodge

I used to live very near Toronto's High Park. Now I visit it no more than once a year, but that's usually before Christmas, and it's always to visit Colbourne Lodge, the lovely Regency cottage of Jemima and John Howard, who left their land to the city to create a park, long before anyone knew they'd need a park! In the 19th century, the area that is now High Park was far away from the city centre, and so the fact that John Howard bequeathed the land so that city families would have a place to go that was green and spacious seemed a little eccentric. He was on the mark, because, to this day, High Park is exactly that for a very great many Torontonians.

M and I visited the week before Christmas. It's a small historic house, but there is a very distinct charm about it. The docents are dressed in period costume and are very informative and friendly. We had their homemeade shortbread (infused with candied peel) and hot cider when we visited one of the two kitchens.

And I always learn something new... like this fact: Colbourne Lodge was the first house in Toronto to have an indoor toilet. Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, Toronto's first loo:

Remembering Sun, Water, Trees

and endeavouring to stay warm this winter. The picture was taken through a screen door in the Kawarthas last summer after a dramatic summer storm.

An Old Christmas Tradition

On Sunday, December 16, I took part in the Christmas Bird Count. In Toronto, the count began in 1900, making it the oldest in Canada. The Audubon Society has the history of this wonderful tradition right here.

It was a very cold and wet day, and I was part of a team of two. My partner was very experienced, so I (very inexperienced) was grateful for her patience and for being allowed to keep a written tally of birds, which made me feel useful. Luckily our patch was the Toronto portlands, AKA my happy hunting ground! For locals, this was the foot of the Leslie Street Spit (a large group did the Spit itself as its a major bird locale), along the Martin Goodman Trail and also Commissioners, to Cherry Beach (yay!).

Of course, there were trees... leafless trees on a rainy day... photographic catnip for me! Most of the day it just drizzled, but at times it was really bucketing down. As I reported in an email to my bird-counting friend later, I had never been truly so cold and wet... but I had a really good time. I was in the moment, I was in my element.

The brief stop off at Tim Horton's for a breakfast sandwich was very, very welcome, as the estimated morning-only count lasted til about 4 p.m.

Photographs below include seeing the CN Tower in the mist from Cherry Beach, droplets of water on just about everything, a Northern Mockingbird, baby trees, and the startlingly beautiful colours that are evident even at this time of year.

A hot shower never felt so good.

New Year

2012 was a very good year. I suspect 2013 will be even better. I wish you all the very best for it!

Save the Ginger

I think my ginger roots always look like manatees.

Hey, What Smells so Good Around Here?

Why... it's me! (Bathing helps too).

This BBC documentary series made me nostalgic for the days when I wore perfume regularly. Scent-sensitivity being what it is (for me and others), I haven't bought scents (apart from the occasional vanilla oil) for years. However, Dahlia Noir (by Givenchy) is delicious and doesn't irritate my nose at all. And I wear it sparingly. And not to theatres or cinemas or work.

The series is fascinating, if you'd like to know the history of perfume and the interesting characters that still work in scents.

Start watching here, on YouTube. It's all there.

My Little bit of Cabin Porn

Have you checked out the site yet?

Here's my little cabin, made from a kit from Lee Valley Tools, a catalogue I love almost as much I as I love L. L. Bean.

Stratford Goes Gangnam

So, the talented casts of Stratford Festival's 42nd Street and The Pirates of Penzance have produced their own homage to Psy (now over 1 billion hits on YouTube) a in this goofy, irresistible video. And here's my early Christmas present, a very clever idea from The Stratford Festival Shop: a Christmas tree ball, stuff full of scraps of fabric from the 42nd Street costumes. Off the cutting room floor, I guess. :)

Clever.

Littlest Tree

12 Days Start Now

I woke today, on the first of twelve days in a row that I will be off work. After so much intensity, it felt good. I puttered busily all day, including doing some gift wrapping. I love this groovy paper from Indigo. And I only noticed now, that I downloaded some piccies, that it matches my tea mug!

Really? I'm blogging about this sort of thing? REALLY?

Yes. My brain is on vacation too.

Green Love

I got them on sale. And... they`re GREEN. (They're Josef Seibel Palmira boots).

Eclectic, Yes?

I'm burning the candle at both ends more than usual at this time of year. But tonight I'm up late, wired by a completely satisfying night at the theatre.

As I muck about on my blog, I was amused to see this month's search terms... those very eclectic phrases typed in to Google, or whatever, that brought readers here.

From most to least popular, they are...

~ silvana mangano hairy
~ elgin theatre box seats   
~ indy car ginger bread house
~ anatomically correct gingerbread people
~ cranbrook campus
~ glass ornament chocolate bar
~ incessant
~ bald eagle with babies

The Word Indeed

Last year's Word Festival at the Young Centre was a glorious celebration of Shakespeare and the Bible. This year, to honour the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth, the centre is offering a four-day feast to all lovers of... the word.

There are staged readings, live streamed readings (check it out here), some improv and - opening tonight - Dickens' Women, a one-woman, one pianist show that is a must see if you can still get a ticket.

Miriam Margolyes, who I first experienced playing her award-winning Flora Finching in Christine Edzard's excellent adaptation of Dickens' Little Dorrit (1988), takes us on a journey through Dickens' life, his influences, and how it all played out in a rich array of women characters. Considered by many to be a chauvinist (and this is well supported by some of the excerpts in the piece), he also managed to present surprising characters, some of which were very two dimensional, but many of which were deeply human and flawed. I don't want to say too much about this in detail, because part of the appeal of this excellently crafted performance, is the delightful surprises that emerge. In fact, there are more surprises than I expected, because, as Margolyes moved smoothly from excerpt to story to excerpt, I felt I'd never read Dickens before. The most successful voice actress that Britain has produced (apart from her films, she's recorded a lot of audio books, documentary voice overs and animated character voices), she is able to extract from and illuminate a moment that is so exquisitely thought out, so compassionately examined, that it left me breathless and entirely engaged. Sympathetic piano accompaniment was provided with modesty and charm by Peter Tiefenbach.

Dickens' Women plays each evening until this coming Saturday night. Tomorrow (Thursday) there is a talk back with Margolyes, but after tonight's performance (and I suppose she'll do this for every other), she signed copies of her book on this same topic, which is $20 including tax. After Saturday, the show travels to Chicago for five performances, ending a 10-month tour that will conclude Christmas Eve.

Another fine evening at the Young Theatre.

I'm Moving to Maine...

... okay, well not really.

Yes, I'm too busy to blog, too busy to change my header from November to December. And decidedly too busy to move to Maine, but I sort of wish I were.
Here's my new daily smile, getting me through the busyness.

I only have one question... where are the golden retrievers? The chocolate labs? They're the number two reason I love the L. L. Bean catalogue.

UPDATE:/// There are puppies!