Green Beanery

Here are some shots of Christian in his element at the Green Beanery on Bloor. Have a look at the originals here.

Light, Shadow, and the CN Tower

These photos are about a month old, but still good! The rest are here.

Island Airport from the mainland.

Excellent shadows.

See the companion photo in Florence.

John St. Roundhouse from above.

My favourite.

Adventures with Oren and The Gladstone

This weekend our friend Oren visited from Ottawa, which meant a good excuse to get out and spend some money in our town. We covered some good ground and experienced some great little businesses. Larger versions of the photos are here.

On Friday our dinner club met up at a fabulous Greek restaurant on the Danforth called Ouzeri.

Saturday lunch at Caplanski's Delicatessen on College st. I certainly recommend the matzah ball soup and latkes.

This is James and Oren who helped us get to know some local watering holes. We also stopped off at C'est What on Front st., Pravda vodka bar on Wellington, and The Irish Embassy pub on Yonge st.

At the Gladstone Hotel on Queen, we visited the Come Up To My Room alternative design event. The artist-designed hotel rooms were open to the public for the event.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Come Up To My Room.

Art's Birthday at the Wychwood Barns

On January 17th, NAISA hosted a birthday celebration for art at the Artscape Wychwood Barns. We had a lot of fun, and a nice turn-out including many local families and artists. Here are a few pictures:

My Walk To/From Work

So it takes me about 30-40 minutes to walk to work, and I've tried several routes. I love the neighbourhood, and the lovely old homes (some monstrous in size). There are many more things than I can show here that are part of the trip including cute little dogs in cute little coats, an increasingly decomposing dead squirrel, many smells including the sewers, chimney smoke, exhaust, garbage, cold, trees and bushes. Don't get me wrong, there are some less than lovely things, but I love the walk. It's getting more and more frigid, but I'm having fun trying different routes, testing my speed, getting to know the streets, and listening to my CBC podcasts. Here are some photos...

That castle in our neighbourhood.

Good old CN.

Near home.

Check out the bike-lane real estate on Davenport! I'm still too chicken to ride though... maybe next year.

Chris, Front Street, and the St. Lawrence Market

Christian's mother Chris visited us for a few days, and provided a great excuse to be tourists in our city. We headed down to the St. Lawrence Market for lunch and a few hours of shopping/browsing.

Friendly Entrepreneurs

Inspired by this post on Blog TO, Christian used his Nova Scotian charm to get us an invite to a coffee cupping session at te aro in Leslieville last week. I've never been to a wine tasting myself, but this is very similar to what I'd imagine the ritual to be. A lesson on coffee history, flavours, roasting, and grinding - complete with 'Coffee Tasters Flavour Wheel' for descriptive inspiration, some bean profiles to give us hints about our samples, and a list of cupping basics.

I forgot my camera that evening, so I apologize for the poor-quality cell-phone images. I just hope that I can convey the value of this worthwhile little business, and how hard the owners are trying to reach out into the community to share their passion for coffee. Thanks very much to owners Jessie and Andy Wilkin for the experience, and for helping add to my knowledge of and interest in this place called Toronto.

te aro in its renovated garage space on Queen st.

Fuzzy view of the tasting table. I particularly loved this gorgeous salvaged wood countertop.

We had the opportunity to taste three yummy coffees, and decided to take home some beans and a grinder too. Our favourite was the Etheopian Sidamo (description: blueberry, rhubarb, lemon, lime, jammy, fruit punch, floral).

And for my mother we snapped this shot of the Swiss Made Coffee Center with her personal hero Roger Federer. More on the Federer connection here.