Canada blog

Here is a short video that Paul put together from his footage of the fireworks over Ashridge’s Bay.

Tags: Beach, Fireworks, Pyrotechnics, Toronto, Victoria Day
Posted in Festivals, Leisure | No Comments »

The Lions Easter Parade along Queen St. in the Beach is one of the biggest in North America. When you consider this is just a neighbourhood event, this seems a little strange. But Beach is truly an urban village, with an amazing sense of community.

The Parade usually draws around 50,000 people – maybe more this year in unseasonable summer weather, with temperatures well over 70F and brilliant sunshine.  The children bring baskets (or black bags!) to collect their Easter loot – eggs and candies flow freely.  Suddenly the Halloween trick or treat tradition makes more sense as part of a wider pattern.

Home owners in the area are proud of their neighbourhood and their homes. The Christmas lights, which brightened the winter evenings long beyond the festive season, have given way to wreaths of Spring flowers or eggs. I’m told this is not necessarily Canadian, but very specific to this area.  It also seems to be a lovely way of affirming season’s change, especially in the harsher years.

(There are lots more photos of the Parade in the Events album so that you can click through at your leisure!)

Posted in Easter | No Comments »

Blogging has been overtaken by boxes – I checked 163 items of furniture and boxes in through the door as our worldly goods arrived here from the UK on the day before Christmas Eve!

All the boxes have been emptied since then, though some have been filled up again with the things we don’t need or have yet to find a home for. Quite apart from the urge to be settled, with some damage to key items of furniture, we wanted to be clear about any additional casualties, thankfully minimal.

One has to be pragmatic; my antiques have been passed down through our family and, in some cases, have already travelled the world. Lovely as they are, their significance rests as much in their history and usage by people I have loved and people who loved them. They have in their own way lived and they bear the scars of that living. Now, having swung through the air in a container, slumbered in a cold hold across the ocean, rattled along the rails from Montreal, miraculously these old familiars surround me once again, if a little battered. Hopefully their newest injuries will be made good once we get the insurance claim sorted!

Anyhow, carrying every book we own up at least  two flights of stairs, wondering where to put this and how on earth that came to be included in the packing seems to have absorbed as much time and energy as I have had available!

However, it made this New Year, which fell on a blue moon, particularly poignant; it was on New Year’s Eve that I emptied the last box . . .

Happy New Year!

Tags: arrival, immigration, milestones, our home
Posted in arrival, Christmas | No Comments »

I refuse to think in terms of ‘things to do before I die’, but I do have a list of ‘things to do before I get too much older’. On Saturday evening, I was able to tick one of these off!

Having read Noel Streatfield’s White Boots avidly as a child, I fell in love with ice skating and skated regularly at Bournemouth through the school holidays. But I’ve always longed to skate in the open air.

On Saturday we found ourselves on the ice under the freedom arches of Nathan Phillips Square, Christmas lights twinkling all around use under a brilliant frosty moon. We craned our heads to follow the fireworks as they scaled the twin towers of city hall in the opening ceremony for the annual Toronto Cavalcade of Lights to triumphal strains. Then, as the applause subsided, skated for over an hour among the throngs to a DJ mix of Michael Jackson and contemporary R&B. Even with hire skates, it was the best skate we’ve had in a long time – in the Canadian vernacular, ‘awesome’! We are looking forward to skating in our local parks when our own skates arrive, as well as on the harbourfront.

At 10.30, after the best Pitta Gyros we’ve had outside Greece, we headed towards home through streets still bustling with families past the animated Christmas windows of The Bay.

Either I’m seeing the world through fresh eyes or the spirit of Christmas really does seem to be stronger, more full of the wonder that echoes childhood memories. And we haven’t even had snow yet . . .

Tags: activity, events, skating, Toronto
Posted in Christmas, Leisure, Toronto | No Comments »

Although we still have the most glorious mild, sunny days, the winter festivals have begun! Our highlights this week have included:

• A highly intellectual Meetup for Paul at Ryerson University about the Semantic Web (no, I’m not entirely sure I understand what this means!) [Tuesday]
• For me, a free concert by the Canadian Children’s Opera Company at the Four Seasons Centre, home of the Canadian Opera Company. This encompassed winter and Christmas music in at least half a dozen languages across a wide spectrum of styles sung by children of all races. The auditorium used for the free concert series has a wall of glass, with views out across the city. I particularly loved a Huron Carol, sung in English, French and Huron, as well as a poem written by a member of the company and read by a professional actor. This was entitled Celebration and reflected a celebration of Christmas that crosses cultural and religious boundaries – the writer was Jewish. A lovely start to the season, and very moving. [Wednesday]
• The free public opening (with nibbles & atmosphere!) of the latest exhibition at the Harbourfront Centre. The two exhibitions I have now seen here have both expanded my sense of what it is to be Canadian and challenged my perceptions in so many stimulating ways! This exhibition was playful at the same time as psychologically and intellectually challenging, particularly Hinterlands, which resonated very personally with an acknowledgement over the last week of a disorientating lack of grounding or clear boundaries inevitable in the hinterland that follows immigration. [Friday]

“If I am on the periphery, then where is the centre? . . .Otherness becomes a kind of wilderness that can’t be entirely mapped or understood. So the question becomes one of negotiating this distance, acknowledging separateness regardless of location. The idea of a center or margin is one of belonging, rooted in a notion of place.” (Sky Glabush)

• Illuminite, part of the City of Toronto’s Winter Magic festival, held in neon-bright Dundas Square – I couldn’t help feeling that this was a very pagan winter fire ritual! (The video-clip below very roughly crashes together a few of the highlights) [Saturday]

[video filename=/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/illuminite.mp4  height=300 width=360 /]

• The 105th Annual Santa Claus Parade – Since 1905, the Toronto Santa Claus parade has made its way through the streets of downtown Toronto. Today, The Santa Claus Parade is the longest running children’s parade in the world and one of the largest. After a free breakfast in Dundas square, we took up position on the parade route just opposite the Royal Ontario Museum, where the parade turns south from Bloor – an excellent vantage point. A tartan clad pipe band makes a sudden switch from a traditional Scottish air to a manic Mexican free for all and back to a highland fling; a shower of candy canes; children with saucer eyes; cheerleaders and clowns; fantasy floats; and finally, the big man himself, flanked by the first Mounties we have seen! [Sunday] - as well as the small selection below, there are more photos in the Events gallery!

All this alongside measuring up and planning for our new home, researching our furnishing needs and buying a bed and bedside tables, a sofa, the smaller kitchen appliances, and the seemingly endless tail of settling our UK affairs!

Tags: Festivals, Toronto
Posted in Festivals | No Comments »