Wednesday, January 28, 2009

MEMORY LANE - FRANS RESTAURANT - SOUPS ON


Good time to post this - Winter stuff and SOUPS ON - In the 60's Jan and I would go downtown - from Suburbia we would get eventually (dont ask me how we did this but Jan might remember) to the Jane Loop at Jane and Bloor and take the streetcar (yes there was a streetcar then) that would take us down Bloor to Yonge and then we would go south on the old Red Subway on Yonge to Frans Restaurant to have RICE PUDDING - Thanks CLR for the original Frans (notable for this) recipe and if anyone who is reading this posts in my comments with email I will send you this most famous recipe which CLR sent me which her mom cut out in the - well - it could be late 60's or early 70's Toronto Star - Anyway, this is an old posting from Frans of SOUPS ON - not sure of the date - for more interesting things of Toronto see http://torontoist.com/ He's got stacks of stuff and on Saturdays post THE PAST. Check him out.

REMEMBER THESE - WATCH WHERE YOU PARK




TDOT (Toronto) just got another dump of the white stuff - I was perusing some things that I saved and sure hope that we do not get the ice stuff that sometimes happens when we least expect it.

Monday, January 26, 2009

I GOOGLED IT - IT REALLY HAPPENED



My friend just sent this to me today and I had to find out whether or not it really happened. A couple of people traveling in Utah near a town called Hurricane suddenly hit the guard rail and thru various circumstances ended up on a ledge - The first pic is of them on the ledge and the other is where they did not fall to - Web people are saying that this was edited yet I found out that it was true - nevertheless would be good to hear from the two chaps that experienced this.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Cameron Home



After I went to Huron Street (see below) I drove over to where my moms second childhood home was on Wallace Avenue (near Lansdown and Bloor). Their home was to the left and at the far right was the Patons home whom I will never forget the 2 girls that hung out with my mom cause they had platinum hair and my Nana played bingo with Mrs. Paton at the Ship-AHoy up at Woodland Beach. I loved their cottage at Woodland Beach. I never was at this house - The place that I fondly remember is the restaurant that Nana and Poppy had on Keele at Eglinton and the Christmas' spent their with all my cousins, sleepovers, quilt making, the soda bar, hot turkey dinners and of course candy. After my trip down memory lane went and visited mom and took a pic.

Memory Lane



Today, I went down to Huron Street where my grandparents lived (my dads parents) and took a few pictures of places that I remembered when I was little and would visit. Here is a pic of what my grandparents house looked like on Huron Street - their house is not there any more as the whole block made way for the University of Toronto Library. The other pic is of the store across the street from their house that I used to go buy candy. It sure is great to still see things from when I was little.

Memory Lane History Lesson



This church was a minute away from my grandparents house and this is the story that I found about it when I got home:

In the fall of 1930 the Russian Orthodox church moved from Spadina Avenue to a new building at 4 Glen Morris Street. The new Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Cathedral became the hub of Russian Orthodox church life in Toronto-with choirs, dance groups, children's orchestras, youth concerts and youth cultural groups, and sisterhoods-cadets and hussar officers from the Russian Imperial Guard of old Russia held grand balls there. Every Sunday after liturgy, downstairs in the church hall the faithful would congregate around the Russian classical library over "chai" (tea-time) with delicious food like "piroshki", "pelmeni" and "borscht" cooked by the sisterhood. It was a time of joyous fellowship. Lectures and talks with heated discussions on what was going on in Russia were inevitable.

The former minister of education to the last tsar, Nicholas II, had become a member of the parish, and on April 6 1933 at 8:30 p.m. Count N.P. Ignatieff and his son Count Nicholas Ignatieff gave a lecture on ''Russia-Yesterday, Russia-Today" at the reference library on the corner of St. George and College Streets. This was the father of Dr. George Ignatieff, the present chancellor of the University of Toronto and Canada's former ambassador to the United Nations. Dr. George Ignatieff and Madame Ignatieff are still faithful parishioners to this day. A theatre at the University of Toronto is named after George Ignatieff. (Yes, these are the relatives of Michael Ignatief current interim leader for Liberal party and George is his dad).

The sisterhood at Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Cathedral held bazaars with folk crafts and Russian foods. Good community relations resulted with the other Christians in Toronto, especially the Anglicans. Anglican Bishop Wilkinson was a great friend to the Russian Orthodox in Toronto. He is fondly remembered. March 9, 1941 saw the arrival of Father John Diachina-a very personable, strong, loving man who helped everyone, especially newcomers arriving from Europe suffering the scars of world war and of persecution in the Soviet Union because of their Orthodox faith. Father Diachina helped them get settled and find work. He was loved by all, and no one can ever forget Father John coming to bless their home on the holy day of "Yordan"-the feast of Christ's baptism in the River Jordan. Easter at Christ the Saviour on Glen Morris was magnificent with throngs of people spilling out onto the streets at midnight when the priests would joyfully shout that ''Christ is risen," and the faithful would respond, "Indeed he is risen." Russian Orthodox farmers from northern Ontario would make their yearly pilgrimage to the church for the blessing of their Easter breads and willow baskets. In the summer of 1948, the sister of Tsar Nicholas II- Grand-Duchess Olga Alexandrovna-arrived from Denmark. She and her family became members of the parish. Grand Duchess Olga, with her gracious and warm smile, was honoured many times at the annual Toronto Russian Cadets' Ball. Today the Russian children' s school still bears her name. At her funeral in Toronto on November 24, 1960, wreaths were sent by the king and queen of Denmark, the king of Norway and England' s Queen Elizabeth; imperial guardsmen from the 12th Hussars Ahtyrsky Regiment were the pallbearers; the Grand Duchess' friend, Bishop John of San Francisco, sprinkled Russian earth on her grave. Through the zealous efforts of Father John Diachina, Christ the Saviour parish moved from 4 Glen Morris Street to its present location at 823 Manning Avenue in the summer of 1966.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

THE SPELL OF THE YUKON

I think that in my travels there is one place that really put an impression on me and that was the Yukon. I found a site a couple of weeks ago - www.urbanyukon.com and it has a stack of peoples blogs from the Yukon - My fav blog is GONE TO THE DOGS at Haines Junction - This is a family with 37 mush dogs, a cat, and twin girls - Heather is a great blogger much like my friend CLR who posts some of the most amazing pics of the north. I finally got the nerve up to post in comments to GONE TO THE DOGS and pointed out that I lived up in Whitehorse in the 70's and that the house I lived in (mind you there were a few in such a short time of me being up north - Carcross cutoff with Matt - Wheeler Street with Greg and Shelley, the bunkhouse basement with Greg who lived up upstairs and then the house beside that which is now Duffy's Pets) - Anyway, Gone to the Dogs was happy to hear from me in that Duffys Pets is also a Mushers store and they go there. I have to wonder if they tore down walls or not - and if my bedroom is a sewing room (the room just off the sunken living room) - I loved that house - It had a sunken livingroom with white shag carpet and standing fireplace and many a day was spent there particularly during the ICE FOG WINTER with friends drinking coffee with a splash of GRAND MARNIER - We would call those days GRAND MARNIER DAYS - Mr. Poole and a few others helped me build a greenhouse at the back of the house one day. Lots of good times happened in the 70's at the now Duffy's Pets. One thing that I will always remember is Angus starting up his van very early in the winter and making Espresso on the stove (what a mess), and tomatoe soup with an egg in it and his most wonderful ham sauce. I had many a dinner party in that house. Now who will go inside and take a few digitals for me to see what it looks like?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Todays Winter Poem

It's winter in Ontario
And the gentle breezes blow,
70 miles per hour at 52 below!
Oh, how I love Ontario
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter air
And your nose is frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful,
I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave Ontario,
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Toronto Weather


A pic of our bedroom window today - that ice is on the inside of the window (click on it to see bigger) - Today feels like -27 degrees Celcius. Huge power outage in Toronto affected 22,000 people who lost electricity last night at 10 P.M. which was one of the coldest nights yet. Subways in the affected area wernt working so it was a real mess. I have to wonder why this happens on Fridays. Needless to say we need some new windows as these old windows of ours are on old fashioned pullies.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Its Winter in TDOT


The other day was so cold that it took the old Safari Van 40 minutes to unfreeze the Park, Reverse - etc. - AT had to be down to the GO by 7:15 a.m. but had to drive him downtown cause it took so long to unfreeze the gears. After I dropped him off went to favourite coffee spot and just after 1.5 hours had to wait 15 minutes to get the gears all warmed up to drive. Hopefully soon this cold snap will break. No problem for me though - just put on my Russian hat, scarf, warm Navy Blue BORG coat (Oh so bling) and cozy mittens and all is well. (and oh - yeah - Its January 15th, 2009 and I am still enjoying the livingroom christmas tree in back of this pic - maybe tomorrow I will dismantle - who knows - it was so pretty this year)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Requested pics from J.B.




Here are a few more pics that J.B. sent me as requested - THANKS J.B. The girls - the funky house up north and the majestic trees. Tonight not necessarily the Yukon chill - brrrrrrrrrrr - yet very cold - 20 C.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Maddy Faces


ALL I CAN SAY IS DARN - When Jellybean figured out how to send the desktop pics I thought to myself - sheesh - These files are too big to save but today I wish I had saved them cause there were a couple of pics that I would have liked to have posted - Have to get Jellybean to look for the one of her daughters hugging - I loved that one and also the pic of the funky house with tons of snow and major deciduous trees hovering mighty above the funky house - COMING SOON TO TDOT (oh dear something else to do eh Jellybean) Anyway - I just love this MADDY FACE. - Too cute! mmmmmmm - see the MANNATECH - LOL - Its all good Jellybean - LOL!

NO RIPPING IT APART - YA HAVE TA FIGURE IT OUT!


For as long as I have known Jellybean she has this thing. When you get a present you have to touch it, explore the unknown contents with your hands and guess what it is. DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW LONG THIS TAKES. Me for one just rip open the paper or throw out the tissue in the bags and get at it - YET JELLYBEAN - well ya GOTTA GUESS. When I really think about it - it is a great idea about being patient and having fun with presents. Oh dear, I do not have permission to post my friend in her housecoat (which by the way she wears alot these days in the northern winter- the BLUE is BLING on you - LOL!) yet, I think she will not mind as I also got her 8 favourite star blingees on the second pic. The first pic is Jellybean feeling, exploring and the second is SHE KNEW WHAT IT WAS. But now, I have to figure out what it was without feeling, exploring and well - Jellybean you think that you are the only one that got what everyone gave you. I SAY - A christmas decoration for the tree which I think was a Palm Tree. Let me know! LOL!!!
I KNOW WHAT THIS IS!
Glitter Graphics

ANOTHER MATRYOSHKA

My friend Jellybean moved up north this year. They have a lovely home which her husband has been fixing up for the arrival of his wife and daughter. This was their first Christmas in the renovated home (which Jellybeans Dad had built many years ago) This was a special Christmas for them as their daughter and son-in-law flew in from Florida to celebrate Christmas 2008. Cheers Jellybean on learning how to post all the pics left on your desktop - Glad the visual helped - LOL! (Jellybean prefers a visual) - Anyway, for tons of Christmas' Jellybeans daughter has given her youngest daughter a Matryoshka. What is a matryoshka you might ask - A matryoshka doll, a Babushka doll or a Russian nested doll, also called a stacking doll, is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other. "Matryoshka" (Матрёшка) is a derivative of the Russian female first name "Matryona", which was a very popular name among peasants in old Russia. The name "Matryona" in turn is related to the Latin root, "mater" and means Mother. So the name is closely connected with motherhood and in turn the doll has come to symbolize fertility. Anyway, I love this pic.
Matruska
Personalized Glitter Graphics

Thursday, January 8, 2009

BLING

Just playing around with bling on pics. BLESSED
Make custom Glitter Graphics

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Light, Rainbow Christmas Tree


Well, all I have to say is me hubby cannot sit still to take a pic but this is a most wonderful pic of our tree (and me). Enjoy.