Oh there's a Tim Horton's, let's go there.*

[bending_sickle]

I went to Canada this summer (July 25 - August 16) to visit my folks in Toronto. We went to Niagara Falls, New York and Montreal. Here's some random Toronto photos.

Home Grounds:

Raccoon on neighbours roof!


Mah street, yo! (Parents' photo.)


Skyline!


Moore Park Ravine

Bridge! But different! (Parents' photo.)


Somewhere close! (Parent's photo.)


Mud Creek
It says so, therefore it must be. (Parent's photo.)


Hence the name... (Parents' photo.)


Bridge!


More bridge!


David A Belfour Park:

Guess where this is. (Parents' photo.)


The park used to be the site of a brick factory. (Parents' photo.)


In the depths of this pond, I saw something moving veeery slowly. It turned out to be a massive long-necked turtle (not shown)!


Purty!


It's a bird! It's a - Yeah, it's a bird. Good ol' heron.


Green. Everywhere. (Also: bird!)


More green.


Don't let the photo fool you: this damn thing is steep and loooong.


Seriously! It's steep! (Parents' photo.)


Downtown Toronto:

CN Tower. "On September 12, 2007, after holding the record for 31 years, the CN Tower was surpassed in height by the still-under-construction Burj Dubai.[2] It remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas." (Wiki) It has an awesome glass floor you can stand on and check out the itty bitty baseball players way down below.


More tower!


BCE Place, Allen Lambert Galleria and Heritage Square (Architect: Calatrava)


Balloon!


Train station!




* overheardinto

Comments

Turtles, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure those turtles are Painted Turtles (Crysemys picta), unless there's someone new in that pond. The long-neck turtle isn't endemic outside of Australia. Unless, I guess, you mean long-neck just as a descriptor, in which case I apologize.

The shelf to the left of me is covered in jars of jelly made from the staghorn sumac cluster you show about half way down.

The Brickworks is an impressive restoration project (although the northern hill is dominated by dog strangling vine, which they don't seem to be doing much about), but in a way it was a lot cooler before. Years ago, before it was all prettied up, I broke in (as thousands have before me) at 1 AM and wandered around. It was this beautiful, ancient industrial scene, with rickety rusting catwalks to crawl on, kilns to explore and control panels to poke at. I'm sure that one night exceeded my lifetime asbestos inhalation allowance, but it was an awful lot of fun.

Re: Turtles, etc.

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely, I meant "long-necked" as in "Oh gods will you look at that neck!" My turtle-fu is weak. (Not even this Turtles of Ontario (http://www.kawarthaturtle.org/species.html) page helps, as all I remember is "Big. With neck. Turtle-looking.")

I didn't wander around the Brickworks proper, mostly staying in the above-pictures green spots, but I did go where they were holding a mini-market (for serious food peddlars of the bulk variety, I think).

What's the staghorn surmac jelly taste like? I've never heard of it before.

Re: Turtles, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

It's really very good. The taste is a bit difficult to describe, but "subtle and tea-like" is the best I can do. This doesn't sound very appealing, I admit, but the end product is quite enjoyable. Staghorn sumac itself is exceedingly tart (although in a fairly tasty way), but this doesn't really come through when jellied.

I suspect shipping jelly to the Netherlands may be fairly tricky due to food import laws; but otherwise...

Re: Turtles, etc.

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

Tea-like sounds absolutely delish!

International-post permitting, I'll trade you Dutch cookies (or other postable comestibles) for jelly :D

Re: Turtles, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

Deal!

I will accept either stroopwafel (if it can be found in a pre-made sealed container) or coffee mugs depicting members of the Dutch royal family (outside of one I already have, which I'll identify should you choose this option).

You have your mission! If these prove truly impractical, though, I'm a reasonable man. We'll figure something out.

Re: Turtles, etc.

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

Whoot! *deal-sealing handshake*

I think I'll try the stroopwafel as a mug may not be as travel-proof. :D