Doors Open Adventure Part II : Medieval Style on King Street West

In my previous post, Doors Open Adventure Part I, I left off at the corner of King Street West and University Avenue, after visiting the TD Centre. I was partaking in the Toronto Doors Open Event, when the public are invited to see inside interesting buildings, which they would otherwise not normally have access to.

From that corner, I walked a block westward, to take a look inside St. Andrew's Church, at the corner of Simcoe Street and King Street West, beside Roy Thompson Hall.

Doors Open Adventure Part I : Failure To Reach The Top

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/td-centre-toronto-fifty-six-stories.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-36301 blk-brdr">It's only taken me seventeen years, but I finally made it out to Toronto Doors Open this year! I've always wanted to go but, for one reason or another, I haven't."Doors Open" is when the public are invited to see inside interesting buildings, which they would otherwise not normally have access to. The festival spans over a weekend and locations are chosen for their unique historic, architectural and cultural significance. This year there were 150 buildings participating -- the number was based on the fact that Canada celebrates its 150 birthday in 2017.Since the participating buildings are located all over the city, a bit of advance planning is required. After studying the map, giving consideration to the fact that I was going to walk it, and that I wanted to take photographs (not all allow photography), I chose three places to see to go, on the Sunday/second day : (1) One of the city's first skyscrapers, where people were being given the chance to ride the elevator and check out the top floor. (2) A historic building that has recently been dramatically changed, while maintaining the old structure. (3) A historic site due for a major restoration, that will bring it back to its former glory. On my travels, I happened upon a fourth location that was participating, a beautiful old church.Each of these sites was really neat, and I got a lot of pictures, so I'll be sharing my "Doors Open Adventure" in four parts.

Our Dear Cat Eddie Has Left Us

It is with great sadness that I write about the loss of our beloved cat Eddie, on Friday, June 9th.

Fifteen years ago (plus two months, to be exact) he came to us from the street, clearly needing a home. He was hungry and his white parts were grey, but he was so full of character and insistence that we couldn't turn him away, after checking diligently to ensure nobody was looking for him. Back then, in the spring of 2002, we were going through a very difficult time, and Eddie choosing us to be his family helped a lot. We were both very attached to this adorable animal, who brought so much comfort and made us laugh every day.

He had definitely been someone's pet at one point, as he was socialized and had been neutered. Of course, he couldn't tell us how old he was, however he was fully grown (although, on the small size because he hadn't been eating well -- he filled out nicely after a month or so of proper nutrition). He was a vibrant young cat, who we estimated to be one or two, and the vet agreed.

This would have made him about 16 when he died, and with the average lifespan of a house cat being about 15, he lived a good long life. Knowing that hasn't really made these days of mourning any easier though. This has been a heart-wrenching experience. They say time heals, so we're just waiting for that time to pass, so we can feel better.

While he had slowed down with age these last few months, he still seemed healthy and free of any pain. We didn't realize there was something seriously wrong until he had what looked like a dizzy spell and fell down, around noon on Friday, while I was home with him and Nick was at work. While we didn't understand what that meant, we knew that it wasn't good, and called for a vet appointment right away.

A couple of hours later, we were caught off-guard by his diagnosis of what appeared to be advanced stages of cancer. Without question, what the doctor saw was a very unwell animal, who was too elderly and frail to respond to any treatment. Her advice was to consider Eddie's feelings and well-being. In an alarmingly short period, we'd gone from an optimistic couple seeking help for a sick cat, to one weeping as we walked down the street with an empty cat-carrier.

Eddie was a major source of joy for us and we miss him so much. He was so friendly and good, and all cat-people who met him, fell for him. We are very grateful for the concern and care shown by our friends, who loved him too, and understand what we are going through.

Regular readers will have seen much of him on these pages, but if you'd like a quick look of pictures that exude his precious personality, here's a post from last Christmas, when he joined right in with the party, and here's one from last spring, spending time outside, including a couple with his best friend, Nick -- coincidentally that was posted one year ago to the day.

The Field Trip Music Festival 2017

As mentioned in my last post, Nick got me a "gift-of-experience" for my birthday in April -- it was tickets to go to The Field Trip Music Festival, located amoungst Toronto's oldest buildings, at Fort York. While the fest was on for two days, he got me (us) a day-pass for the Sunday because one of my favourite musicians was playing on that day, American singer/songwriter LP! I was really excited to see/hear her live, but also for all the other great musicians on the bill.

As people do when they have something good to look forward to, I may have wished that last month away so the date would finally arrive, and that it did this past weekend.

As the date got closer, we saw the weather forecast get worse and worse. While we packed up to head over, they were still warning people to expect severe thunderstorms in the afternoon. So, we brought along rain ponchos and a waterproof blanket, and wore shoes we didn't care about wrecking. Thankfully, I put on a good layer of sunscreen and grabbed a hat on the way out the door (but forgot my sunglasses), because the forecast ended up being way off and the weather turned out to be gorgeous! In fact, at one point it became too sunny for me so we found some shade.

Out for Dinner at Beast

This lovely evening out at Beast Restaurant (West of Bathurst, north of King W.) was in celebration of my birthday. Lucky me!It's a great place, and is one of our favourites. Located in a row-house surrounded by homes, it is indeed a neighbourhood restaurant - a small hidden space that serves creative and exceptionally delicious cuisine. Their ingredients are locally sourced and their tapas-style menu changes frequently based on what's in season. Anything we've ever had there has been so good that we've be known to occasionally finish the last of the perfectly seasoned sauces with a spoon.Unless I delve into the thesaurus in search of ways to further describe food that tastes very very good, I don't have much else to write, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.