Sunday Brunch on Queen Street

As the kitchen renovation continues we find ourselves looking for a spot to go for brunch on this lovely Sunday afternoon.  We headed to Queen Street West.

The finding of Eddie Boycat

The other day I titled an entry 'Alley Cats', because the topic was about walking alleyways in the city.

However, this is probably just as appropriate a post for such a title, as the cool cat of ours, Eddie, was a true alley cat at one time. The winter before we adopted him from the street was the coldest on record and I distinctly remember seeing him run across the street one day in the snow, and wondering why a cat was out on such an awful day. I didn't know at the time that he was on his own. Poor guy.

I didn't see him again until the following spring, when all thin and dirty, he followed another stray that we were feeding into our yard. Actually, by then and unbeknown to me, he had already been to our place quite a few times while I was at work, including inside the house, sitting on Nick's lap while he worked from our home office! This had been going on for I-don't-know-how-long, when one day Nick called me to the yard to "Look at this cat". That first moment of eye contact with the feline who was to become Our Eddie, is indelibly stamped in my memory. I remember saying "Ohhh, can we keep him?!"

Alley Cats

Today we took a walk through some alleys and back streets. I'm not sure if this is the case in other cities, however in downtown Toronto, you find these interesting back streets all over the place. Many homes have no driveway out front, and instead have a lane-way behind the house, which is how they get their cars in and out of their yards.

Going to the Birds!

These past few days have been particularly bird filled! First there was the spotting of this lovely outdoor table beside a little coffee shop I passed on our way to pick up a can of paint.

Then we came upon this goose in the park. Now geese in Toronto are not that rare of a sight, however I've passed through this park many many times before and have never seen one here. It's quite a ways from the waterfront where one would commonly see (and complain about the mess left by) these birds. He/she was all on their own so must have somehow gotten separated from the flock. One could say that the others all flocked off.

Out with the old : Kitchen renovation Begins

When we moved into this house 10 years ago it needed quite a bit of work. However, this was in areas that would never (or barely) be seen by anyone. New eaves-troughs and soffit anyone? How about our lovely new furnace? Not impressed ... well you'll love our new windows then, won't you? Actually, we loved our new windows when they were put in, but the rest? Important to have done, but not so fun!

Now that all the bones are taken care of, it was time for a not so necessary indulgence. A kitchen renovation. Oh, parts of it were in dire need for sure, such as replacing the kitchen sink so it didn't drip water everywhere and the old counter-top was busted and stained. But rather than just fix what needed fixing, we decided to have the entire thing ripped out, including the ceiling.

Here we are getting ready for the demolition ...