The Felling of the Blue Bird

There once was a building that was named Blue Bird in this city. It wasn't a pretty building and really the only thing about it that would cause anyone to notice it was its whimsical name. That, and the fact that for the last several years of its existence someone working within one of its offices had placed a big statue of a duck in the window, that could be seen from the street.

I always wondered why such a lacklustre, ugly-duckling of a building, located on Adelaide Street West, came to have such a charming name. Curiosity caused me to search the internet several years ago for a reason and there wasn't a slip of information to be found about it. Seems that nobody had given it enough notice in the past decade to put its story on the web. Well, that was until its days became numbered, after having been bought by a developer who put signs up on it indicating that it and its neighbour buildings were going to be torn down to make room for a new condo tower, The Brant Park.

I've since discovered that there was a very interesting part in this building's history, described in this short video on Youtube. This is that a survivor of the holocaust, painter Yidel Podeswa, once worked there. As the story goes, he had been in a concentration camp and later, after the war ended, in a camp for displaced persons. It was there that he convinced some American soldiers who were on their way home, to place ads in Canadian newspapers, in order for Yidel to find some relatives that he knew lived in Canada. The ad was seen by his aunt in Toronto, and he moved to the city to work in his cousin's dress company, called Blue Bird.

It turns out that Blue Bird was a company that used to make fancy dresses. The business began operation in 1937, further to the east on Spadina Avenue, which was the hub of the garment industry back then. They must have had their own location built, this Blue Bird Building, after a few successful years, so I estimate this to be in the mid 1940s. I can't say when they subsequently moved from their little building, but The Blue Bird Dress Company is still in business today under a new name, Paloma Blanca, and a new location in north Toronto. They specialize in high-end wedding dresses.

This is only speculation on my part, but the sale of the building for development and the death of Yidel Podeswa occurred very near to one another in 2012, so I wonder if this man, who had once suffered in Auschwitz, had eventually come to own a share in a building in Toronto. The timing seems to indicate that he had loved The Blue Bird Building and kept it in his family until the end. (But I am guessing at that, and the building could also have seen other ownership in its 60 years of existence.)

I walk by the spot where this building stood fairly often, so began to take pictures of it over the past year, as it gradually became no more.

The first picture at the top was taken a couple of years earlier than the others though (and was included in one of my very posts on this blog, here). When I took the shot I didn't even bother getting more of the building in the picture, and rather zoomed in on the parts I liked, the name and that big duck statue!

Bond … James Bond : I Think I Saw Him

Thank goodness I had my camera at the ready to capture this moment because seriously, it happened fast. We rarely take our car out so I went along for the ride when Nick had a meeting in the west-end last week. Suddenly, Bond was right there beside us on the highway.

He was driving his 70s Lotus Esprit and wearing dark glasses to match the era. I can't be 100 percent certain it was him but I'm pretty sure it was.

(Of course I'm kidding ... it was really some gentleman taking a springtime spin in an old car that he clearly loves a lot. This is an interesting time of year around here where cars are concerned ... suddenly all the immaculately kept sports-cars are back on the streets, after having been kept safe in garages all winter, away from all the corroding salt that is used to keep the streets free from ice.)

Our Easter Sweets : Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

Plans to visit with family last week were scuppered, which meant for a quiet Easter at our place. But that didn't stop us from partaking in some chocolate!

First I want to tell you about something I made for Nick. He is allergic to several kinds of nuts, including hazelnuts, so I have to be very careful about any chocolate treats I get him, beyond the standard and unexciting bars we know we can trust. Did you know that almost all filled chocolates include at least a bit hazelnut? Anyway, after years of carefully reading labels and an Easter basket that contained little of anything new and exciting, I began making him something for the holiday last year, when I tried (and quite succeeded, I must say) to make Candied Ginger (seen in this post).

And this year I made him some macaroons. These were no ordinary macaroons though. Oh no, these babies were made with dark chocolate and have a lovely rich truffle-like middle, with a crunchy outside.

When I saw this recipe for Dark Chocolate Coconut Macaroons on the Smitten Kitchen site come up last week I knew exactly what I was going to make for him this year. Including both melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder these were delightfully sinful, but not really so, in that the only fat included is from the coconut and chocolate, and there is no flour in them at all. Basically they're just coconut, chocolate, egg whites, sugar, vanilla and salt ... just a few simple ingredients coming together to make something that's absolutely delicious. They were a big hit with the man!

Waiting for the Easter Bunny

He completely gave up on the bunny as soon as Nick walked through the door, though.Later, I realized I had misunderstood what he had said ... he hadn't been waiting for the bunny, he had been waiting for his buddy. Cat-speak isn't always the easiest to understand.