Out for Lunch : Swan Restaurant

Since Nick does most of the cooking in our home and really makes an effort to make it nice, I like to repay him with lunch or dinner out on a regular basis. It's not that I can't cook, it's just that he enjoys it more and is much better at it!

So last Thursday we found ourselves a new (to us) place to try, called Swan Restaurant, located at 892 Queen Street West near Crawford Street. This vintage dinner-style spot was a perfect place for us to go! A highlight for me, was my first real tasting of fresh oysters on the half-shell. I have not ventured into these waters before, except for one quick try at a food tasting event. Upon seeing that they were shucking them right there beside our booth table, Nick suggested we try them and so I went along. And I'm so glad I did because they were delicious, served with a bit of horse-radish and lemon, and a choice of three sauces, one hot, one sweet and one vinegary. Upon following-up after our visit, I discovered that they get their oysters from their neighbours at a restaurant called Oyster Boy.

For an entre we shared their special sandwich of the day and an arugula salad with goat's cheese. To drink we had some locally brewed beers, Steam Whistle for me and Creemore for Nick.

A Rare Sighting in the Park

After breakfast on Christmas day, Nick and I took a walk to a lovely park in the neighbourhood called Trinity Bellwoods.

Aside from being a beautiful place to exercise or relax, this park holds the unique honour of being home to a small family of rare white squirrels. So rare that in the hundreds of times I have been there, I have only ever spotted one of the white squirrels once before. And it's not like I haven't been looking, because I am always on the lookout for them. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to have one stop and pose for me so I could take a few photographs on this particular visit. My window to take the shots was very brief indeed, as she (he?) was quickly chased by one of her black brethren deep into the tree and out of view.

Alone but not Lonely

Nick, Eddie Boycat and I spent Christmas day on our own this year, as family scheduling meant celebrating with others will happen later in the week. This meant a small celebration with our own tiny family, with still more fun yet to come!

Christmas Cat

Here's Eddie wishing everyone a Happy Christmas. If he could, he'd be happy to share his delicious cat-grass with you!

Merry Gothmas (Part II)

The first Christmas related thing I did this year was make a red and black wreath for our door (see wreath), calling the post describing it 'Merry Gothmas'. Since then I have encountered more Gothy Christmas things; it was a case of 'Now that it was in my mind, I began to notice it everywhere!'I know Goth Christmas is nothing new. On looking it up I came upon many black Christmas trees for sale, one style of which was an upside-down tree. There are also plenty of black decorations available, as well as sculls and crossbones for your tree. And of course there's the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas", which I have not seen yet but have heard is great so I am missing out.