Hello and welcome to Weekend Coffee Share #57! I’m glad you’re here. Please come on in, help yourself to a cup of coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate at my coffee station and let’s chat.
Week 7/ 52
When I read that February 20th is an annual National Love Your Pet Day in Canada and the USA, I knew exactly where to take my blog readers to see my virtual pets. Are you ready to go? I know you are. We’re going to three places to see a few pet murals that I adore.
1. Mural at Coronation Park
Artist Andrea Manica painted these dog murals on a storage building at Coronation Park in 2021. Their expressions make me smile. There is a fenced dog park across the street where we can watch dogs running around, playing, and chasing squirrels.
Dog mural by Andrea Manica, 2021
Dog mural by Andrea Manica, 2021
2. Mural at College Street Animal Hospital
Artists Viviana Astudillo and Logan Miller created a long animal-inspired mural for the College Street Animal Hospital in 2012 under the StreetARToronto program in partnership with Community Cave. I love the animal eye expressions and their ears. They make me want to pet them.
Mural at College Street Animal Hospital, 2012
Close-up of the mural at College Street Animal Hospital
3. Mural at the Toronto Humane Society
Artist Allan Ryan (better known as Uber5000) painted a long and amazing mural that covers most of the south wall of the Toronto Humane Society on Queen Street East (at River Street) in 2017. What could be more appropriate for this wall than cats and dogs and other animals that you can adopt?
Here are my close-up photos of some of the cute animals on the mural. The yellow birds are the artist’s ‘signature’ animal on his murals.
Hamster and yellow birds cover the main door
Cat on the grass
Three cats together including the black cat in the middle
Left: Hamster with a donut; Right: Doug the dog and a blue dog
Cat with a ball
Two turtles with fun sunglasses
Rabbit with red glasses
Puppy and squirrelBlue-eyed dogGreen-eyed dogDog, rabbit and birdDog and rabbitDog on skateboard and black catMore adorable pets to meet
Using my cellphone to photograph these murals is my low maintenance way of owning pets. I promise there will be less photos in my next post.
Which pet is your favourite? If you own a pet, tell me what’s most endearing about your pet. How do you show your pet affection?
Hello blog friends! I’m glad you’re here. I hope you have a few minutes for a quick chat over a cup of coffee or tea. Our days are getting shorter as we move towards the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, known as the Winter Solstice. So, I welcome daylight and the holiday lights at night.
The first few days of this past week, it was sunny, perfect for my cycling and walking to different parks during the day and seeing the lights in the city centre in the evening. I took a number of photos of various landmarks on my walk, all outdoors, except the last one. Let me show you in pictures.
Toronto Inukshuk Park
Natural daylight is my favourite type of light. Here’s the magnificent Toronto Inukshuk standing tall in full daylight on a sunny day at the Toronto Inukshuk Park.
The Toronto Inukshuk made by Inuit artist Kellypalik Qimirpik from Cape Dorset, Nunavut.
Inukshuk is an Inuit stone structure often found in the arctic landscape. It serves as a guide to travellers on land and sea, providing comfort, advice and spatial orientation. The Toronto Inukshuk, one of the largest of its kind in North America, was made from about 50 tonnes of mountain rose granite. It stands 30 feet high with an arm span of 15 feet.
The Toronto Inukshuk is a legacy project to commemorate World Youth Day in 2002 that brings an important symbol of Canada’s Aboriginal people to the people of Toronto. On one of the rocks on the left of the structure, part of the inscription reads:
“The Toronto Inukshuk invites each one of us to become beacons of light and hope, striving for justice and peace in this world.”
Coronation Park
Beautiful trees and soft daylight in Coronation Park.
East of the small Toronto Inukshuk Park is the much larger Coronation Park. In the above photo, the clouds and the tall trees filter the sun light and cast soft shadows of the trees on the grass and the trail.
Night Lighting at the CN Tower
The CN Tower lit up in blue and a bright Christmas tree in front of Toronto Union Station.
The CN Tower is Canada’s most recognizable and celebrated icon, defining the Toronto skyline at 553.33m (1,815 ft 5 in). The Tower’s lighting begins at sunset and concludes at sunrise the next morning, except during spring and fall bird migration periods during which time lighting concludes at midnight.
The night time illumination from bottom to top of the CN Tower changes on a specific schedule and occasion. On the evening that I took this photo, the blue lights were for Toronto Miracle Community Food Drive.
Christmas Trees at the TD Centre
Three beautiful Christmas trees with twinkling lights at the TD Centre.
The Toronto-Dominion Centre, or TD Centre, is a prestigious office complex in the Financial District of downtown Toronto. These Christmas trees look stunning with simple twinkling lights for the holidays.
Hudson’s Bay Queen Street Store
Masked nutcracker
Masked nutcracker social distancing
Every year, thousands of holiday-loving Torontonians gather outside the windows of the Hudson’s Bay Queen Street store to catch a glimpse of the beloved Christmas display. The tradition has marked the start of the holiday season in Toronto for over 100 years. This year, of course, is different — with a much more low-key unveiling and signs reminding observers to social distance.
The five displays all follow a “Santa’s Secret Workshop” theme. Please click on the slide show to see a snow-making department, a candy cane department, a gift-wrapping department, an ornament-making department and a mail-room department.
Christmas Tree in the Eaton Centre
The Christmas tree at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.
The glittering 108-foot tall tree in the Eaton Centre is Canada’s largest Christmas tree. It covers three levels of Toronto’s downtown shopping centre. My photo is from 2019 for the same tree this year.
Finally
On December 9, 2020 Health Canada authorized the first Pfizer vaccine in Canada for the prevention of COVID-19. Ontario started administering its first COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare professionals on December 14, 2020 at two hospitals in Toronto and Ottawa. We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hello blog friends! How are things going? Hope all’s well with you. Come on in to my blog space, feel free to have a coffee or tea, hot or cold, and let’s catch up on our news.
Summer week 7, from August 2 to 8 inclusive, means we just passed the half point of summer here. We had heavy rainfall on Sunday, rain on Monday afternoon and Tuesday then sunny weather the rest of the week. The high temperatures ranged from 24C to 29C (75F to 85F).
Cycling
I cycled along the Waterfront trail from one to two hours most mornings this week. One of the parks that I stopped by is Coronation Park. Coronation Park was built in 1937 to commemorate the Coronation of King George VI. It’s located at Lake Shore Blvd West & Fort York Blvd, just east of Ontario Place or Trillium Park.
Coronation Park highlights
Beautiful oak and maple trees: The park design consisted of grouping trees around a central Royal Oak, symbolizing the King. An inner ring of oak trees, known as the “Empire Circle”, represents the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and the Crown Colonies.
To the north, the Imperial Service triangle of trees represented the Royal Navy, Air Force and Army. On either side of the ring are separate groves of maple trees representing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Canadian divisions, Siberian troops, and Corp Troops to the east and west.
Royal Oak in the centre of the Empire Circle of oak trees
Lake view: The south side of Coronation Park offers stunning views of Lake Ontario and the marina. It is a beautiful spot to sit along the shoreline of Lake Ontario and enjoy a picnic on a warm summer day. Coronation Park also has three softball diamonds on the north side and a nice-sized dog off-leash area on the east side.
Lake view from Coronation Park
Victory-Peace Monument: It’s a permanent war memorial built in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. There are two sets of bronze walls, arranged like ship prows. Between the walls are maple leaves. One is engraved “Sacrifice” and the other “Hope”. The walls surrounding it has artwork depicting information about Canada’s involvement in World War II.
Victory-Peace Monument designed by artist John McEwan at Coronation Park
Reading
Coronation Park is also a perfect spot for reading. There are benches, Muskoka chairs, grassy field, and picnic tables. The lake views, however, may be a distraction. I finished five books this week and really liked the funny dialogues and heart-breaking love story in Me Before Youby JoJo Moyes.
Walking
I got to see so many beautiful flowers on my morning walks. Some of them attract more bees and butterflies than others. The colour choices are amazing and they brighten my day. I’m sharing two photos here even though I took many more.
Pink thistleA monarch butterfly
Considering everything, it was a beautiful and enjoyable week.
How did your week go? I’d like to hear your comments.
I wrote in May that I had my first blogger date with Ann, a fellow Canadian blogger from the West Coast. Following that fun date, I reached out to Joanne, another fellow Canadian blogger in Toronto. We agreed to meet on a Friday in July for a walk along the waterfront. A heat wave derailed our initial plan and made us postpone our date to the following week. Our second attempt was a go!
Even though we’ve just recently followed each other’s blog, we recognized each other in person right away. The weather was sunny and warm so after our introduction hug and smiles, we started heading west, making brief stops along the way to explore some of Toronto’s gems:
Toronto Book Garden features Toronto Book Award winners. The names of authors and winning book titles are engraved in paving stones.
Rees Wavedeck by HTO Park offers a glimpse of Toronto Harbour and Islands.
Toronto Music Garden where we saw a bird sipping water from the rock fountain.
Ireland Park, the memorial to the Irish Famine migrants’ arrival in Toronto from 1846-1849. Behind the trees is the Kilkenny limestone sculptural wall containing the names of those who perished during the Famine.The five statues from back to front include The Orphan Boy, Woman on Ground, Pregnant Woman, Pius Mulvey, and The Jubilant Man.
Little Norway Park was built on the same site where a training camp for Norway’s Air Force was located during World War II. The park was officially opened by His Majesty King Olav V of Norway on Nov. 20, 1987. The Memorial Stone is a gift from Norway to Canada.The stone was shaped by nature through glacier action. The bronze plaque and text were completed in Norway before shipment to Toronto.
View from Coronation Park
By the time we reached Coronation Park, it was getting warmer and close to lunch time so we turned around. A quick consultation with Joanne prompted me to suggest Gonoe Sushi for lunch. Aside from its location being on our route, I had a good meal there before and both of us haven’t had sushi recently.
Gonoe Sushi interior was nice and cool with the air conditioning humming. We got a table right away. Our food orders arrived shortly after. I had a sushi and maki roll combo while Joanne went for a dynamite sushi combo. Her verdict: “This was a good choice!“.
After lunch, we walked to Union Station before saying goodbye. Altogether we completed five kilometers under sunny skies, chatted about our blogging experiences, blogger’s meet-ups, family, fitness tips, future plans, outdoor activities, travel stories, and solved our hunger with a nice sushi lunch…All within three hours 🙂
Natalie the Explorer 