Close Call....

Man, I almost went head over heels as I was distracted trying to read the sticker at the bottom of these stairs.

Didn't know if it was important or not.

"Stay On Your Feet by paying attention.  Avoid distracted walking"

Yeah.  Good advice....

Score one (more...) for our government employees to come up with this beauty!

Kept On Walking...

.....this time down to the Evergreen Brickworks.

Former home of the Don Valley Brickworks.  The source for bricks that contributed to most of Toronto's emerging skyline in the late 19th Century.

And it almost never came in to being.

Three brothers, John, William and George Taylor, in the pulp and paper business opened up a pulp mill in the Don Valley.  They were having trouble digging holes for fence posts - too much clay.

Took the clay to a brickmaker and he said, you've struck gold.  Or at least excellent clay.

Nowadays, people would cry to the government for help or to subsidize their pulp mill.

Nope - these guys changed profession and became brickmakers.

   

Anyway.....that's not what this walk was about, but a good poke a lazy layouts nonetheless.  [Ed. note: Takes one to know one.]

Now it has been transformed into a large scale environmental community.

With lots of cool artwork.  

The first picture's artwork of a Black Eyed Susan was created using recycled eavestroughing.

Above are ice bergs, uhhh.....floating in air.

My favourite is a three story high "mural" of the Oak Ridges Moraine watershed and rivers of the GTA.

[They have built a bunch of other stuff infront of this by now - see below - so had to use a stock photo from them.]

Lots of artwork even tucked in here.

So back to the main picture, the green Don Valley in the centre, the Humber River Valley to the left and the Rouge Valley (Canada's first national, urban park) to the right with various, smaller creeks in between.

The green marking the river valleys are actual plants growing out of the framework.

Even the lost rivers of Toronto, of which there are many - with many of them still active, but buried - are etched in grey on this mural.  As are all major transportation routes.

Our tour guide told us that as they were excavating the quarry, they came across old animal bones.

They determined that they were beaver bones, and that they were ~10,000 years old. And that those busy beavers were the size of black bears back then. 

Hence the above artwork; a beaver almost as large as a tree.

Ooooo, that's scary......

 I don't remember what this is, but it was really cool!

 

Artwork was everywhere!

Oops....wrong side.

 

I said, artwork was everywhere!  

Of course, being good greenies, they collect all their rainwater and reuse it.

And decorate it.

 

The artists got quite clever with hiding their art as well. 

And of course, other people thought they were quite clever as well, hiding their dog's artwork.

Oh...I remembered what the other picture was....a picture of the original quarry.  It was a long way down to the bottom.

The quarry has essentially being reclaimed, refilled and now has been made into a series of ponds and wetlands.

A cool little spot, tucked into the Don Valley.

Mystery Solved!

I found out where all my friends are getting their new door mats......

Good Thing I Saw The Sign!

I was all ready to stick my head under that faucet and have a nice, refrshing drink.

Out And About

 Hmmm..... out for a walk along the Don River the other day.

Who says you can't drink the water or eat the fish.

Actually, they are very clever.  "Ohhh...uhhh....those are 'Wetlands'.  Supposed to look like that...."


Uh huh.....

 

Okay, this looks a little better.

 Hmmm...more "Wetlands".

Gotta give credit to all the guys who live down here, though.  And there seems to be a fiar bit of eveidence of them.

Which was another reason I'm glad I went during the day.

For such a large river, amazing how shallow it is.

Here is is about eight inches deep.

Or however wide tires are.  Because that's what's causing those ripples in the background.

But as you meander along, and that's exactly what I was doing, this looks almost like an English country garden.  So they have done a good job of restoring the banks of what was once the Mighty Don.

 

Okay.  So some people just don't want to be helped.

 

Hey, nice beach.  Bring the kids.

Man, this is one long river trail.

 

This must only be three or four inches deep.

But this trail is going on forever.  I'm getting farther and farther from Kansas, too.

Is the sun starting to go down....?

 Escape!

Civilization.

Sort of.....

Hey, the New Real Jerk!  Sort of.....

Actually the real Real Jerk got the boot from this location a while back.

As this once dilapidated area started to trend up (in part because of funky little joints like The Real Jerk), the building owner jerked up the rent.

Too bad -  great Jamaican food.

Luckily it's been turned into exactly what Toronto needs - another Irish pub.

 

And who knew.....

That tucked in the middle of Riverdale is the Royal Canadian Curling Club.

So as we bid adieu to the day - from the murky depths of the Wetlands to the shallow depths of The Mighty Don - Toronto lurks, reminding us we are never really far away from home.

And I knew that.  I was never really scared during the walk.  I told the police I must have pocket dailed 9-1-1.  Those GPS locator thingys really work.

Holy Something!

Unbelievable!

Came across the longest golf hole I've seen.  An incredible 607 yards!

And this is a course our duffer's league plays!
 
However, as I got out my driver and walked to the tee......

Ohhh.....never mind........

Went back and got my wedge.

No, I didn't, still kept the driver.  You haven't seen my game.

I'm Not So Sure......

Happy New Year!

Too Close For Comfort

Yikes!  I bet these guys are breathing a sigh of relief.

With all the crazy wind we have been having over the last few weeks, this is not surprizing.

I guess it wasn't as close as the first picture makes it out to be, but I bet close enough for the owners...

And while I'm at it, as my walk about progressed, go an unusual view view of the Prince Edward Viaduct.


Commonly known as the Bloor Street Viaduct.

That is one big Don Valley underneath it.

 A more down to earth view of that Don Valley.

 As you get closer to the lake, feels like y'all are in the deep south.

And to wrap up the trip, the subway tracks, just north of Bloor and Yonge.

Cool that is comes above ground just north of some of the biggest buildings in the city.

Then the Bloor line heads east, and rides along on the platform under the Prince Edward Viaduct.  Great foresight to build that lower platform, 40 years before the subway was even thought of.

Not Worth It.....

.....did that last weekend.

Ouff.......

Interesting....

 Just got back from a week at the beach.  Spectacular.

But those darn girls in bikinis don't let you get a good view of the beach.
 

But on the western shores of Lake Huron you see absolutely beautiful sunsets.

And you meet the most interesting people, when you least expect it.

Especially....the most interesting man in the world.

Who knew he really drank Steamwhistle.

And Sangria.

This is no longer your father's Grand Bend.

Some pretty fancy joints have sprung up.

But nothing can out do the sunsets.

Except a discussion with the most interesting man in the world....

CBC Back On Track

Further to yesterday's post, I did notice something much more CBC'ish beneath the Zombie-All-Clear article; once again the 1% are sucking up all the goodies in Ontario.

A new study says the rich are getting richer and the poor are, well, not getting poorer, but not getting rich as fast as those darn richies.  And something has to be done about it!

The report was done by, wait a second, a group of community activists and unions!  Huh?

The article/study goes on to lament the inequality of income distribution in the province.

Well here's a crazy notion; income isn't distributed.  It's earned.

The report shows that Ontario ranks last of all provinces in most major categories.  And by most major categories they mean, of course, government funding of social programs.

How a province with such a high tax rate can rank last in so many spending categories just shows how much Dolton McGuilty's Liberals have farged our province.

They did say Ontario at least got two things right; highest minimum wage and highest welfare rates.  Hmmm.....no chance those could be part of the problem....?

Sorry, it's those darn richies fault, getting all that income distributed right to their door.