Tag Archives: Toronto

February is still here

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And I’m utterly sick of winter. The cold. The snow. The boots. The damp mitts. This part of February feels like someone has driven an icicle into my heart and keeps twisting it. Sure, a bit melodramatic but what a tiresome month.

Image

Lose a hat, find a hat. That is February all over. I like monkeys!

The only useful thing I’ve done all week was replace the crummy OEM seat post my pretty & awesome mountain bike had with a rather nice 2 bolt Easton Havoc. Now, my saddle won’t slide around and no more terrible squeaking noise when I pedal.

I suppose I could share future news: I plan on sharing with THE WORLD all the neato bike routes in Toronto including maps, photo and video. The ins (into trails), the outs (out of trails), where the heck the washrooms are (if any), and places to snack (other than Dairy Queen although their Blizzards are worth the ice cream headaches).

Now you’ll have absolutely no reason whatsover to say “awww I don’t know where to ride my bike”. Nope. None. The maps and photos of the starting points and anything interesting along the way will be here.

*insert excited shrieks here!*

Until then I’ll try and get thru February.

 

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Valentine’s Day Donut Massacre

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In celebration of the feast of love that is Valentine’s Day… blahblah… love… affection… humblebrag re: super love life…. overpriced chocolates… whatevs feelings… blahblah… foreverness …

Here is a video of the real meaning of love, eating donuts together and not one bit of nutritional guilt is felt. Tough toenails about the death of three donuts. The one covered in sprinkles was definitely asking for it. I can tell because I can understand donut language. It is vile and full of sugar. Totally deserved the thorough chewing punishment I meted out.

I shot this video using my super, handy dandy GoPro Hero 2 camera in time lapse mode. Each agonizing, gripping chomp was stored as a 5 mgp photo which I then had the Time-Lapse app (from the Mac App Store) string together into a movie. Music and titles added in iMovie 11. Took longer to eat the donut than oversee the entire film making magic.

Happy Valentine’s Day! *pithy comment about twoo wuv here*

Alexander Muir Park

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I’m a work in progress and so are my mountain bike skills (toddler level) and my video editing skills (at least I don’t need to use cellophane tape).

Behind the manicured gardens of Alexander Muir park, popular with wedding parties for photos, romantic picnics and solitary, contemplative walks, are some tennis courts and a lawn bowling green. And next to those are a nice little trail that runs along side a ravine and wraps around trees and under the Mount Pleasant Road bridge. The trail is mostly dirt and it’s quite a gentle ride so it’s perfect to practice my awful off road bike skills.

Enjoy!

Todmorden Mills

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I know it’s been …. forever since my last post. No excuses. Just busy busy busy. Still, I felt guilty so here’s a photo from Todmorden Mills. I went all freaky with the original colour — high contrast, deep colours, then in a new layer I took out the colour and erased some of the black and white bits to reveal the red bricks and some colourful stuff on my bike.

If  YOU want to ride your bike to Todmorden Mills in Toronto, then the long way is either north along the Don River Trail (if you are starting nearish the lakeshore) until Pottery Road. Take the walkway under the bridge heading east until you reach Todmorden Mills. If you are riding south from around Sunnybrook Park, then you wind your way to the Don River Trail also to Pottery Road, be careful crossing over to the walkway and follow the same route east to the mills. The easy was is to find yourself riding north on Broadview Road until Pottery Road (the corner where the delicious Dairy Queen is located) and simply follow the walkway downhill to the mills. And regardless of your route, your efforts definitely deserve a DQ treat. May I suggest the cherry cheesequake blizzard? I love that it so much my heart hurts that one isn’t in my hands right now.

A Windy Day Bike Rider Deserves Lunch

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Yes I did. It was a cloudy, windy Saturday in Toronto and I wanted something different for lunch than coffee and a cookie at Starbucks.

I decided to head to Charles Street between Yonge Street and Bay Street for a plate of okinomiyaki at the Okinomiyaki House.

I’ve never had it before but passed the restaurant plenty of times over the past 20 years. Today was the day I ate okinomiyaki.

Okinomiyaki and a Coke

Okinomiyaki is a savoury pancake filled with chopped onion and cabbage. I ordered beef so my pancake also had sliced pieces of fried beef too. On top a sweet and tangy barbeque sauce is spread along with a dollop of mayonnaise. It was delicious and only cost $10.00 Canadian with a can of Coke and tip.

Then I pedalled against the wind to get home. Ugh. So tired now.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and chilly so my bike ride will take me to Soma chocolate shop in the Distillery district for Mexican hot chocolate. No, I’m not bringing you a sample. Go there yourself and enjoy the spicy elixir.

Another critter captured on a memory card

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I rode my bike 16 km (10 miles) today through Mount Pleasant Cemetery, along the Beltline, and down the ravine in the Cedarvale Park. It was a lovely day — a bit of sunshine, warmth, some cloud and cool breezes. I enjoyed today’s ride and managed to take a terrible photo of what I think is a Baltimore Oriole and a photo of an animal’s den.

 

I think this is a Baltimore Oriole

I think this is a Baltimore Oriole

The den is quite interesting. I only noticed it on the Beltline (I won’t say where exactly because I wouldn’t want someone finding it to ruin it. It’s not harming anyone along the trail) when I saw an animal zip across the trail. It went by too quickly for me to figure out if it was a small dog, a cat, or a rabbit. 

I wonder who lives here?

I wonder who lives here?

It’s pretty obvious an animal didn’t build and decorate this den by itself. Someone put together the den and set up a bed, food bowls, and water  bowls for the occupant. I only saw it because of the mystery critter zipping by 10 feet in front of me. When I rode past I looked to my side and saw the den. I had to get off my bike and look at both the den and maybe a glimpse at the den’s owner. No luck. But finding it was interesting, especially since I’ve ridden by countless times for years and never noticed it. Hopefully anyone who sees it leaves it be too. Luckily the brush will grow and hide the den very soon.  

My guess is a dog bides his time in this den while the owner is away at work. 

I took these 2 pictures with my Sony 4 meg point and shoot. If I didn’t have that I never would of taken a decent photo with my cell phone. Now, the thing is, the point and shoot took so long to do it’s little song and dance when it’s turned on, that I nearly missed taking the bird photo. I wasn’t even sure if I got the shot of the bird because I couldn’t tell on the camera’s small screen. The bird flew away a moment after I took this photo, but I had to wait until I got home and plugged the memory card into the computer to find out if I actually got a picture of it. If I had my Nikon D40X and the 55-200 mm lens I wouldn’t have this worry, and odds are a much better picture since I would’ve seen what I was doing through the longer lens. I guess I’ll be taking the D40X and the long lens out next time.

Please vote for my photo!!

Yellow Pages is having a photo contest and one of mine is in the running for May! They found it on flickr.com and I’d love to have more than 4 votes (although I love and appreciate each of those votes). So please vote for me!! Here’s the link:  http://www.ypgphoto.com/2009/may/toronto-on-laura-vingada/  

This is what the photo looks like:

I took it last summer. It’s a first bridge at the north end of the Don River Trail near Sunnybrook park. I think the Don River Trail is my favourite bike riding trail in Toronto. There is only 1 street crossing on the 12+ km from North Toronto to the lakeshore of Lake Ontario, it’s paved, has lots of critters, birds, and wildflowers, the Don River, and fairly flat for fast riding. I’m already looking forward to my next ride!

Groundhog Day

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Hey look, a groundhog!

I saw this pudgy little fellow on the Beltline west of the Dufferin Street pedestrian bridge today on my bike ride.

Gosh! I love spring!!! Later on I saw a man walking his bunny in the park. Life is good!

I really wish I’d brought a better camera with me on my bike ride. I took the picture with my cellphone so that explains the general lousiness of the photo. The screen is so tiny I couldn’t figure out if I took a decent picture of the groundhog, or not.

It’s a “not”, isn’t it? I better juice up the rechargeable batteries in my point and shoot camera RIGHT NOW.

Spring limps in like a winter weary Torontonian

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The majority of the snow has melted.

The Don and Humber rivers are flowing like mad towards the lake.

I rode my bike a full month earlier than last year, and exactly 4 months after putting my bike away for winter. I’ve racked up 90 km already.

This past Sunday I rode to the beach in the east end of Toronto and remembered to bring along my camera.

My bike on the beach.

The beach was full of people on Sunday because it was sunny the entire afternoon and about 9 degrees celsius. It was busier on the western edge of the beaches between Woodbine and Ashbridge’s Bay.

Dog footprints!

Stone inuktuks.

I hope spring continues to get milder and milder as we get closer to June.