backtracking part 2

After my brief sojourn in the Manitoba prairie, I landed myself in Toronto for a 2 week get together. Toronto is a sprawling metropolis that in sideways glances reminds me of Europe and specifically Prague with the street cars you run out into the street to jump on. It's a vibrant city, full of colorfully dressed couples. If it was foggy, you might mistake Toronto for the 1950's where men wore suits and hats and ladies matched their gloves to their handbag and shoes. It's noticeable. Especially, when where you normally live everyone looks like they shop at Mountain Equipment Co Op.

I was there for work and thus, stayed in an apartment right downtown. What that meant was I close to everything and that included the preparation for the G8/G20 Summit. It got pretty hairy the last week I was there. The fences were going up. The trees were coming down and I even saw them hauling away giant installed public art fixtures and gluing down the rocks.The cops were out in full force, but I figured it was for the free Iggy and the Stooges gig headlining the NXNE music festival (that I was going to miss). I did see some fine graffiti though...

During my stay on the 36th floor, my lovely sister came to stay. We wandered up and down Queen St where I battled her for going into button shops while she tolerated me going into cheese shops. She's much more tolerant of cheese than I am of buttons. We took photos and got caught in a torrential rain storm. We admired figurines and then found our own. We ate lunch and made our feet sore finding it and when we had just about had it, we were rewarded with noticing one of our few mutually favorite musical groups happened to be playing a gig.

It was a real treat to find the First Aid Kit- the beautiful harmonizing sisters from Sweden were playing. And opening for them was the startling beautiful Samantha Crain,  who made me a fan that night. We bought the CD, the T shirt and gave away the free poster. I think it was the 1st gig I have ever seen with my sister ever. It was a perfect accident to stumble upon in Toronto.

Other fantastic adventures..

Finding Ashley at the Distillery district for her Supersonic Gypsy Cookies and other vegan treats.

Looking up to see the sign that said Vince Gasparro's Meat Market.. only 1 letter off the name of a very dear friend of mine.. who incidentally has had photographs of this location sent to him over the years.. What's odd, is that I was wandering aimlessly from trying to locate a friend of mine and happened upon it by accident.

Finding and visiting with an old friend who I was reminded on how smart and clever he was. The years haven't been good to him and we shared a few minutes that meant so much to me.

I found other dear friends that I hadn't seen in a long while. Gosh it's good to see old friends.

Toronto was good to me. It was hot, it was cool. It rained. It was muggy. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It fed me well and kept me awake at night and kept me entertained. It also reminded me of the kindness of strangers where I was walking down the street and encountered a group of people who were trying to do right by a small falcon who for some reason didn't want to fly. It did fly when there was an attempt to get him to a box, but there was something not quite right for this bird. 4 strangers came together to make calls to animal rescue, keep the bird out of the street, care about the what would happen and take it into their hands to make sure this small life stayed alive.

Thanks friends. Thanks Toronto.