If you haven’t checked out Wychwood Barns yet it’s well worth the visit. The architecture is beautiful. It’s located on Christie Street just south of St. Clair Avenue. The space houses 13 not-for-profit organizations, 15 professional artists, 26 artists in live/work spaces with their families, a cafe, and some office and rehearsal spaces. Outside the building is a park space, a garden, beach volleyball courts and a playground. On Saturday mornings they have a farmers market and soon a community pizza oven like the one in Dufferin Grove Park.

What I find most striking about this property is the brilliant repurposing of the original building. Originally the barns were TTC car barns dating back to 1913. Now they provide a little oasis in the city.

Technorati Tags: Artist, Farmer’s Market, park, Toronto

There’s nothing better than a high participation grassroots event. Last night, the eve after Hallowe’en, I went to Sorauren Park in Roncesvalles to see the annual pumpkin display. Hundreds of people from the area bring their pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns to line the sides of the park and light up one last time. It was mind-blowing how many pumpkins people brought – I’d estimate 500 or more.

There were lots of cool designs, and funny arrangements too: jack-o’-lanterns on the playing fields, jack-o’-lanterns nestled into rock gardens, and even jack-o’-lanterns hanging out on park benches. The humans were definitely outnumbered.

Some of the carvings had a truly amazing level of detail. A few were carved with likenesses of famous and infamous people; see if you can spot Harry Potter and Sarah Palin below.


I highly recommend checking it out next year. Boo!

Technorati Tags: park, neighbourhood, Roncesvalles, Toronto

The Queen West Art Crawl is this weekend. Saturday and Sunday between 11am – 6pm, numerous artists will be displaying and selling their works in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Galleries between Spadina and Roncesvalles will be exhibiting for the crawl. Buskers and musicians will be playing in the streets.
Let’s hope the weather is nice for the event!

In case you didn’t notice…

It’s still summer.

And Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream has been hiding on Palmerston Avenue, just north of Queen.
On a sunny day there is nothing better. I personally like the orange chocolate chip ice cream. It tastes like a creamsicle with chocolate chips in it.

I gotta go… ice cream is calling.

Technorati Tags: homemade, ice cream, organic, Trinity Bellwoods, Queen St. W, Toronto

There’s another new market in town… This one is more focused on art, collectibles and food creations.

The Queen West Market is held on the second floor of the Spin Gallery building at 1100 Queen Street just west of Dovercourt in a beautiful loft space with fantastic floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s open on both Saturdays and Sundays from 11am -6pm.

By the way, booths are still relatively inexpensive for those artistically inclined… could be fun.

Technorati Tags: Artists, breads, Craft, market, Beaconsfield, Queen St. W, Queen St. W

Cool Hand of a Girl is a great little cafe in the Junction on Dundas West, just 1 street east of Keele. Among other tasty bites, they serve up delicious sandwiches. My personal favourite is the tarragon chicken salad sandwich… mmm… good stuff. Perhaps the secret is that the chicken breast is from a Mennonite farm, or perhaps it’s the tarragon. They have many organic options and host art on the walls from local artists. Brunch on weekends is a good call, although they can get quite busy so don’t show up too hungry, for you may end up — as my friend Chris might say –”hangry”.

Technorati Tags: brunch, Cafe, Dundas Street , espresso, family business, homemade, latte

We’ve all heard the rumblings about how some plastics and food do not mix.

I finally stumbled across a great article that summarizes things quite clearly. You can access this article here in PDF format.
The site this information came from is http://www.bisphenolafree.org. Check it out if you’re curious.

I was shocked to learn that plastic food wrap is one of the plastics to avoid in terms of contact with food. Hmm… I guess I’ll go back to wax paper.
It seems that Health Canada is also concerned, as evidenced in this excerpt from the Globe and Mail:

Health Canada is calling bisphenol A a dangerous substance, making it the first regulatory body in the world to reach such a determination and taking the initial step toward measures to control exposures to it.

Although the government won’t announce specific bans or restrictions, the designation as dangerous could pave the way for the hormonally active chemical to be listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which would allow Health Minister Tony Clement to issue specific measures to curb its use.

Technorati Tags: health, plastics, leaching, toxic

Skating season is here again. Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall are all gussied up with lights to get you in the holiday spirit, and the City has a rink hotline for updates on all of its rinks. What a lovely way to spend an evening: get some fresh air, exercise, and finish off with a hot chocolate. I love the way your cheeks get rosy and people weave in and out of each other’s movement patterns. Time to dig up those rusted skates and get them sharpened!

Technorati Tags: Toronto, skating, exercise, holidays, winter, activities

In case you haven’t stumbled across this movie website - I find it rather helpful. It has all of the movie theatres in the city and is well organized to help you find what you are looking for. 

This weather tells me it’s… movie time!

Susan Harris‘ studio/shop has a distinct, warm and funky feel to it. Her designs carry this feeling too. You may have admired one of her shirts on someone and wondered where it came from… well, the secret is out.  And you can feel good about buying her clothes since she reuses previously-worn worthy articles.  Her shop is located on Tecumseth just south of Queen St. West.  She will also have a booth at the One of a Kind Show from November 22nd – December 2nd.