Visit to the Brickworks

Don Valley Brickworks had closed years ago and developers were just about ready to move in when some good Canadian citizens teamed up to save the area for the good folk of Toronto. I have been there a few times before, but this time I could see the tremendous advances they made for realising the dream of not only restoring the outside and inside spaces, but establish an Environmental Education Centre that they could be proud of.

The enormous clay pits and the quarry became a lovely outside space, a park with lake, walkways, water lilies, birds, swamp, hills and valleys. There are spaces for picnics and elsewhere playgrounds. Inside they have an environmental centre with educational space, garden centre, cafe, in winter a skating rink, a large space for parties and lots of workshops. We chatted to a guy who was working with recycled old timber, including ancient, very hard yellow pine and douglas fir. Callum ran around for a while, took exception to his Dad and Grandad stopping him eating poisonous berries, then forgot all about it and played in the sand somewhere. We had our picnic lunch, he ran around a bit more and then we went home. He dropped off en route home in the car and carried on sleeping for another 2 and half hours.

After waking up he went to play outside, sometimes on his own at other times with his little friends. We all had a lovely tea and he went to bed peacefully after watching his favourite cartoons on the TV.

High Park

Today was the second day we didn't have Mummy with us, but that didn't stop us having fun. We decided to take a trip to one of Toronto's most gorgeous and possibly biggest parks: High Park. It has lots of forest trails, playgrounds, lakes, bridges, cafes and many other delights. Callum started his trip by walking through the zoo with many lovely animals. We saw: lamas, a capybara, Highland cattle, emus, yaks, wallabies, turkeys and mouflon. Outside of the zoo we examined some caterpillars, which were very pretty. After the zoo we took a ride on the tractor train. That was really fun as it went all over the park and we didn't even need to walk. We had our lunch in the cafe in the park where we have been before, but while the prices have gone up, the food was still as delicious as ever. Granma had a salad with lots of leaves, feta, cranberries, onions, tomatoes and nuts. Yum, yum!! After lunch and while Callum was having a snooze in the stroller, we watched a legion of very cheeky little sparrows cleaning up after us. They must be the best fed little birdies in Toronto! Now Callum is playing outside and Alex is preparing the paella for dinner, to which Meaghan's auntie Gail is also invited.

A momentous day

Some time after returning home yesterday we got a message from Stephen that they were on their way to  hospital as Lucy was having contractions. We went to bed about 11pm last night not knowing anything definite, but since then found out that by then grandson no. 2 was about 2 hours old.

 Elian Christopher Grant was born on 24th June 2012 around 2.30am, weighing 7lb 13oz (3.5kg) and by all accounts mother and baby are fine, although father sounded a bit shell shocked on the phone. He rang today and apparently they have allowed them home before even 24 hours have gone by.

In the morning we watched the European Grand Prix, which we have very nearly forgotten about.  Roy managed to remind me just as they were on the formation lap before the start. Alex and Meaghan have a really lovely den/bedroom downstairs with an HD TV on the wall, so they let us watch the GP there.  Now and again Alex and Callum also joined us, so the bed had 4 people watching the GP on it.

Unfortunately neither Lewis nor Jenson did at all well, but the race itself was fascinating.  It had lots of overtaking, crashes, the safety car and a level of interest that kept us enthralled. Unfortunately Alonso won, so you can imagine the Spaniards, who have already had a night of celebration after Spain's win in Euro2012 the night before, were now delirious with delight at Alonso winning at home.
After the Grand Prix was over we went downtown to the Sunday morning antique market to try and find a brass bell to put on Callum's little house in the garden instead of the useless battery operated one the house came with and which doesn't work very well.  We  caught the street car not far from the Bain and Callum loved the ride.

Around his mouth you can see the remnants of his earlier encounter with some mulberries en route to the street car stop. At the market we found a bell within the first 5 minutes and then spent the following hour or so looking at all the lovely goodies which, of course, we couldn't buy due to space restrictions on the plane.  Little monster obliged us by dropping off to sleep afterwards in his stroller, so we had a delicious and very reasonable lunch at Bettys on King Street in peace and quiet. On the way home Callum, Meaghan and I spent some time in a playground, which was fun and gave the men some peace and quiet to watch their football. Unfortunately England lost, so no more matches for the boys, unless they want to watch other countries fighting it out for the trophy.

"I woke up and there was no everybody!"

On Thursday we went down to St. Catharines to stay a couple of days with Heather and Lyle, the other set of grandparents. I have been there a few times and a very good time is had by all, as a rule. The added spice this time was a bossy little monster called Callum. Needless to say that life revolved round him and most programs were organised round his sleep and meal times. He is not the easiest little fellow, but makes up for the exhausting schedule with his amazing humour, his nattering, singing and generally seriously amusing little persona. The title of this post is a quote from his majesty upon awakening in Granma's living room after a good long snooze on the sofa. We didn't abandon him, as he thought, but were eventually rolling with laughter at his complaints about finding "no everybody". There are also occasions when it is quite a struggle to get him into his pyjamas or the bath or to eat his dinner, prompting his father to declare: "Anybody who has said that 'We don't negotiate with terrorists!' obviously has never had children!" He occasionally breaks out in unrestrained singing, usually in the car, which is also hilarious, as he usually doesn't remember half the words and just makes it up to fill in the gaps. The first day he charged straight out into Granma's back yard and sat in his paddling pool for hours. The weather was hot and he enjoyed himself there. In the evening we had a lovely BBQ with hamburgers, hot dogs and a lovely salad. Friday we went out to visit the Welland Canal at Lock Gates 3 where we watched an enormous ship sail into the lock, sink down to the next level and then go on its way towards Lake Ontario. There was about 1-1.5m on either side of the lock and not much more in front of and behind the ship. It was fascinating to watch and read about the building of the canal which took nearly 20 years between 1913 and 1932. In the afternoon we had Callum's "unbirthday" which consisted of another BBQ, this time with steak, salmon, salad, plus a hot dog and a cake, of course, for the unbirthday boy. The adults had a couple of bottles of Niagara red, which was superb, chosen with great skill by Lyle as usual. This peculiar celebration usually happens when we come visiting not around Callum's birthday. It did include some lovely presents: a helicopter, some rails and trains to add to his train table, a play tent bought in IKEA the day before and a lovely memory game. As you can see the cake was enjoyed, especially by him, and the evening included some silliness as well. Finally we returned to Toronto this afternoon and now I have to go and bathe him as his parents have departed about an hour ago to spend some extremely well earned time together at a nice down town restaurant tonight.

IKEA

The weather was forecast to be around 35 degrees Celsius with 85% humidity, so I voted for staying at home as near to the air conditioner as possible. However, Callum would probably have got very tetchy if we did that, so the plan was to go out to somewhere with air conditioning. As Alex and Meaghan were planning to get a new carpet for the lounge we chose IKEA. I was wondering how Callum was going to take it, but as it happened I need not have worried at all. He took to the store like duck to water. He had to try everything, climb into and onto as many things as he was allowed, then have fun in the children's play area and finally have a lovely plate of Swedish meatballs, including most of his Grandad's as well. He went to sleep on the way home and slept for about 2 hours, which was great as we could have a bit of a break then as well. Dinner was a delicious prawn curry made by Alex with mango lassies all round. Yum, yum!!

RibFest, Father's Day, Toronto Island and other pleasures

As the forecast said thunderstorms for Sunday we decided to visit the RibFest on Saturday. This was a way of celebrating one Dad and two Grandads all at once. Personally I am not in favour of overeating and overdrinking in the name of a celebration, but it is a true North American tradition, so I had to go along with it. Heather and Lyle came over and we made a real picnic of it. Callum was in good form, played with both grandpas, ate and drank a lot and even the weather held. Then on Monday we went over the Toronto Island for the day and that was a day and a half. The weather held again, in spite of a forecast of likely showers and the fun started with the boat trip over. Our first port of call was the funfair where the rides were tremendous fun for all of us. Callum had a lot of excitement and fun and we enjoyed watching him having a good time. First we took in the little train round the park, then he went for a boat trip in a swan, but the real fun only started when we discovered the rides that he could do on his own. These included little fire trucks, bumble bee airplanes, cars both old and new, fire boats and a contraption where they were taken up high and then dropped. He barely fitted over the safety bar, but loved it all the same. Next we saw the little zoo with donkeys, pigs, emus, chickens, miniature horses etc. By then we were all flagging, so a visit to the nearby pub provided some sustenance before we departed to the beach. The water was a bit cold, but that didn't stop Callum spending ages shovelling sand and then visiting another playground. During the walk on the boardwalk to the other end of the island he flaked right out and had a little sleep. After some ice cream and tea/coffee taken on board at the lovely cafe at the port we caught the boat home. This turned out a nice long trip as this was a car ferry boat which had visited the far port on the island before returning to the mainland. Unfortunately I have not been quick enough to catch a plane landing at the airport floating past the CN Tower with my camera, but most of it is in the picture. Gran, Grandad, Mom, Dad and Callum got home very late and totally exhausted. A b....y good day was had by all.

"Granma from Daddy's phone" reporting from Toronto

We have safely arrived in Canada. We had a somewhat whistle stop visit at Stephen's where we found Lucy well and getting excited about the baby, Stephen the same and generally ready for the big event in about 2 or so weeks. All flights were uneventful and we were only a bit late at the very end, otherwise on time or even early. Alex came and picked us up, later we fetched the little monster from daycare. He was quite shy at first, but loosened up later. My status as "Granma from Daddy's phone" took a while to sink in, but by the time we went outside to play on the deck we were doing truck races with big crashes and tickles all round. The caterpillar was the first present I gave him and it turned out a massive hit. I had the feeling when I spotted it in the shop window that such a weird green caterpillar is a Callum sort of thing. We did have a slight problem prising it from his hands this morning en route to day care, but eventually he agreed to leave him with me.