Home again

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Seeing friends and family in Berlin was great, but it's also nice to be back home. Here's another look at the Christmas Market in the Distillery District. I hope your New Year is filled with love, luck and joy!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season so far! Here's another look at the Christmas Market in the Distillery District. I love all the lights at night. For now, I'll be posting pictures from Berlin on my travel blog. Come take a look.

Warm-up market

I went to the Christmas market in the Distillery District of Toronto this past weekend. I must say it was slightly better than last year, but still nothing compared to the markets of Europe (and Germany especially!). So that's why I'm considering it as a warm-up for the Christmas markets in Berlin that I'll be visiting soon. I'll be flying out this afternoon, but I've put up a few automatic posts for while I'm gone. Hope you enjoy!

The blue hour

The blue hour is that time in the evening when it's not quite light and not quite dark. And this blue hour was made even better with a lovely tree lit up for the holiday season. Hope the weekend ahead is looking good for you. For more skies, take a look at Skywatch.

That guy: part two

As promised, here's another look at That Guy. You'll find him on Cumberland Street, near the Yorkville shopping area. I scoured the internet and found a little more information about him and his creator, artist William McElcheran. Apparently, "that guy" is also known as "the businessman"; you can find different incarnations of him in cities around Canada and even the world! I'd love to see his incarnation in Pisa, I wonder if VP could be persuaded to venture over there and show us a shot?

PS: Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. Eat some stuffing for me!

Shady spot

One of the nice things about Pardes Shalom is that there were plenty of benches for people to sit and remember their loved ones. This one had just the right amount of shade and sun for an autumn day. Don't forget to remember those who have fallen for our freedom on this Remembrance Day. And you can see more shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday.

Jack o'lanterns in waiting

I found this display of pumpkins at my local Real Canadian Superstore (Canada's version of Target). The bright orange pumpkins were almost enough to liven up an otherwise gray day. 

Happy Halloween everyone! May you get plenty of treats and not too many tricks.

Independence Day!

Luckily I can get a double usage from my Canada Day fireworks shots as they also work nicely for Independence Day. Hope all my American friends are having a safe and fun holiday. And hopefully you'll have a fireworks show that was as fantastic as this one to see tonight.

Fireworks

Sorry that I am a little late on my promise, but between the Canada Day holiday and the guests, I couldn't find the time to post anything yesterday. I hope you'll enjoy this sampling from the fireworks show. It was pretty spectacular! Every time I thought I had seen the most beautiful display, another more beautiful one came just behind it. I'm glad I caught some good images to remember it with.

July theme day: Chimneys

I've shown you this fire station a couple of times before, but here it is again! The chimney fits well for today's theme day and the (almost) furled flag is a great symbol for Canada Day. I hope all of my Canadian friends are having a fun and safe long weekend. And to everyone else, happy July!

To see more chimneys, take a look here.

PS: I've got visitors in from Germany this week, so my blogging may be sporadic. But not to worry, I haven't forgotten about my virtual friends! And I hope to have some fireworks shots for you tomorrow.

Happy Family Day!

I saw plenty of families skiing and having fun at the Earl Bales Park ski run recently. There's only one hill here and it's pretty gentle, so it's a good place for the youngsters to learn.

Happy Family Day to all my Canadian friends! And to the rest, happy Monday!

Valentine's pie

This past week's cooking class landed on Valentine's Day, so our instructor thought it would be a good week for making pies. He gave us a recipe for coconut cream and they all seemed to turn out really well. Some people even used the cream to make cute decorations, like this heart. 

Which looked like this when it was finished. Very cute! If you like hearts, take a look at Random Hearts, it's sure to make you smile.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had wonderful holiday and my best wishes to you for a 2012 filled with joy, love and success!

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you the merriest of Christmases! This is the nighttime scene in front of City Hall with a beautifully lit tree and a bonus full moon.

Crystal tree

Happy Christmas Eve! The Swarovski tree is the centerpiece of the Eaton Centre's holiday decorations. You don't want to know how much these decorations cost, a pretty penny, I can assure you! But they certainly look nice.

Decked out

The Hudson Bay Company (also known locally as The Bay) has its downtown windows decorated for the season. 

I love all the different vignettes. These two are the ones that came out the best. Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Red and green

Since I never got the memo as to when it's ok to put up the tree in Canada, I decided to follow the American custom and put it up this past weekend (after the Thanksgiving holiday). It's mainly red and silver, although there's a bit of gold in there too. Bring on the holidays!

To see more red from around the world, visit Ruby Tuesday. And I've still got more shots from Berlin on my travel blog.

Creepy crawly

I found this guy hanging out (literally) in my yard not too long ago. He seems like an appropriate spokesperson for a Halloween post. Hope your evening is filled with sweet treats without a hint of nasty tricks, which reminds me I still haven't bought anything to hand out to the little ghouls and goblins. I'd better get on that! Happy Halloween!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my understanding, the Canadian tradition is to cook and serve the turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving. So we had our big show last night. 

Here's what was on the menu: turkey stuffed with white-bread sage dressing, German-style potato salad, red cabbage with apples, green beans, turkey gravy, rolls and to top it off, pumpkin pie with French vanilla ice cream. It was a feast! Hope my fellow Canadian readers are having a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy Independence Day!

These fireworks are actually from the Canada Day fireworks extravaganzy in Mel Lastman Square. Canada Day in July first, so it's quite handy the two national holidays are so close timewise. Hope my American friends are enjoying a long weekend. Eat some baked beans for me.