Elora Gorge, Elora, Ontario

Mill Street, Elora, Ontario

I was speaking in Waterloo on Sunday, so we invited my brother and Jenny to come with us.

Elora is about a twenty minutes ride from Waterloo.

Shops are housed in century old buildings in Elora

 We visited Elora on Sunday afternoon  after the Sunday Service.

Mill Street is the main street of Elora - where pretty stores and boutiques housed in century-old buildings lined the street.
 
Following the street sign, we went to the Conservation area where Elora Gorge is located.

We used our GPS but it took us round and round before we could get to the Gorge.

You may want to get the exact address from the website at:

www.grandriver.ca/parks
or call 519-846-9742

There was a charge of  $ 5.75 per person for admission to the Conservation area where one could easily spent at least half a  day hiking the trails, having a picnic and enjoying the outdoors.

With the current admission receipt from Elora Gorge, visitors could swim at the Elora Quarry Conservation area for free as well.
 

Elora Gorge is part of the Grand River Valley system. It offers serviced and unserviced campsites. There are park amenities such as a Splashpad, fishing and tubing, lookout points, and plenty of picnic benches for rest.

In fact, Elora Gorge, this part of the Grand River, has  a reputation as one of the best brown trout fisheries in North America as over 500,000 brown trouts have been stocked in the area since 1989.

Stairs leading down to a closer look of the Gorge

The scenery is beautiful with hiking trails and stone steps leading to the gorge below.

When we descended the steps we felt as if we were entering into a cave leading us to a different world.

Beautiful scenery inside the Conservation area

Once we descended to the lookout point, the scenery opened up to  us.














The Grand River rushes through the gorge which has 22 meter high cliffs.

Only less than a thirty minutes drive from Waterloo, one
can easily escape city life and be surrounded by forest of trees and soothed by the sound of water of the Elora Gorge.

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Visors  could drive right up to the trails and start hiking.  Bringing a picnic basket, people could easily spend a whole day exploring the trails, taking breaks and enjoying the park.

On our drive back to the city, we passed by many farmers' green fields with their soil ready for planting.

R.T.
Village of  Elora
Ontario

Toronto's Music Garden and Harbour Front - A Beautiful Place to Visit with No Charge

Toronto's  Harbour Front

After we visited the Distillery District, we continued our walk south towards the lake.
















We reached the Harbour Front after about thirty minutes as it was such a nice day and an enjoyable pleasant stroll.

It would have been a different story if it was in the middle of winter.

Boardwalk at Harbour Front

Harbour Front is a great place for people to sit and relax on the broad walk and watch the world go by.

CN Tower and Rogers Centre - seen by the Toronto waterfront

Of all the places there are in Toronto, the Toronto Harbour Front is my most favourte place to visit.

There are always things to do for al ages such as canoeing in the pond.

During the warmer months, very often there are entertainments of all kinds especially during the weekends or special holidays.

Art Exhibition inside the Harbourfront building

We were there on the long weekend a week ago; there were free concerts in the outdoor stage, free crafts activity as well as shows for kids on the open stage






Very often, there are arts exhibitions inside the Harbourfront buildings.

Observing wildlife by the water

People can take their time and walk through these displays and most of the time, there are no admission charges.







Or they can just take time to observe the wildlife by the water.












There is even a man made beach where one can just enjoy and sunbath to their hearts' content.

A man made beach where you can sit and sunbath!

While we are down at the HarboruFront, we always make a point to walk through the Music Garden which is located a little west of the Harbourfront Centre.

Ample places to rest and relax at the Music Garden

Performing Stage at the Toronto Music Garden

There are scheduled  free musical performances at stage of the Music Garden throughout the summer for visitors.


At times, there could also be impromptu performance like the one we saw when we were there.

An Impromptu Performance by an ndividual group

This group was singing native songs accompanied by native drumming.













 We rounded up our day and enjoyed a Thai dinner at the local restaurant. It was a little pricy but the food was not too bad.

A nice introduction for Jenny
 ( who is visiting from overseas) to our lovely summer in Toronto.


R.T.
Harbour Front/ Music Garden
Toronto

Sculpture Garden, Toronto

Though we have been living in this wonderful city of Toronto for close to four decades, there are always something new to see.



 There are so many great places to visit and explore that I don't think we could ever see everything within the city.

A restaurant at the Sculpture Garden

 We watch the news everyday and do pay attention to the different festivals and events that happen in the city on a regular basis.

But for some reason, we were not aware of this interesting urban garden until we played tourists in our own city

 During the Doors Open Toronto last weekend, we went downtown to visit a few places. One place we discovered was the Toronto Sculpture Garden!


We saw an unusual sculpture made out of the shells of cars painted all white and stacked together.

An interesting sculpture in the Sculpture Garden

A nice urban garden. It was an unexpected but a very pleasant discovery!  

R.T.
Toronto Sculpture Garden
Doors Open Toronto
Toronto, Ontario

Distillery District During Doors Open Toronto

It was a beautiful weekend! We took advantage of the nice weather as well as the Doors Open in Toronto and visited a number of places on the weekend.

With the TTC day pass - at $11.00 each good for two adults ( plus 4 kids), we could hop on and off to as many places as possible in Toronto without driving our car or worrying about parking.

It was a glorious beautiful day with a warm sun and temperature hovering around 17 degree C!   We planned to visit the CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as our first stop, unfortunately, it did not participate in this year's Doors Open event.

The Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario

We went to the St. Andrew's Church on King Street. A beautiful church for the Scottish immigrants to Toronto in the early days. All of a sudden, pipe organ music came on and we had the good fortune of enjoying a free musical performance by the church organist ( I assumed).

A favourite spot for wedding pictures!

From there, we walked to the Distillery District
admiring some of the original stone buildings.

The Distillery District used to be the place where ales and beers were brewed many years ago.

When the brewery was no longer used for its intended purpose, the City of Toronto and its citizens did not abandon the place but did  an excellent preserving the old buildings and turning it into a beautiful area for all to enjoy.

Lots of old charming buildings in the area

Now it is a trendy place to go for a drink, visit, shop and catch some free concerts and performances in the square.

There are a lot of interesting shops displaying many crafts and local made items.

It is also a very popular spot for taking wedding pictures


While Jenny and I enjoyed browsing in the many shops, my brother was very patient waiting for us but he almost falling asleep after a little while.

Sake is produced in one of the stores at the Distillery District

 But he became wide awoke as soon as he learned that there was free local beer sampling in one of the stores!

We went in and was given free samples of four different kinds of  beers.

Our conclusion - the organic beer tasted the best!!!

Lovely place to have a drink or take a bite!

At least my brother had fun drinking free beer while we did some window shopping in the stores!

Colourful displays of flowers!

The Distillery District is a beautiful area to stroll about, enjoy the sight and sound of summer as well as the colourful displays of flowers and the ambiance.

 We have always enjoyed our visit there every time. This is the reason we bring our out of town guests here without fail each time as we know they will love the place.

Jenny and my brother surely did!


R.T.
Distillery District
Doors Open Weekend
Toronto

Looking for Fireplace & Other Ideas for Our House Renovation

Modern fireplace at our niece's condo party room, Toronto

We have been living in our current house for over thirty years.

While many of our friends and families move to the suburb into new monster homes, we decided to stay put because we love our established neighbourhood in Toronto with mature trees and easy access to transportation.

A More Traditional Fireplace, Collingwood, Ontario

A Smaller Fireplace inside a country inn suite

 We will be getting ready for our renovation for both the family room and  living room.














We have been looking and gathering ideas whenever we travel and taking pictures of the things we like.

Recently. we stayed at a hotel and saw this fireplace which my husband and I really like. This is more traditional style but very warm and welcoming.

 We have some ideas in mind, a nice gas fireplace in the living room and an electric build- in fireplace in the den to keep the room looking modern and comfortable.






Or should we go with the modern, clean and sleek style fireplaces like this wall hanging fireplace without a mantel?

There was one very similar modern fireplace at Home Depot selling at $299.00

A Modern Design

 A sleek modern fireplace with bright bold colour on the wall.

Dining room fixture idea

This is the kind of lighting I like, not too old fashion, not to modern, a mix of the two.


Other ideas which I have included getting the ceiling done again in a circular fashion as to cover the ugly spot where we have now.

A glass wall shelf

We also need to create more space for storage in our living area.
So we are looking at building more beautiful shelving unit as well.















Hope we can spruce up our back door with planters such as these ones we saw in Japan.

We will keep looking for ideas to upgrade our house.
 Hopefully,  we will be able to install a new fireplace before the winter comes next year!

R.T.
Toronto