January 29, 2013

Food Hub A Dub

Just around the corner from the southern end of our street is the new "Food Hub" of the West End Food Co-op. They just opened in October, and while we actually went in on their opening day, we only just became members today.

The Cooperative is committed to creating a sustainable local community food culture in the Parkdale area. They opened a Farmer's Market in 2008 in Sorauren Park, and a Community Cannery in 2010. 

The Food Hub is home to both a grocery store as well as a Community Kitchen, home to the Cannery as well as educational opportunities, events, training, and workshops.

For our first purchases we decided to get a pound of organic Nicaraguan medium roast from Alternative Grounds - a roaster of certified fair trade coffee located in neighbouring Roncesvalles, and a baking mix of Oat Scones (with whole ground Red Fife, oats and spelt) from Grain Storm, a company that produces baking mixes using only organic heritage grains (as opposed to modern commodity wheat). 

We won't be able to change the world, but perhaps we can start to make change in our world. We'll start in our kitchen and our neighbourhood.





January 28, 2013

Running to Stand Still

A loyal reader recently chided me for not having updated my blog in quite a while. I  have actually surpassed the 500 posts mark, which is pretty darn impressive, yet my publishing rate has decreased in direct proportion to my work volume.

So, firstly, apologies dear readers. I will endeavour to be more productive on the blogging front. And, secondly, I was curious to know more about my readers. Blogger tells me that I've had over 47,000 page views since I started this blog; that the top-5 views by country are U.S., Canada, UK, Netherlands, and Poland; 66% of my visitors use Chrome as their browser, and 73% are using Windows as their OS. The most-read post is my May 25, 2010 entry entitled "I love New York in the spring".

[Just so you know, that lovely photo of me and Mark was taken at Toronto's La Societe, at which we enjoyed a wonderful brunch with our dear friends, Karen and Jen, in the Fall. Always nice to share a good photo and, really, have you ever seen a nicer ceiling?!]

This past weekend we hosted friends Mara & Steve as our very first guests in our condo's guest suite. We only had them for one night, so it was a whirlwind visit to a few key neighborhoods (Little Italy, Kensington Market, and Chinatown), delectable lunch at Pizza Libretto, memorable fancy dinner at Origin Liberty Village (joined by dear friends Dana & Gui) and a rather yummy goodbye dinner at  Williams Landing.

In other news, I have gotten very involved as a volunteer with the executiveof the Queen's Toronto Alumni Branch, which has been most rewarding. It's given me the opportunity to attend many great events and network and socialize with other Queen's alumni. As anyone who knows me will already know, my great loves are my husband, U2, and Queen's, so it's nice to be involved with my alma mater.

We don't have any travel plans at the moment but we are excited that we have scored tickets to the May showing of "The Book of Mormon"in Toronto. The original Broadway show opened in March 2011 and won 9 Tony Awards (including Best Musical). They have put together a 12-city touring company. Looks like it should be a great night.

That's it for now. More to come.