Walking with the Queen

Today I went for a walk along one of Toronto’s main streets, Queen. This street runs east/west for 18 kilometres through Toronto’s downtown. Seems to me that a lot of Canadian cities have streets named “Queen”, but Toronto’s version of Queen St. Is worth a visit. Running right through the downtown area, it is one of the busiest streets in the city. It has multiple streetcar routes running along it and intersects with the main subway line in two places. As I am still working in my new hip, I cannot claim to have walked the entire 18 km, but I walked in both the west end and the east end and connected them with a streetcar ride. 

Queen St has a little of everything, restaurants, bars, shops businesses and residences. There are areas that are modern with the usual tall condo and office buildings, but one of the things I like best about Queen St, is the amount of old houses and buildings that remain. They are not all in good repair, but it is nice to see the variety of old style architecture along the street. The 18 km, run through a number of neighbourhoods, The Beaches, Leslieville, Riverdale, Queen West, West Queen West, and Parkdale. Although Toronto hosts a number of ethnic neighbourhoods Queen St. Seems to skirt a number of them including Chinatown West and Little Tibet. 

You can find most anything you need on Queen St. I found three bead shops in the West end, and I had to choose between four pubs in one block in the East end for a beer and a burger, while waiting for my Joy of Writing meeting to start. The following photos will give you some idea of the variety of building on Toronto’s Queen Street. 

I can't resist the Street Art

Street Art and a Door!

WOW!

Bridge over the Don River

White Squirrels

“White Rabbit” the song by Jefferson Airplane was always one of my favourite hits from the 6o’s so when I read in my “111 Places in Toronto That You Must Not Miss”, that a park in Toronto was known for White Squirrels, which would be much more unique than white rabbits, it got my attention and I decided to go visit. 

The Restored Gate

Trinity Bellwoods Park is situated in Downtown Toronto and provides a large green space with Athletic fields, tennis courts, dog parks and playgrounds all linked with pathways and shaded with large trees. I tried to visit a few days ago while running an errand for friends, but was called away before I could explore much of the park, so on a beautiful warm November afternoon I went back to see the rest of the park. 

walkways well used

The park was originally a military reserve and then the site of Trinity Collage, the first institute of higher learning in Toronto. When the collage buildings were demolished in the 1950, the elegant entry gates were left, and after years of neglect, they were restored and now provide a beautiful historical entrance to one of Toronto’s many parks. The park is large with 36 acres to explore and has 3 ball diamonds, 8 Tennis courts, 4 pickleball courts, 2 volleyball courts, an ice rink, wading pool, children playground, an indoor recreation centre and a large dog off-leash area; something for everyone really. The dog off-leash area was especially interesting as it was in a sunken area of the park so provided a natural barrier for the pet owners to allow their furry friends to run free. 

Regis' CN Tower is always present

So, one more of the 111 places can be checked off my list, and it was a very pleasant way to exercise my new hip, but as hard as I searched, I did not see any of the famous white squirrels. 

And once more!

Sorry, I have no idea what this is all about.

Some of the fall colours in the park

No White Squirrels to be seen

Down to the off-leash area

Lots of street art . . . . even chimney art

Neighbourhood street art

I like all the different elements in this art

One nice piece from an alleyway art scene

The fall leaves add to the artwork

A lovely day out and about in Toronto

Halloween On Church St.

When you live in a Condo unit on the ninth floor, you do not get any trick-or-treaters to the door. I did notice that the Concierge had a basket of candy on his desk, so they may get a few guests coming to the foyer of the building, but none venture up the elevators. I did have a cute plastic Jack-o-Lantern glowing orange in the window but that was it for Halloween.  Last year, we were new to the city and stayed in for Halloween, but this year I decided to go out and see what the evening was like. 

I decided to go out to Church Street to see if anything was going on. During Pride week, they closed the street for one day and it was quite the event, so I thought there might be some Halloween festivities going on up and down the street to celebrate All Hallows Eve. As soon as I exited the building I knew something was happening, the usual quiet Mutual St was one solid traffic jam, and I could hear noise from the direction of Church St, one block away. 

As I turned towards the street, I could see that barriers had been set up and the street was again closed so it could become pedestrian only. I discovered that Halloween on Church St was quite the event!

The entire street was closed to traffic for six blocks, so traffic was routed down our quiet Mutual St causing a night long traffic jam. The crowds on the street were amazing. The entire six blocks were packed with people. Many were dressed in costumes, but there were many just out like me to see the Halloween sights. There were sections of the street that were so packed with people that you literally just had to allow yourself to be carried along with the crowds. The bars along the street were hopping and some had entertainment outside as well as inside, and the music had people dancing it the streets when there was room to do so. 

The night was almost Summer warm, so the costumes were spectacular since people did not have to dress for October temperatures. All the way up and down the street, costumed revellers posed in their costumes for photos, and some of the best costumes were held in one place with so many people wanting pictures with them. 

I was amazed at the number of scooters, strollers and dogs scattered and crammed into the mass of people. Obviously Toronto dogs are accustomed to the crowd scene and I was amazed at how calm some the canine costumers were, and I saw few costumed toddlers in strollers upset by the witches, vampires, goblins and just plain weird costumes they were surrounded by. 

There were police present at the road blocks and the blocked intersections, but overall the massive Halloween party was happy, cheerful and fun while I was there. 

Suspension Upgrade

I started noticing a suspension issue on the right side a while age; There was obviously some worn out parts causing the right hand side to not perform as it should. It was pretty clear that some work was required and parts needed to be replaced. 

Walking with a cane

You might think I was taking about my 1982 Alfa Romeo Spider, but actually I am not, I am taking about my 72 year old hip. The Spider’s suspension is actually pretty good, but my right hip has over the past few years, gotten worse and worse and I was in pain whenever I walked for any distance. 

Now when I first started feeling pain in the hip, I decided I wanted to continue with the OEM parts as long as I could so I started using a cane when I walked outside and if I knew the walk was going to be long, I started taking an Ibuprofen before I left. I walked over 300 km while in France in 2022 and then when we went Toronto I managed to put over 600 km on the worn out suspension bits. I was in some discomfort, but I continued to do my walks and managed walks of over 10 km on occasion. 

However, on a visit to my family doctor when I walked in with my cane, she questioned me about it and told me that if I was needing the cane, then I really should be assessed and get on a list for a replacement. This actually did not take as long as I expected and I got a referral for an Xray of my hips and an appointment to the orthopaedic clinic for an assessment.

On the day of the assessment, the doctor sat me down and showed me my XRay. He pointed out that my left hip was in great shape with a nice layer of white lubricating cartilage supporting the joint, but he then pointed to the right hip and said “This side is completely worn out - You need a new hip. You are a serious candidate for hip replacement surgery. Let me know if you want to go onto a list for the procedure.”

This was before we moved to Toronto for our downsizing experiment, so I did not want to make a decision yet and I said I would hold off for a while and see how I made out. However in Toronto, we did not have our daily driver Toyota Camary, so wherever we went involved walking and public transit. I still managed over 600 km, but I could feel the hip complaining more and more and when it reached the point that is became really painful to walk up stairs and slopes, I decided that the time had arrived for an upgrade. 

Bringing the Alfa Home

A second assessment with the clinic and the doctor got me on a list for a hip replacement and I was told that I should receive a date within a few months. The wait was actually quite short and I got a call to say that my surgery was scheduled for August 29th at the Dartmouth General. We decided to drive the Spider back to Dartmouth as I had lost its parking spot under the condo,  and I started diligently doing the suggested recovery exercises to strengthen the muscles around the hip. I was actually disappointed that no one told me earlier to do these exercises, because they actually gave some relief from the pain as the muscles got stronger. 

Now of course there are always problems. My recovery nurse, Regis, came down with painful bone spurs on her foot and  she was put into a “Boot” which meant she could no longer drive and even walking was painful. So plans were changed and I arranged for a friend to fly to Toronto to help me drive the Spider back and Regis would fly home later.  This added a complication as she was supposed to be my “support” person but she couldn’t walk or drive, so we had to enlist the help of our daughter to do the driving and some of the early recovery care. I am surprised I was still allowed to proceed with the surgery with my recovery nurse hobbling around worse than I was when we attended a last assessment appointment and the pre-surgery orientation class. 

The actual surgery went well, but I woke up feeling pretty groggy and the nurse attending told me that was probably because I was put under extra anesthetic because although I had a spinal injection, the surgeon did not like it when I said “Ouch, that hurts!” when he did his initial incision, so I was given additional enthusiastic to knock me further under so he could work without me complaining. 

In Recovery

I am now into the fifth week of recovery and I feel I am doing great. I have no pain, and I am walking around without a cane inside and although I use a cane when walking outside I do not really need it. So, I am well on my way to nice upgraded replacement components that should allow me to continue my walking without the pain, and I am looking forward to this. 

Finally Outside

Getting back to "normal"

Driving

I have two cars, one a 2014, Toyota Camary Hybrid, the other a classic 1982 Alfa Romeo Spider. The Camary is my daily driver and is the car I use the most. The Spider is a classic and registered as an “Antique Auto”, so is only supposed to be driven for special events. 

A Condo dwelling Alfa

When we moved to Toronto for our downsizing experiment we elected to leave the Camary behind and the Spider was put on a trailer and towed to Toronto behind a U-Haul containing our downsized life. The plan was to use public transit to explore Toronto and if we really needed a car, our son lives close by and his car was available if needed. I joined the Toronto Alfa Romeo car club, and I looked forward to getting together with other Alfa enthusiasts for classic car events. This plan worked exceptionally well; we became experts in getting around the city on subway, streetcars, busses and trains, we used our son’s car for trips out of the city and the Spider was so pleased to go on drives surrounded by other classic Italian automobiles. 

All good things do however eventually come to a conclusion and we will be moving back to Nova Scotia, convinced now that we can downsize to an apartment or condo, so the Spider would have to be taken back to it’s comfortable garage behind our house in Dartmouth. The parking spot under the condo we were renting did not belong to the condo we were in so it was rented from another resident who was not using it, but they informed us that they were selling the condo so would probably need the spot back, and searches for another spot in the parking garage did not get any results, so another solution was needed. 

When I got the good news that I was scheduled to finally get a new right hip at the end of the month the solution for the Spider presented itself. We would drive it back to Nova Scotia rather than flying. The Spider is an old vehicle and I felt it was important to have it checked out by George, a skilled and trusted  Italian mechanic to make sure the car was up to the 1700 km drive, and he gave the little convertible a thumbs up. 

We were concerned about driving the car that distance because it is old and has none of the creature comforts we were used to having for extended journeys; no cruise control, no air conditioning, no power steering and very limited luggage space. On the plus side, the Spider is known for being one of the most comfortable of the 1980 era sports cars, and on the drives we had done, my six foot frame was always comfortable. But I was going home for a hip replacement and one of my knees often objected to long drives. We looked at the route from Toronto and decided to take it slow, breaking the 1700 km drive into five days, stopping to visit friends and visit favourite locations along the way. 

Although the Spider’s trunk contained a basic tool kit of wrenches and socket sets, another wrench was thrown into our plans when my wife developed a painful foot issue and was diagnosed with bone spurs on her achilles, so was warned to stay off the foot and was given a big plastic boot to allow recovery. I had lost my co-driver! Fortunately a phone call to a good friend back in Nova Scotia provided not only a co-driver but also a skilled mechanic, so the plan was back on track. 

A one-way flight to Toronto brought my willing driving companion to the big city and the five day plan was revised to a three day drive. We checked weather and decided on safe dates to leave to get sunny weather, for the Spider convertible does not particularly like driving in the rain. 

Hey, where did the rain come from?

The drive went very well, but the weather did not cooperate and we ended up driving one whole day through heavy rain, and the convertible top only came down for the last hours drive, but the experience got me thinking about the whole driving experience. We drove three days through some miserable rain in a little car with no AC, cruise control, stereo system, or power steering and a leaky convertible top, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We discovered that we could not really carry on a conversation because both of us are slightly hard of hearing and the car is quite noisy, but the drive still went very well. We did not get tired, and my hip or knee did not object and my friend’s sore back actually got better over the drive; we were comfortable and finished up each day with a smile. How is that possible?

A wet rainy drive through Quebec

I decided the answer was that we actually were doing something that new fancy vehicles isolate you from; we were DRIVING, really driving the whole time. We are both “Gear Heads”, so driving a classic sports car was enjoyable and the effortless steering, mind numbing cruise control and surround sound entertainment systems were not there to distract us from the actual driving experience. As you passed the many tractor trailers, you are literally lower than their tires and you could count the lug nuts on the wheels as you went by. You had to shift the gears up and down and as you steered the car through the corners, you could feel the tires and the suspension doing its work. The little two litre dual overhead cam engine and the European exhaust system was as good as an expensive sound system to two aged car guys. I have driven this route many times over the past 20 years and always got lulled into a tired sleepy state after a few hours, but this time the little car kept us alert and happy as we actually enjoyed driving. 

Some "top-down" driving

Finally the sun came out

Dirty with road grime but home safely

More Street Art

The street art here in Toronto really is amazing. Every time I go out I discover more beautiful art on the streets of the city. During my walks, I am often distracted by art down alleyways and side streets. Here are some of the latest examples I have photographed. 

Caught an artist at work

The mops were not part of the art, but I felt they added something to it

I like when so many elements are painted over