Hiking in our own urban backyard

This Victoria Day long weekend kinda caught us by surprise. Queen Victoria was born on May 24, and the holiday is unofficially referred to here in Canada as "The May Two-Four", as in the large case of beer. This year, however, the weekend started on the 19th and felt way too early for May 2-4, so we didn't think to make plans. Sometimes, being able to wake up on Saturday morning and ask yourself "What do I want to do today?" is exactly what you need.

This weekend has been a mix of extreme sadness and much needed quiet. The sadness came in the form of the death of a great friend's mother. That's all I will mention about it here. The rest of the weekend was a mix of activities that got our minds off the bustle of last week.

Saturday, we had a nice brunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant down the road, where we fed sparrows some chips and bread on the back patio. After brunch, we walked towards Castle Frank Road, entered an urban park system and hiked for a few hours. I'd never been through these parks before, and was really surprised at how far removed from the city they felt, though they were just tucked in behind some of the city's busiest roads. You can see on the map below the green space where we walked – we walked the ravine to the west, came back and went slightly north to the Don Valley Brick Works, and back south to Bloor-Danforth.


And of course we brought our cameras!

Blossoms in the sun



Dandelion, close up. I've always loved dandelions and never understood what people had against them.



Some huge mushrooms growing on a tree stump



Happy hikers!



Don Valley Brick Works

On Sunday, it was a day of spring cleaning – laundry, sweeping, washing, cleaning. We removed the slip cover from the damaged couch (which I complained about here) and beat the cushions to release the settled dust. After taking a good long look at the couch sans cover, we made a decision to leave the cover off and temporarily cover up the arms. I ripped apart the small side cushions that came with the couch (which we never use) and figured out a way to attach the fabric to the arms. But, needing a curved sewing needle, I had to pop out to Fabricland to find a needle and some fabric to make new side cushions that we'll actually use. A little digging in the remnants bin produced not only some beautiful silver-grey fabric for cushions, but 2 rolls of dark blue fabric that matched the colour of the couch perfectly and that was longer and wider than the repurposed fabric I'd ripped apart earlier! For less than $10!

The fabric covered beautifully (it looks less lumpy in person than it does in this photo). So far, we've only completed 1 arm, but I plan to do the next one some time this week.

Today, we had a great lazy day, watching Of Mice and Men, doing a little clothes shopping at the Eaton Centre, filling our tummies with Indian Food, and some more movie-watching. I expect even more lazing about, ending with the season finale of 24!