Taste of the Danforth

Even the street signs are in Greek

As I mentioned in my post on Caribana, summer in Toronto is jam-packed with festivals and events.  One that I really looked forward to visiting this year is 'Taste of the Danforth'.  A street festival in the Greek part of town, along the Danforth avenue in Toronto's East End, it apparently attracts over 1 million  visitors over a 3-day period and is Toronto's largest street festival.  I have fond memories of visiting back when I was in Canada before starting University - traditional dancing and plate smashing in the street, delicious smells of souvlaki and gyros cooking on grills outside, munching on roasted corn as you walk the 2k stretch of closed off street.......    So understandably I was keen to visit this year.  Maria, aka Pippi, had arrived just days before and we thought it would be a great day out for us all.  Disappointingly though, it rained pretty much all day.  Maria seemed to have brought the terrible English weather with her because, despite having a long, hot, summer since June, with a heatwave to boot, the skies were grey.  And it was really quite miserable.  We did have fun though.  We ate huge souvlaki buns, laughed until our bellies hurt at Ben going into the Zombie tent by himself and getting a bit of a fright, and browsing the stalls and shops.  It wasn't quite how I'd remembered it, and there were much less people - mostly due to the fact that the weather was rubbish, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

since watching 'Brave', Jasmine is really into bows and arrows - and is pretty good!

roasting quail

rain, rain go away!

Family picnic

A reunion of sorts. We gathered from 4 countries to enjoy food and games in the park.  It was really good to catch up with family that I haven't seen in years - some as long as 13 years!!!

uncle Daryl and his wife and daughter, Karen and Ella

my cousin Caleb playing croquet with Ben and Jas

the 'Oldies' playing the traditional Caribbean pass-time of dominoes :-)

not sure what happened her, but Natasha (my dad's cousin) seems to have smelled something and Adele (dad's sister) can't contain her laughter! Behind me is my dad's cousin Vinette, to her right is Adele's friend from Montreal, then Natasha and bottom right, my aunt Colleen (Caleb's mum)

all the kids eating nicely

Down on the farm

As those of you who know me well will already know, I am obsessed love food.  I like planning menus for the week (even if I don't always then follow them), I like to read recipes (even if I don't always then follow them), I finish one meal and I am thinking about what to cook or create for the next.  I do a culinary tour of the world each week - Mexican, Thai, Caribbean, Italian, Indian, Chinese, English, Middle Eastern..... I cook them all, constantly looking out for and sourcing the most authentic ingredients.  I also like to look out for ethical and local food where possible.  But 'local' might be stretching it a little on my most recent adventure in my quest for the best quality food for my family, even if it ticked all the ethical boxes.  On my insistence  we hired a care and drove out to rural Ontario (St Thomas to be precise).  A mere 2hrs and 17 mins according to google (though it takes longer when you get a bit confused with the directions) to buy organic chicken, organic eggs, and organic, grass-fed beef.

Anyway, my argument for this madcap adventure, that saw Sofia go ballistic both directions, was that not only was the chicken free range, organic, cheaper than it's Toronto equivalent and fresh (as in slaughtered only the day before we picked it up), but it would give the kids a chance to get out of the city and reconnect with the countryside.  And I was right.  They loved being in the wide open space.  They loved meeting the baby chicks - even though they knew that they would face the same fate as the chicken in the boxes that we had come to collect.  And Jasmine was only a little worried to hear how the chickens are killed and made ready for customers - well, she did ask!  I think it's an important lesson.  If you are going to eat meat, you should know how and where we get it from.

the highlight of our trip however, was the appearance of the dreaded 'Golden Rooster'.  There were signs around the farm warning not to approach it if it should appear.  And appear it did.  And it puffed out it's chest and started to inch closer, and closer, and closer..... until the farmer decided it was close enough and chased it off with a switch made from some long grass!  What a spectacle that was!

The infamous Golden Rooster

beautiful, open countryside

baby chicks!

baby turkeys

Lake Ontario

Just a beautiful, scenic 30-40 minute walk through High Park, and we are on the shores of one of the great Lakes.  I often run along the shore as part of my weekly long, slow, runs (part of my half marathon training), so I have seen it at, what I consider, the most beautiful time.  Sunrise.  When the water is smooth as glass, and the sky above is pink and grey and orange.  But it is almost equally breath-taking during a hot summer's day.  Whatever time of day, I love the sense of serenity that walking/running along the shoreline gives me.  Benjamin and Jasmine are convinced that it is the ocean, as the water stretches as far as the eye can see.  I can certainly see why they think that.

Inukshuks standing watch

Ben's Inukshuk that he added to the collection

Nick

Caribana!

Summer in Toronto is 3-4 months of festivals and celebration.  And none is bigger or more anticipated than the annual Caribana festival. The largest Caribbean carnival in North America, it is a two week long celebration of all things Caribbean.  It culminates on the first Saturday in August with a day-long parade.

This year was HOT as usual, and we walked along the lake to the thick of the parade, where we then ate jerk chicken, curry goat and rice and peas - staples!  After that we climbed over the fence separating the parade and Mas bands from the crowds, and danced to the sound systems.  When we were ready to make our way home, we simply followed a sound system, dancing along behind it as it made it's way west along the Lake shore - our direction home.  We made it home just as the skies opened and let out a torrent of rain.

The kids LOVED all the costumes and dancing and managed to accumulate quite a large collection of costume pieces that had been discarded or had fallen off along the route - ironic really as when I had asked either of them if they wanted to join a Mas band for the carnival parade, neither was interested!

Proudly displaying my Kittitian heritage! Gwarrrn St Kitts!

Nick tries his luck :-)

Stunning costumes......

scaling the fence to get closer to the parade

check out the size of that soundsystem! Sofia enjoyed it more than this picture implies :-D

tired after a long day

My Boy Ben

Who is growing up faster than I can keep track of.  He is a proper boy - wakes up before anyone else to play on the XBox 360, spends most of his other waking hours deciding what super power he would have or what magical world he'd create - or making up (unfortunately not very funny!) jokes.  He never walks if he can run or climb and he is an avid reader.  He loves (very plain) hot dogs, chips, cookies, fried chicken and chinese buffets (?!), but hates fish, tomatoes and cheese (and therefore pizza).  Pleasingly he does like healthy dishes too like chickpea curries with roti, vegetable stews and homemade tostadas.

His school reports are never less than glowing and he loves reading about amazing facts.  When he grows up he wants to be a traveller and a footballer (though I think he'd have way more success with the former as he is often 'distracted' during a game by thoughts of super powers, magic kingdoms and the like).

He is a very caring big brother - mostly to Sofia though as he finds Jasmine a bit annoying.  He is very helpful around the house and quite neat and tidy for a boy.  Though if you let him off bathing for the week he wouldn't protest.... And if there is something to fall over - even fresh air, rest assured Ben will fall over it :-)

I love my daydreaming, tumbling, caring, computer mad son!

Biscuits and babies

Me: Sofia, say 'cookie'

Sofia: 'We wee'

Me: Say 'coo-kie'

Sofia: 'We wee'

Me: Ok, say 'biscuit'

Me: 'Bis-cuit'

Sofia: 'Bee bee'

Me: 'Biccie?'

Sofia 'Bee bee'

Me: here, have the bee bee

With her dolls, also known as 'Bee Bee' (baby!)