Roaming around in Toronto

Thursday night to York Memorial Collegiate Institute by bus to see Mark Cullen, gardening pundit on TV and radio. What a pleasure - an old fashioned school built in the thirties with an auditorium that would seat 650 - only nine provincial shields above the stage - must have predated Newfoundland joining the Confederation.
The school reminded me of when I was a kid but on a grander scale - the war memorials and the sports trophy cabinets were there - and the present generation of pupils had laid on a fundraiser for their York Memorial Courtyard Rejuvenation Project. The bakesale was well received - coffee and cookies before going into the hall.
Cullen is an accomplished public speaker good at projecting gardening for the layman - inspiring for beginners like us. "Never design a garden that is too big for your wife to maintain."
On Friday we took the subway downtown to St Lawrence Market - a quick trip to the market gallery above the market which stages school visits on the history of Toronto. The current exhibition featured poster art from the Canadian National Exhibition of the fifties and sixties - interesting to see the old acts that appeared there, including Bob Hope, and many other "internationally famous" acts that I'd never heard of. Returned on the King Street street car changing at Roncesvalles - passed by the new wind turbine at the CNE, which was turning merrily, generating clean electricity.
Yesterday to Weall and Cullen on Dundas Street West - home of the gardening advisor - and booked an appointment for a landscaper to look over our rather tired garden. Roll on spring.