sweet thing(s)

the Island: save Far Enough Farm

 

the Island: Spring Equinox bonfire

every year our community celebrates the Spring Equinox with a bonfire on the beach.  we save our Christmas trees and burn them to usher in the new season.

trees are hung at the Ward's Ferry circle a few days before- letting us all know that spring is almost here

image via Claudette Abrams

at 7:00 we gather for a bit of drumming and then proceed to the beach, dragging our trees in a strange procession of children, dogs, and people drumming and playing instruments.

choose a tree and throw it on the fire

until it's blazing

bonfire images via Claudette Abrams (thanks Claudette!!)

Happy Spring!!

the Island: some of my favourite houses

 

the Island: a brief history

you may see in the description of my blog that i write about urban Island living.  in case you're new here...  

I live in a very wonderful and unusual community on Toronto Island- a 10 minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto.  

image via

We are approximately 750 people living in 262 houses on one end of a long skinny island in Toronto Harbour.  The remaining 90% of the Island is a city park- large expanses of grass, trees and beaches. Our Island is car-free except for the occasional service vehicles (park maintenence, garbage trucks, deliveries).   Most of us use bikes and carts to get our groceries etc on the mainland.  (here's how i get groceries)  Our houses are small and close together, but we generally like it like that.  We lease the land from the city, but we own our houses.  Our houses are part of a community land trust (here's a decent explanation of how it works) and are bought and sold at replacement cost value.  if you want to read more blog posts about our Island life- go here.  Or especially this post about our community- one of my favourites.

the Island community of today is much different, and smaller, than it used to be.  There used to be a real whole town on the Island- with hotels, stores, a baseball stadium (where Babe Ruth hit his first run!)

attractions like a diving horse and amusement rides

from The Place of My Dreams by Delwyn Higgens:

In the early decades of this century, there were houses at Hanlan's Point and Centre Island in addition to those at Ward's Island and, later, Algonquin Island. Residents numbered in the thousands and there were many more commercial establishments serving the community and visitors than there are today.

Michael O'Connor opened the Island's first hotel in 1833. He catered to the growing number of Torontonians seeking an escape from city life. For these people the Island was a place where they could relax with long walks and sporting events or dance and socialize. Even in winter, people came to fish, skate and sail their iceboats. By the late 1870s, Hanlan's Point had become the "Coney Island of Canada" with a vaudeville theatre, dance halls and a large amusement park. In 1897, a baseball and lacrosse stadium was built on the site of the present-day Island Airport. It was here that Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run! And it was during this time that numerous cottages began to appear, as city residents embraced the landscape and lifestyle of the Island. By the turn of the century, Hanlan's Point had grown to be a "summer suburb of the city" and this it remained for more than 50 years.

Similarly, Centre Island was once home to many people and to businesses of every description: a pharmacy, a "Parisien" laundry, a movie theatre and a barber shop, among others. Cherokee, Mohawk and Shiawassie Avenues were just three of the sites of homes described as "new antique" and "Venetian inspired," bordering as they did on the Island's lagoon system. It was here, and especially on the lakefront, that large Victorian summer homes were built by Toronto's leading families seeking refuge from the summer heat and proximity to the Royal Canadian Yacht Club.

The part of the Island we live in is called Ward's Island.  The houses on Ward's today are mostly small cottages that were built from the seasonal tents of the early 1900s- the low-rent summer vacation places.  Again, from Delwyn:

The Ward's Island community began in the 1880s as a settlement of tents. A writer for the Ward's Island Weekly reports that the intent of campers was to "keep it simple." Residents envisaged a "city" of tents, each having a slight individuality, yet standing together as a whole. The first summer colony on Ward's in 1899 consisted of just eight tenants, each of whom had paid a fee of $10 ground rent for the season. By 1913, the number of tents pitched had increased to the point where the city felt it necessary to organize the community into streets. The evolution from tents to cottage structures progressed in stages with the building of floors, the addition of kitchens and then porches, resulting in the creation of the homes you see today.

This is an aerial view from 1911:

Our house (well, the tent where our house now stands) is the 3rd house up from the left-hand corner!

this is our street in 1929

and here are some Ward's Islanders back in the day.  people built kitchen sheds onto the backs of their tents.  You can see the tent roof rising up behind the shed roof in this photo.

so what happened to the thousands of residents, shops, hotels and attractions?

With the establishment of Metro Toronto Council in 1953 came a radical change in policy toward the Toronto Islands landscape and its residents. Following in the footsteps of Robert Moses, chairman Fred Gardiner wasted no time in instituting the "modernization" of the area. With the transfer of Island lands and leases by the City to Metro came the rapid removal of businesses and the systematic demolition and burning of homes. With the last of the Lakeshore houses gone by 1968, residents on Ward's and Algonquin Islands rose up in protest. The fight to save their community lasted over 20 years until the 1993 establishment of the Toronto Islands Residential Community Trust and the procurement of 99-year land leases for residents. 

Someday i'll write about the "Save Island Homes" 20-year-long protest- for which i am eternally thankful.

For the next Island Life post, I'll show you some of my favourite Island houses.

This was a wordy post but I hope you enjoyed a bit of Island history!

(all the photos were from the City of Toronto archives, via)

the Island: Lagoon Report

my neighbour Sean Tamblyn has an amazing website of his Toronto Island photography:

Lagoon Report- the hidden side of the Toronto Islands

today he posted a video of the lake during our recent high winds- a dramatic montage of what could be the ocean- click on the photo to watch it on his site

and while you're there- check out some of the Island wildlife- birds galore, beavers, foxes, coyote, amphibians.

amazing to think we have all these critters so near to the city!

some of my favourites:

the Island: community pebble mosaic project

the image in my new banner (look up!) is of houses and bikes and bike carts from our Island- showcased in an amazing pebble mosaic newly installed in front of our community clubhouse.  

the mosaic project was spearheaded by my neighbour, artist Kathleen Doody, who drew in lots of other community members for the creation and installation of this gorgeous work.  (the project and how-to's are documented here)  (kathleen instructed me in this method for our garden stones we made last year)

east view:

west view:

the Island: winter beach days

the Island: Toronto Island Tree Tour

if you live in Toronto or are visiting, this is an interesting, fun, and different way to get to know the Island.  Our wonderful Toronto Island Park supervisor organized a map showing the what and where of 57 different tree varieties on the Island.  Each tree is labelled with its common and Latin name, family and origin. 

Asa under a  European ash Fraxinus excelsior

Lee looking at a Big-leaf linden Tilia platyphyllos

you can download this map here

happy tree walking!

hero

if you can take 5 minutes to watch this video i think you'll be glad you did.  

today is the national Terry Fox Run day.  This weekend on the Island we had a Terry Fox run and also a swim, a soccer game and a baseball game.  Terry Fox is a Canadian icon and hero- for those of you who don't know who he was, here's an introduction from the Terry Fox website:

Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, a community near Vancouver on Canada's west coast. An active teenager involved in many sports, Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) and forced to have his right leg amputated 15 centimetres (six inches) above the knee in 1977.

While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

He would call his journey the Marathon of Hope.

It was a journey that Canadians never forgot.

After 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometres (3,107 miles) to prepare, Terry started his run in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 with little fanfare. Although it was difficult to garner attention in the beginning, enthusiasm soon grew, and the money collected along his route began to mount. He ran 42 kilometres (26 miles) a day through Canada's Atlantic provinces, Quebec and Ontario. However, on September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at the age 22.

The heroic Canadian was gone, but his legacy was just beginning.

To date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.

I started running for real 2 years ago for the Terry Fox run.  A friend had died from cancer a week before and i wanted to do something hard- so I ran the 10K- twice as far as I had ever run previously.  I got hooked on running and now i am training for my second half-marathon.  I am still pretty slow, and I find running hard, but every time i think it's hard i think of Terry Fox running a marathon a day on one leg and I keep going.  

Tonight as everyone else was palying krokonole i read this book by Douglas Coupland Terry: Terry Fox and His Marathon of Hope and tried not to cry too loudly. Not because i was necessarily sad about Terry or anyone else who has died of cancer, but because i was so moved by the monumentality and selflessness of his Marathon of Hope.

Terry Fox is a real hero.

the Island: hooping and stilting

**as the school year starts, and we settle in from our summer travels, i am trying to get myself organized again- including returning to this space.  So, hi!!  I wrote this post a month ago but here it is now.  A taste of summer as the air is getting cooler!

with Shadowland

the director of this Island theatre group leads a year round weekly session for kids 10 and up- "Island young people participate in weekly theatre sessions in acting, improvisation, stiltwalking, acrobatics, video making and music"  How cool is that?

(if you are in Toronto, there is a show coming up on the Island- Hansel and Gretel- sadly we will miss it) **I heard it was fantastic!

In the summer it's outdoors and mainly stiltwalking.  maybe my boy will take after his uncle

the Island: Fire Parade

every year on the Island, our community celebrates with a homecoming weekend- Gala Weekend.  (i've written about it before here and here)  A fun-filled weekend of old friends and neighbours coming together, music, beer garden, midway games, baseball, soccer and bingo!   Gala Weekend is kicked off with the Fire Parade.  Another unusual Island tradition, we meet up at dusk- sometimes there's a little show with stilt walkers or other performers- and parade with lanterns through the streets of Ward's Island to the sounds of the Island band the Arythmics.  we end up on the beach with a bonfire and more drumming.  Here are some photos from this year's Fire Parade:

{this moment}

inspired by Soulemama's 'blog-along' Friday ritual:

from Soulemama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

 

the Island: first beach day of summer

 

 

wow it was great!

we've always liked going to the beach, but since having kids i've always found it a little less than relaxing.  but NOW! for the first time the youngest is old enough that she is steady on her feet, reasonably sensible about the water, doesn't eat sand or small stones, and loves to play in the sand and splash in the water.  and the oldest just love ALL aspects of the water and the sand. and i actually got to read the Style section of the paper and the July Martha Stewart Living.

i picture a long lovely summer just here!

{this moment}

inspired by Soulemama's 'blog-along' Friday ritual:

from Soulemama:  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

dirty feet, or sticky bud season

this is what we have been dealing with on a daily basis from our barefoot-loving Island children:

on the Island we are surrounded by poplar trees (also called cottonwoods)  

Poplars are prolific in their output of organic matter.  every spring, first come the purple worms (seed pods) staining the sidewalks:

(image via)

and then the sticky buds (what we call them- resinous seed pod cases) and then the fluff (i'll post pictures in a few weeks- just wait!!)  they are beautiful trees and interesting in their output- but hell if you are trying to keep your house or clothes or feet sticky bud free.  (here's a cool post with lots of botanical info about the tree)

if you look at the photo above, all that black goo on Asa's feet is poplar resin that has to be removed with rubbing alcohol!!  they stain your clothes if you come into contact with them (many Islanders have yellow spots on the bum of their pants from the sticky buds)  Asa and Maxine insist on going barefoot whenever they're outside, but i don't want them in the house with their feet like this so it is a constant battle of washing the STICKY BUD FEET!!  

but, thankfully, it lasts for only a few weeks.  and also thanks to my man for discovering that rubbing alcohol will remove the goo!  

schoolyard naturalization project

well, it's not actually Asa's schoolyard but the parkland adjacent to it.  his school is in the middle of a giant park and the kids use the land all around to play on (how great is that?)

some parents had organized the City Parks department to come out and help the kids plant native trees and bushes in the area.  Maxine and i helped too.

the highlights for Maxine were the stylish gardening gloves she got to use and a cute Parks employee she was shoveling mulch with.  (i'm not joking!)

the great cat rescue!

my friend Mitch spotted this cat in trouble as we rode down the boardwalk this morning:

it was meowing like crazy, on an outcrop of rocks about 15 feet from the boardwalk

(the cat was very far from dry land at the lake level.  unless the cat swam a long way from the beach, it must have gone over the wall.  from the boardwalk wall down to the water is about 10 feet. )

Mitch went (somewhere) and got a ladder.  It didn't quite reach but the cat was more than happy to leap to the bottom of the ladder.

a happy ending!

Easter eggs

 

as is our annual tradition, the kids, my mother-in-law and I dyed eggs for the Bunny to hide in the meadow on Easter morning

we decorated over 4 dozen eggs! 

i didn't get any good shots of the kids hunting this year- but here's a post from another year about the annual Island event. 

I hope your Easter/Passover weekend was good! 

(for those of you who asked, Friday's {this moment} photo was from our extended family Seder- the ritual handwashing)

the Island: March break

everyone is back in school now but i thought i'd share a few snaps from March break on the Island.  (we got away in February to Florida.  I never did post any trip pictures, did I?  maybe i will still sometime...)

(and you may have noticed, Maxine got her hair cut!)

i hope your March break was good too!

the Island: Spring Equinox celebration

sign photo from Hanne W.- thanks!

(as I write this, there is 4 inches of snow outside my window, and it's still falling.  but, happy spring anyway!)

i am ever aware of the rhythm and cyclical nature of life as i get older. 

there is the passage of time in our family: i can look back at the kids' birthdays and birthday parties over the years, the first days of school, Christmas jammies in front of the tree.  there is also the rhythm of our Island community life.  I have blogged about many Island annual events here- The Fire Parade and Gala Weekend, the Christmas Boutique, the Easter egg hunt, and the Spring Equinox Bonfire. 

it is so nice for the kids (well, for everyone really!) to have these community traditions.  each year they see how they have grown from one year to the next- getting a bit more independent, participating in a different way.  At the Bonfire this year: the boys and their friends merrily dragged trees all the way to the beach, Asa and his friend were big enough this year to throw a tree on the fire, Maxine enthusiastically blew her whistle with the band, Lee stayed at the fire with his friend when I brought the littler ones home.  i hear a lot of "Remember last year, Mama?"

here is the Spring Bonfire- in words, pictures and video, this year and years past:

this is one of my favourite island events- the spring equinox celebration.  we all save our christmas trees and burn them in a huge bonfire with drumming and merry-making.  a week or so before the event, some trees are hung near the ferry docks, reminding us as we arrive on the island that spring is indeed on its way.

we gather just before dusk on the first day of spring with our trees and parade to the beach- about a 5-10 minute slow walk.

i am moved by this event, so much, every year.  i love the rhythm of the drumming and the ridiculous procession,  dragging our old Christmas trees down the sidewalk.   i love how our community has these crazy traditions that we all count on and look forward to.  and i love marking the changing of the seasons in such an earthy pagan-like way. 

now with all this snow i guess i'll have to go back to dreaming about spring for a few more days. 

a special note: thanks for the lovely comments on my last post!  you guys are great!  maybe it's the change in season, or your support, or just getting that stuff out there- but i feel renewed!

the Island: cold snap

the Island: sledding and the fox

we went to Centreville today!  Not a usual winter destination, but home of the only hill on the Island (an artificial one at that- it's on top of the tunnel the train goes through)

the boys fought for the first 1/2 hour but they got over it and a lovely time was had by all.  (Even Maxine- who doesn't usually like walking around outside in the winter, or really even the summer actually.  I've discovered she LOVES the snow.)

on the way home, we saw the fox that has been hanging around the Island for the last few weeks.  we stopped and it stopped and we all just looked at each other for a few minutes.  Of course my camera battery had died while we were out sledding so I'll share with you this gorgeous photo that my neighbour Sean Tamblyn shot of him. (lots more of the fox here)

it's amazing how frequently we are seeing the fox around.  there has been a bit of debate in our community as to whether it's a good thing or a bad thing to have the fox around.  some people are worried about cats getting killed.  of course i would be so sad if anything happened to our cats, but a part of me thinks that we can't control nature.  (plus, if you look at Sean's other photos, the fox doesn't seem too interested in cats!!)  the kids and I have seen the fox a number of times now.  every time we go out now we look for him.

i'm so glad it finally snowed, and i am so glad to have this bit of wild in our lives.

the Island: ice skating

the Island: the stork

photo credit: Anthea Baxter-Page

in our community we have a large wooden stork that magically appears in front of your house after a baby is born!  when i was researching the the origin of the stork, one neighbour commented that "people are glad to have it and really happy when finally another baby is born on the island and they can forward it." (!!) 

here it is in front of our house when Lee was born:

and in front of our friends' sailboat when their baby was born:

I finally tracked down its origin.  this is what the woman who brought it to Island said:

I brought the stork to the Island 17 years ago when baby Berkley was born. That would make it Nov. 1993. The year before that a tenant had left it in my farmhouse in N. when they moved. At that time it was simply plain white with a bigger hanging basket. The artistic Island touches have made it much more attractive these days! I suspect that the original basket may still be on the Island somewhere. One very snowy season it got buried in a backyard & I brought the stork back without the basket.  The stork has had a lovely, long Island history hasn't it? The credit for starting the tradition of passing it on should go to whoever used it after Berkley's birth. 

On it went for there!

 

monkey business

this boy who loves monkeys

made t-shirts (with my help!- here's my easy silkscreening tutorial)

to sell at our Island Christmas Boutique! (blogged about here and here in past years)

fun!

ps- here's a recent painting by Asa- the title is "Monkeys Make Me Joyful"