2024 January 1st - December 31st Toronto and environs - Home 👍

 2024 January 1st - December 31st Toronto and environs - Home

A walk on the warm side
The Music Gardens on the Bathurst Quay
gives me some hope

Dateline: 2024 December 31st Toronto, Ontario

This trips travelling map 

Just another year, Family, friends etc

January - December 2024

Now where were we?

We had a chaotic blast 
and Korean BBQ for 
New Year

New years residue

And that's all folks
Finally, everyone's gone 
and reality sets in again

It's winter, deep, so even the National Levee is a welcomed respite from reality

More of the same, the annual boat show
Massive amounts of power boats and power
I just need a weather jacket for sailing

Spring, or just a great day
for a walk?
Nah! Still January

Fixing the back patio last year, I ripped my
gut, so I'm at Sholdice for a very early stake out

I guess winter has some pretty moments

Just getting home, view
over the Humber river

Grenadier pond, mid February walkabout

Still February, still biking

No such thing as snow this year

And March 1st

More March on another walk downtown

Looks like the library is 
popular or there's a lot of
unwanted Christmas books

Trumpeters, lots on Tommy Thompson bike ride, mid March

Something stirs, but far too early

Same stuff, different year
Pre bud

My x-country skiis are at
the ready,
but no takers this year

The shed saga continues
I've bought a pile of lumber and fencing poles
I`m pushing my dangling guts luck by shifting
everything around, again

With a lot of ingenuity and a long pole for
leverage, it works, and moves

Toronto's best Ramen, so
far. This one, Kinton in
Liberty Village

I guess this is clearing the decks

April dawns, grey and cold

Rus connected me with

Devon.

Here's the goods for the

extended patio out back

Rus in attendance as Devon manhandles the

new shed site into a new shed base

April 8th, total eclipse, nearly,
totally cloud logged

Last one of these was in Kenya in 1980
This one was much colder, but didn't
need to be careful of lions this time

Who is that svelte, handsome fellow
in too revealing shorts?

Mum & Dad slipping into colonial mode. C1980

Probably the only total eclipse I'll ever see
February 16th., 1980

Meanwhile, back in the real world
Spot spring yet?

Ah. Where was I?

I had designed the new shed to just fit in
the space around the trees. Here with new base

Oh well, looks like I'm not heading
into ski season anymore

And the Canadian sun appears, finally again.

Yep, real grass growing again. Mid April

Here beginneth the Europe trek

And of course, with supreme expectations,
I return to sailing

And I'm back into almost summer

Warm enough for naked legs

Now to scrap my trusty old shed
This one was part of the original house purchase so it owes no one anything

Suitably supervised, I'm onto it

I'd advertised it as a shed, but of course, no one in their right mind would want this old crap
Eventually I advertised as scrap, and it was gone in 3 hours

Something stirs in the Distillery

Some itinerant chancer knocked
at the door and told me my
chimney needed pointing "for 500 quid"
Yeah, right

Could it be summer set up?

I head out to
Charlottetown and minister
to the needs of the living

Patty, a long time friend back from my original gigging days, is close to death. 

Well, partially living. She said she hated waking up every day

So, after 4 days of providing sustenance to all,
and having a blazing break up with Kayla,
I bid a fond farewell, for ever to Pat
Being able to say goodbye was and will always
be, a real  necessity for me

I found Barkley to fix
it professionally

Back in the world of the living, it's "sailpast"
which wasn't as it was "too rough"
We strut our stuff

Barclay is just the guy I need to finish the sun room roof
It tok Kayla and I a full day to do 1/3 of it, Barclay does the rest in 5 hours

We are now sailing 3 times
a week

With the sailing season comes.....
Jim's world famous banana, walnut cranberry bread. A popular treat for the crew apparently

I've convinced Ian to go for broke with 3 sailings a week, and as often as possible 

At weekends

 in the Ahmen and regatta races.
We are exhausted after 2 weeks of this

Managing expectation, I start on the shed

First, reinforce the roof, dismantle the side
(part of my master design)
and drag past the trees

And the RYC regatta
Here "ladies night" at RYC
Anna and Mosann

Post regatta at the RYC club. Quite the really bad disappointment with several thinga..... Oh well, I'm useful as I double as cloths stand

I've kept the timber and posts I used to move
the old shed. With Aiden's help, it works a treat
I have 2 days to spare to return all bits
for a full refund

Life slips back into it's now totally normality 

Retirement grove, or is that groove?
Cool hair do Bro

This will look familiar to our regular readers

This is what I'm aiming for

A fully functional back patio nook

Life goes on. Biking is now a big effort

The main direction this year apparently
is to win, win win

My design works

The new patio becomes my go to
Here, GnT

While not ignoring my regular haunts

Early summer, and the non
tourist
bike path is still accessible
heading to the lighthouse

I always think of Val when I reach here
Taylor creek

Ah, memories and life, life, life

Something becoming less available in the
dialectic of things

A trip down the Don Valley bike path

As Marvin would say:
"Life!?, don't talk to me about life"

Seems that this is my new
(and only) calling now

However, out on the water in the summer...

I'm suddenly wondering if my biking days are coming to an end. This is really tiring

Ben arrives for Canada Day
The family attends

No idea what it is. I think the message is where it is

There is a massive rainfall and subsequent
flooding. I've never seen the backyard flood
The house doesn't escape.
The basement avoids catastrophe this time  

Homelessness, continued

Here, sand deposited on the arms of a bench in the Don Valley, so at least that height of flooding here

In pursuit of excellence, but not by me

I get very few of these evenings of 

Touching god again this year,
but not as often

Obviously post race as I'm "encouraged"
to be in racing, not pix mode all the time

Still pix worth
taking out here

And, as the sun sets, I wonder

Heeling over post race as the sun sets, probably around 12 knots
even this year, there's still magic out here

We have a bona fide crew at last. Pity really

My plan has finally fruited 

Devon back for the final
finishing touches to my
man nook

The Martin Goodman trail tracks less travelled

We're heading into excessive weekend sailings
I create carb dispensers

Did I mention this before?
The lad from Chaddleworth
makes good

Typically, I have my hideaway at the
lighthouse all to myself

Eat healthy, eat lots. My share

I've been typecast as the tailing guy for the
season
It eventually ends in tears, well, abuse actually

Definitely photo ops here

But I have resources out back

A wild weekend sail 

With earth threatening Spielbergesque storm

Definitely worthy of the view from here

More weekend sailings, now September
This is truly exhausting not to mention,
disappointing

But life still offers full compensations

At last, my body has stopped complaining
about riding. I'm beginning to get back into
shape

Last year Aiden said he likes native plants
for the butterflies. Profusion, but no buttrerflies

It's late season and I decide
to
take the track very much
less
travelled, like totally
overgrown
Much blood ensued

And my Man Nook works a treat

I don't usually have great foresight, but this
seems to be an exception

Finally, 5 years in the making,
Ian's spinnaker see's the light of day

I do go on and on

Early Septembers and the weather proof gear
is out again
Ian tells me that I'm
"bringing down the morale of the crew....."
and something else that sounded far nastier
Well, we certainly don't want that do we
I resign, effective immediately
But I'm persuaded to stay to the end of the season

Suddenly 
it's definitely cooler, of course, in all senses

And on. Get the idea?

With shorter days, our races need to finish
much earlier

Mid September at the lighthouse.
I've been here (many) times before

Andrei has bought tickets
for his daughter Eva for a
stand-up show, but she
can't
make it.
I go. Really, you would take
your daughter to this?
Plus, it's really bad

Eat healthy. That way you have more
time to complain

Second to last Ahmen race
Ian invites the new guy to "take the main next week"

Mike finally makes it out for the last sail of the year.
I'm finally on main again, only the second time this year, and I suddenly realise why I have not enjoyed racing this year and what I've been missing
That's it, I'm out of here from here on

There's some special end of season race that
we as crew opt in to watch
It's pretty boring not racing

Food for thought, if you can handle that

Life continues, but for me at least, it is a life

Fall starts to make it's way into my life

Slowly, the Northern
hemisphere
tilts away from the sun

I volunteer for demasting
Funny, all the skippers think you
know what you are doing

My cheffing shorts
Thanksgiving, Canadian version

And it's still daylight when the guests arrive

And so far, no one died (from my cooking),
but yes, others have died and it's
becoming more obvious

I think that I've finally got the idea of this cooking business

Spot the difference?

Late lunch at the NYC lookout
Again, it's all mine

We all start to wear more clothes down the Don Valley

I'm taking the easy path to volunteering
this year. Not involved in haulout
as it means getting up at 5:45AM

I'm happy enough in my own little, or big world

Taylor Creek nook, as ever
all to myself
Mid October

Come the end of October, and it's all over till next year

But nature still has light to bring into your life

Abandoned boat hidden in
the lagoon, with swans

No more snagging blood
letting thorns out here

The trees show the way toward our hibernation

November. All gone

The really keen still grab any sunlight available

I grab yet another bike ride

Two days in a row

The temperature is in the 20's in mid
November
I exchange meaningful glances with the few
fellow bikers on the trails

Heading home,
into the sunset,
probably finally for the year

On my Costco list, I put "New Oven",
never expecting one to be available
There is, plus with Aiden's contacts, a real deal

This is the "before"

Nearly 30 years of service

After a week of measuring everything
300+ times and getting Barclay
(he of the new roof and chimney pointing)  
in for 10 seconds, the deed is done

One of the chairs has a
broken base.
I actually fix it, as just
like a professional job

Now I'm back into walking downtown
Homeless II
Looks like a family moved in here

Very low interest in Christmas this year.
Melanie provides encouragement

I was wrong. Some sun and +5.
Lets go, and don't forget to
wash your bike! 

The chef is in. Trouble is, I have street cred and expectations to live up to now

Thankfully,
hardly any excess this year, except food

New look Yankee swap this year

I make the mistake of heading to Balzacs 
after my bike ride during the Christmas melee

And as the sun sinks into 2024....

As ever, your correspondent wishes all you readers a healthy and happy new year, but from where I'm sitting, this is not going to happen

Lets settle for the year not being too appalling shall we?

Your Corespondent