My Day

I've had a random abstract sort of day, instead of my usual concrete linear style, flitting from one thing to another, and these black-eyed Susan* blossoms in various stages of their life cycle seemed a good visual representation of that.

For most of the day, the sky was dark, the temperature was much cooler than over the past month, and there were intermittent gusts of wind. I kept hoping that we'd get some much-needed rain; a tiny amount fell last night, but not enough to compensate for the long spell of dry weather. When the sun finally came out in late afternoon, I went looking for a blip in the back yard, and these glowing flowers stood out.

Four weeks from today, we will be landing in Toronto, where we'll be among the 800 to 1000 attendees at the North American Festival of Wales. We've attended several of these over the years -- in Utica, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; San Jose, California; and Richmond (Vancouver area), British Columbia, among others -- and always enjoy them.

Although I'd done some preliminary research on Toronto earlier this year, I realized today that it was time to get down to the details -- namely, how close to the hotel were good places to drink local beer (Phil) and enjoy local food (me) -- so I spent some time doing that this afternoon, instead of the routine chores that I had intended to do.

It was time well-spent -- I discovered the St. Lawrence Market, which is within easy walking distance of our hotel, in the heart of downtown Toronto -- a city of 2.5 million! The south market building is home to more than 120 vendors of local fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, dairy products, and baked goods, as well as non-food items, sold Tuesday through Saturday. There's also a Saturday farmers' market dating back to 1803, held in the north market building, and I'm particularly looking forward to that.

I also found three good places for the beer-lover in the family, one of which is virtually next door to the St. Lawrence Market, has an interesting menu, and serves both Canadian craft beers and Ontario wines, which appeal to me, so we are all set now for the first part of our upcoming vacation!

Rudbeckia hirta, in the aster family