The Midlands from a Boeing 777

Well Readers, it’s time to make my annual pilgrimage to Toronto, to visit with my husband’s mother, who will be 98 during this trip. She is in a memory facility to the north of the city, and is doing as well as can be expected – when we saw her today she looked hail and hearty. She wasn’t quite sure who my husband was, but she knew he was Someone, and was glad to see him. At this point, this is a blessing.

The weather for the trip looks generally dire, so we were pleased to wake up to this view from the window…Toronto really is ‘the vertical city’, and getting more vertical by the minute.

Today was also the Sikh New Year, Khalsa Day or Vaisakhi – all the participants were in their best, brightest clothes, and I was so glad that the weather was so auspicious.

I was half expecting this part of Toronto to feel a bit sad this year – the Hudson’s Bay company, which had its largest store opposite our hotel, had closed, and half the place is being dug up for the new Ontario line. But fortunately the bit of the PATH that we always use to get to Queen station and beyond has been preserved, by popping in pathways right through the defunct store. Plus they’ve finally managed to repair the escalators that were broken for at least the past five years. And a branch of Eataly has opened in the Eaton Centre so we can get ourselves a salad lunch – Toronto meals are gigantic and protein/fat heavy, so it’s good to have another option.

After we’d been to see John’s Mum, we walked back to the station via the Finch Hydro Corridor.What the hell is that, you might ask? In effect it’s a linear park housing the main electricity pylons which bring power to the city. The pylons always remind me of giants made of girders. The path is shared pretty amicably between cyclists, walkers, runners and strollers of all kinds.

The ground between the pylons is pretty boggy, and a lone female mallard was taking advantage of a tiny seasonal pond.

The undergrowth has been allowed to grow under some of the pylons, producing a useful habitat for all kinds of birds, especially the omnipresent red-winged blackbirds. Their call has become the sound of Canada for me, and always reminds me of my dear departed aunties, Rosemary and Linda.

Thicket under a pylon

And here’s a red-winged blackbird…

Red-winged blackbird

I had turned on my Merlin app, and look what else we heard…

Especially chuffed with the trumpeter swan that we heard flying over – another fine memory of my aunties is going to visit them in 2019 and see a trumpeter swan hanging out with all the mute swans. You can read all about T29 here…

Trumpeter swan seen in Collingwood in 2019

When you get close to Finch station, some of the pylons are connected to this substation, while other pylons head off over the hill.

All in all, this was a great walk for the start of our Canadian visit – not too strenuous, but something new, and a fine antidote to jet lag. Let’s see what else we find this year!