Dear Readers, it wasn’t a very clement day today, but we decided to head east to The Beaches, as we always do when we’re in Toronto – there’s something about a walk along the boardwalk that clears the head. Yesterday we spent four hours at John’s mother’s care home to ‘celebrate’ her 98th birthday. Sadly, she was asleep the whole time, in spite of various attempts to wake her. Every time she stirred we sprang forward in the hope that she would surface, but no such luck. Still, we’ll pop up to see her again tomorrow, and maybe she’ll be a bit more conscious. And maybe she sensed that we were there, and that we cared for her, wherever she was.

Back at the Beaches, the handsome houses that are supposedly being ‘re-developed’ are still behind a hoarding, gradually rotting away. There were a lot of poster protests about it last year.

In good news, though, the sparrows and the house martins are both nesting around the swimming pool, as they’ve done in previous years…

Although the weather was a bit overcast, it was still a lovely walk along the boardwalk…

…and it’s only really the lack of the smell of rotting seaweed that reminds me that this is a lake, not the sea.

And, as usual it’s interesting to look at ‘weeds’. Following on from the Marsh Violas a few days ago, I spotted this plant…not a great photo, but! I do believe this is White Corydalis (Corydalis ochroleuca), actually a European plant which appears to have taken off in Eastern Canada.

And then it’s time to head home, on the 501 streetcar. We just heard that our hotel is going to be renovated later this year (after the World Cup, when it will be packed to the proverbial gunnels) which is exciting, as until recently it was scheduled for redevelopment or sale. It sounds as if there’s been a change of heart, which is good news as the Cambridge Suites feels like home. Fingers crossed the prices don’t go up toooooooo much.