Millenium Park: Bottom Line Concert

July 23rd, 2008, Waterfront Park Concert Series: Bottom Line Band

Compact - Mi-e tare dor de tine

Compact: July 19, 2008, Toronto Centre for the Arts





Gabriel Cotabiţă - Noapte albastră

July 17th, 2008: time for a new concert, thanks to Pickering Township. This time was country: a band from Peterborough, ON, Black Fly Boogie (link1, link2). Two hours of country and rock-and-roll, songs from the 60's and 70's. Varied repertoire from Johnny Cash to Ray Charles and James Brown. Nice atmosphere: a lot of dancers, many faces we've seen at last week concert. This time there were more people and it was more difficult to find a parking spot. Many cars were parked in the wrong place but I noticed they were not ticketed :)).

Howard Ross and Full Count Blues Band

Full Count Blues Band Concert

10th of July. This event was presented by The City of Pickering in The 2008 Waterfront Concert Series. The first event took place on 3rd of July but unfortunately we missed that one (http://www.cityofpickering.com/).
Full Count Blues Band was started in 1986 by Howard Ross (http://www.emvkeys.ca/fullcount/)(http://www.torontobluessociety.com/) and is a band usually composed of 5 players but today the organ player was missing. Anyway, Howard Ross is a very good guitar player and have a nice voice too very well fitted for blues.The sax player was very good also and made a good team with Howard. We enjoyed two hours of beautiful music in excellent interpretation and a nice atmosphere.

Kleinburg

Because it was not too late after we visited Pickering Museum we decided to go to Village of Kleinburg (http://www.kleinburgvillage.com/), which is not a museum but a small town keeping old Canadian architecture tradition. Is also the place of McMichael Canadian Art Collection (http://www.mcmichael.com/), that we plan to visit in the future.
The town reminded me of Niagara on The Lake, Port Perry or Elora, to mention just a few of this traditional towns in Ontario. We ate in a french style restaurant "La Chartreuse". Food was good but I actually had the impression that the waiters were of italian origin... Maybe is just me. A lot of visitors, nice shops, butiques, galleries and some vintage cars. A good place to visit for a summer week-end...

Pickering Museum Village

5th of July. Hot summer day, nice for visiting an outdoor museum... The place is located 3 km east of Brock Rd. on Hwy. 7 (http://www.cityofpickering.com/standard/lifestyle/museum/main.html). The museum was inaugurated in 1967 but had to be moved and this new location was inaugurated in 1979. There are 16 heritage buildings; most of them can be visited inside. Friendly people dressed in nice costumes from the 19th century are ready to explain about the life in Pickering in that time. Actually the time frame goes from 1830 up to 1910: one of the buildings have electricity, others have oil lanterns and the oldest have just candles. You can see a blacksmith/woodworking shop, a log barn, a log house, several other houses, a schoolhouse, two church buildings, a hotel, a general store... There are a lot of artifacts, tools, furniture, china, items you usually find in a general store, in a house or shop.
I tried to find out about the history of Pickering Township: it was established in 1971 but was incorporated as municipality in 1811 (Wikipedia). It was interesting to find out about the munition plant in Pickering in The Second World War and the separation of Ajax in 1950.
Near the entry of the museum is the trail that takes you alongside the Duffin Creek between Hwy 7 and 5th Concession Rd. going through Greenwood Conservation Area.

Upper Canada Village


15th of July, 2007. It was a nice summer day and our objective was Upper Canada Village. It was the second attempt to visit this place: previous time we got there too late. We didn’t realize is so much to see. Usually, from Toronto there are about 4 hours of driving. Located between Hwy 2 and St. Lawrence River, East of Morrisburg, ON, the Village is the main attraction of the area, beside the memorial to The Battle of Crysler's Farm. In order to get there you’ll have to take exit 758 on Hwy 401 E. Go South on Upper Canada Rd. and fallow the signs.


The Village is open from May 17 to October 5, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily (http://www.uppercanadavillage.com/). Because the place is closer to Montreal (only 1.5 hours of driving) we choose to sleep overnight at my brother-in-law in Laval, QC. Is good to be there before noon, otherwise you won’t have enough time to visit. There is a nice restaurant inside the Village, serving traditional food made mainly from products grown and harvest inside the village. Eating here is a good idea: you’ll get a nice meal at a reasonable price.


I found out about Canada Villages in a documentary I borrowed from the Public Library. Actually, that documentary was about a different village, probably Hazelton in BC (http://www.northbceh.com/smithers/hazelton.htm), but I’m not sure about that. I don’t know how many we have all over Canada but I know at least another two: Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto and a small one in Pickering: The Pickering Museum. We are planning to visit the last one anytime soon.

Upper Canada Village is a "Living history" place made of over 40 buildings salvaged from extinction when the new inland waterway was built. Here the time is 1860. The atmosphere is reproducing a period of a real 19th century community in every living detail, a community which has progressed over the years between 1780 and 1867. Every building is populated with people who are ready to talk to you about everything you would ask. There are mills, trades shops, farms, churches, homes, factories, a Gazette Printing Office and even a one-room schoolhouse. We enjoyed a horse-drawn wagon and boat ride. Everybody is dressed in costumes from the past and ready to tell you stories about events or people who use to live there 150 years ago. How was economy in that period of time, commerce, transportation, fashion, food or even family. By example, the new Trans Canadian railway, inaugurated in 1886, brought for the first time oranges in Ontario. You can check out prices at the store, how much they were paying for food, doctor, transportation, rent, hotel or a pair of oxen! Usually, when you visit a museum everything looks cold, dead. Here everything looks alive because is populated with real people… Very impressive!