On a recent trip to Long Point Provincial Park we spotted what we thought was a huge, beautiful butterfly. Upon showing her this picture, the park naturalist informed us that it was not, in fact, a butterfly, but a moth. None other than the Cecropia moth, the largest in North America!
Cecropia Moth photographed at Long Point Provincial Park
The scientific name is Hyalophora cecropia and it’s a member of the Saturniidae family of giant silk moths. Females with a wingspan of 160 mm (over six inches) have been documented. It is found all the way from B.C. to the Canadian maritime provinces.
Long Point Provincial Park, near Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada is part of the Lake Erie beaches. It’s a stunning place to visit if you like sand-dune camping and deserted beaches. It is also world-renowned for migrating birds in the spring and fall (many of which probably feed on the Cecropia moth). Bird-watchers have spotted 383 different species of birds on Long Point itself, which is recognized as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations.
The beaches at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie
Tags: beaches, biosphere, bird-watchers, butterfly, Canada, Cecropia Moth, giant silk moths, Hyalophora cecropia, Lake Erie beaches, Long Point Biosphere Reserve, Long Point Provincial Park, moth, North America, Ontario, Ontario Parks, species of birds
I recently went to the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto’s Distillery District to see the play, “Billy Bishop goes to War”.
Lieutenant-Colonel W A 'Billy' Bishop V.C., of No 60 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, standing in front of his Nieuport 17 Scout at Filescamp, France in 1917.
This is one of the most-produced Canadian plays of all time, first produced by John Gray and Eric Peterson at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre shortly before Remembrance Day in 1978. With music provided by Gray, Peterson plays the role of Billy Bishop recalling his exploits as a Royal Air Force ace in the First World War. Bishop was from Owen Sound, Ontario, and made Canada famous for his skill in shooting down enemy aircraft during the war, 72 in all. He ended the war as Canada’s most-decorated citizen, having gained a Victoria Cross, a Distinguished Service Order and a Military Cross. Peterson and Gray have done no less great service to Canadian theatre, by bringing Bishop’s exploits, and their talented presentation, to the attention of a much wider audience.
From Vancouver, Peterson and Gary took the play on a Canadian tour, including Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. In the course of this tour, the play caught the attention of producers Mike Nichols and Lewis Allen, which led to its eventually being performed at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway (demolished in 1982) for four months, only the second Canadian play to reach New York. They later toured to the Edinburgh Festival, London’s West end and the Arena Stage in Los Angeles. It was produced for television in Britain, Canada and Germany and in 1982 was awarded the Governor General’s Award for drama.
In 2009 the “island airport”, located on an island in Toronto Harbour, was officially renamed the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Reportedly, there was some objection from the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Regional Airport, which conflict, in true Canadian fashion, has not appreciably escalated. There is also a museum in Owen Sound honoring Air Marshall William Avery Bishop.
Captain Billy Bishop, V.C., of the Royal Flying Corps, in the cockpit of his Nieuport 17 fighter. At the time this photograph was taken in France in August, 1917, he had already shot down 37 German aircraft. – Photograph by William Rider-Rider, now in the collection of Library and Archives Canada.
Bishop was born February 8, 1894 and grew up in Owen Sound, where his father was a lawyer and provincial civil servant. As a boy he was a leader among his peers, who built his first plane in his teenage years, and also survived its first crash off the third floor of his family home. He attended Royal Military College, where, again, he seems to have been an active leader, but not too interested in academic work. In the play, Peterson brings out this individualistic, daring aspect of the character of the flying aces, both in Bishop and in a rival, the English flyer, Albert Ball. Peterson and Grey’s play has the two young men competing in shooting down enemy planes, and we learn that Ball was shot down himself at the age of twenty in 1917. Bishop survived the war, and lived until 1956.
When the First World War started in 1914, Bishop joined a horse cavalry unit, and was eventually sent to England. Later in life he wrote about his feeling that flying was so much better than the “mud and horseshit” of the trenches: it was “clean up there”. Peterson plays him talking about this and looking up into the clear open sky while he speculates on flying there. In one scene during the play, Bishop crashes and lands among the men in the trenches. He asks where he is, and, in a scene that is very funny despite the seriousness of the situation, an infantryman with a Newfoundland accent informs him ironically that he is not in downtown St. John’s, b’y. Later, in a letter home, Bishop apparently described this crash landing as “one of the most exciting adventures of my life.”
In England, he joined the Royal Flying Corps, but he was only accepted as an observer, and Peterson hilariously portrays the snooty upper-class English attitude to a colonial who has the nerve to want to be a flyer. The scene reminded me of Paul Gross’s portrayal of the attitude of the English army recruiter in Alberta, in his 2008 movie, “Passchendaele”. In Bishop’s case, however, fortune took a twist. Bishop was wounded and sent back to hospital in England where he made friends with an aristocratic Lady St. Helier, a friend of Churchill’s. She apparently used her influence to help him get training as a pilot, and in November, 1916 Bishop got his wings and was transferred to France, where he soon gained a reputation for shooting down enemy aircraft. Like Ball, he preferred to fly alone, and the German air aces began to call Bishop “Hell’s Handmaiden”. By 1917, he had established such a reputation that he was returned to Canada to do recruiting for the war. He wrote a memoir called “Winged Warfare” in 1918.
Peterson’s play shows him returning from Canada before the war ended and continuing to shoot down enemy aircraft until he reached his wartime total of 72. Following the war he was in several businesses, but it seems that flying was his first love, and he later became involved in organizing The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, where many World War II pilots were trained in the wide-open spaces of Western Canada before going to serve in Europe.
With Grey playing the piano, Peterson takes us through Bishop’s story by beginning as an older man sitting in a chair in his bathrobe reminiscing about the past. He doesn’t remain seated, however. Peterson gives us a lively one-man show, acting out the part of Bishop and the various people involved in his life and exploits, not hesitating to use props and to jump up and down on the furniture when necessary. It is a serious story, but he is very funny, while he manages to capture the personality of the flying ace, both devil-may-care and deadly serious at the same time.
I’ve seen this play more than once, and I had the feeling that the one I saw years ago was different in some way from the one I saw recently. Soulpepper always provides very helpful “Background Notes” in a handout for each of its plays, and I was interested to read that Peterson and Gray had updated the play in 1998 to fit their ages, and that they are currently reflecting Bishop less as a young romantic daredevil and more as an older retired man thinking about survival in war as a metaphor for life.
Part of the Distillery District, Toronto, Canada
In any case, I enjoy it every time I see it. It’s one of the best, but only one of the great Canadian classics that Soulpepper Theatre Company and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts have brought to our theatre scene. It adds much to the already exciting Distillery District.
Leslie Windsor
Tags: Billy Bishop, Billy Bishop Goes To War, Distillery District, Eric Peterson, John Gray, Owen Sound, Soulpepper, Young Centre
It started with @whygocanada tweet. Julie Ovenell Carter is a well known Canadian travel writer and she tweets for WhyGoCanada.com, a Canada travel source. Julie’s tweet read: “My favourite food souvenir from Canada? Hawkins Cheezies of course! What’s yours?…”
I discovered one on a road trip to Quebec last year.
We were with Carole and Andy, friends from Calgary, staying at a cottage in the Laurentians. While in town shopping for groceries, we spied Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses.
Now, if you’ve ever trick or treated on Hallowe’en, you know what a Hallowe’en kiss is. Gooey, taffy-like candy and done right, made with molasses. In my old neighbourhood, Halloween kisses were popular. They came in orange, black and yellow wrappers. They were cheap. And they were shelled out by the handful. Here’s the deal: Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses are different. They’re better, WAY better.
Bigger, softer and good. Very good. Too good. The four of us went through an entire bag in a week. At Christmas, Glenn and I looked for a bag to send Carol and Andy thinking they’d get a good giggle. We never found the kisses
Julie’s tweet for our favourite souvenir food was my motivation to find out the story behind the kisses. My online / telephone journey took me across Canada from Vancouver all the way east to the city of Saint John, New Brunswick and the home of the Grandma Molasses company. Turns out it Grandma Molasses doesn’t make Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses but it does supply the molasses.
Molasses is made from 100% sugar cane juice amd has been a staple in North America for over 200 years. According to Grandma Molasses, it used to arrive in Saint John by ship in ‘puncheons’ (big wooden barrels) and was sold in bulk at local general stores. That got me to wondering if my dad’s habit of serving us toast topped with molasses on winter mornings didn’t come from his New Brunswick roots. Original Foods , a Quebec company, makes Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses. So my next call was to Original Foods, based in Montreal. Two calls later I found out that you can’t buy Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses in Vancouver (Sorry Julie!). but Metro and Walmart sell them in stores in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario.
As for Julie’s favourite, Hawkin’s Cheezies. Check this Halloween post that Julie wrote for more about them.
Tags: Calgary, Canada, Grandma Molasses, Grandma Ste-Catherine kisses, halloween, Julie Ovenell-Carter, Laurentians, molasses, Montreal, New Brunswick, Original Foods, puncheons, Quebec, Quebec City, souvenir, souvenir foods, St. John, travel Canada, Trick or Treat
Do me a favour, nay, do yourself and your sausage & rib loving friends and family a favour and check out The Red Steer if you find yourself anywhere in or around Bancroft, Ontario.
The Red Steer butcher shop near Bancroft, Ontario, purveyors of Old Tyme Service & Quality
For the final home stretch of the BBQ season (for some anyway, in my personal experience I happen to know many a brave Canadian who has pulled the BBQ right up to the backyard sliding door to flip steaks in February) a hidden gem of a butcher shop humbly awaits your meat eating fantasies. The Red Steer provides: steaks, roasts, homemade sausages, homemade Red Steer burgers, Ontario lamb, fresh fish, seafood and Ivanhoe Cheese in a self-described Old Tyme Service & Quality shop. Their beef is ‘dry aged’ (a process of hanging in the open air) on the premises.
Just South of Bancroft on Highway 62 is a newly adopted extension of the town (formerly its own modest sized town) named L’Amble. As the directions to the Red Steer were once described to me from a local resident of Bancroft:
“Whatcha wanna do is drive South on 62. Once you see the sign saying ‘L’Amble’ you’re gonna wanna go ahead and slow right down”.
This is the most accurate way anyone could explain how to arrive at ‘the Steer’ (as now feeling like a regular, having been a handful of times, I feel comfortable using this shorter variation) from Bancroft since the highway is fast and ‘the Steer’ is easy to shoot past.
The man at the helm of this fantastic butcher shop is a hulking, super friendly guy named Duane who makes the most incredible sausages I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. With flavours ranging from Honey Garlic-Farmstyle (his wife Julie’s favourite), Garlic and Chive-Bratwurst (one of his favs), sundried tomato, Cajun Italian and pork and beef breakfast sausage, trying one of each will not be a decision you will soon regret. Softly packed, these sausages melt on the tongue with perfect flavour and soft texture. Duane explained that they get all of their meat within Ontario, their beef and pork hailing from Norwich Farms in London, Ontario and their grain fed chicken is from a farm in Peterborough, Ontario.
The Red Steer has been around for the past five or so years, it was opened by Duane and Julie, with occasional help from reliable workers when needed. I chatted with Duane on my last visit and learned that he has no interest in today’s technology. As a result, you will not find a website, facebook page, blog, tweet or email address pertaining to this amazing butcher – heck, the business phone number isn’t even listed, Duane informed me with some pride. They have a fax machine, but as Duane explained, he has little time or patience for any other technology and its stressors.
On my most recent visit, he was selling vacuum wrapped racks of smoked and seasoned ribs that were marinating within the swells of the packaging in a thick reddish brown honey bbq sauce. He advised, at around ten dollars a rack, we try one out. They have, after all, been selling off the rack… no pun intended…“For example,” he began,
“I had a guy in here yesterday. He bought one. Came back in today, bought five more. I would say I had tried them myself, but I haven’t. Keep selling out before I get a chance!”
Well, not being able to argue with perfectly good reasoning we happily added it to our pile of different flavoured sausages and fresh ribs which we marinated and cooked low and slow later that night. All other meat we had, for weeks to come, made us yearn for an address closer to what might be one of the best butchers in Ontario.
Author’s Note: at the time of this post, the Red Steer is closed on Mondays. Their telephone number is 613-332-6735. We were unable to ascertain the fax number.
Tags: Bancroft, butcher, Ivanhoe Cheese, Kelly, Norwich Farms, Red Steer
It’s time for the 133rd CNE! Canada’s largest annual community event takes place along Toronto’s waterfront for 18 days leading up to and including Labor Day. There’s live entertainment, a wide variety of events, a working farm, parades and sports, lots of international food, a Kids World, an airshow and best of all, a huge midway.
Aerial acrobats have teamed up with Olympic skaters for a dazzling acrobatic/ ice-skating show this year. The human cannonball is back. A strong man will bend and lift things you didn’t think possible. There’s a Master of the Unusual ( inventor, acrobat, comedian and musican rolled into one) and the Flowrider Boarders with their dazzling board tricks. Got some horse fans in your household? Meet a mare and her foal. Learn the life of a race horse and how to groom and shoe a horse at the HorseCapades and a crowd favourite, the Super Dogs are back.
My favourite place of all is the CNE midway. I first visited it back in 1964. The Beatles had just appeared on Ed Sullivan and I remember being so excited at winning a Beatles hat at one of the Midway booths. I rode my first Ferris Wheel ride then too. My friend Deb and I and two 10 year olds had a blast at last year’s midway. I enjoyed my annual CNE treat – a waffle ice-cream sandwich, and then soaked up the scene with the Nikon. The colors were incredible especially against the overcast sky.
This year’s CNE runs August 19-September 5, 2011. Tickets are $16 general admission. $12 for kids 13 yrs and under and a family pass is $48 (2 kids, 2 adults or 1 adult and 3 kids). 4 years and under are free. The midway rides take 3-6 tickets per ride. Today’s opening day special is 10 rides for $20 or opt for the Kids’ Toonie Mondays (August 22 & 29) when 30 tickets are $22.
Tags: Canadian National Exhibition, CNE, Flowrider, food, human cannonball, ice cream sandwich waffle, Let's go to the Ex, midway, SuperDogs, Toronto
I love everything swim, surf and sunscreen and I discovered all three in Midland, Ontario as well as right here in my hometown of Toronto.
A two-hour drive from Toronto, Midland is the place for those who feel likewise about the sun, a sandy beach and diving headfirst into refreshing chilly water.
Balm Beach on Georgian Bay, Ontario
We discovered the Shamrock Motel in Midland, Ontario last summer. The beauty of this particular motel is that it is family-run and every room sports access to BBQs and picnic tables and has a fridge. There is a playground for the kiddies, and usually a trampoline – I say usually because this time it was broken, silly adults jumping on it no doubt! I happen to know for a “yea, I did that” fact that adults are not allowed to jump on it. Note: it was still fully intact and NOT broken the last time I left it. The Shamrock is located within a five minute drive to downtown Midland and, in the opposite direction, a five minute drive to Balm Beach.
Balm Beach: Huddled in the midst of Georgian Bay this modest public, sandy white swimming spot offers change rooms, washrooms, an arcade, a swim suit shop and a fish & chips /ice cream strip. Wading in, once past the two or so metres of rocky beginnings, you are in knee-deep chilly clean water that stretches out forever. This is some of the best fresh water swimming you’ll find close to Toronto! Diving in makes you catch your breath and is a welcome relief after sitting on a towel dripping in the heat. A buoy five hundred or so metres out tells you where your circumference of safety lies. This beach with all of its ethnic diversity is, in my experience, almost never crammed with people, absolutely delightful, and best of all, it’s only a couple of hours drive from Toronto. Note: no lifeguards were noticed.
What’s this? A twin sister beach? An also fabulous and much-closer-to-my-home impostor? Enter my discovery of Ward Island Beach.
Wards Island, a short ferry ride from Toronto
Ward Island: A quick ferry ride from Queens Quay ferry launch at the foot of Bay Street in Toronto (www.toronto.ca/parks/island/ferry-schedule.htm) and a short walk and we were on sandy white Ward Island beach. Toronto Islands – Ferry Schedule.
No chance I was making any dip in Lake Ontario though! Until I saw the water… are you kidding me?? This is a stellar beach with a white sandy run into clear wonderful water that runs for an impressive distance before you are unable to effortlessly touch bottom! The water is cool and clear and amazingly refreshing. This can be attributed in part to the zebra mussels that began to arrive in Lake Ontario around 1985 (for more info please visit www.aquatichabitat.ca/cultural_influences.shtml). I never thought I would be encouraging anyone to slip into Lake Ontario, but I stand mistaken! This beach has never even been remotely busy or crowded (mind you my experiences have all been mid-week) and it seems to attract couples and clusters of friends in their late twenties and up along with a small clustering of children with doting parents. The last time I was there I noticed a few dog-owners helping their canines cool off in a controlled and non-intrusive-to-other-beach-goers manner. Check out Ward Island Beach, it will blow your mind!!! Note: many lifeguards on duty, both on the beach and in the water.
Toronto’s CN Tower as seen from Ward’s Island
Departing for Toronto on the Wards Island Ferry
Tags: Balm Beach, beaches, Georgian Bay, Kelly, lifeguard
In the Canadian Badlands between Cypress Hills and Etzikom, Alberta
Even though we’re big travelers of Canada, there’s still plenty to see. Canada is so big and the average vacation so short ( 2 weeks) that it’s difficult to cover a lot of ground. One way to do it is a fly-drive.
Hoodoos and beehive hills near Drumheller, Alberta
A 4-hour flight west from Toronto will put you in Calgary. A car rental and an hour later and you’re in southeastern Alberta, a landscape so foreign from central Canada that a travel writer from Toronto described it as reaching out and slapping her. 63 municipalities have coined it the Canadian Badlands and aim to make it Canada’s next iconic travel destination (just like the Canadian Rockies, an hour west of Calgary). From a road trip perspective, we think it’s already there.
The massive prairie landscape is intersected by river valleys with hills that look like giant beehives. The valleys are part of a prehistoric sea that once occupied a good portion of North America. Wind and water have stripped away the sandstone and they’ve revealed something else. Dinosaur fossils. Millions of them. Two places to learn about the biggest finds are Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the world’s largest devoted to palaeontology.
If you love driving but hate traffic, this is the place. Armed with an Alberta road map and GPS, we crisscrossed the region by paved and gravel road, sometimes not seeing another car for the better part of two hours. Gas stations are scarce though. So are corner stores and other things that we take for granted in the city. Topping off the gas tank and having lots of drinking water in the car quickly became necessities.
Streetcar in downtown Toronto, Ontario
On the Trans-Canada Highway west of Brooks, Alberta
Tags: Alberta, blog, Calgary, Canada, Dinosaur Provincial Park, dinosaurs, fossils, gravel roads, hoodoos, no traffic, Ontario, road trip, Royal Tyrrell Museum, Toronto, traffic, Trans Canada Highway
Kelly’s back with her take on what beer the gang in Toronto is drinking these days…..
It’s beer drinking season in Canada (it’s always beer drinking season) and I thought it would be fitting if I gave a few of my own opinions on what’s HOT (but served cold) in the Toronto beer drinking community. This is based on my years slinging beer in various Toronto bars and my extensive collection of beer drinking buddies. What I wanted to focus on, naturally, are local, truly Canadian ales and lagers from the buzz breweries right now (with one *delish exception!). In no particular order, I will begin:
Mill Street is a thriving brewery located in Toronto’s funky distillery district and was founded in 2002. Two of the top sellers right now that I have noticed are Mill Street Organic and Mill Street Tankhouse. The Organic is wildly popular: light in colour and not too strong in flavour – it is the perfect ale to drink with pub fare or on its own. When asked to describe the Mill Street Tankhouse my good buddy (and solemn fan of this particular dark ale) Andre, a man of many words, condensed his feelings to a few: “Spicy. Rich. Full-bodied. Refreshing. The best thing to drink after a hot day in the sun”. Mill Street is available in most LCBOs (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) and on draught in plenty of bars throughout the city.
Moving on to a newer brewery, and one of my favourites for their quirky name and design flair, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery located in Barrie, Ontario. Founded in 2005, FMB has a popular strong India Pale Ale called Smashbomb. Andre obliged me in a taste test of this particular ale. In Andre’s words: “Grassy. Citrus-y. A long pleasant aftertaste. Hop-py notes”. (From what I understand only available at a few bars in Toronto including Shakey’s in the Bloor West Village.
Hop City is a brewery that makes a refreshing and popular traditional Bavarian style Hefeweizen that I have noticed making an appearance on many of my friends’ coasters. Lawn Chair, as it’s comfortably named, is a wheat beer with a cloudy appearance and an aroma of banana and clove. I happened to run in to a beer rep for the Ontario based brewery and asked him how he would describe Lawn Chair, “Traditionally drier then Rickard’s White, Lawn Chair is very ‘hop-py’ so it’s fruity but not in a citrus way. It’s very crisp. A very good summer beer.” After thanking him I mentioned that I would be blogging his description and he thanked me with a cute Lawn Chair tee! Yay swag! For more info on this and their other beers visit the brewmasters Kevin and John’s funky Hop City website.
**delish exception**
For those feeling like a Snakebite this summer (read cider cut with beer, not the real version that could be poisonous or at the very least in Ontario painful and traumatic) or a “straight-up- liquid-apple-jolly-rancher-concoction-that-will-fool-you-into-thinking-you-are-not-drinking-an-alcoholic-beverage-and-therefore-you-cannot-be-blamed-for-the-surprising-intoxicated-result” I have the cider for you. Somersby was recently introduced to me by a good friend who happily took on my request for a taste testing description. Brought to us by the Canadian Carlsberg Group (though brewed in Falkenberg, Sweden) and served over a quarter pint of ice, Somersby was described to me as having “immediate aromas of crisp green apple. Heavy green apple. First sip is sweet and fruity which dilutes as you drink, thanks to the ice. Not as carbonated as Strongbow and not as sweet as Magners. Refreshing and awesome”
I hope this post helps navigate you toward a perfect beer pick that’s both delicious and local! For more info on beer, lagers and the like, visit my buddy Cass’s website The Bar Towel, Ontario’s Premier Beer Resource. This home-grown Canadian site includes beer news, a discussion forum and an array of beer-related events as well as meet n’ greets for Canadian beer aficionados. Also, check out NOW Magazine’s (Toronto weekly alternative news and entertainment paper) first ever Beer Guide and beer style showdown pitting several local beers against similar imports.
Cheers to good beers!
Tags: beer, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, Hefeweizen, Hop City Brewing Company, Mill Street brewery, Shakey’s, Somersby cider
If you’ve never played on Lake Erie’s north shore, go!! Not only will you find some interesting ports of call along the shoreline of the smallest Great Lake, the beaches on Erie’s north shore are GORGEOUS.
The beach at Port Burwell Provincial Park after a big rain storm
We discovered our favourite at Port Burwell Provincial Park. There was hardly a soul on its 2.2 km of sand even though it was a sultry Saturday in early June. Obviously, the summer weekend crowds had not yet materialized. Port Burwell Park is one of several Ontario Parks you’ll find along the north shore of Lake Erie and all of them have beaches. We liked Long Point Provincial Park‘s beach too, where you can also camp among massive sand dunes. It’s part of a gigantic sand spit jutting out into Lake Erie that is recognized as a biosphere reserve and world-renowned refuge and stop over for migrating birds in fall and spring. While touring it with a park staffer, I couldn’t believe the chorus of songbirds. In nearby Port Rowan we heard how up to 20,000 Canadian and American boaters anchor off of Pottahawk Point on the Canadian side the second Sunday of every July in knee-deep water and hang out for the better part of the day drinking beer and catching up. The Pattahawk Bash as she’s known has been going on for more than 30 years. You gotta believe the OPP (provincial police) are all over this one.
The beach at Long Point Provincial Park. All the spring rain had left the water level high
Our two ports of call were Port Dover in Norfolk County and Port Stanley in Elgin County. Port Dover was hopping with lots of motorcycles rolling through town on a Friday night. Its Erie Beach Hotel is famous for its perch and pickerel dinners and it did not disappoint. Since there were only two of us we chose the hotel’s more sedate Terrace dining room downstairs.
The upstairs is a perch and beer affair perfect for groups of friends or family. Besides its famous fish dinners, our salad bar was memorable. Right out the 1950s, our own personal ” bar” came on wheels and had a variety of salads to choose from including homemade pickled pumpkin and jellied horseradish. Both were tasty.
Perch Tugs line the shore in Port Stanley Harbour
Port Stanley is a pretty beach town that is home to one of the last commercial fisheries on the Great Lakes. Perch tugs which are bizarre-looking all-steel boats line the harbour here. We stayed at the Inn on the Harbour where I had a perfect harbour view. Saturday night dinner was on the patio at the Kettle Creek Inn close by. It was a fine way to end a great weekend.
Early morning on Port Stanley public beach on Lake Erie
Tags: commercial fisheries, Erie Beach Hotel, Inn on the Harbour, Kettle Creek Inn, Lake Erie, Lake Erie north shore, Long Point Provincial Park, Pattahawk Bash, perch dinners, pickerel, Point Burwell Provincial Park, Port Burwell, Port Dover, Port Rowan, Port Stanley, tug
When I first met Kelly and she expressed an interest in doing a couple of posts for roadstories.ca, I didn’t realize she was such a Lady About Town. We talked about traveling in Canada and swapped stories about all the great places we had been. I don’t know what I was thinking. Perhaps that she would write about leisurely drives through pastoral Canadian landscapes, or antique shops, or maple syrup. But no. Kelly’s into the bright lights and culture of the big city. Big time. She’s out, like, every night! So until I can rein her in, here are a couple of her latest adventures…
kd lang on stage at Luminato in Toronto
I was thrilled to watch kd lang as dusk descended in David Pecaut square in Toronto last week. The once cow-punk grrl from the prairies and now, at 48, a crooner of extraordinary range and style, dazzled during the city’s Luminato Festival, Toronto’s annual artistically-inspired week of concerts, theatre and art happenings.
In front of an adoring crowd Lang held nothing back, entertaining with a mix of humor, appreciation of her fans and full-on vocal power. At one point, before a song in which she plays banjo, she warned the audience not to be concerned at how much they would be drawn to the stage for the next song – it happens all the time! As a newcomer to kd lang‘s music, I was blown away by her powerful voice, enchanting melodic range and charismatic stage presence.
But even as someone who has never really paid much heed to kd and her music, I was surprised by the amount of songs I did know! Now, armed with an arsenal of tunes to download (Read: ‘Summer Fling‘ and ‘Constant Cravings‘), I have difficulty expressing my wonderment watching (and discreetly videotaping) her chilling rendition of Leonard Cohen‘s ‘Hallelujah‘. Many strong responses were evoked by her emotional delivery of Cohen’s haunting classic and I found myself watching and re-watching the video. kd continued the Canadian leg of the tour the next night in London, Ontario and will be performing sets in Montreal and Ottawa later this month.
Editor’s note: kd lang hails from Consort, Alberta. It’s a long way from L.A. where she lives now.
Main street, Consort, Alberta, 2008. Birthplace of kd lang.
Wow! What an event in downtown Toronto! The Much Music Video Awards were held on June 19th, 2011 at the City TV “legendary home of Much Music” building, and surprisingly enough, I got a ticket in!!
Lurking around backstage at the Much Music Video Awards in Toronto, 2011
Amazingly I managed to get right into the back stage pre-party where we walked in and immediately spotted The Black Keys . I am 99.9% certain that’s who it was, though I must admit I am not terribly ‘down’ with what the bands kids are listening to look like in person. They were sprawled across a semi-circle white leather couch next to the sushi bar and it was my date that advised me not to lean over (as I was in the process of doing, to ask where the open-bar was, to get a glass of wine) as I could clearly see they were enjoying the cold white themselves. We spent some time in this pre-party room gazing out at all the kids on Queen Street West, who were frantically trying to peer in across the red carpet.
While strolling through our exit maze to leave the backstage area, my date decided to grab my hand and casually walk up the back steps onto the backstage of the MMVAs. In a classic situation of “don’t ask permission just beg forgiveness”, coupled with a dash of “if you look like you should be there no one will stop you”, I found myself backstage. Literally. So moments later we were standing behind the huge light screen that screaming fans were facing, with Justin Bieber steps away, calling down to guys standing right next to us about who was on his shirt (from what I could tell it was a pic of his gf Selena Gomez). A great hooting and hollering erupted as we all watched Biebs saunter onto the stage. All we could hear backstage was the waving swell of screaming fans (they had lined up for days), the octaves rising and dissipating as various celebs entered and exited.
After that we waited around backstage, (me waiting for someone to tell us to scram, my date using Lady Gaga’s stage prop as a stepping stool) when Justin swished by us again with gf on arm to their next appointed position. In the meantime we spotted Snoop Dogg and Fefe Dobson heading onto stage in a red and white classic car of some sort and I grabbed a pic of someone clearly important (as I wasn’t the only one taking her pic) can anyone help out on this?
Please leave a comment if you can identify this mystery celeb at the Much Music Video Awards in Toronto, 2011
Tags: Fefe Dobson, Justin Bieber, kd lang, Luminato, Much Music Video Awards, Snoop Dogg, Toronto