Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Running cold and hot ....


After our tour of the Winter Garden and the
Elgin theatres we had an afternoon of free
time to fill.   It was a cold day with a strong
breeze but the sky was blue and the sun was
shining so we decided to get out and enjoy
it.

There was an ice sculpting contest in the
Yorkville area of downtown Toronto so
we walked there from our hotel ... which
was perhaps a bit further then we realized
but we huddled in our winter gear and
kept going.


How do you get an ice sculpture smooth?
Well, you use an iron of course.


And if you are looking for a bit of 
refreshment you find a bar .... made
of ice.   I'm told the blue liquid (which
was non alcoholic) tasted like raspberry.
The little shots of red and blue liquids
were free ... and yes the red stuff was
alcoholic.


Lots of different icy creations with a theme
that seemed to be something to do with 
heat and the tropics.   I'm not sure if that
might be considered a bit sadistic given the
winter we'd been having and the weather
on that particular day ....


To balance the cold with some welcome
and much needed warmth our next stop that 
afternoon was Allen gardens and the 
conservatory there.


Aahhhh ... now that's more like it!!!


Spring flowers .... even though it was
February, a section of dessert plants
and palm trees.   


We stayed there until closing time enjoying
the flowers, the sounds of trickling water and
most of all ... the warmth!!!


Walking back to our hotel from Allen gardens we
passed Maple Leaf Gardens ... former home of the
Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.   The Gardens
is now a part of Ryerson University and a section
has been leased by grocery store chain Loblaws
and has become their flagship store.


Quite the spiffy looking place to buy groceries.


A wall tribute to the Maple Leafs.


A wall tribute to cheese!


And assorted other goodies.   Oh boy!!


I'm not keen on macaroons but the colours
that these came in was astounding!  I wonder
what blue macaroons taste like??

At which point we headed off to Swiss Chalet
for dinner again because for some reason we
were feeling a bit hungry.

Cheers!

4 comments:

Maggie said...

The ice sculptures are amazing, and cake! you had Cake! now you know cake and me, we have a special bond, lol.
Sound like you all had a great time xx

Judy S. said...

Long ago when I was in college, we used to have ice carving contests! No irons though.... Love the conservatory flower photos.

Andrea said...

Love the ice sculptures. There was a man creating an ice sculpture in a nearby town over Christmas and he was using a chain-saw. He did have a smaller one as well for the more detailed work but even so it's amazing to see.

stitcherw said...

The ice sculptures are way to close to home now, as winter is moving back our way, where or where did the summer go? I'm going to miss being able to see all the lovely greenery and warmth that we had (for what seemed much to short a time). Hoping you've had a lovely summer and been enjoying reading, stitching, and other fun activities. Sue