Maple and her syrup

So our Canadian friend, Danielle, recommended we get down and dirty with a good solid maple syrup breakfast at the Maple Syrup Festival which was happening at Bronte Creek Park. So off the three of us went and started off with a typical Canadian Breakfast of pancakes, bacon and syrup - yes you read that right - syrup and meat together - YUM!

After our very tasty breakies we got picked up by a John Deer tractor and taken down for a tour of how maple syrup is produced, and talk about a lesson for me... who knew it came from maple trees?

According to our tour guide - Ontario is the only area in Canada which can produce maple syrup - and the crazier thing is that there is a little black dot on the red part on the map which is really the only area which produces maple syrup - which explains the costs of the product.

Maple syrup is a syrup usually made from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees, although it can also be made from other maple species. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before the winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in the spring. Maple trees can be tapped by boring holes into their trunks and collecting the exuded sap. The sap is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup.

Its takes approximately 40 litres of SAP to produce 1 litre of Maple syrup. 40 Litres is the equivalent of the big plastic container on the left.

"Tap that tree" had us rolling on the floor laughing - sick sense of humour...

 The natives discovered maple syrup back in the day. I was very struck by how exactly the found out about the sap in trees. My first image was a bunch of people running around sucking trees - which made me laugh. But thanks to their discovery we today have a lovely sweet syrup. The North American natives knew to put hot rocks which had been heated by a fire into their version of a bowl (a hollowed out tree) and let the heat evaporate water from the sap.

Mizz weather on the day we went - but it was so nice being out on a farm

The colonisers then cottoned on to the natives maple syrup and tried to streamline the process with metal pots - more information in the picture below.

Besides finding out that my breakfast came from a tree - I got to see some cows, pigs, a beautiful peacock (which is not native to North America) and a great tour of the Bronte Family home which was built in 1899 and which had been restored to the original farm house. Historic furnishings have been displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home.

 

 Seriously got my farm kick... smells and all

The above pictures really made me think about my siblings - Piano for you Dax and the old school stove for you Tris!



Pump your own water into the house. Apparently this was pretty modern to the house in that time

  

Another crazy Canadian tradition - Maple Syrup Taffy


Taffy is the process is where thick melted maple syrup liquid is poured in a molten state upon clean snow whereupon the cold causes it to rapidly thicken. Once sufficiently hardened the candy can be picked up and eaten. Wow - a VERY sweet candy - and a different texture. Was a nice thing to try.

CN Tower Toronto

I must be honest - life has become a little quieter since the gals left Toronto and ended their JIT contracts. But with 5 weeks left in Canada I feel like I'm running out of time to get all the things I still want to do, done.

So here is the long awaited CN Tower. I went up on farewell day while the girls were packing and because I woke up to the most incredible weather I figure this day was as good as it will get. Canada has after all recorded the warmest March in its whole history.  

And it really is the top of Toronto. 431 metres above the lake level - this tower is an amazing view point out onto the whole of the lake and I really enjoyed seeing the lake from high up above the clouds ;)

Squiggles as you walk it to get into the lift that takes you over 100 floors above the ground in under a minute. Was a little crazy.

Another dam MOOSE...

Yes that is a ship in the harbour

My mom would have hated the glass floor - all you see is little houses and trees below you!

North side of the cisy from a small peek hole

Airport to the left of the photo and one solo windmill to the right

Not much to report... so I thought I would let the photos do the talking!

What makes you SPECIAL?

This was a question my yoga teacher, Trish, started our class with this evening. At first I thought it was one of those rhetorical questions. One where you ‘set’ your intention at the beginning of a class but then soon forget while you’re struggling with your downward dog and your hamstrings are saying “Howzit I might snap”.

But Trish kept bringing it up again.
“What makes you special?”
The negative little voice in the back of my mind kept trying to sway my balance with its response to this question. My initial response to it was “Nothing, nothing makes me that special to set me apart from any other human being”, especially while sweating profusely in the 45 degree Celsius hot room we were practicing in.

The more Trish brought up the question, “What makes you special?”, the more I started opening myself up to it. While accepting the pain in certain positions and trying to get my mind out of work mode, I really started opening up to the fact that I am special. And why shouldn’t I be? Why shouldn’t each and every one of us find that part of us that sets us apart and makes us ‘special’ in our own way?

Looking around the room I realised something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I am not alone in this world, in the negative thoughts and feelings we feed ourselves and of trying to find time to live out my dreams between spending a large chunk of my time in a career I’m not particularly fond of. In that realisation I felt connected. I felt connected to all humans lost, to humans trying to figure this life out and connected to my world.

This week I made the decision to see something amazing within and let life happen.

So I leave you with the most fundamentally changing thing I have ever listened to and actually heard.


This is what makes me special. What about you?


Have you started living your life yet?  

Ice hockey anyone?

So as in all good weekends - it didn’t start off at the ice hockey - but that was merely the end of a great weekend out.

As promised we headed back out to The Distillery to see the area by day, and we were not disappointed. It is so beautiful and arty and a little quirky – which makes it an awesome place to visit.



Why do we always find the awesome food places - yum fresh bread

 



We're still trying to figure out what the art piece behind us was - but at least it was good for a "Strike a pose" picture!

  

Yes that is a giant spider...





More art





My favourite!! From behind it seems like a pretty ordinary piece...

 

Um... ya

After a very cold walk around checking out the very different art randomly placed around the area – we made our way into any warm looking restaurant hunting down a cup of coffee and some brunch to line our stomachs for the big day that lay ahead of us. Ice Hockey is not for sissies… The Distillery is a definite MUST if you're ever in the area!

Getting back to our vehicle - we were greeted by a fine - "Parking within 3 metres of a fire hydrant" - um ok if there was a line in the road we would have known not to?!? So note to self South Africans - Canada has some crazy road rules that aren't very visible... and there was no way of talking our way out of a $100 fine! Sad panda:(

Coffee in and Distilleried out we made our way to meet up with the other 20 odd JITTIES at Wayne Gretzky’s (a pub belonging to an old ice hockey player) and then on to the Ricoh Coliseum to watch the Toronto Marlies take on Rochester.

Believe it - those are Nachos!

This awesome statue is on route to the Ricoh Coliseum



The Ricoh Coliseum



Now I won’t lie and make out that I’m a raging sports fan – because the truth is that I am not – but an Ice Hockey game is something I really wanted to go see due to all the rumours about players beating the crap out of each other on the ice, and well the Jerry Springer lover in me just thought that would be fun.

 Things some how changed for me when the anthems were being sung. But not only that - in support of the Canadian Armed Forces majority of the crowd were Air force soldiers (IN UNIFORM... yum)... So the whole experience was just that much nicer!

Ice hockey was amazing to watch. Unfortunately the Toronto Marlies lost - which was a little sad - but we got to see some ice fist action and many a player sent to the SIN BIN for bad behaviour. It DEFINITELY is something I would go watch again.



The lights outside the stadium while waiting for a cab to go home.

Note to anyone wanting to travel to Toronto - the street lights in winter make Toronto a beautiful city - I suggest you take a walk down town and take the whole city in.