Greenhouse (Photo by Douglas Sanchez on Unsplash)

Nice to Get Out!

I’ve been fighting the “winter blues” lately. Then again, I tend to have to fight the “winter blues” at many random points of any given year. So ya, it’s probably just the usual depression. So my lovely and supportive wife thought we needed to change things up and have a change of atmosphere. How to do that on a limited budget in an expensive city like Toronto?

Well, we headed to Allan Gardens. What a magnificent sanctuary! We spent 2 hours on a sunny Thursday afternoon basking in the warmth of all the wonderful plants and flowers. If you’re sick of winter and can’t fly somewhere warmer, go to Allan Gardens! It’s free. We sat and talked and reflected. It was the best medicine for my heart and soul.

From Allan Gardens, we walked to the Canadian Music Centre. Living in Etobicoke, Lisa and I can sometimes go weeks without ever going downtown. It had been some time since we walked up Yonge St. Wow, what a transformation north of College! Condos are sprouting up faster than trees. Toronto will soon be like Manhattan. We had a meeting at the CMC to discuss partnering on a project. I can’t divulge details yet until everything is signed, but what I can say is that the meeting went very well and good things are going to come out of it musically!

From there, we continued north on Yonge to a Greek restaurant called Mykonos. Because of our dietary restrictions, Lisa and I rarely eat out. But Greek food is conducive to our paleo tendencies so we decided to treat ourselves and try this place we’ve never been to. It was a great decision because the food was spectacular! Often a chicken souvlaki dinner will have very little veggies, but this place did the opposite. It was reasonably priced and had a nice casual atmosphere.

Our final stop on the mid-week adventure was to go to an event at the Toronto Reference Library. It was a chat with the author, André Alexis. He has a new book coming out. Lisa and I really enjoyed his book, Fifteen Dogs. It’s a magnificent piece of fiction. Alexis’ writing captures so eloquently the human condition. From a creative perspective, I found it very interesting to hear about his process and structure in writing. Can’t wait to check out more of his books.

Looking back on that Thursday, one could say that these activities are pretty ho-hum. But for me, it was incredibly important and exactly the medicine I needed. Onward and upward!!

Greenhouse (Photo by Douglas Sanchez on Unsplash)

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