Architour

Today Oli and I totally architecture nerded-out. We did walk number 15 (Queen Street West) from Toronto Architecture- A City Guide by Patricia McHugh. This walk focuses on 20 different buildings around Spadina and Queen. It took us about 4+ hours but we stopped for a long and yummy lunch at Kensington Espresso Bar (we both had the ham, spinach and feta cheese crepe) and we also did a good share of window shopping including poking around the pet shop at the Dragon City Shopping Mall in China Town (they had albino frogs!)

I'll probably post more photos later but I wanted to post about this beautiful Victorian gem on 25 Augusta Avenue. The building has housed the Felician Sisters Convent since 1938, and the nuns have diligently preserved the building, and it is in much better shape than most of its pals downtown. The picturesque house features bonnet dormers, canopied windows, bracketed eaves, filigreed veranda and gabled tower. The house was constructed in 1876 for a Toronto manufacturer named Edward Leadlay.

Dickens with a Twist

Last weekend Claire and I went to see David play violin with the Counterpoint Community Orchestra at St. Luke's United Church (353 Sherbourne Street). The concert was a tribute to Charles Dickens in honour of his 200th birthday. I won't pretend to know anything about classical music, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, the selections from the musical "Oliver!" were a delight! whe-e-r-re iissss looovvvee?

I was also excited to discover that St. Luke's is a Langley and Burke designed church. Sadly, the interior was in pretty bad shape. I'd love to go back in the daytime and get a better look at the exterior, from what I saw it looks like an interesting mix of both Gothic and Romanesque revival styles.

St. Luke's (photo from Wikipedia)