Tags
birds, boardwalk, Cape Seed Baguette, Cobs Bread, dogs, Fernwood Park Avenue, Goose, ice, Kew Gardens, Kippendavie Avenue, Lake Ontario, Leuty, lifeguard station, manhole cover, Martin Goodman Trail, Queen Street East, swans, The Beaches, Toronto
On Friday, March 8, we were lucky to have a bright sunny day with above 0°C temperatures. My wife and I decided to drive down to The Beaches which is only ten minutes from our home. Parking can be a challenge on weekends, but during the week it’s easy to find lots of free parking. The first street east of Woodbine Avenue is a one-way street running south called Kippendavie Avenue. If you go to the end of the street and turn left, there is lots of parking on Kew Beach Avenue. (Click on any photo to see a larger version.)
Typically the boardwalk is home to joggers, walkers, mothers with strollers, and dogs — lots and lots of dogs. There is an enormous off-leash section south of the boardwalk and it extends right to the edge of Lake Ontario. Technically dogs are to be on a leash everywhere else in this area, but many owners were allowing their dogs to run freely all over the beach.
Ice had formed on the shoreline as well as on the rocks and the groynes (breakwaters).
Needless to say, no lifeguard was on duty!
We came upon this large frozen mass and sitting on the slush were two swans and a single white goose.
As curious as we were to get up close to the swans and the goose, the off-leash dogs wanted to see them as well. A few smaller dogs slipped off the edge of the ice and more than one stupid owner had to go in after their pet. There were two enormous Great Danes that decided they wanted to get a closer look at the birds, but their owner screamed at them to get out of the water. This Great Dane is actually standing in the water:
We continued along the shoreline taking more photographs.
We left the boardwalk just west of the Balmy Beach Club and went north on Fernwood Park Avenue. This home is right on the edge of the Martin Goodman Trail:
A home was undergoing renovations and the City insists that existing trees must be protected on any construction site. It makes me chuckle when I see more lumber used for the protective fence than in the tree being protected:
My wife thinks I am crazy, but I am searching for a manhole cover from the year of my birth – 1952, which I have yet to find. The Beaches is a very old neighbourhood and here are some very old manhole covers:
We walked up to Queen Street East and stopped at Cobs Bread for our favourite Cape Seed baguette, and then back to the car and home. It was a fabulous couple of hours in the sunshine.