Teena in Toronto

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

The Old Loyalist Burial Grounds, Saint John, NB

I'm drawn to old graveyards and will walk through one if I come across it. I find it interesting looking at the gravestones and wondering about the stories of the people they are honouring.

Across the street from King's Square is the Old Loyalist Burial Grounds so I took a walk through it.

Saint John's original burial ground was established on this site shortly after the landing of the United Empire Loyalists in 1783. After its closure as a cemetery in 1848, the site became a memorial garden with tree lined walkways and flower beds.

For upwards of 100 years, it remained a unique place of beauty in the centre of a busy industrial city. However, time and neglect gradually took their toll and by the late 1900's the burial ground was in a state of disrepair.

In 1994, the Irving family undertook a restoration program as a gift to the people of Saint John. They commissioned and carried out a refurbishing of the entire site, including the construction of brick and granite walkways, benches, specially cast memorial gates, railings and light columns. Hundreds of trees and thousands of flowers and shrubs were planted and the magnificent Beaver Fountain was created.

It was back in 1925 that K C. Irving established his first Saint John business on Union Street adjacent to the burial ground. For many years, he looked out over this very site from his office in the Golden Ball Building.

The Canadian Beaver, a prominent motif found throughout the site, depicts the hard work, enterprise and tenacious resolve of the city's founders and those who followed.

Work on the site commenced in the Spring of 1994 and was completed the Summer of 1995.

King's Square, Saint John, NB

Across the street from Saint John City Market is King's Square. Surprisingly there is no website dedicated to it to learn more. It was a lovely park to walk around and sit for a bit.

The square was named for King George III and granted to the city of Saint John by Royal Charter in 1785. In the early years, the grounds were the site for such public uses such as oxen roasts, fireworks displays, militia parades, cricket games, public wells, a slaughter house and agricultural fairs. It was developed into a park in 1844 and the current design of paths was laid out.

The bandstand in the middle of the square was designed and built in 1908 for the city coronet band by Neil Brodie, a local architect. One year later, it was donated to the city of Saint John in the name of King Edward VII of England.

There are many monuments and statues scattered throughout the square.

Saint John City Market, Saint John, NB

I walked to the Saint John City Market (on Charlotte Street and N and S Market Streets) this afternoon. It is apparently the oldest continuing farmer's market in Canada, with a charter dating from 1785.

It is a very cool building. Completed in 1876, the current market building has a roof structure that resembles an inverted ship's keel. Made of wooden trusses, the structure was said to be built by unemployed ship carpenters of the day. The floor slopes with the natural grade of the land.

York Bistro & Pub, Saint John, NB

I had breakfast this morning at the York Bistro & Pub. It's in the Hilton Hotel and overlooks the harbour.

They had a hot buffet for $20 or a continental buffet for $15. I opted to order from the menu and got ham and eggs and a large milk. It was good and there was a lot of food (I couldn't finish it all). The egg yolks were huge and orange.

Saint John Ale House, Saint John, NB

I had supper tonight at the Saint John Ale House on Market Square. You can enter from the street.

Or you can enter through Market Square.

It's small downstairs and I asked one of the servers if there was a table available and he said "no". He said to check upstairs but he didn't think there was an empty table there either. So I went upstairs and the space was full of dull empty tables. Huh?! So I went back downstairs where it was more lively and sat at the long communal table.

They have a good selection of craft beer.

Pizza Delight, Saint John, NB

I had lunch today at Pizza Delight on Loch Lomond Road. In the Maritimes, Pizza Delight is everywhere ... there are none in Toronto.

I ordered a 9 inch pizza with pepperoni, ham and sliced bacon. It came out piping hot from the oven and was a really good pizza.

Book ~ "Infidelity" (2013) Stacey May Fowles

From Goodreads ~ Ronnie, a hairdresser with a history of recklessness, feels stifled by the predictable, comfortable life laid out before her with her live-in boyfriend. Charlie is an anxiety-ridden award-winning writer, burdened by his literary success and familial responsibility, including a bread-winning wife and a child with autism.

When the unlikely pair meets, a filmic affair begins on office desks and in Toronto hotel rooms, creating a false reality that offers solace in its secrets.

Two very different people, trapped by everyday expectations, take pleasure in destroying those expectations together. Their relationship, with all its differences and failings, with all its pleasure and pain, calls into question our rigid and limiting definitions of right and wrong, and what it means to be a partner, parent, lover, and human being.

Ronnie is 35 and has been living with Aaron for about five years. She is a hairdresser and he is a caterer. She helps him at one of his catering events one night and meets Charlie, a 50ish author and university professor. They are instantly attracted. Ronnie is feeling pressure from Aaron to get pregnant and Charlie is looking for something different outside his marriage and caring for his autistic son. They want each other but neither is willing to leave their comfortable lives.

The story is set in Toronto ... Ronnie and Aaron "live" not far from me in Parkdale and Charlie "lives" in the Annex. So when the author was talking about the different areas of the city the characters were in, I knew where she was talking about.

While I didn't like the story (it was bizarre) or the characters (I didn't warm up to them), I did like the writing style and that's what kept me reading. I was curious to see how things would end up. As a head's up, there is a lot of swearing and some adult activity.

Churchill's Bar & Pub, Saint John, NB

I had supper this evening at Churchill's Bar & Pub on Grannan Street. It's owned by the same group that owns Church Street Steakhouse. There are two entrances. I entered through the Canterbury Street entrance.