Toronto Island

A mostly photo blog-post wherein Lisa, Graham and I visit Toronto Island on a rainy Wednesday.

History: I worked on Toronto Island for two long summers (May-Sept) in both of the restaurants on Centre. While much less traumatic now, it is difficult to visit the islands without feeling some trepidation (Oh god, they're going to put me at Paradise and I'll be bored, oh god I'll be at Carousel and have to deal with tourists and children oh god oh god). Despite having not worked here for almost three years, these feelings still happen. I can safely say, however, that these sensations have lessened much, especially during this last forray. I daresay the island may even represent fun after so many years of negativity.
Here are Lisa and Graham waiting for the Ferry. I refuse to take photos of the ferry as it is a large and scary boat. Any island officianados out there: We took the William Inglis.
The view from the ferry on the way to Centre.
This is Graham's favourite ferry, which we missed by minutes.
View of the city from the ferry. Fog or smog?

William Inglis went from City, to Centre, to Wards. We decided that Wards was the best place to depart and begin adventuring. I had never really spent much time on Wards; it's the residential area of the islands. We, for whatever reason, did not take pictures of the houses, which is really unfortunate because they are extremely cute. The "streets" are actually just sidewalks between houses. One cannot drive around Wards, just walk or bike.
Flowery tree of unknown genus.
Potentiall ominous path... but mostly because it leads either to wetland or someone's back yard.

We found ducks in the Eastern Gap. I refused to take a photo of the industrial carnage happening on the mainland. Instead, the view in the opposite direction:

Across the Eastern Gap, away from the carnage, there is a haunted light house. Wednesday was rainy and foggy (typically British... damn colonizers) so you can't really see it that well, but I swear to you it's there. I've never been to it, but will make a solid effort to visit it this summer.

Along the boardwalk, we found an arch.
While there aren't roses growing on it (yet?) I told my companions the magical truth that evil cannot pass through a rose-covered archway. We could all pass through this one, roseless though it was. I say it counts. Sort of. Perhaps we are all just demi-evil. :)
We found the most perfect Peter Cottontail garden at the Senior's Centre. No Farmer McGregor is sight. Oddly, also no bunnies. Instead we found:
Lisa Rabbit!! It was hard for her to resist all the growing cabbages and carrots, but there was this really high-tech security gate preventing her pillaging:
See how it doesn't quite reach the ground leaving a one foot gap... very difficult for bunnies to shimmy under. It also stands a solid four feet high, preventing the 5'7" Lisa Rabbit from hopping over it.
The also have the added security of TROGDOR!!!!!
Burninating all the people in the thatch-roofed COTTAGES!!!!

We came upon the Island Church.

There's a plaque next to it with all its history, but I won't post it because it's hard to see in a photo. Basically this is a 200 year old church which still holds services on Sundays. I very nearly cancelled all of my wedding plans in favour of doing it here, marriage classes be damned. However Graham, in his wisdom, told me that in order to be married here one must be a member of the congregation, and probably for a requisite number of years. If they did not have this rule, they would be performing weddings probably every day of the year. I am only slightly disappointed.

Across the way we found Far Enough Farm.
It is clearly quite picturesque from this distance. There was even a peacock on the shed roof:
On the way to the farm, we passed the Carousel Cafe (shudder) and the pond just outside of Centreville.
Is that a Kingfisher?
Lisa sat in story-time chair and watched Gimpy Goose gimp by.
The farm was... depressing. The animals were far smellier than they should have been, the horses were supremely pissed off and DIRTY. Even the donkey got cranky with us and tried to eat my camera.
Here is an overly smelly billy goat:
He might look like a wizard, but he was quite rank.
He could also scratch his own ass with his horns. Useful skill, that.
We found Peter Cottontail... incarcerated.
And having an interspecies relationship with a pheasant.
Cranky donkey, just before he tried to eat the camera.

Pretty much depressed, we left Centre Island and headed to Hanlan's point for the haunted light house.
There's a plaque for this as well, but the short of it is that this is a 200 year old light house reputed to be haunted by one JP Rademuller who was the keeper until his mysterious disappearance and the discovery of human remains nearby.
Lisa searched for more human remains... and enjoyed the view, mostly because she did not find any remains. We did, however, find geese!
Mean, probably semi-evil geese teaching their young to hiss and spit.

After this, it began to rain so we caught the next ferry back to the city, where we met Jim for much deserved protein.

Despite some of the more depressing aspects, this is a trip that bears repeating, possibly with bicycles and boat rentals!