Toronto: Memories of fall

The weather was unusual this fall. Initially around Thanksgiving we had a few cold days and Richmond Hill even had some snow. Then it warmed up again and we had a few weeks of nice weather before it got properly cold. So my dad was lucky that it was warm-ish for most of his visit.

One day we went up to Algonquin, a pretty long roadtrip but one of the most spectacular I have ever taken. In October, the leaves turn incredibly vibrant shades of red and yellow. We missed the peak of the reds but the orange and yellow were just as amazing. The drive there was beautiful, with whole swathes of colour lighting up the highway. We stopped at the Bethune house and felt inspired by his spirit. The drive through Huntsville to the trans-Algonquin way was surreal, the colours felt like they were out of this world. When I had visited with P we had just gone to a few areas, so this time we tried to visit a few more. We ended up having lunch by a tranquil lake, and we had the whole place to ourselves for about 3s0 minutes before someone else showed up. Pure magic, to soak up the sunshine, watching the water gently lapping at the shore, the trees in the distance lit up like fire. We made our own banh mi style sandwiches with pumpkin, tomato and boiled egg. It felt just perfect. After lunch we drove around some more and did a short walk through the forest. We were tired as we started heading back, but the sun setting low also gave us a different perspective on the leaves. Nearly running out of petrol between Bancroft and Peterborough was not fun though!

E was here briefly on her honeymoon. We spent Thanksgiving weekend together at #1’s brother’s place, and the day after we went apple picking which was so much fun. We wandered through the orchards stuffing ourselves with different varieties of apples, and of course went home with huge bags of apples.

Then dad went on his own to Montreal/Quebec on a Chinese bus tour, and had a good time. He went to Niagara falls too, 23 years after the last time he was on the US side. When I wasn’t working we went to different places in Toronto – leaf rolling in High park was particularly fun, and Scarborough bluffs was really beautiful. Before long his visit was over, and we settled into a slightly more dreary November.

Through summer and fall, my music fun activities really started to pick up. I had moved here with no music, having once made a scrapbook but then annoyingly lost it. I started out playing the Beethoven spring sonata with #3, then we moved onto playing other things like the Bach double concerto, some Mozart violin sonatas… and finally one day we decided to play a trio with her brother, who I had met when my laptop died in August. We started the doofus trio, mashing all the music that we could find, like the Mendelssohn piano trios. One time when my dad was here, he came for a little “concert” where we played and laughed. We each played a violin solo – I played the Romance in F, #3 played the Accolay concerto and her brother the Praeludium & Allegro (what a virtuostic performance!) We also mashed the butterfly lovers, and I think my dad had a really great time. Another time he came to hear just #3 and me play – she played the Swan, air on G and Vocalise on cello, then I played the spring sonata, and finally we did some piano duets. This is just a little snapshot of everything we have done, but it has been some phenomenal fun.

The last weekend in November, I went to Quebec City for a long weekend. I flew out post call into the magic snowy world – I somehow arrived on the first day of snow! I stayed in a cute little house slightly out of town owned by an eccentric man Maxime who had a map of all the people who had airbnb’ed in his house. I went for long drives in the snow out to the country, and went for a snowy walk near Montmorency falls. I felt like I was in another world. I spent a day wandering through old Quebec city, a charming little town with a European feel. Ate a ridiculous amount of poutine. It felt wonderful travelling again and exploring.

A few weeks later, I went to New York city just before it got too cold. For Australians it is strange to fly an hour and be in another country, but America is so close here that you can feel it everywhere. Getting in from Newark, surrounded by people listening to awful noise (“music”) and shouting at each other on the train, I felt distinctly that I had left the gentle Canadia for a more crazy country. New York is big, crowded and rushed. People stare if you dawdle, and push past as if they had better things to do than be held up by a lost soul. I met with friend #3 and we trawled the city eating here and there, poking our head into places. I visited MoMA, a place that I had dreamt about since I was a teenager, and was awed by the collections all under one roof. The most striking piece for me was a naked woman sitting contemplatively, peering into a mirror in which she was black and white, and somewhat distorted. Isn’t this how we see ourselves?