I took these photos of the rear garden last week, before I made a whirlwind trip to Toronto to accompany Isabel, who took the GRE there this morning. It would have been nice not to have arrived at Union Station at the peak of Friday rush hour, but there was no choice, and so we endured the crush of the TTC, spent the evening at a condo booked through Airbnb, walked on a bridge (with a very narrow sidewalk) over the Don Valley Parkway to the exam location in a suburban business park, ran (literally) back to the subway (which turned out to be out of service between Eglinton and Yonge), and finally caught a cab to end up back at the station just in time to be last to board our VIA train back to Kingston, where Isabel had to get to an event this evening. Whew! At least it was a good cardio workout--and I managed to knit a sample class project for the Wine and Wool Retreat next weekend during the four hours of the exam.
Toronto is certainly an exciting place, full of stimulating things and ideas, but in spite of that, I'm glad to be back home. Looking about at the faces on the subway this afternoon, it seemed that the only relaxed, contented face in sight was that of a Boston terrier sitting on the floor beside his owner. There's a lot of stress to living in the fast lane, and I think I might not be a big city girl anymore.
