'Twas a lovely weekend

The weather in Toronto was just dee-lightful this weekend. I enjoyed my first picnic of the year on Friday afternoon with Ace and Bunz and her cute fam. We took to the park with a party-sized pizza and enjoyed what was the nicest day so far this year.

Then on Saturday, I went to the Absolutely Vintage Sale at the Maple Cottage in Leslieville with my Aunt L. We perused the racks of beautiful clothing, checked out all the jewellery, handbags, fashion books, and other knick-nacks. Aunt L bought some amazing Satsuma porcelain buttons from Japan. The more we looked at them, the more we liked them. I admired this pair of bikes out front and then we headed off to brunch at Edward Levesque Kitchen. The food was delish, as always! On the way back, I admired the bikes again...

This is the front lawn of the Maple Cottage by an alleyway called Memory Lane! How cute is that?

Some textiles for sale on the front porch of the Maple Cottage.

The beautiful Satsuma buttons that Aunt L bought. They are the size of my thumbnail, but they have so much tiny detail. You can even see the funny little expressions on the women's faces.
A group of pickled veggies at Eddie Levesque.

Later in the day, I returned to the Sale with C to get his advice on the 2 bikes since I couldn't get them out of my head. I was relieved to see they were still there and had not been snatched up! After checking them out and leaving twice, we sat on a park bench to contemplate. We told ourselves that we would just soak them up, retain the image in our noggins and then leave them. That did not happen. The seller, who also owns Gadabout, the vintage shop at 1300 Queen St. E., came out to strike a deal and all of a sudden C was the owner of the pair of vintage Raleigh bikes.

The original owners had carefully labeled the bikes with their names. Too cute! Apparently the husband passed away a while back and the wife passed more recently. The bikes have sat indoors for years. We did some research and they are from 1969. They are in great shape -- they just need a good cleaning. We even found the key to husband's lock in the pouch on the back of the wife's bike. Not that those locks would deter a thief in any way, but still nice to find it. Anyway, after a bit of an ordeal getting the tires pumped up, the two bikes were a perfect ride! So fun to be on a bike again!

Sunday I went to J and Y's for afternoon tea. Got to peek in on the new little baby. She's quite the cutie! Wrapped up the weekend by going for Korean hot pot with my sister and Aunt L. We ran into B and his climbing crew there. Sometimes this big city is so small! Dinner was so good, I could eat it again already!

Today I have been holed up indoors on this rainy day packing orders, ploughing through paperwork, doing my RST, GST and Income Tax returns.... fun fun fun!