Full Cupboard Of Life

Life is good. In the course of a day, a week, a month, certain periods in our lives, we laugh, we cry, we get angry, we feel lonely, we feel at one with the world. I would rather have the full cupboard of life in my kitchen, to borrow from The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. My cupboard is pretty full. Yes, life is hard sometimes, tears are therapeutic, and we'll all be fine.

Today, after The Boy left for school, I went into his room and saw this.



I am so not going to clean it up because I want to give him heck when he gets home.

I have often complained about the hydro wires that hang above our streets. They are ugly and make me think we have not advanced much since the turn of the 20th Century. How come we can send people to the moon and we can't make our streets prettier and safer? Apparently, the concern is cost. It's expensive to bury hydro and phone wires underground.

So when a friend sent a note to tell me about the possibility of funding such a project on our local main street, I dashed off this letter to city hall to give my support.

I understand a motion will be considered by the Works Committee tomorrow to secure $11.6 million through Development Charges to underground hydro wires and improve street lighting, road surfacing and sidewalk construction on St. Clair Avenue.

Even as a teenager in Toronto, I have felt the hydro and communication wires that dangle above our heads on city streets are unsightly and dangerous, visually keeping the city stuck in the early 20th Century and undermining our sense of community intelligence. Toronto cannot be a safe and trusted world class city when visible signs of decay and danger literally hang over our heads. Right now, residents and visitors look up not to magnificent architecture backdropped by a blue sky but to a tangle of old wires that you hope will not fall on your head when the wind blows.

The St. Clair Right Of Way project now affords us an opportunity to rebalance our cityscape at least on St. Clair. Burying hydro wires as part of the project is a cost-effective use of time and public money and poses less disruption to businesses and residents in the community.

Please convey my support for funding to underground hydro wires and improve St. Clair's streetscape.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my violas. At the garden centre this morning, I had my eye on black clovers and black pansies. They were beautiful. I loaded up my cart and started for the cashier. Then I saw the woman who tends the shop and started talking to her about trees and shrubs that will grow in the shade.

In the course of our conversation, she convinced me my problem is not lack of sun. It's poor quality soil and the Manitoba Maple roots competing with whatever I try to plant. I put back all the black plants; they would surely die in our soil before the summer is out. Right there in the garden centre, I started to design a Japanese rock garden instead. Ain't easy being an instantaneous designer without experience or knowledge. I need to do some research.

But I couldn't resist the black flowers and the warm orange ones. So I came home with some violas for my pots.



And I am looking forward to having dinner with my Fab5 buddies tonight, though there will only be four of us. We are trying out the fancy new local dig.

All in the course of a day.