Toronto Urban Strolls: Around Merchants of Green Coffee

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Around Merchants of Green Coffee

Great combo in Riverside!
On my way to the Merchants of Green Coffee, I always walk across Joel Weeks Park, another hidden treasure nested in Riverside, located by the Don Valley. This morning, I noticed it recently got even better, with the addition of three fun sculptures.

At the southern entrance of tiny Joel Weeks Park, off Thompson Street (one street north of Queen east), a sculpture of four squirrels holding a giant acorn reminds me of the acorn-obsessed squirrel in Ice Age. By the playground, a fat beaver sits on its tail, on a boulder featuring the carvings of fish and an otter. By Matilda Street (with the café in the background) is a lonesome fox.

The Riverside BIA let me know that they're the work of Mary Ann Barkhouse and Michael Belmore (not officially unveiled yet!), commisssioned by the City Parks, Forest and Recreation.

Fall gives a yellow hue to the beautiful trees, great landscaping with tall grass blowing in the wind creates a textured background. Just love it. And no wonder it's so lovely! The park was designed by Janet Rosenberg and Studios, the ones who gave us little gems such as Town Hall Square in Yorkville and Courthouse Square between King and Adelaide.

Walking past the fox, I peeked into the backyard of a place that seems to be collecting architectural ornaments from old buildings (today, I saw two Eiffel Towers and a pig sculpture). At the door of Merchants of Green Coffee awaited my friend Cat. He will later join me on the bench as I write this post.

The place was quiet in the morning, with a couple playing Scrabbles and three business people planning a marketing coup on the Shopping Channel. In the afternoon, it filled up with a large team scouting locations for a movie and people having casual business meetings. Then, a good friend came to meet me at my "office"...