Continuing adventures in community litter picking

It's been several months since I joined in on a Tidy Grangetown litter pick. This time, Fiona, who is one of the stalwarts of the group recognised me as the chap who wrote a blog about it. (Looking back, I've actually written two!)

This time round we were meeting by the Channel View Leisure Centre, which is right next to the River Taff. Dave from the Cardiff Rivers Group, who brings all the bags and holders and litter grabbers and gloves and high-vis vests, suggested I go explore down by the water-sports slipway where a lot of rubbish had washed up.

In doing so, I met a new friend.

He was a very friendly swan who seemed very interested in what I was up to as I fished various bottles out of the water. There were lots of ducks around who weren't as interactive and minded their own business a bit more.

After having a nice chat with the swan ("Hello, Mister Swan, don't worry, I'm just picking up all this plastic crap, no, don't try to eat the plastic crap...") I walked through The Marl to Ferry Road. At this point the sun had come out and it had turned into a lovely spring morning.

In The Marl I found the obligatory lost toy who had clearly lost his latest duel with Batman.

On Ferry Road I found a magnetic 'L plate' that probably dropped off a passing car and a smashed in, backless mobile phone.

During the pick, I found a ziplock bag full of dodgy looking self-rolled smokes, nitrous canisters aplenty, and my first syringe. It didn't have a needle in it, although one of the other volunteers did find a syringe with a needle intact. As I have blogged before, you learn a lot about a neighbourhood by picking up its trash. People seem to lose their socks around here, for example.

And another first! I fished a Tim Horton's cup out of the river next to Mister Swan. The latest coffee chain to hit Cardiff have only been open a couple of months, but already they are following the lead of Starbucks and Costa in selling their wares to litter-bugs. Tsk!

At the end of the litter-pick we were invited into the Leisure Centre for a cup of tea as a thank you. Channel View is the only leisure centre in Cardiff that is still run by the council; all the others have been privatised. The centre is having a refit which will triple the size of the gym and provide a picture window view over the river, which will make it a much nicer facility to use. Work is due to complete by the end of April. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

USA & Canada 2016 - Toronto

I loved Toronto.

We stayed just around the corner from the Hockey Hall of Fame.

And a couple of blocks from the CN Tower.

When you get close you realise just how tall it is.

At the Tower's base, there's a railway museum.

Cathy posed with a caboose.

You can see the whole city from the top of the tower.

Next to the CN Tower is the Rodgers Stadium where the Blue Jays play. We went to see a game one night and they had the dome closed. First time we had seen indoor baseball.

There's loads to see back on the ground. I particularly liked the Freedom Arches.

Which are next to the city hall, that looks like an alien spaceship has just landed.

Toronto is full of impressive buildings. From bold, glassy new skyscrapers...

...to old-fashioned "flat-irons".

And all kinds of things inbetween.

There's even a concert hall that looks like a hat.

Toronto has pretty much everything you would want, including postcards and places to post them...

...friendly locals...

... poutine (cheese and gravy on fries - this is a vegan version!)

... and a Tim Horton's doughnut shop on just about every corner.

And at night they light it all so you can see where the landmarks are in the dark.

I loved Toronto.

USA & Canada 2016 - To Canada! Exploring Kingston, Ontario.

We left Cooperstown in the rain. I think this was the first time I had driven in America while it was raining. A short while into our trip we discovered that the bottle of lemonade we had put in the fridge of our hotel room had semi-frozen. We discovered this the explosive way, when Cathy opened it and the remaining unfrozen liquid rapidly left the bottle. We pulled over to clean up. I thought the bottle had become over-pressurised somehow and didn't realise it was frozen. So as Cathy had dried off and settled down, I thought I could open it gently and we'd be OK.

This didn't work and I managed to soak Cathy with lemonade all over again.

After 'The Lemonade Incident' the journey was without much incident. We stopped at a services plaza as we headed North. It was called Mapleview. It didn't look like much from the outside. Inside it was classic American diner with great food.

We carried on North. The landscape got quite wild and eerie towards the border. There were still farms, but they were more spread out. We were heading for the border crossing in the Thousand Islands, a scenic region in the St Lawrence river, that, yes, did provide the name for Thousand Island Dressing.

It's become customary on Facebook for people returning to Wales to post their pictures of the Severn Crossing. But there are bridges and there are bridges.

This one went on and on.

After the border checkpoint we passed the 1000 Islands Tower, where you can apparently get amazing views up and down the river.

And then another bridge and we were in mainland Canada.

Next stop was Kingston, Ontario, where we were staying for the next couple of nights. After a very brief stop to take some photos downtown (more on that later), we found our motel. It looked like a motel in a movie.

When we checked in the guy on the desk was very excited to hear we were from Cardiff because he was a huge Doctor Who fan. He even rolled up his sleeve to show us his TARDIS tattoo.

Kingston was the first capital of the united Canada, but people were afraid it was too close to those rebellious Americans to the South, so they moved the parliament to Ottawa. They'd already built the parliament building in Kingston, so the town has ended up with this massive municipal building right in the centre.

The town is on the shore of Lake Ontario, which looks like the sea. Cathy got to pretend she was on a boat.

Meanwhile I found a massive train to look at.

There is a real mix of interesting buildings.

And, of course, very different flags everywhere.

Kingston has lots of museums. I felt we should go to at least one while we were there. We chose one of the smallest - the old pumping station.

Mainly because I heard it had a big model railway display. It did.

At Harper's Burger Bar we had another encounter with fried pickles. I'm not sure why I look so startled by it.

We also got the opportunity to try a fabled Tim Horton's doughnut. Tim Horton was an ice hockey player who set up a coffee and doughnut shop after he retired from hockey. We saw Tim Horton's everywhere we went in Canada. They do good doughnuts. I recommend the Maple Dip.

Next up: the real reason we went to Kingston.