Earth Day

These days all kinds of buildings in the city that were used for one purpose are now being used for another.  Old churches are turned into condo buildings, arenas into grocery stores - today we visited a brick-making factory & quarry that provided bricks for MANY of the old buildings in downtown Toronto, but which has now been turned into Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre, farmer's market, Outward Bound headquarters, and more.

An Earth Day celebration was being held, so inside there was plenty of delicious food to sample & purchase - we got apple beignets & pommes frites! - and fun kid activities like face painting.

 Outside there were plant beds of strawberries, parsley, garlic, beans...

...plus tea brewing on the fire in the chimney, pizza cooking in the wood-burning oven, and some circular structure that had fun windows to sit on.

It's fun to see how they're using the buildings to showcase nature but the outside trails are what's really incredible. Twenty years ago this place was a huge clay quarry.  Around ten years ago it was purchased to be seeded and made into a nature area.  Now there are beautiful trees, a big pond, grassy hills - a gorgeous escape from the city. 

Did you do anything special for Earth Day?