November 17, 2009
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Toronto housing market booming

Wait a minute here. I thought we were in the midst of a recession? Last month housing sales in Toronto were up 64% from the same month last year. Everyone I talk to says paying the asking price or lower for a house in this city simply isn’t happening.

A friend of mine has been looking to buy a house in the next neighbourhood over from mine. He found one he really liked and talked to his broker about an offer. The broker suggested he make an offer well over the asking price – which he did. That offer wasn’t close to being enough to buy the house in question.

We’ve been at the new Anchovy World Headquarters for almost a year and a half. We found our house pre-recession, but at that time, there were no line-ups to buy, no bidding wars or any of that kind of business. Now, we’re living in a time of much greater economic uncertainty and we’re in a seller’s market. At the start of the recession, I read about credit becoming harder to come by, but the money must be flowing smoothly now to enable people to bid against one another for homes.

I’m glad we aren’t house-hunting now.

November 16, 2009
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Coyotes

Several mornings ago, Tuffy P was taking Memphis for her morning constitutional, when she came across another dog owner in Sam Smith Park. This fellow owned a hound dog who had just tracked and rousted a coyote down by the yacht club.

A couple evenings later, two dog-owners were in the park, a little to the north, when they saw a pack of four coyotes emerge from the woods. The animals trotted up the hill, walked along part of the filtration plant, down the other side and then along Lake Prominade.

As my friend Dinners would say, let’s be careful out there.

November 14, 2009
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Dinner at the Anchovy’s

I started another page for this blog, called Dinner at the Anchovy’s. I made this page to keep track of good things to eat here at Anchovy World Headquarters. I started with tonight’s dinner, a version of the bbq vegetable soup we’ve made a few times in past months. I’ll let you know when I add to the page.

November 14, 2009
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The Niagara St. Two-step

Some of you know that for a number of years I lived in my painting studio in an old casket factory in Toronto. I’ve written a little about that here or in the old space in the past. I decided to write down some of those stories bit by bit on a new page I created for this blog. I’ll add to it from time to time and let you know when I’ve added a new installment.

Update: I’ve added The De-commissioning.