Boatload of lemons? After they're squeezed, track-load of lemonade! Well, I can't even claim the lemons right now... my reason for being a touch late on my blessing... and what WAS going to be my excuse for NOT doing a blessing this week... after some thought WAS a blessing of a sort!

Usually, I write these posts on the Saturday to be posted right at 12:01am Sunday morning... thus freeing up Sunday for things away from the computer... except Saturday went from being a wee trip out on a weekend to something a little more active.

Sue and I missed going to her father's grave on Father's Day... which is something we do each year. Weather and a few other miscues kept us away... so this weekend, we called her sister and off we went.

After tending his grave (not a sad affair, but one of care and rejuvenation,) Sue mentioned my father's grave... a place that my whole family, by dint of location (too far) don't get to very often... and at first, I said there was no need to visit... that this was their day for their father... but... after a few minutes and the realisation the two women were, more or less, just going to head home... I said, "Well, Mount Pleasant Cemetery is an interesting spot... and Diane (Sue's sister) has never been... can we go?"

So, with no issue, we were on our way...

BUT!

En route, I'd mentioned a neighbourhood near where I grew up that I really didn't know anything about and was, in an odd way, in our path... Sue's sister was our driver and she said, "Sure! Let's check it out!"

I explained that this "neighbourhood" was small by any normal measures of the city's spaces, and was bordered by two park-like valleys, train tracks, and a huge ravine.

Well, we went into this odd sequestered neighbourhood and it was still as I remembered... right down to it's odd littler "main street" of commercial properties. It was/is a very obviously wealthy neighbourhood with fairly large homes on normal lots, a large lush park on the one side, and this little bank of shops... well... let's just say when I was a kid, it was a "convenience store" on this block... as an adult an revisiting with Sue and Diane, it had a sign to let you know it was a "Convenience Boutique". (I kid you not!)

We did stop in the fairly large, well stocked, and TREMENDOUSLY over priced grocery store for some supplies... (their stock, for the most part, is available in places not too far from our home at about 1/3 of the same price! I guess the store knows it has an oddly captive audience...) and looked about for some info on the area... none existing...

...then we went off to the cemetery where, indeed, I did need to tend to my father's grave (the stone is an "in ground" job and it appears to be sinking... and mud and grass had obscured the family name... I soon sorted that out,) and visited some of the more "mucky-mucks" and interesting monuments in the one side of the cemetery... and in a few hours, we were on our way again... but since we were now all fascinated, we decided to go back through the odd neighbourhood... and this time, I checked that local park I mentioned and got a name... it was a name I recognised, but couldn't place...

"Chorley Park".

Just so you know, here's a satellite picture of it thanks to Google...

Toronto, from SPACE! (...with the general area I'm speaking of circled...)

Chorley Park Neighbourhood...

...but why was the name so familiar to me?

Now, I had grown up (spent my teenaged years,) a spit and a whistle away from the place (probably about five or six miles North-East in a neigbourhood called Leaside,) but there was something else...

...and the amateur historian in me, once home, felt rather ashamed...

Diane looked up the name and... well... it was demolished in the early 1960's, but original "Chorley Park" (a name for a mansion, not actually a park,) was the official home for the Fourth Government House in Ontario... or the residence of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario... which is a job/title given to someone more or less as a ceremonial kinda thing... a throw back to our early colonial times... but a good one.

Yup, it was built in 1909, and had a rather interesting past... worth reading but too much for here... and then demolished when in 1961, it was considered an old and deteriorating eyesore. Something that made everyone here kinda mope... and I'm sure my friend DrillerAA probably weeps for this sort of thing too...

Wanna see "Chorley Park"? The torn-down, not worth saving, deteriorating, eyesore?

Image from Wikipedia...

Image from Wikipedia...

Image from Wikipedia...

Oh well, the short-sightedness of one era is the disaster and borderline vandalism of the next...

Anyway, after ALL this, we got home, Diane stayed for supper (the main parts from the over priced Chorley Park grocery store... again, nothing special...) and we were all suitably burnt out from a tonne of walking, exploring, and mucking about.

NOW...

You may ask yourself... how is any of this a blessing???

Easy!

My blessing today is spur of the moment adventures... the destination of which leads to learning something new.

Diane had never been to Mount Pleasant Cemetery which is an astounding place...

Although I had been as a teen, none of us really knew much about the neighbourhood of Chorley Park...

Although Sue and I had heard of the mansion, we didn't know (actually, we were mistaken about) it's exact location... and weren't aware of it's complete history.

I'd say it was a blessing of a Saturday... even if it did delay my blessing!

Blog Your Blessing Sundays is a creation of NeoBluePanther... who may or may not be the famed Luchador!