LeasideLife issue 25 draft 3_LeasideLifev1 14-01-20 10:11 PM Page 1
No. 25 • February 2014
Leaside Life leasidelifenews.com
WIN a MOVADO watch for your VALENTINE Page 8
A fearsome farewell to Leaside 100 I awakened to a loud crack coming from our backyard. There followed the sound of wood tearing and popping, and finally a decisive thud. It was only then that I knew, without looking, that the tree of my youth, our 150-year-old Ironwood, nicknamed Carmen Miranda for her natural sway in the centre and spray of leaves on top, had succumbed to the great ice storm of 2013. As a child I swung from her branches, carved initials into her bark and held tea parties under her leaves. There was a small aperture in the base of the tree—a magical bolthole as it were— where chipmunks and red squirrels sought refuge from predators. Carmen fell gracefully, evading fences and power lines. By summer she will make an excellent backyard bench. Her spirit will live on. Ultimately, though, she was
Goodbye Carmen Miranda one tree among many, and Leaside lost much more during the big freeze. For example, the owner of The Bagel House on Bayview, Jessi Sahdra saw $25,000 worth of food
spoil in the four days his store went black. “None of the fridges and freezers were working,” he says, adding, “All my customers who ordered party platters for the holiday had to do without because they’d gone bad.” Ever resourceful, Sahdra made do by baking bread in wood stoves, and siphoning enough power from McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon and Grill next door to keep light bulbs burning. For De La Mer owners Dave Owen and Blake Edwards, trying to transfer fish and seafood from their Bayview location, where lights were flickering, to their store on Roncesvalles, which was unaffected, proved to be darkly comedic. “As soon as we’d transport the product to our Roncesvalles place, the power on Bayview would go back on, but the minute we turned back onto Bayview, it would go off again,” Blake recalls with a chuckle. FAREWELL, Page 14
PATRICIA PHENIX
By PATRICIA PHENIX