Guildwood Park / Guild Inn

I wasn't hungry on Saturday when the Taste of Danforth opened its streets up.  Hundreds of soak-drenched folks were enjoying the multicultural food and music festival while they temporarily took over the streets of Greektown.   

From somewhere around Jones Avenue to Broadview on Danforth in Toronto , the Tastes of Danforth festival runs until August 12th, where there are plenty of souvlakis and burgers, food stalls, and cooking demos are happening.  


But....I wasn't hungry :)  Instead, I Explored Toronto and a little rain never hurt anyone anyways, and in my thirst for more historical sites, the famous Guild Inn came to mind.

East of the Scarborough Bluffs is the quirky Guild Inn, an Arts & Crafts style mansion dating back from 1914 set among quiet lakefront park lands.  It was an artist's colony formed during the Depression: the garden has a collection of sculptures, Ionic columns and gargoyles rescued from condemned city buildings during the 50s.  


The Guild Inn or rather the estate was bought in 1932 by Rosa and Spencer Clarke who established it as the Guild of All Arts.  It was a rent free colony where more than 100 artists and artisans lived there creating sculptures, weaving , painting  woodworking and ceramics.  More and more visitors came to see their work and eventually guest rooms and dining rooms were added to the Inn.  

During the second war, the Guild was turned over to the Government and it was used by the Women's Royal Navy Service as a training naval base.  It was also used as a hospital for a while too.  

But eventually in 1947, the art colony was once again given back to the the Clarks and more and more acres were added to the property, but in the 50s the property taxes became so high, they sold off a lot of their land to developers.  This land now houses gorgeous homes and is known as Guildwood Village.  

Sadly, today the Guild Inn is a skeleton of its previous glory days, with danger and keep-out signs, asbestos and mould warnings inside.  Although the Inn is closed the Park is used and maintained by the City of Toronto, and people come to use the structures for weddings shoots and private functions.  I'm hoping that someday another Inn will be built and it will once again come back to its former glory, with its breathtaking views of the bluffs and Lake Ontario how could it possibly lose. 


 If you want to check out more of my pictures from the Guild Inn Click Here

Chedoke Radial Trail - Dundas Valley (C.A.)

Ever since the first time I ever saw Hamilton, I was in love. It's been an ongoing love story for me to return to the Escarpment, and though my current life in Toronto keeps me away for days at a time, I always find myself slipping back into the natural beauty that surrounds her.

The Chedoke radial trail is one of many trails in Dundas Valley and is part of the massive Bruce Trail.  It was once the Brantford and Hamilton Electrical Railway and now is a being used as a pedestrian and bike pathway that runs from Hillcrest Avenue southwest crossing the Chedoke Golf Course and crosses the escarpment to Scenic Drive.  This is about a 2.5 kilometre distance.  

You will see beautiful woodlands, hidden valleys, a variety of migrant and domestic birds, beautiful waterfalls such as Upper and Lower Chedoke, Westcliffe, Cliffview, Sanitorium and Mountview to name a few.  There are only a few sloping parts of trail that may make it somewhat of a challenge if you are walking a stroller, or in a wheelchair, but overall its a reasonably easy trail to explore.  

a very skinny deer on lower right of pic

I was shocked to see a deer foraging in the woods, and as quiet as I could be, I was amazed how trusting and confident she was just walking up closer to me.  I scrambled for my camera but wasn't able to get a decent shot, but am excited to try once again.   

If you are going on foot, the Chedoke Radial trail can also be assessed by a series of metal steps (300 in all) which descend from Upper Paradise Road (off of Scenic Drive) from the Escarpment.  Although the climb back up can be tiresome, from my own experience the ascent back up does gets easier every time you do it!