Walk On The Urban Side

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Walking. One of our joys. Many days three to four hours. Some days six or seven hours.  In Victoria it was a breeze, an ocean breeze and cooler temperatures that made the strolls grand.  The skies are blue-mostly-in Toronto during the month of August. Temperatures are in the high  twenties or low thirties. With the humidex it feels like +40 many days. This is not weather made for a   walker.A hot day and miles and miles of concrete absorbing the heat equals, well, yikes.  What would one do to get our strolling fix? Walk at five AM. Nah. I’m asleep at that hour.  One has to adapt. Toronto may not have an ocean breeze. However, it does have something close,   real close. Outside our window is Lake Ontario with miles and miles of parkland and walking trails.  With careful research. OK, it wasn’t that difficult. After all there were only two direction to head  once you were at the lake shore. I find strolling west is best. Although I do like Leslieville once   you get there heading east. West takes us to High Park an amazing place with blossoms in the   spring and trails to keep you moving.One must never forget the coffee stop. A street near the park  is loaded with local coffee houses and delicious beverages.  Ah, the lake shore. A place of five degrees cooler temperatures. Only the most vicious heat   would stop my hikes. Frankly, there haven’t been any yet. The walks are not lightening quick,   but they are paced. Now, where would one settle down to rest for a bit? I know. How about in one   of Toronto’s hundreds of Adirondack chairs. Fine, they call them Muskoka chairs.   Don’t tell them but they are Adirondack chairs. 

When I said that there are only two directions to walk I fibbed a bit. We simply have to hop
on a ferry and walk around amazing Toronto Island.

Whew. Looks like we landed in a great part of Toronto.

Um, winter is an issue. It is quite a bit cooler beside the lake. Oh boy.

Toilets, Loos, Privies, Earth Closets, etc by S. L. Carlson

Toilets, Loos, Privies, Earth Closets, etc by S. L. Carlson

I’m not one for bathroom humor. Toilets, on the other hand, are a different matter.

Roman engineers were brilliant sewer-builders. Fountains, public baths, public latrines, and important buildings were all hooked up to the system. Water washed the muck away into ditches,  rivers, or lay in cesspools.

Roman men and women went together in the same, open, many-seater latrine. With no toilet paper, they used sponge sticks to wipe their bottoms. Although wealthy people had servants to do this job for them.

A stercorarius had the opportunity to collect muck from cesspools and slop buckets. He’d take them outside the city and sell this black gold to farmers to use on their crops.

In the 1400’s Sir Richard Wittington left money to build a 64-seater latrine in London.

In the countryside during Victorian times, your privy would be a hole in a plank of wood overtop a bucket, called an Earth Closet, as dirt was tossed in between uses. When the bucket got full, the contents went onto the garden or field.

In the 1830’s thousands of people died in London from cholera from the sewage, dead animals, chemicals, etc dumped directly into the Thames, the same water used for drinking.

In 1858, London, a heatwave caused the Big Stink. With 100 ordinary citizens using the same privy, it overflowed into the streets and river. It was so bad that Parliament met away from the Thames. That same year, they started a new sewer system with over 83 miles of sewers.

In the 1860’s USA, Clara Barton climbed into a hole next to a “death bed” – every soldier getting that bed died. She discovered the hole led directly to the cesspool, which fumes were causing the deaths.

Today, there are millions of people who do not have a toilet system with chain or flusher to wash away our muck. Some travelers discover they are unwilling to “go native” over a hole in the floor, and request the location of a “western toilet.”

Bathrooms aren’t mentioned in many of our fictional stories. However, knowing what, where, how, when, and with whom your characters need to do their necessities may get you more into your character’s mindset. Or…perhaps not.

Tea On a Hot Summer's Day by Victoria Chatham

I am fortunate to have a neighbor who loves having tea parties. It's an open house for her guests and you never know who will be there. She has a beautiful silver tea service and a collection of cups and saucers so you can take your pick of a dozen or more different patterns and styles. The conversation flows, the pot never runs dry and, even on a hot summer's day, the tea is wonderfully refreshing. There have been a variety of themes from death by chocolate to cream teas with scones and jam. We've had a shortbread social and a cake corral but always, at the center of it, is the tea, or coffee for those that prefer it.

I drink more tea now than I ever did when I lived in England and, what's more, it's loose leaf tea. My grandmother had a ritual, which I somewhat follow. Tea with her was an event, with the tea pot, hot water jug, milk and sugar bowl on a silver tray. First, the pot had to be warmed. Then the tea was spooned in, one spoon for each cup and one for the pot. I might add the spoon was on the small side. The tea had to sit for a few minutes for it to warm before the freshly boiled, never boiling, water was added. This was allowed to steep and while that 'worked' she poured hot water in each of the cups to warm them. This water was tipped into a 'slop' bowl and then the tea poured into the warmed cup. For those that wanted it, a little milk was added and then sugar to taste.

When I go home to England now to visit my family, I cannot drink tea as they do and they are appalled at my 'naked' tea as I drink it as it comes without milk and sugar. For very special occasions I will have my tea at home, especially if it's White China tea, in a cup and saucer and treat the whole tea making process as an event.

It's not quite as elaborate as a Chinese tea ceremony, but there is a relaxing, almost meditative, pattern to it. My grandmother's edict was that a good cup of tea can fix anything and I think I can agree with that. It's my drink of choice while I am writing and with that I'm going to pour a cup and get back to work.

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