Toronto Landscape TV (HD 720)

Along the Etobicoke Creek is a little-known path that leads to Pearson International Airport, Canada's largest airport. It's hard to believe that such a massive airport could be right next to such a nice tree-covered path, but it's there. You can walk right up to the airport's fence and watch airplanes take off right over you. At this point in the year, the path is lined with tons of purple flowers. Check it out...

Episode 112 is made up of photography we provided for CESBA's (The Canadian Emergency Services Boxing Association's) 2011 Police Memorial, known as "Ringside For Kids". At this annual event, held in Mississauga, Police and Peace Officers from across Ontario step into the boxing ring against each other to raise money for charity, in honour and remembrance of the brave officers who lost their lives in the line of duty while protecting their communities and our nation. To find out more about CESBA, please visit www.CESBA.ca.

Proceeds from this event went to support of Camp Oochigeas, a camp for children affected by childhood cancers. Camp Ooch provides fun and meaningful experiences to approximately 680 children affected by cancer each year at no cost to their families. This is all made possible by the generous support of donors and volunteers. For more information on Camp Ooch, please visit www.Ooch.org.

Music: "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor (© Volcano Entertainment III, LLC)

Fashion Week took place in Toronto recently. Simply put, it blew us away! It is a completely different experience being in attendance at a runway show than seeing it on tv. The atmosphere in the room can be downright electric, and it makes for some incredible videography. In addition to filming many runway shows we also interviewed a great designer backstage and interviewed numerous interesting people we met at the show. The full videos of these shows and interviews can be found on the YouTube page of our friends from "The I On Fashion". You can check it out here.  

In this video we'll take a look at some of the highlights from Fashion Week, including the models getting made-up backstage and then strutting their stuff in some of the best runway shows of the week. Enjoy!

We're back for more at The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Canada's most prominent agricultural event and the world’s largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition.

We'll see the immense cow section where a huge number of cows are getting washed and shaved for judging.  Then it'll be onto the bird-judging area, for a look at all manner of fowl.  Finally we'll finish with a look at some of the other interesting exhibits at the fair, including some giant pumpkins.  Enjoy!

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is an annual fall fair in Toronto which takes place over two weeks every November on the grounds of the CNE. Inaugurated in 1922, it is Canada's most prominent agricultural event and has become the world’s largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition.

The fair brings together over 300 vendors, 340,000 visitors, elite Canadian and International breeders, growers and exhibitors, over 4,500 large and small animals, a large petting zoo, the President's Choice SuperDogs show, shopping, dining and – of course – The Royal Horse Show.

For those of us who grew up nowhere near a farm, the Royal Winter Fair is a blast! It is so interesting to see farm folk displaying their animals (horses, cows, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, llamas, and much more) and their crops -- and all this happens very near Toronto's downtown core. There is so much to do and see, and it is the prefect spot for families and school groups. Everywhere you look you will find wide-eyed children, squealing with happiness, as they see and touch so many different farm animals.

In this first of two episodes from the Royal Winter Fair we'll visit an equestrian jumping event in the Ricoh Coliseum and then head into the sheep & goat areas to watch a lamb-judging competition. From there we're off to watch kids excitedly enjoying the petting zoo and watching a mother pig feed her babies. The it's off to the Horse Building where we'll see riders practising their equestrian skills and we'll wander around the massive amount of horse stalls that are full of these amazing animals.

In part 2 from the Royal Winter Fair, we'll head to the immense cow section where a huge number of cows are getting washed and shaved for judging. Then it'll be onto the bird-judging area, for a look at all manner of fowl. Finally we'll finish with a look at some of the other interesting exhibits at the fair, including some giant pumpkins. Stay tuned!

Looking distinctly like Martian topography, the Cheltenam Badlands are a bizarre and extremely rare geographical spectacle that lie hidden in the Caledon Hills.  The cause of this phenomenon was poor farming practices and overgrazing in the 1930’s that lead to soil erosion and exposed the underlying shale.

This site is now an Earth Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) and is part of the local UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.  It was acquired by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 2000 and is under the care of the Bruce Trail Association.  Unfortunately, visitors to the site often walk all over the formations, hastening their erosion and eventual demise.

In this episode we'll get a look at The Badlands on a weekday when there are very few people visiting the site.  We'll view the unique red and white hills (from a respectful distance) that make up this amazing place.

The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest footpath in Canada.  It runs almost 800km, from the Niagara region in the south to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula at Tobermory in the north.  Along the way it passes incredible old growth forests, high cliffs, caves, and more.

In this episode we'll join the Bruce Trail on the path up to the top of Mount Nemo, in the town of Milton, about a 30 minute drive from Mississauga.  Mount Nemo is one of the higher spots on the Bruce Trail.  The trip includes a climb up a wooden ladder to the top of the cliffs.  Then we'll walk the path through glades and forests brimming with autumn colours, all the way to the Brock Harris Lookout.  You'll see plenty of families enjoying the trail and  all the colours and sites on this nice autumn day.  The views from atop the cliffs are dramatic -- you can see all the way to Toronto and Mississauga.  This is a great place for families and casual hikers!

From 1890 to 1980, the Don Valley Brickworks was one of Canada's pre-eminent brickyards.  At its peak more than 43 million bricks a year were manufactured for use in the construction of homes and buildings across Canada.  Many of Toronto’s most prominent buildings were made from Don Valley brick – Massey Hall and Old City Hall are two examples.  In the late 1980s the site was expropriated by the City of Toronto, the TRCA (the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority), and the Provincial government.

In the 1990s the City and TRCA raised approximately $6 million to restore the site’s quarry as a park and natural area. The Don Valley Brick Works Park is awe-inspiring: a haven for wildlife and naturalists alike, it is at the heart of Toronto’s ravines. Opened in 1996, the park is managed by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. The Don Valley Brick Works Park is worth a visit in any season.

Evergreen’s focus has been the site’s 16 historic factory buildings. The buildings – a collection of brick structures from the early 1900s and industrial sheds from the 1950s – have been revitalized through a process called “adaptive re-use.” The result is Evergreen Brick Works – a community environmental centre with programs that celebrate the site’s unique geological, industrial and natural heritage.

In 2010, Evergreen Brick Works was named by National Geographic as one of the world’s top 10 geotourism destinations.

The site will be animated with year-round programs and activities that include a native plant nursery, demonstration gardens, an organic farmer's market, conference and event facilities, youth leadership and children's camps, and family programming.  The new office building on the site will be LEED Platinum and will showcase environmental techniques like green walls and a green roof -- it will be one of the "greenest" buildings in the Western Hemisphere.

In this episode we'll begin in the main centre and then venture out back to the old brick quarry that is now a pond filled with wildlife.  Finally, we head inside the old brickwork factory to see the restoration efforts and to view the incredible graffiti that covers the walls and brick ovens.

The John Street Roundhouse is a preserved locomotive roundhouse in downtown Toronto, just steps from the CN Tower and the Skydome. It is the largest roundhouse in Canada.

Built for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1929 to replace the earlier roundhouse built in 1897, the building was last used for its original purpose in 1986. It is now the only remaining roundhouse in downtown Toronto. One third of the original structure was dismantled, to allow construction of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre below, then reconstructed in 1995 and is now home to The Toronto Railway Heritage Centre (TRHC), Leon's Furniture and Steam Whistle Brewing.

The roundhouse originally had stalls for 32 locomotives that were moved in and out of the structure on a massive 120-foot rotating turntable designed by the Canadian Bridge Company. Locomotives were driven onto the turntable and rotated for positioning into one of the stalls for servicing and light repairs. In its prime, the John Street engine facility contained 43 structures, several miles of track and covered nearly 16 acres of property. Up to 150 men worked in the facility 24 hours a day.

The 17-acre park includes four full-sized locomotives dating back to 1944 as well as Toronto’s own car, No. 1, built in Kingston, Ontario in 1950. There are also three freight cars and two passenger cars in the park. The roundhouse has been cleaned up and bays 15, 16, and 17 have been set up by the Toronto Railway Historical Association as a simulation of what it’s like to drive a real diesel train. Another interactive component of the Heritage Centre is the Roundhouse Park Miniature Railway. A fully operational miniature train can carry up to 24 people around the park.

In this episode we'll watch as hundreds of people enjoy the roundhouse on a beautiful summer day. You'll see people riding the roundtable that used to turn locomotives around. You'll also see kids working an old pushchair. We'll head inside to take a look at a few of the engines that are preserved by the TRHC, and then go back outside to get a good look at the families enjoying the trip through the park on the miniature train. This is definitely a great place for families, historians, and train lovers!

Osgoode Hall opened in 1832 and remains a Toronto landmark and the hub of legal life in Ontario. It currently houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. The building also housed the Osgoode Hall Law School until 1969 when the faculty was relocated to the campus of York University in the North York community of Toronto.

The six-acre site at the corner of Queen Street West and University Avenue was acquired by the Law Society in 1828. At the time, the location was on the northwest edge of the city, which has since grown around the building. The building now sits in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Between 1838 and 1843, the hall was turned into troop barracks. When the Law Society regained possession in 1844, an expansion was designed and the West Wing and Library were built. From 1855 to 1857 the building was refurbished and enlarged again to accommodate courts with the original 1829 building becoming the east wing. From 1880 to 1891 the building was again expanded twice in order to accommodate the law school.

Despite the expansions, the hall presents a unified design in the Palladian style. The iron fence surrounding the lawns of Osgoode Hall has become a landmark in itself. Its distinctive iron gates are narrow and restrictive; it is a long-standing myth that they were designed to keep livestock out of the grounds of the hall and in the 1950s students did attempt to pass a cow through one of the gates (they failed). The gates were likely due to Victorian architectural fashion, rather than wandering cattle.

Two libraries are housed within Osgoode Hall: the Great Library of the Law Society of Upper Canada and a smaller library for judges. A War Memorial was added to the library in honour of the Canadian war effort. Behind the Great Library is the American Room, a more intimate room with a spiral staircase.

In this episode we will get a look at the building's facade before venturing inside. We'll see the Rotunda with its ornate tile floor and the memorial statue in the middle of the room. Then we'll head further inside to see the spectacular Great Library and American Room. We'll see smaller rooms like the Bencher's Reception Room and the Convocation Room before entering another grand room, Convocation Hall. We'll finish by visiting the courtrooms and watch as people from all over get to take their turn behind the bench.