Toronto is coming! Toronto is coming!

For most of my lifetime, Buffalo has looked at Toronto as a destination, a sprint up the QEW for "real city" stuff: international fare, cosmopolitan shopping, avant garde arts, major museums. But during my mother's lifetime, Toronto looked to Buffalo as the "big city" right across the border (when crossing the bridge was a breeze) that attracted top performers and boasted great arts and culturals - think Albright-Knox. 

What goes around comes around. More and more of our Canadian neighbors are recognizing that there's much more to Buffalo than the Walden Galleria.

In an end-of-year round-up article: Fake grass and the Handy Camel bag clip: gardening's best and worst of 2015 (Dec 11 2015), the Toronto Star's gardening editor Sonia Day declared Garden Walk Buffalo the "Best garden event." Significantly, Buffalo's architecture is touted as well as its fabulous gardens.
 
"This extraordinary, people-friendly event started 21 years ago and is a phenomenal example of neighbourhood co-operation. This year, 400 homeowners in the downtown core opened their often-modest front and backyards to visitors — and more than 60,000 people visited. Garden Walk always takes place on the last weekend in July, so remember that for next year. The glorious architecture of historic city houses is a revelation, too. Who knew Buffalo could be so beautiful?"

"The architecture in downtown Buffalo is as amazing as the gardens."

You betcha. And that's from the publisher of the Garden Walk Buffalo book & DVD, which was very intentionally designed to showcase not just the flowers but also the amzing homes that they grace. Buffalo.