Ducks

Someone was tossing popcorn to the ducks today, so they were all gathered around the end of the quay.

It was surprisingly warm — but it's funny how two months ago I wouldn't have thought 14C felt warm.

Little Norway

Photos of the plaques at Little Norway Park today.

The park is a large rectangle, and at the northeast corner is a circle with a stone at the center, then several plaques explaining what it's all about.

One side of the center stone.

Another side of the center stone.

The plaques first explain the stone.  The park was officially opened in 1987.

However it had been dedicated by Norway's king in 1977 (1987 was the date of its transfer to its current location).

And this plaque has insanely small type.  Essenetially: the exiled Norwegian Royal Air Force used this  area of Toronto as a training grounds during World War II.  The flagpole this plaque is mounted on is all that remains of the original base.

Waterfowl

Took the refurbished camera out on the walk today and saw many birds.

One of the little diving ducks we see a lot in winter:

And this seagull who was doing his best to ignore me:

And this pair of swans:

So, so far, so good.   On the stroll back off the quay, I noticed this object lesson in what happens when you leave your canoe out in the rain and snow:

Camera bit installed

So no scenery here.  I received the new CCD for my camera about two weeks ago and have since been procrastinating about tearing the camera apart and installing it.  Today was go day.

This is where it started to look hairy;

You can see part of what  need to replace here -- it's still
beneath a lot of other delicate pieces though.

But it got so much worse:

Bottom center is the CCD -- rectangular metal plate
with a tail of flex cable off its left-hand side.  There is
way too much flex cable in these things. 

It's back together now, and I took a couple test shots of the flat and things are decidedly not pink.  I'll take it out tomorrow and see how it works outdoors.

Here's a video of someone far more competent than me doing the same thing.  It's sort of amazing.

All the trees are bare

High winds the last few days have stripped all but a very few, very tough leaves from the trees.

There were a bunch of cold-looking seagulls.down on the benches/barriers and I tried to get a photo, but I startled them by getting too close with a dog so they're blurry and in-flight.

It's that time of the year.

It's cold, and wet, but at least it's rain today instead of snow.  15C feels totally balmy!

You can see CN tower today, which looks surprising to me because it's been hidden in mist for what seems like weeks.

The Yankee Lady and the skyline with CN Tower

We were up next to the malting silo today too, and I really liked these rusted old gears.

It's like a metaphor for life, man.

Closer to home, the planters are starting to show signs of Christmas Infection.

Yo ho ho and a bottle of (wait, that's the wrong ho ho, isn't it?)

Shrink wrap it, please.

Yes, it's still cold and still snowy. The little bit of sunshine we had this afternoon convinced some of the live-aboards who haven't enclosed their boats yet to get it done, like, now.

Now I just need to wait for them to get their Christmas lights up!

Snow snow.

Yes, more snow.  And it's really starting to stick,

Even to the roads!  Oh the humanity!

It's a good thing we got the dog's rubber paw covers out this week.  She really hates snow between her pads.

So -4 today, and oh my is it windy.  I tried to get a photo of the white caps on the water today, but the camera phone just isn't good enough to capture it -- it tends to blur and blend colours so anything that's a variation on white-grey ends up just a blur.

Anyway, I saw this little guy in the marina with a big green collar on.  There were numbers on it; I'm assuming for now that it's scientific and not just "goose got his head stuck in something".

I hope he at least feels fashionable.

There is ice clinging to the sides of the various boats.  The Miss Mary looks very cold today.

Seeing the name always ends up in me humming the Vic Chesnutt song.

Meanwhile, the harbour looks really super cold, though you can't really see the whitecaps here.

Brrr!

Ducks and leaves

It's pretty awful outside.  We had some snow on the ground this morning, but since then the snow has been falling as big wet flakes or just plain old rain, and it's all washed away.  Still, it's real misty out and wet and cold and blech.

The oldsquaw (aka long-tailed) ducks are still hanging around and collecting in larger numbers.

They're diving ducks, so they're fun to watch.

The trees are getting more bare day by day, but at least the ground is covered in colorful leaves.

Gold and red dominate the maples along the quay.

The UN is in town

The UN is in town, or at least someone from the UN is.

Sorry... camera phone zoom really sucks.

I haven't seen anything in the news about it, so I'm going with "it's totally not newsworthy".

Ducks and a new sign

The long-tailed ducks are beginning to congregate in (slightly) larger numbers on the harbour. Unfortunately, this was as close as I could get -- they're pretty skittish, unlike the usual mallards.

Those dots are ducks -- I swear!

Over toward the middle of the harbour, the Caledonia and the Empire Sandy have moved into their Winter moorings:

You can also see the red-hulled fire boat there.

And they've put up a new fish sign along Spadina Quay:

I've definitely seen some really large black carp in the marina itself, though not in the last couple months.

Canoe Landing

I thought it was just really foggy when I set out with the dog, but it turns out that wasn't fog out there, it was just very fine snow.  By the time I turned back toward home, it was getting pretty serious -- looks like Toronto's in for a fun commute this evening.

Anyway, this is the north end of the park known as Canoe Landing.  Canoe Landing is surrounded by the Terry Fox Miracle Mile, which I may photograph another time.

Bobber Plaza, by Douglas Coupland

In summer there is water that spurts up between them from the pavement.  Also, off to the right here (not pictured) is the "Beaver Dam" fountain that, until recently had smooth, fist-sized stones all over its bottom.  Except, apparently, people thought the stones were serving suggestion to sit by the fountain and hurl those rocks at the sculptures.

This is why we can't have nice things, Toronto.

Off at the south end of the park is a giant red canoe.  I neglected to get a photo of it from outside, but from the inside, you have a pretty good view of the Gardner Expressway.

Looking east along the Gardner Expressway (above) and Lakeshore Blvd (below).

This is the view leaning out the other side of the giant canoe:

You can just see Toronto Harbour through the buildings there.

Back behind "Tom Thomson's Canoe" are the "Iceberg Benches", another art installation.  Both pieces are by Douglas Coupland.

It's difficult to get a good, centered shot with the dog tugging
on the leash and wanting to head home like Right Now.

Gone to fuzz

The milkweed pods down along the Western Gap have burst open, releasing fuzz all over.

Fuzzy milkweed fuzz.

But just inside that fence is a planter that still has roses blooming in it.

These must be some tough roses.

Over at Stadium Road Park, it looks like the parks department has set out some work for themselves.

Loads of new trees.

That park is basically a large open rectangle of grass ringed by trees.  Looks like they're going to put trees inside it now, too.

More street art

Winter must be around the corner, as the live-aboards at the marina have started enclosing themselves in their winter plastic wrap.

Several more were starting to put up their
wooden frameworks so it's only a matter of time.

Down at Maple Leaf Quay, I took a couple pictures of the sculptures they've installed along the walkway.

A giant megaphone?

I wonder if the local residents are treated to random drunken bozos seeing if the megaphone works.  Next to it (on the right of the concrete wall) is another piece, or maybe the other half of this piece.

A ... er ... ah ... um ... I give up.

At least this one is pointed out across the lake instead of at people's homes.  Maybe it's for yelling at the Americans over there.

Flowers and a poppet

I really would have thought by now that the cold rain and occasional bit of snow we've had would have gotten rid of all the flowers.  But the garden still has some little guys toughing it out in there.

These things look a lot more purple in person, and they are really still going strong, tucked in amongst the trees.

Over near the garden's maypole are a lot of other flowers, like these:

And these which seem to be doing a lot better than most:

And there is even some foxglove left out there:

Oh, and I noticed another of these today:

These poppets are part of the Unforgotten Sisters project. The one I saw earlier in the year had a woman's details on its tag, but this one does not.

Winter berries

Good grief it's cold outside.  Not much interesting to photograph today either, so I stopped by some bushes with pretty red berries.

It's too early to look this Christmasish!

It's a cotoneaster of some sort, though which I do not know.

Goose, duck, (other) duck

Today the lazy geese are still hanging out in the marina, maybe fattening up for another leg south.

Just hanging out, eating the last of the seaweed.

The mallards are still pretty much just hanging around and hoping for handouts.

Got bread?

This is another kind of duck, but the camera phone is just not good enough for a crisp shot of them.  A male and female of the same species -- I believe they're called longtails.

Over at HTO West, between it and the nearby condo block, there is a long-ignored planter which no one has put cabbages in yet this year.  Instead, there are some of the season's last flowers blooming in it.

Geese and yellow flowers

A cold and dreary day here.  There were some geese still lagging behind the others who've been steadily flying south and, instead, hanging out in the marina.

See that light on?  It's 3:30 in the afternoon!

And yet more cabbages in the garden, but I saw that the yellow flowers planted with them are doing really well.

Yellow flowers.  Look at that cabbage go!