After Only a Few Days Away

So I spent the holidays with family down in the States, as usual, and today was my first day out walking around and seeing the neighborhood again. I was only gone a little more than a week, but there's a few new things about.

Down at Ireland Park, the high winds and water have left a wreck - bricks torn out, gravel scattered, and sand everywhere.

Bricks torn out at the far southern end
of the quay, by Ireland Park.

The bricks tossed haphazardly a couple meters
away, and its gravel scattered all over.  And,
for extra fun, wet sand everywhere.

I'd usually assume vandals had been at it, but up at the corner of Dan Leckie and Queens Quay, the muck out has been washed and blown up out of the harbour, too and now it's all over the sidewalks.  That'd be a bit much, even for bored kids.  I think Mother Nature is the only vandal who goes this far.

The garbage is strewn like this for a long
way along the sidewalk and bike trail.

But humans have been here - back behind the Community Center, someone's been leaving messages in chalk.

Happy New Year, everyone!

A Day at the ROM

The Pompeii exhibit at the ROM ends on January 3, so we went for another day.  It's a large exhibit, and I actually missed some things the first time through, as it turns out.  But a couple other things, first.

This is the ship's bell from the Erebus, one of the two ships from the Franklin Expedition that tried to find the "northwest passage" that would let ships get from the north Atlantic to the north Pacific by going up over Canada.   If you don't know the story, the result was that the Erebus and her sister ship, the Terror, were frozen into the ice for two winters, and all crew members eventually lost after they attempted to walk back to civilization.  The story is only now being pieced together as artifacts are located.  There's good, if heavily fictionalized, account, called The Terror.

There's also a great pterodactyl (or something similar) over the main lobby area.  Check out the size of those drumsticks:

Down in the Pompeii exhibit itself, I turned left where last time I'd turned right and found this interesting windchime on display:

Oh, those crazy Romans.

My photo of this didn't turn out last time - a bronze statue found in a garden:

Many of these bronzes have white stone eyes and coppery pupils.  The effect is somewhat unnerving.

Srsly?

Noticed these on the subway today:

I pixelated the URL because hey, if they're going to pay the TTC for advertising, they don't need me driving my vast number of (one to three) readers to them.

I don't disagree that pollution is an issue, and people who live within a certain radius of an airport likely get more than their fair share of exhaust and fuel dumped all over them but chemtrails?  Once their site mentioned that, I just rolled my eyes and looked at their links.  They also link to a site that argues the Sandy Hook school massacre was "just a drill" and no one actually died.  So, that's pretty much how seriously these ads should be taken.

I was mostly just surprised to see that up there in between all the holiday show ads that have been covering the subway ad-space for the last month.

Anyway, happy holidays.  Me and my Christmas shrub are ready.

Roundabout

I've been wandering around with a GPS-based capture-the-flag game lately (more on that elsewhere), so ended up wandering west on Lakeshore yesterday up to the Expo, then back home through Coronation Park and Little Norway Park.

But I ended up going behind things and around things I don't normally bother to.  There are some sculptures... or art or something behind the newer condo building at Lakeshore and Dan Leckie.  I've not seen them at night, but I think they'd be awesome if they lit up then:

They kind of remind me of big clay beads, in their way.

On the west end of them they're still working on the old Loblaw headquarters at the corners of Bathurst and Fleet and Lakeshore.  It looks much the same as always from the front, but from the back you can see the gutting:

It's a super busy worksite.  I'm very glad I don't live right next to it as so many do.  (And especially so seeing how the construction plans call for a 41-storey tower to be built in this otherwise mid-rise area.)  Here's a concept drawing of what the ground floor area will look like that's posted outside the site:

On the other side is the toy soldier statues, which I always feel are kind of Christmas feeling.

but maybe shouldn't - they're a memorial to the War of 1812 after all.

Plaque reads:
DOUGLAS COPELAND
Monument to the War of 1812
Two abandoned toy soldiers pay tribute to Toronto's history in this artwork.
Without Fort York there would have been no Canada - the British would have
lost Canada to the Americans in the War of 1812, and Canada
would have been absorbed into the United States.
Commissioned by Malibu Investments
and unveiled by
Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone
November 2008

I feel like that could have been better written, but there you go.  Product of a committee, I'm sure.

Further along, I visited the old lighthouse.

And even further along, Exposition Place's Princess Gate, replete with Nike (though it's almost impossible to get a photo of the thing without streetlights, electrical wires, and condos getting in the way of the shot, so... sorry for the badly placed street light).

There really wasn't much to see in Coronation Park yesterday though - the park was mostly empty except for the offleash area which was full of playing dogs, so that was nice.  Back through Little Norway Park, I spotted this fellow being very suspicious of me and my little dog.

Seeds and Boats

The middle part of this past week has been really gloomy, but at least warm enough I could stand to have my hands out of my pockets to take photos.

The garden is getting all dried out, but that makes for some pretty seed bits:

And I was out at all of 3:30 the other afternoon and noticed it was already dark enough that lights were coming on.  Yeesh.  The Jubilee Queen was also all lit up and getting ready for a dinner:

More to come, so long as the warmer weather holds...

December So Soon

Wow, it's December already.  In the mad end-of-term rush, I've nearly forgotten to take photos.  Nearly, but not entirely.

I was on the second floor roof of the St. James campus today.  This is the rooftop:

And this is what can be seen in the opposite direction:

That's the corner of King and George, and I'm really surprised it's not been taken over by some massive condo residence by now.

And this photo I took last month:

The sign was put up in response to this ugly atrocity of a fence.

And it snowed.

Last week, the boaters around these parts were enclosing their decks for winter.   When you live aboard in a marina all winter that deck space becomes useful, and it's probably best to keep winter winds from sweeping across your various openings wherever possible.

This Fall has been really mild, hence the boaters just now getting around to the winter wraps.  I saw the Mists of Avalon had a particularly intricate job done, complete with skylights.

And today I saw the first snow on the ground  There didn't seem to be any south of Lakeshore/Gardiner Express, but up on King, next to the St. James Cathedral, the park still had some when I went through around 9 this morning.

This time we're serious, guys.

Over the course of the last couple years, the traffic routing on the street I live on has seen some changes.  One of the major changes is that the bike lane was removed from the street and, instead, a dedicated bike and jogging path was built along the southern side of the road.  It really looks very nice and (if I were a bikist) I'd much prefer the new trail since it puts a decent distance between cars and bikes.

One of the problems has been that there are spots where this wasn't completely possible due to the narrowness of the space south of the road against the waterfront.  For the bulk of the new trail, it's unbroken, but here, at close to its extreme western end (along this street), there's a spot where there is a three-way traffic intersection and a three-way intersection of sidewalks, too, and the bike path has to cross that.  

They started signalling this with large, reflective blue patches marking "End of Trail" on either side of the problem area — that is, get off your bike, this spot is too crowded and dangerous to be ridden through.

It's actually become far too dangerous to walk through.  And that's due to the dedicated bikers, helmets, spandex, and all, zipping through the spot like it's a time trial, who will actually ding their bells at you and shout if you dare to be walking through this area.  So, about three weeks in, this sign went up at either end of the gap;

That didn't work (at all that I've ever seen).  Next, after another month, they put large, thick, yellow strips at the trouble spot.  Again, no progress.

This week, they added wording to the big blue end-of-path markers:

Coming out of the crosswalk (in the photo above) I was still nearly clobbered by a speeding bike and its rider yesterday.  

I don't understand why cyclists think it's OK to be so dangerous in a congested area full of pedestrians — and not only to speed through there with no regard for pedestrian safety, but to shout at and ring bells at the pedestrians as if the pedestrians are the ones in the wrong.  We've yet to see anything like this, but I think it's only a matter of time.

Winter Vegetables

I was on the northern side of the garden today, and saw some large planters flanking a walkway, and the winter veggies are out and doing well.

The smaller planters are quite pretty:

Autumn is truly here, though -- the leaves are getting thick on the ground:

Storms coming in.

Just a simple photo today of a storm moving south across the city and out over the harbour.

A Visit to the ROM

I went somewhat off the Waterfront Trail on Monday and paid a visit to the ROM which is currently having a Pompeii special exhibit (In the Shadow of the Volcano).  

There were many, many beautiful and sobering things to see there.  Here I have photos of just a few. 

This first is a statue of Isis, whose cult had spread to Greek and Roman areas.  As you can see, she's been Hellenized somewhat.

A Pompeii-styled Isis

Nearby was a statue of Apollo, which of course you had to see:

Apollo, from Pompeii

And next to Apollo was Venus:

Venus, from Pompeii

I really encourage you to go if you have the chance; it's a treat, and there is a lot more to see than I have pictured here.  I plan to return in the near future to spend a little more time with the exhibits.

Anyway, on the sobering side, there are also a number of the plaster casts Pompeii is famous for.  Just two are pictured here.

First a wealthy family who, in trying to escape, sheltered in a stairwell, but was caught in a blast of pyroclastic heat and died there:

An unlucky family of four, killed by the
heat as they sheltered in a stairwell.

And a guard dog, left chained to a garden gate, who had scrabbled atop the falling pumice and ash, but succumbed to the heat as well:

An unfortunate guard dog, left chained to a gate in Pompeii,
also killed by the pyroclastic blast.

Truly sobering, really - the tail end of the exhibit is much like walking through a cemetery that's even more sad than usual.

Safety First

Heading out to Ireland Park yesterday, I was disappointed to see that they've added yet more chain-link fencing.  That stuff's always ugly, and now the park is hemmed in by it on two sides.

The southern edge of Ireland Park.

I especially love that, as you can see in the above photo, there is still walkway along the edge of the water, but the lifesaving equipment is on the inside of the fence now.  Good luck if you fall in!

And, directly behind me as I took this photo, was this situation:

Fall arrives.

Just a couple photos from the Music Garden this week.  

I noticed this very pretty digitalis at one end of the garden:

Nearby it were some of the autumn-loving kales/cabbages.  I think they may have been here a while, and I have only noticed them now that some of the other plants have died back.

I sometimes have the urge to take some home for soup …

Early October...

I've been stupid busy lately, so while I've been snapping the occasional photo, actually uploading them and cropping them has seemed like a Herculean (Heraclean?) task.  Who has that kind of time?

Apparently, I still do!  So, without further ado, some photos from the past week.

Last weekend, I was out by the Western Gap and noticed that the planters that way had not dealt with the end of summer very well:

But in taking that, I saw a cluster of UN planes across the way — not something I notice every day over there:

See the excitement I live?

Early in the week, I decided to finally photograph some of the new work in the subway.  This is at the northbound platform on the Yonge line.  (The Spadina/University line is on the other side of the glass there.)

I've been regularly heading down King St. East in the mornings lately.  Now that the weather is getting chiller and gloomier, the gaslights add a surprising bit of cheer.

And, finally, at some point I wandered south of King toward Front along an arcade there, and this reflecting pool was down that way, steadily working itself toward murky.  It was still charming at this point, though.

Summer's Last Hurrah

The weather has been alternately terrible and fantastic this week, going back and forth from cold and rainy to bright and sunny with just a hint of warmth.

Most flowers in the Music Garden aren't taking it all that well, though some are still quite pretty.

But the sure sign of fall is here — the cabbages are being planted (no photos of those yet), and the red-osier dogwoods have their berries.

dogwood berries

An Te Liu: Solid States

Thursday, on the way home from class, I stopped by the Toronto Sculpture Garden which finally has some sculptures in it (it's been empty since last year some time — as many point out, it's quite small and frequently has one or fewer sculptures in it).

This exhibit is of work by An Te Liu.  Here's the blurb near the entrance:

Exhibition blurb near the entrance.

The sculptures themselves (and I'm hoping I got the labels correct — let me know if you know otherwise):

Remains of the Day

Meta-matic

Tourist

Ascension

Vegetable Mineral

Animal Vegetable and Vegetable Mineral with
the garden's water feature in the background.