Mallow and horses

Despite being only 6℃ today, the sun was bright and warm.

The NYC and AYC look snugged in for Winter with all their boats on the hard.  And the shrink wrapping has begun, too.

Boaties all i a row.

Along Little Norway Crescent, hollyhock is in bloom.

At least I think it's some kind of mallow.

And back along Marina Quay West, I saw some police out on their horses.  If you squint, you might be able to see them, too.

One dark, one pale.  The horses, I mean.

Cold fuzzies

A lot of things have gone to fuzz in the last week.  The milkweeds went first, now other things are going.  Last week, I think this looked like little daisies.

Not as out of focus at it looks ...

And the goldenrod has gone to seed, too.

If only we could stop it now.

Meanwhile, there are some bellflowers peeping up amid the other dying weeds.

aka Campanula

And these which I can't identify for the life of me, but I think it might be some kind of vetch.

Definitely as blurry as it looks.

First snow

You can't see the flakes in this picture, and they're melting as soon as they hit the ground, but yep, it's -1 ℃ today, and it's snowing.

The Fall colours may not last much longer.

Street Art

Right on the corner of my block, someone's been naughty.

Most of the street art I see around here is about the mayor.

From there I went up to Fleet Street west of Bathurst and looked around at the other "street art" that's been installed around the new condos and townhouses.  I did, though, first get closer to the Queens Wharf Lighthouse.

I peeked in the window.  Empty.

It seems like every corner in the Fleet-Lakeshore-Bathurst area has something on it.

The crane is not part o the art (to my knowledge).

They nestle them right into the corners of the buildings sometimes; it must be odd to look out your window and see sculpture like that.

Catch a wave?

This one has been at the corner of Bathurst and Fleet for quite a while, but it's still entertaining.

Note: not actually made of plastic.

Flowers, grasses, and the island

Pretty chilly out today, though there are still some beautiful flowers in bloom.

Along the Spadina Quay Wetlands, the construction fence has been hiding this pretty flower:

Black-eyed Susan?

And further west, this has come into bloom, clinging to the rocks on the south side of the gazebo:

I ... have no idea what this is.

Up along the Music Garden's maypole area, these were still in bloom too:

I'm going to need a flower identification book.

The grasses all around the maypole are all dry and full of seeds.  Usually, red-winged blackbirds are in the garden in-force all Summer making it hard to walk without getting smacked in the head.  But I have only seen a few this year.

Ornamental grass ... of some sort.

The island is turning all shades of red, yellow, and orange.  I hope to make it out there soon for some photos.

Toronto Island's north side.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign!

Well the city elections are over — the signs are still up of course.  We will probably now get to see their slow, sad decline into Winter.  None of these candidates won.

Ward 20 candidate signs

Nearby is the (I think) neighborhood-placed "Slow!  Kids at play!" sign which beats that weird old fashioned one with the little boy wearing knickerbockers..

Alternately, maybe Mitch McConnell is campaigning up here, too.

We ended up roaming around Coronation Park a bit today.  I noticed this sign that I hadn't noticed before (in my defense, the park has signs and plaques all over it; you get a bit of plaque fatigue if you continually notice them).  I had actually never heard of the Fenian Raids (attacks on forts, customs posts, and other targets in Canada carried out by U.S.-based Irish Republicans) or the Northwest Rebellion (an uprising in Saskatchewan by the Métis).

The trees make the park quite lovely, actually.

I turned around and there was another plaque right by me.

All about the Second Invasion of York, 1813.

But, today, there were squirrels at least as numerous as the signs and plaques.

This is about as close as I can get before the dog totally spooks them.

Just everywhere you looked.

You looking at me?

Out on the south side, the anchorage is now completely empty.

NYC's anchorage, ready for Winter

What a change a few days makes!

Half mast

It was super windy today — 49 km/h winds — so I tried the "sport" setting on my phone which is supposedly for anything with movement.  The first one turned out well, despite the subject:

The flag on the playground at the
community center is flying at half mast.

Futher along, at Éireann Quay, another sign the weather isn't great: most all the rent-a-bikes are in their stables.

Need a bike?

At the end of Queens Quay, along Stadium Road, the Alexandra and National are doing some serious haul out.  They had three of these massive cranes set up, and all were constantly busy.

Anchor's ... er ... boat's aweigh!

Down along the Western Gap the water was rough (for the Gap); the photo doesn't do it justice.

End of the Western Gap, airport side.

And over at the airport, the windsock was streaming away:

Digital zoom sucks.  That's the windsock right in the middle.

The current must have been going strong, too — the leaves in the gap were all bunched together in a long, thin stream through it:

It looked really cool in motion.