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blue October skies

Posted: November 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: autumn colours, balconies, CN Tower, condos, downtown, foilage, highrises, leaves, reflections, shadows, skyscrapers, sun, Toronto, trees, urban, washing windows, windows

Since most of the city woke up to snow flurries this morning, I thought I would take a quick look back over the past month. October was a beautiful month with many clear sunny days. The leaves on the trees turned wonderful colours this autumn and the colours lingered for a few weeks.

Blue skies, autumn colours

A man is suspended from the roof of a tall building by a rope. He has a bucket and he is washing windows. The CN Tower is close by and seems to loom in the background.

Washing windows in the shadow of the CN Tower.

Two tall condo buildings. Sun is reflecting off the balconies of the condo in background. In the foreground is a balcony with a large plant. Sun is shining directly on the plant so it looks like it is in a spotlight.

Afternoon on the balcony. Condos on Blue Jays Way.

older row houses in the background along with a tree covered in yellow and gold leaves. A large tree that has already lost its leaves is in the foreground.

Clarence Square

Tall light grey brick apartment building with cirved bluish balconies. On one wall is the large shadow of another building with balconies.

Shadows of building on building, Roehampton Ave.

When skeletons come out of the closet

Posted: October 30, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: black, bloody, bones, city, decorations, fallen, gauze, halloween, hands, hanging, October, reaching, silent, skeletons, skull, spooky, white, yard

It must be late October, the time of year when skeletons start appearing around town!

Skeletons hanging from branches of a tree in a frontyard.

Just hanging around.

A skeleton is sitting on a front porch along with a number of pumpkins

Keeping the kids off the front lawn!

Skull & hand bones attached to some wispy black fabric makes a wonderful scary flying phantom when hung in a tree on a breezy day

He flies through the air

A skull, some black cloth and some billowing white gauze, all hanging from a tree,

Left where he was hung

A skeleton at the base of a tree. The legs of the skeleton are bent backwards. It looks like it has just fallen.

Hey there! Could you help a guy up?

A skull, two boney hands and some black cloth and some billowing white gauze, all hanging from a tree,

Looking for a hug?

The upper part of a skeleton with its arms reaching out.

Please sir, I want more.

walls in the abstract

Posted: October 25, 2014 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: abstract, blue, bricks, buildings, city, concrete, grey, houses, orange, paint, reflections, stone, Toronto, urban, walls, windows, wood

Just a collection of walls that caught my interest as I walked in the past few weeks.

reflections in the window of the OPG (Ontario Power Generation) building, a curved glass structure.

diamond blues

patches, cracks, and drips under a bridge

close up of a maroon coloured drain pipe down the side of a house that is red and orange.

vibrant orange with drain pipe

Four storey brick building with large windowes with rounded arched shaped tops. Yellow brick details around the tops of the windows.

Pattern of arches at George and Adelaide

close up of a concrete wall that has black paint (or something like black paint) spilled on the lower part of it.

black and white under grey

Close up showing part of a wood pallet that is leaning against a grey brick wall.

wood on brick, browns and greys

under Mt. Pleasant Road

Posted: October 17, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: Blythwood Ravine, bridge, Burke Brook, face, graffiti, head, lylith lyl, man, mt pleasant, north toronto, numbered, street art, Toronto, under the bridge, yellow ochre

Between Lawrence and Eglinton, Mt. Pleasant Road passes over Burke Brook and Blythwood Ravine Park.
This is the graffiti that I saw under that bridge.

graffiti under a bridge - black and white picture of a man in jacket and tie and a hat with a brim. The top part of his face is in shadow from the hat brim. He iis shown only from the shoulders up

eyes in shadow

graffiti under a bridge - line drawing of a man's head with dotted lines dividing it into sections that are numbered

the numbers of a man

graffiti under a bridge - black and white line drawings of leaves and other biological looking creatures or things. The words 'yellow ochre' and 'lylith lyl' also appear'

flora and fauna, lylith lyl

graffiti under a bridge - yellowish gold frame with large line drawing of a smiling person.

crooked smile in frame

graffiti under a bridge - Kat Will you Marry Me? was the original words on the wall. It is partially obscured by a tag.

Did Kat marry him?

autumn 2014

Posted: October 13, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: alley, autumn, cemetery, flowers, lane, leaves, Mt. Hope, mums, October, photos, potted, reds, season, September, shadows, store, sunlight, tombstones, Toronto, trees, vine, yellow

looking down an alley with old garages on either side. A tree with orange and red leaves is in the picture too.

Fall colours in a lane near Queen West and Bathurst.

Two sunflowers on a sunflower plant with big green leaves. The sun is shining from above so the leaves look translucent.

sunny sunflowers

Leaves in reds and purples are hanging in front of a red garage door - close up shot

autumn vine in front of a garage door

Trees with autumn foliage in a cemetery with lots of light grey tombstones

A quiet corner of Mount Hope Cemetery in the late afternoon.

A bicycle is leaning against a wood fence and a green wall.

parked in the alley

close up of a few leaves and the shadows that they make on a orangish wood wall.

shadows and grain

A front yard has autumn decorations - straw men in funny hats and patchwork clothes.

straw men in the garden

A storefront, Bobs Garden Centre, with four rows of large potted plants, colurful flowers, for sale.

Bobs Garden Centre with pots of colourful autumn mums for sale
Their blog.

There are two tall locust trees with small yellow leaves. Some of the leaves have already fallen and they are on the ground, and on the cars parked in the driveway.

Raining little yellow leaves in Scarborough

fall coloured leaves at night, light is from a streetlight.

leaves under the streetlights

grammar?

Posted: September 22, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: confusing, dogs, don't parking, incorrect grammar, lamp post, municipal code, no parking, open, signs, silly, Toronto, we open

Considering the number of different languages spoken in this city, it is not surprising that some signs have English grammar mistakes. It is the official signs with incorrect grammar that make me shake my head.

Sign by a sidewalk that says Please do not chain your bicycle to the lamp post. Will be removed immediately at owner's expense. Large condo towers are behind the sign.

Lack of subject makes for an incomplete sentence, not to mention some confusion. Something will be removed.

Sign on a wood fence by a park that says, Dogs that dig holes must have owners fill them in immediately.

If only dogs could read.

don’t parking

we open

summer days

Posted: September 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: balcony, city, CN Tower, condo construction, culture, festival, filipino, food, kids, kultura, love, music, Music Garden, padlocks, people, performance, photos, summer, Toronto, Wychwood barns

The day after Labour Day, the official end of summer get back to school day.

So here are a few photos of the lazy hazy days of this summer past…..

two sisters are hugging while having their picture taken in front of a large wire mesh heart. The word LOVE is spelled in large wire mesh letters. People have locked padlocks onto the wires.

summer love, in the Distillery District

Looking down at a man who is sitting on his balcony and reading a book. Across the street is an open hole where a new condo is being constructed

‘On a Toronto balcony’… or, ‘Looking out my window’

A boy dress in shorts and holding a plastic bucket is watching a group of men and women practise a performance that includes long bamboo poles.

Watching performers practise at Kultura, the Filipino Arts Festival, Wychwood Barns.

A path leads through a garden, there is a group of people sitting in the park. The CN Tower is in the distance.

Hanging out at the Music Garden, on the waterfront.

always in the way

Posted: September 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: church, city, CN Tower, downtown, graffiti, Music Garden, photos, sculpture, skyline, skyscrapers, Toronto

If you can’t beat them, join them.

No matter where I went this summer, I seemed to always find the CN Tower lurking in the background.
It photobombs a lot of pictures! 🙂

A bright red tugboat is tied up in the foreground. Many glass windows of many condos are in the photo. The top of the CN tower is peaking up over the top of the condos on Toronto's waterfront.

The M.R. Kane, a bright red tugboat sits tied up at the waterfront near the foot of Spadina Ave. The CN Tower stands tall above the condos the line Queens Quay West.