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spring in the city

Posted: May 26, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: buds, city, flowers, graffiti, ivy, leaves, photos, spring, street art, streets, Toronto, trees, tulips, walls

Spring in the City

Hopeful signs of a new season that I have spotted this week.

A large garden full of orange tulips. In the background is the grass and trees of St. james Park. There is a couple sitting on a bench on the far side of the tulip bed.

orange tulips galore in St. James Park

Tulips and other spring plants starting to grow in front of a wall that has been painted with graffiti

signs of spring in front of the wall

Flowering white tree in front of the entrance of Metropolitan United Church

Even spring can look grey if you look at it from the right angle. Metropolitan United church.

pretty in pink, and purple…. boxes of flowers along the fence, Davenport Road

many yellow and white daffodils are growing in front of a picket fence. There are a number of trees with new leaves behind the fence.

daffodils and picket fence, Riverdale Farm

A row of orange tulips growing in front of St. James cathedral. Close up of the building so only part of one wall, with lower corner of a window, can be seen.

growing in the shadow of St. James cathedral

A tree with pink blossoms is growing in front of brick row houses, one red brick and one that has been painted light grey.

pink on brick, near Kensington

Ivy begins to grow again on a wall that has been painted with beige, blue and orange graffiti. Close up picture of the graffiti so it looks like an abstract shape

almost smiling at the ivy growing on the alley wall

on to Peru

Posted: January 21, 2014 in general Toronto

For the next few months I will be in Peru.

I have started another blog for my Peruvian adventures. It can be found at http://caminandoPeru.wordpress.com

Turkey for Christmas

Posted: December 24, 2013 in general Toronto
Tags: Christmas, turkey

Flew away, missed the ice storm.
Any posts for the next while will be on the page titled ‘Turkey’. The link is https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/turkey or you can find it on the menu near the top of this page.
If I have a few minutes and the hotel has wifi, I’ll keep adding to the Turkey page.
In the meantime, have a great Christmas!
Take care. Keep smiling. 🙂

one December evening

Posted: December 17, 2013 in general Toronto
Tags: benches, Brookfield Place, buildings, Christmas, city, December, decorations, downtown, drifts, glass, lights, park, path, reflections, road, shadows, snow, St. James, storm, streets, Toronto, traffic, urban, windows, winter

One cold Saturday evening, during a snowstorm, in downtown Toronto

Snow, lots of blowing snow!

Ruts in the snow on King St. reflect the light from the street lights. Snow is blowing across the road. There is a red stop light in the distance, and you can see the headlights of the cars that are stopped for it.

Snow on the roads and snow blowing across the streets.

Snow covered ground lights make round patches of light in the snow. Small white Christmas lights are wrapped around a small tree trunk. The wind is blowing snow across the lights.

A dance of snow and light choreographed by the wind.

A shop window with 6 mannequins. They are all dressed in long dresses or black skirts except one of the mannequins who is wearing a red dress. They all have large red bows in their hair. The backdrop makes it look that they are standing in a snowy pine forest.

Ladies of the night – all dressed up but nowhere to go.

Night time. Fresh snow on the ground with only one set of footsteps walking through it. There are a number of trees along the side of sidewalk and they cast shadows over the snow.

Shadows playing in the drifts of snow.

Black & orange construction cones along side a plastic orange fence around a construction site at the side of the road. Traffic stopped at a stoplight in the distance.

It wouldn’t be a Toronto street unless there was construction on it somewhere, even on the snowiest nights.

With the shorter days of December come the lights of Christmas to brighten the longer hours of darkness.

The photos below were all taken in St. James Park.

looking across a snowy St. James Park towards the cathedral whose steeple is partially obscured by trees. Late afternoon. Part of the Toronto skyline can be seen in the background.

St. James Cathedral through the snow as twilight falls.

Shining

Two tree trunks wrapped in strands of multi-coloured Christmas lights are in the foreground. In the background are bare tree branches against the sky. The sky is a grey colour because it is a cloudy winter night.

Spots of colour contrast with the plain grey of the bare tree branches against the grey late afternoon sky.

snow covered benches under trees whose trunks are wrapped in strands of Christmas lights.

Snow covered benches await a warmer day.

Six trees with their trunks wrapped in strands of Christmas lights. There is a fresh, deep layer of snow on the ground.

Colour, light, and shadow. St. James Park trees in the snow.

A snow covered path through a park. The tree trunks have been covered with Christmas lights. A couple of trees have blue lights, a couple of trees are covered with white lights, and some trees have multi-colored lights.

More lights…. a snow covered path through St. James park.

it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas

Posted: December 9, 2013 in general Toronto, locations
Tags: animals, Christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, fake snow, for sale, glitter, lights, ornaments, photos, pirates, Queen St. West, red, Santa, santa hats, shopping, socks, T-shirts, Toronto, toys, tree, windows, yolo

at least along Queen Street West……

On display in a shop window are a stuffed toy cat and dog are dressed for Christmas. THe dog is wearing a Santa hat. Reflected in the window are people passing by carrying shopping bags.

Christmas is going to the dogs, and cats.

A window display in a T-shirt shop. THere is a T-shirt with a picture of ROb FOrd with the word yolo printed on it. There is a black toddler onsie with the words Bad Seed written in red. There is a green T-shirt with the words Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal written on it.

He knows when you’ve been naughty……

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A drawing on a chalk board of Santa trying to get a hold of a cat that is hiding under his sleigh. The words on the board say Why Santa has reindeer instead of cats.

Rudolph the red nose cat doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Two christmas tree balls. Both are white on the bottom half and both are pantone colours on the top - one is red and the other is light blue, pantone universe color 15-5519

A very merry pantone Christmas in 15-5519 aka turquoise, their colour of the year in 2010.

The window of the store 'Come as You Are' has been covered with a layer of fake snow. THere are clear circles in the snow with vibrators hanging in them. There are also some snowflake shaped clear spots.

Both hot and cold on display for a very, very, merry Christmas!

all steamed up

Posted: November 19, 2013 in general Toronto
Tags: cameras, dancing, fun, laughing, November, photo, playing, steam, street, Toronto, urban, vent, watching, Yonge St.

Just a little playing around on the streets

Yonge Street, at Melinda Street, had been closed off for the Santa Claus parade…but I think that some people had as much fun playing in the warm steam that was pouring out of this vent.

They played –

games and photo ops

jumping and dancing

warily watching

careful observation and investigation

running and laughing……

red umbrella day

Posted: November 4, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: alley, autumn, brick, brighten, city, damp, fence, gate, homeless Jesus, humour, lane, leaves, purple wall, rainy, red umbrella, stone, Timothy Schmalz, Toronto, urban, wet, whatsoever, whatsoever you do, wood, yellow wall

umbrella, parapluie, paraguas

red, rouge, rojo,

Grey, damp days always need a touch of colour.

Yesterday, as I walked from Dupont subway station to Kensington I made use of my red umbrella. It kept me dry. It brightened up a few photos!

A red umbrella is open and sitting on the wet pavement beside a grey painted wall.

Every rainy day needs a splash of colour.

A red umbrella is wedged between two poles beside a purplish brown garage door in an alley

caught in the alley

A mural on a garage door shows a girl reaching out her hand. The umbrella is placed by her hand.

When this mural was first painted, there was a downspout for the eavestrough running down the side of the wall. Her hand was painted to look like it was reaching for, or holding onto, the downspout. Because that downspout is no longer there, I decided that she needed something else to hold on to.

A red umbrella is lying on a wet sidewalk beside a large puddle. There are lots of leaves on the sidewalk as well.

left in a puddle

‘Whatsoever you do’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz. It is also referred to as ‘Homeless Jesus’. This installation is outside of St. Stephen-in-the Fields church on College Street. It was installed on 14 September and was originally scheduled to remain there until 6 October. According to the description of the sculpture, it is a fiberglass cast of a silent, huddled panhandler. A person that people walk by and ignore. But if you look at the outstretched hand, you will see the stigmata (the wounds of Christ).
When we first placed the umbrella over her, we worried about the appropriateness of such an action but as I took the photo, a passerby commented on how people have been known to place cheeseburgers and other food in her hand.
The statue was stolen at the end of November. More information

A close up photo of the red umbrella's reflection on the roof of a black car. There are lots of rain drops on the roof as well.

car roof reflections

A red umbrella is beside a stone and brick wall that was once painted yellow. The yellow paint has started to wear off.

red and yellow

A white line drawing of a man with a top hat (upper body only) on a dark grey wall. On the ground beside the wall is a red umbrella

top hat, umbrella…. where are my dancing shoes?

A man is crouching beside a brick wall that has been painted purple and grey. He is holding a red umbrella over his head.

Toronto siesta

A red umbrella on the ground beside a gate made of weathered wood

something old, something new

The red umbrella is wedged between the top of a chainlink gate and a wood door.

The End

Special thanks to Sasha and David who played along and made the day even better!

Also to Michael for crouching against a purple wall!

Adelaide abstracted

Posted: October 13, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: abstract, brick, city, door, fire hydrant, glass, grate, green wall, Hyatt hotel, metal, orange, orange wall, photos, pink wall, reflections, shadows, Toronto, urban, windows

Today was a beautiful, sunny and warm October day. The warmer than usual weather that we’ve been having continued today, the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. The nice thing about walking in downtown on a Saturday, especially the Saturday of a long weekend, is that there aren’t many people around. Nobody to give me strange looks as I take pictures of things that most people just walk past.

Today I walked Adelaide Street between Spadina and University and back again. I also took a detour along Pearl Street which runs parallel to Adelaide, but one street south.

a pinkish coloured wall with a yellow fire hydrant in front of it. There is also a door and some grey steps on the right side of the picture

fire hydrant in the middle

blue sky and a yellow brick bulding are reflected in the many windows of a hotel

reflections in the windows of the Hyatt Hotel

in the washroom, Ravi Soup restaurant. If you have never eated here, the food is fabulous, the restaurant smells wonderful and the staff are very friendly.

in the washroom, Ravi Soup restaurant, 322 Adelaide West. If you have never eaten here, the food is fabulous, the restaurant smells wonderful and the staff are very friendly. I highly recommend it.