Posts Tagged ‘leprechaun’

St. Patricks day parade

Posted: March 12, 2018 in events, people
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The St. Patricks Day parade in Toronto is usually just a small parade – certainly not as big and crazy in places like Boston or New York City.  Part of the problem might be the fact that the weather is usually cold.  This year the parade was 6 days before St. Patricks Day.  I’m not sure when it started or how it happened, but Toronto’s parade is on the Sunday before the actual day.    At least the sun was shining this year.  It may be a small parade but those who show up, either to watch or to participate, seem to have a good time.   A few photos from this year’s parade:

 

below: Police on horseback led the parade.  Here they are passing the TV cameras.

three toronto policemen on horseback at the front of a parade, as theypass by the press and a large microphone boom

below: Carlton, the Toronto Maple Leafs mascot, was there. Once upon a time, the Maple Leafs were known as the St. Pats and they wore green uniforms.

Carlton, the Maple Leafs hockey team mascot in a St. Pats jersey waiting for the parade to start, working the crowd.

below: 32 flags, one from each of Ireland’s 32 counties.  The GAA is the Gaelic Athletic Association. 

A group of young people walking in the St. Patricks day parade, holding a banner and everyone is holding a flag from a Irish county. GAA Colour Party, 32 county flags.

below: Five Deloreans (cars) parked by the flags for the parade, before joining it at the end.  This is directly across Bloor Street from where the TV cameras were.   Deloreans were made near Belfast but for only a short time in the early 1980’s (1981- 1983).   About 9200 cars were produced.  The Delorean company went bankrupt in December 1982.

a man stands on a sidewalk, leaning on a barricade, lots of large Irish flags, a delorean car with its door open is across the street

below: Carrying Donegal County flags

three men carrying flags in the St. Patricks day parade, walk past a church, many people on the sidewalk, pavement, watching the parade go by

below: Doug Ford, now the leader of the Ontario PC party joined the parade.

Doug Ford, St. Patricks day parade, wakls towaards the people on the sidewalk to shake hands, politician, politics,

below: That’s quite the hair – he insisted that it was natural but I think it’s because of the green beer…..

two people sitting on the sidewalk watching the St. Patricks Day parade, a red head woman with long hair and a man with a curly bright green wig, both are smiling, both dressed for cold weather,

three teenagers selling candy at the parade, all dressed in green hats and other St. Patricks day stuff,

three kids sitting on little plastic stools watching a parade,

below: Maybe it’s true,  maybe everyone is Irish on St. Patricks day.

5 Asian women (Korean?) watching St. Patricks day parade, posing for the camera, all with shamrock green things aon their heads so only their faces stick out, the word Irish is written on each shamrock

 

below: What would St. Patricks day be without a leprechaun or two?

a man in a leprechauin costume walking in a parade.

a group of people sitting on the sidewalk as a parade passes by on Bloor Street in Toronto

I spy, we spy

Posted: December 7, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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There is so much to see in this city, big and small, mundane and interesting, bland and colourful, old and new; we’ve got it all.   It’s not uncommon to walk a route many times and still see something new each time.  The little details are easy to overlook.  Yesterday I walked parallel to Queen Street West from Roncesvalles eastward.  There are lots of little alleys in the area and the streets are interesting too.  I wasn’t alone.  Penny (from Walking Woman blog) provided a second set of eyes as we went looking for whatever there was to find.   Four eyes really can be better than two!  Although we saw many things (of course!) I’ve chosen to concentrate on the “little things” that we spied.

below: Happy. Faces at our feet. Happy to see you walk by.

A blue square shaped painted spot on the pavement. Two eyes and a smiling mouth have been drawn on top in darker blue

below: Faces above our heads. A one way sign as a canvas.

Two faces drawn on a one way sign

below: And faces at the end of the path.

garage door painted green with a white line drawing of an odd shaped face, as seen from looking down a path, fences on either side of the path

below: Yesterday’s lovebot sighting

black line drawing of a lovebot on a yellow section of a graffiti picture on a garage door in a laneway

below: It’s December, but this house is still ready for Halloween.

A small porch in front of a house that is still decorated for Halloween, a couple of fake arms and a fake tombstone with RIP on it.

below: A little leprechaun in a tree. Perhaps he’s been here since St. Patricks Day?  And how many leprechauns have crossed here?  We weren’t lucky enough to see any yesterday.

Up in a tree, a decoration with a leprechaun holding a broken sign that says leprechaun crossing.

below: One use for a bathtub!  Dirty, not clean.

An old fashioned white bathtub in a front yard. It's been filled with dirt and is now used as a planter.

below: A different approach to keeping the flowers blooming well into December… they’re looking a little faded, but they are still pink and growing in abundance.

a ring of pink plastic flowers around the base of an evergreen shrub in a front yard

below: But even a single flower adds to a picture.

An abstract painting with the words you need this written on it. below, tucked into the hinge of the door is a plastic red rose

below: Pictures on walls can delight, even ones as simple as this little pinwheel.

8 sided pinwheel in reds and blues fixed against the top corner of a shed or garage wall in a lane

below: Make art not war….

make art not war slogan painted on a garage door in a red line drawing face

below: … or make money.  The money shot.

graffiti with two dollar signs and three cent signs on a rust coloured brick wall

below: She was hiding in the back corner of a store.

head of an old mannequin with blond wig, one eye is missing, and the covering on her is wearing off.

below: Miniature eclairs for sale at The Tempered Room. We didn’t try them but they looked fabulous.

miniature eclairs for sale in a store

below: Dean’s pink ride was parked for the afternoon.

the back of a bright pink car with the license Neon Dean

below: A mystery message.  Google tells me that pav is a type of Indian bread but I don’t think that that’s what the writer was referring to here.  Belongins (belongings?) here probably means possessions but I like to play with words and so I wonder if it is the other meaning of belonging, i.e. as in “a sense of belonging”.   Or maybe, he be longing all his life to be under a palm tree?!

graffiti on a white door in an alley, the words All My life Belongins Pain with a small drawing of a palm tree

below: The sign for Cattlemens Meat Market is looking a little worn,
and not because it’s been here since 1538!

old sign on the back of a building that says Cattlemens meat market 1538

below: And last, three stencils that were close together in an alley, three animals, an old fashioned upright vacuum cleaner and an old video camera.

stencil of three small animals walking across the lower part of a grey garage door.

black stencil of an old fashioned upright vacuum cleaner

black stencil of an old fashioned video camera. Someone has written the word true under it.