Posts Tagged ‘Little Portugal’

once upon a May morning

Posted: June 1, 2024 in alleys, graffiti and street art, nature
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small part of a mural on a garage door in an alley, a blue coffee mug with I 'heart' T.O. on it

This is another “walk with friends” post; three of us out enjoying a May morning looking for signs of spring (and summer!), bits of art, and other eccentric little details.  Like all good walks, this one started with a coffee and a bite to eat.  In this case, at Rustle and Still on Bloor West, a Vietnamese coffee shop

painting on the wall, interior of coffee shop, Rustle and Still, man witting on a stool drinking coffee

where I tried their purple sweet potato croissant.  Highly recommended!

vietnamese iced coffee in a glass mug beside a plate with a purple sweet potato croissant on it, on a wood table in a coffee shop

We walked more or less south and west from Bloor and Palmerston to Queen and Dunn.   This is some of what we saw. … Starting with the colours of spring with lots of greens

below: Flowers such as these big purple balls of allium

front yard, by sidewalk, with yellow fire hydrant, also lots of spring greenery including purple allium puff balls

below: More purple – Bergenia Crassifolia flowers seem to want to jump out of the garden.

little purple flowers in a garden, bergenia crassiflora

below: Grape vines coming back to life.

a vine on a fence, with little pink buds,

below: Crabapple tree blossoms in abundance

white crab apple tree blossoms on a tree, with some old dried dark red crab apples too

below: … and flowers of a different kind. Purple orchids on a garage door painted by Trexlorian.

mural of three purple orchids on a garage door in an alley

below: Spring colours here too…  Fabulous bright orange toes!

a woman in blue and white plaid pants sits on a white plastic chair outside a restaurant. she is wearing sandals and has orange toe nail polish

And other colours too….

A red shed (or gate?).  Also, the metal gate and fence with the circles is unique!

bright red shed at the back of a yard, alley view, also a cut metal fence and gate with circles

A bright pink house (with red trim! … and a green front door)

a brick house painted bright pink with red trim and a green front door

below: The ivy has gone crazy here but the cheerful blue trim hasn’t been hidden… yet!

house with white and blue trim, lots of windows in front, ivy growing on roof above windows

And while we’re looking at houses, one little house stand alone dwarfed by the large brick house on one side.  Even the other houses on the left are larger.

houses on a street, on the right the houses are large, and on the left the houses are small, dwarfed by their larger neighbours

below: Another tiny house stuck in the middle!

small house between larger ones,

below: This is actually a row of three little homes where the outer two have a peaked roof.

a row of small workers cottages, or similar architectural style, bungalows,

There seem to be a lot of houses that have expanded upwards with third storey additions, or new rooftop balconies.

a large japanese maple tree in front of a row of houses

below: An alley view –  What caught my eye here was the fact that all six houses have an upper level (rooftop?) balcony with a wood railing.

dump truck in a lane, Alex Borovoy Lane, back of houses, all two storeys with upper level balconies and wood railings. No dumping sign, one house has no garage

below:  And then there are the houses that look like they have never changed.  This one still has the old asphalt shingle siding in fake brick colour.

laneway view of the back of houses, small 2 storey houses

We came across this Joe Road front yard where someone must be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

small sign that says Joe Rd, blue, with a Toronto Maple Leafs symbol on it as well, mounted on a piece of wood in a frontyard

below: This is the view of Joe Road from across the street, the neighbour’s view

a house with a small frontyard with a short black fence around it. the yard is full of stuff, decorations

below: The yard is full of stuff, knickknacks of all sorts.  The interior is dark and some of it is difficult to see without trespassing.  Some of it is held together with spray foam insulation.

mix of stones, a small toy skull, a plastic face, birch bark, all held together with spray insulation

below: A fish on a plaque, a black and white cow, and that red and white thing – is that a painted rock?  What kind of symbol is that (if anything)?

stuff in a front yard, fish plaque, black and white toy cow, red ball, stones,

below: Superman, a chicken, a cow, a man’s head carved out of stone, a large blue Disney something or other, and various other toys and trinkets piled high.

decorations and knick knacks on display in a front yard, a black chicken, superman, a stone man's head, other toys and trinkets

below: Darth Vader (but with a bit of extra white?) and an owl guard the upper level.

a large darth vader and a white owl stand over a front yard.

below: Another yard, another set of animals.  This time it’s a pelican, an orange butterfly, and a sheep in a little garden that looks like so neat and tidy.  Someone has put a lot of work into this space.  Two yellow tulips are in bloom – they are real but I’m not sure that the orange lily is.

small circular garden at the base of a tree with a fake pelican and sheep. two yellow tulips

below: Creativity on a slightly grander scale (complete with “Beware of the dog” sign).

front of a house with steps leading to porch with white statues, curved arches, white railing,

below: Hiding his face.  The enemy remains unseen.

small stone statue of a samauri warrior between two sets of stairs, with a hosta plant behind it that hides the head of the statue

One sign that you are in Little Italy or Little Portugal is the requisite religious icon by the front door

religious plaque, Christ, on blue house beside front door

Little Italy and Little Portugal both claim portions of College Street

below: The mural on the side of a building at College and Crawford celebrates Branca Gomes who was the first Portuguese teacher in Toronto.  She started teaching in 1964 at the First Portuguese School on Augusta.  She also taught at Alexander Muir Elementary from 1969 to 1974.  The small green space in front of the mural is the Portuguese Pioneers Parkette.

mural, Portuguese teacher in a classroom

below: Across the street from Branca Gomes is this  mural.  in 1937 Sam Sniderman, along with his brother Sidney, opened Sniderman’s Music Hall record department in the family store at 714 College Street.  They later moved the store to Yonge Street where it became ‘Sam the Record Man’ (or colloquially, Sam’s).  In their heyday, the early 1980s, there were 140 Sam the Record Man stores across Canada.  The mural was painted by sumartist (aka Paul Glyn-Williams).

L'Italia mural with orange stripe on top, man sitting reading newspaper about Sam the Record Man, another person standing beside, also a black cat

Toronto street signs, Little Italy, College Street and Grace Street

below: Neither Italian nor Portuguese but Slovenian in a mosaic above the door to a church.  Marija Pomagaj, Mary of Perpetual Help, or more loosely, Mary, Help of Christians.

mosaic image of Mary and baby Jesus, both wearing crowwns, mary in a blue dress with a red robe, words say Marija Pomagaj

below:  Greens, yellows, and purples in the vertical panes of glass.  What this photo fails to show is that the green and purple form two large cross shapes on the front of this church, the Toronto Spiritualist Temple on College Street.  There is a third cross, in blue, to the left of the purple.

coloured glass windows in vertical stripes, in shades of green and yellow, can see interior staircase through the colours

below:  This billboard above the Ladybug Tavern on College is actually part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.  Two figures draped in yellow stand under a palm tree, one of whom is wearing a bird-like mask.   It is part of “Window into Bassam” by Nuits Balnéaires, an artist from the Ivory Coast (where Grand-Bassam is a city).

billboard above shops on college street, is a part of contact photography festival,

half of a semi divided house remains after the other half has been demolished

old brick buildings on College Street, now store fronts, three storeys tall,

below: At College and Ossington, a mural by Alice Pasquini (in  partnership between the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, the College Promenade BIA and the City of Toronto).

mural on building at College and Ossington, bus stop in front of it, with people waiting for the bus.

We explored a few alleys …  where we encountered a few faces and strange creatures

on a brick garage in an alley, painted white but paint fading, a red face of two eyes and big lips

blue blob guy graffiti, no arms and legs, two eyes overlapping, one big tooth

No faces in this lane but the barbecue looks shiny and new… and ready to use.

brown wood fence in an alley, with small opening so the barbecue in the backyard is visible

below: How many raccoons live here?!

in an alley, a broken wood garage door with some graffiti on it

below: Infill housing? – with an air conditioner and a satellite dish.

old square brick structure with garage door on lower level, balcony on roof

a jumble of houses and back yards, from a laneway

below: Black Lives Matter 24/7 in both directions

black lives matter sign turned into a street sign and posted on a pole beside a no parking sign, on a toronto street corner

Graffiti that we saw:

below: The man behind the mask, by Bruho

sticker on a metal pole by bruho, man in blue mask, topless, white pants, stands beside a woman reclining on a couch, text says man behind the mask

below: A stencil of a penguin and its little one

black and white stencil of a penguin parent and little one, one cement block wall of garage in alley

below: Paper paste-up of a lions head with its eyes blacked out.

paper paste up gaffiti of a black and white realistic drawing of lion's head with black bar through its eyes

black and white graffiti sticker of a woman crying, with white flowers, on a pole by chainlink fence

 

With thanks to Merle and Nancy who went wandering with me that morning.

two women alking on a street with two large houses and white car parked

Portugal Day Parade

Posted: June 13, 2016 in events, people
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Yesterday the Portuguese community in Toronto held their 29th annual Portugal Day parade.   It was a lively, happy occasion.  Hundreds of people lined Dundas Street West between Lansdowne and Trinity Bellwoods Park to watch the parade.  They showed their Portuguese colours with flags, banners, hats, soccer shirts, and lots of red clothes!  Young soccer players demonstrated their skills.  People of all ages wore traditional dress from different parts of Portugal as they walked and danced along the parade route.  There was music too – bagpipes, marching bands, and music to dance to.

A man pushes a cart from which he is selling popcorn, candy apples and cotton candy to people watching a parade. A black truck is behind him with a boy in the passenger side who is hold a banner out the window that says Portugal on it.

Two boys holding a red banner for a marching band in a parade. Lots of flag holders behind them, a Canadian flag, an Ontario flag, a Toronto flag and a Portuguese flag.

A young girl swirls her long skirt as she dances in a parade. Portugal Day parade on Dundas West, Little Portugal, in Toronto

A boy is wearing a Rinaldo soccer shirt, and sitting beside a Portuguese flag. His father is with him

men, members of a Labour Union, walk in a parade. They are wearing orange shirts with short blue sleeves that say Portugal Day on them.

Women dancers in traditional Portuguese dress, dancing in a parade. One of them pauses to look at the man selling cotton candy and popcorn froma cart.

On a street, Dundas West in Toronto, there is a parade, people on the sidewalk watching, and dancers performing in the parade. Portugal Day parade.

People in a parade, three people holding two flags, Portugal and Benfica. A man behind them is holding his arms up in the air.

Two girls in traditional Portuguese dresses are dancing in a parade, onlookers sitting on the sidewalk behind them.

A young woman is wearing a large tall hat in squares of the colours of the Portuguese flag. Beside her is a person draped in the Portuguese flag. They are watching a parade

Four kids sitting crossed legged at the side of a street watching a parade. They are holding Portuguese flags. The older boy has a red whistle in his mouth.

Two Toronto policemen in yellow safety vests watch a parade, women dancing past them.

members of the Cobourg Legion pipe and drum band, four bagpipers in their blue and red kilts marching in a parade

A float in a parade featuring the Portuguese Radio and TV stations, Camoes,

Close up shot of the hands of three men dancing in a parade. The faces of only 2 of them are visible. They are wearing white shirts, black vests, and black hats. Portugal Day parade

Spectators in a parade hold small Portuguese flags as they watch traditional dancers perform.

A woman holds a colourful banner in a parade

A woman from the crowd watching a parade, goes over to a float that has a live sheep and goat on it, she is hesitating to pat the sheep.

people watching kids kicking around a soccer ball as part of a parade. The kids are all in red uniforms.

A woman is giving out small portuguese flags to people watching a parade. She is wearing a t-shirt in support of local politician Anna Bailao,

Spectators at a parade, sitting on chairs, one of which has a Canadian flag on the back. Passing by is a marching band in dark pants and white shirts. Portugal Day parade on Dundas West.