Posts Tagged ‘magnolia’

Annex alleys

Posted: October 26, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations
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This past Saturday’s walk started on a familiar corner, Bloor and Bathurst, but at a new place, Mallo Coffee.  I don’t always mention my coffee starts and stops but not all of them have wonderfully eccentric washrooms!  The wiggly strands of light were blue which gave the room an eerie blue glow.

part of washroom wall at Mallo Coffee shop, black and white paper with drawings, images, and words, with a blue neon (led?) light that curves around giving the room an eerie blue glow

Pre-COVID there was a proliferation of small independent coffee shops in the city.  It’s nice to see that many have survived and many new ones are opening up.  It’s not so nice to see the remains of those that didn’t make it.

covered windows of closed coffee shop, plywood in one pane, picture of pink and whtie coffee cup and chocolate chip muffin in another pane

From Bloor and Bathurst I walked generally east with a little south thrown in.  Is this The Annex? or Harbord Village?  Technically the quadrant to the southeast of Bloor and Bathurst is Harbord Village but I kept seeing street art referencing The Annex.

When you’ve been taking pictures in a city for more than 10 years, you end up walking the same streets and alleys.  Sometimes you find yourself with identical pictures.   Other times things have changed and there’s a new story to present.  For this blog post there is a bit of both.  Some of the murals that I saw in the lanes behind Bloor were new to me but there were many that I have blogged before.  Rather than show all of the previous murals, I have linked to older posts.

below: Part of “Meet me at the Magnolias” by Leslie Phelan

large mural on the side of store featuring magnolia flowers painted by Leslie Phelan

below: The back part of a larger Elicser Elliott mural on the side of Dirty Bird Chicken and Waffle restaurant on Bloor Street.  The full mural is featured in the blog post “feeling hungry?” from early in 2017.

part of an elicser elliott mural on dirty bird chicken and waffle, man in brown eating a very large sandwich on a plate, a smaller man with a drink in his hands

Bagpipe Lane runs behind the south side of Bloor for less than a block

below: A few simple designs

elicser elliott mural in background, 2 abstract minimalistic designs on a wall with air conditioners and other containers, one is red on pink and the other ooks like a green eye and eye lashes on orange paper

below:  Boris Badenov from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” – who is he trying to blow up now?!

graffiti, black and white wheatpaste of Boris Badenov, cartoon character from Rocky and Bullwinkle show, about the throw a round black bomb, evil look on his face

Barbara Barrett Lane is the eastern continuation of Bagpipe Lane.   This is what you see when you first enter the lane from Borden Ave.

side of a two storey brick house with lower half covered in a mural with stylize street scene, houses, street, cars, green grass,

barbara barrett lane street scene mural

barbara barrett lane street scene mural

below: Nine years ago this was part of a mural that covered the back of buildings on Bloor Street.  You can see it, and other murals that were in Barbara Barrett Lane at the time, in a blog post from 2013.

part of an od mural, faded, headless man with brown vest, blue diamond motifs

There is a large mural by Elicser Elliott on Barbara Barrett Lane.  I have already posted quite a few pictures of it so rather than show more of the same, here is the link to the “elicser paints people” post.

 

mural that says you are here Annex

David French Lane runs south from Barbara Barrett Lane.

below: Near the north end of David French Lane is this black and white garage.  It is now partially covered with ivy and vines but it too also been around since 2013.  At that time many of the garages were already covered with street art but they have all been re-painted (see 2013 blog post, ‘graffiti on garages’)

ivy and vines with leaves in green, yellow, and red, hangs over a garage with a door that is black with white line drawings all over it

below: This mural on David French is very similar to the “street scene” mural on Barbara Barrett shown above.  I wish there was a signature of some sort on them!

street scene mural on david french lane

In 2017 there was a laneway paint project, “You Are Here” on David French Lane.  Once again, you can see images of most of the garages in a previous blog post.

below: Dudeman’s skulls and old TTC bus were part of that project.  Route 77B was a combination of the 77 Spadina bus and the 510 Spadina streetcar; it runs from Spadina station (on Bloor) south to Queens Quay before looping and returning north.

mural by Dudeman covering the front of a garage in an alley, lots of differenc=t coloured skulls, a TTC bus, signs for Spadina

below: A dog with a spiked collar by Christina Mazzulla.

street art on garage door, large dogs with spiked collars, big teeth, open mouth, pink tongues, painted by C mazzulla

alley view, mural on a garage door, back of three storey house, back yard

below: A blue eyed, black haired person with a tiger and a bluebird, all at 263.

painted garages in David French Lane, the one in the middle has a person with long black hair and blue eyes beside a tiger head in profile and a blue bird taking flight

below: Emily May Rose’s now iconic raccoons.  They hang out all over the city!

emily may rose raccoon mural an a garage in David French Lane

a mural on the outside of a wood garage, red x in the middle with other tag, text elements

below: “Fat bottomed girls … You make the rocking world go ’round”  Name that tune!

alley view, garages with street art and graffiti including a pink bum, with backs of houses and trees seen above the garages

in the foreground, black and white faded and peeled painting, with mural across the lane in the background which has a marine theme, large whale and other aquatic animals

Farther east there is another lane but with no name (Toronto is full of nameless lanes!).

black graffiti on a white garage door, black stencil of man upper body, some blobs and the words they live

alley view, line of garages with utility poles

below: Glorious old textures

an old wood garage door in an alley with old tags, faded paint, moss on roof, newer wood gate beside,

painting on a garage of a topless man holding up something very heavy across his back and shoulders, sort of like greek god atlas.

below: This may or not be something called Tomo

on a wood fence, painted white, with black line drawing of a large plump cat like figure with two ears that stand up, small eyes, whiskers, and 3 hearts on his tummy, a small rabbit sits on its head. red word tomo with question mark beside it

… and back to Mallo.  Until next time!

interior of Mallo Coffee shop, woman behind bar, bar with orange, turquoise and blue tiles, a young woman witting at a table, red model airplane hanging from ceiling,

walking along Wilket Creek

Posted: May 4, 2021 in locations, nature
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Wilket Creek forms one of the many ravines in the city. The northern part has been buried; it surfaces just south of York Mills Road and flows south until it joins the West Don just north of Eglinton. Edwards Gardens is part of the park system along the creek and that is where I met a friend the other day.  It was her part of town and she was my guide for the day.  The magnolia trees were at peak bloom and the fragrance of their blossoms filled the air.

below: Magnolia

A white magnolia in full bloom in front of a house with chimney

below: Three magnolia buds ready to open up.
Three magenta magnolia buds ready to open up, grey fuzzy bottom part of the bud included

below: Other trees and shrubs were also laden with blossoms
Pink blossoms on a tree, spring

A man takes a picture of his wife and daughter in front of a tree full of pink blossoms at Edwards Gardens

below: Volunteers working in the Teaching Garden, preparing the beds for planting.
A woman with grey hair and a blue baseball cap is hoeing weeds out of a garden, orange yellow wheelbarrow beside her, Edwards Garden

below: Some of the different types of trees that grow here – three different bark colours.
Three different kinds of trees, with 3 different coloured trunks, including a birch tree

below: A willow tree by Wilket Creek
large tree on a grassy field beside a creek lined with rocks, early spring, willow leaves are just beginning to show, a pale green colour

below: Dawn Redwood tree (aka Metasequoia tree)
large dawn redwood tree, also called metasequoia, no leaves, very early spring

below: Parts of the gardens were closed for repairs to the banks of the creek and the path alongside it.
construction machinery on a path beside Wilket Creek, Edwards Gardens

Walking the ravine north from Edwards Gardens is impossible – unfortunately, that stretch of the ravine  is not open to the public.  A gap in the system. We rejoined the creek at Windfields Park.

Windfields Park

paved path, curves as it goes downhill, bench at the bottom of the hill, grass beside the path, trees on both sides, Windfields Park

A person in a red jacket sits on a fallen log in a forest beside a teepee shape structure made from tree branches, leaves are just beginning to open, late April

below: A rock stuck in a hard place, where rocks usually aren’t found.
A large granite boulder entangled in the roots of tree that has fallen over

below: Yellow wildflowers, Lesser Celandine which is apparently an invasive species.
A large patch of low yellow flowers and greenery in front of a tree that has fallen down, tree trunks in the background

below: A tennis ball in the wild.

orange tennis ball stuck in the V of a tree, between two branches, in a forest

below: Two birch trees, probably Silver Birch because of the brown bark of the younger tree that will soon shed to reveal the white bark below.

Two birch trees in a forest, one is younger and has just started shedding it's brownish bark, the other is older and had white bark

below: Yellow trout lily. The flashy red parts hang downwards so they are hidden close to the forest floor. The flowers are difficult to spot but the mottled green and brown leaves give them away.
wildflower on the ground in forest, a yellow trout lily
below: Bloodroot flowers
wildflower on forest floor, white bloodroot flower and leaves

With thanks to Iskuhi for walking with me and teaching me the names of some trees and wildflowers. … and for some playing with sunlight and shadows (because that’s what photographers do!).

A person holding a bloodroot plant in one hand and a camera phone in the other, trying to get a picture showing texture of veins in the leaf