people | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘people’

walking the Milky Way

Posted: October 1, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: aliens, animals, brick walls, cement, cherries, city, colours, concrete, doors, faces, fence, fish, ghost, ghost dick, graffiti, Jarus, letters, metal, mural, people, persue, photos, shark, street art, Toronto, urban, weeds, woman, words

The Milky Way from Dufferin to Elm Grove.

Once upon a time this alley led to a dairy. Story has it that milk was often spilt along the way.

graffiti picture on a brick wall of a horse's head, a wagon wheel and spilt milk pouring from a large container.

At the west end of the Milky Way is a mural of two horses (one shown here), a wagon wheel, and an overturned milk can.

There is also quite a bit of graffiti in the alley.

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Ireland Park

Posted: September 22, 2014 in history, locations, memorials
Tags: 1847, Arrival, famine, immigrants, Ireland Park, Irish, limestone, memorial, names, people, poor, refugees, Rowan Gillespie, sculpture, statues, Toronto

By the time of Confederation in 1867, one quarter of the population of Canada were of Irish ancestry. Although the Irish had been immigrating to what is now Canada for a long time, the Irish famine years of 1845 to 1849 saw an increase in the number of immigrants. Immigration peaked in the summer of 1847; boatloads of Irish settlers arrived. Most were very poor and sick. They landed in a number of places along the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, including Toronto. Thousands of those Irish immigrants died in Ontario that summer, mostly from typhus (or typhoid fever).

Ireland Park is home to a memorial in honour of those immigrants. It is on the waterfront between Lake Ontario and the old Canada Malting Co. silos.

view of Ireland Park from the waterfront, and looking slightly north east. A large shape made of limestone is on the left of the photo and a green space is beside it. The silos of the Canada Malting Company are visible as is part of the Toronto skyline in the distance.

Sections of limestone fit together in a shape that resembles a boat.

Names are engraved on the sides of the limestone sections. They are placed such that they are in the gaps between the sections. At first they are not visible. It is only when you are close to the stone that you can see the names.

Names in black lettering carved into the side of limestone.

675 names are carved in the stone. These are the known names of the 1000 to 1100 people who died shortly after they arrived in Toronto in the summer of 1847.

The park also has seven sculptures by Rowan Gillespie of Dublin Ireland.
The installation is called ‘Arrival’.

Sculpture of a man with his arms upraised. He is looking over part of the harbour towards downtown Toronto.

‘The Jubliant Man’ from behind.

close up of one of the sculptures in Ireland Park. It is a man with his hands clenched in front of him and a worried look on his face.

‘The Apprehensive Man’

for more information: the Ireland Park Foundation website

AIDS walk

Posted: September 14, 2014 in events
Tags: #aidswalkto, AIDS, awareness, carnations, downtown, HIV, in memory, MCGP, Miss Teen Canada, people, posters, red, red ribbons, remembering, SIDA, sign, walk, walkathon, walkers, Yonge St.

AIDS Walk, 13 September

Beginning at Yonge Dundas Square…..

Getting dressed and ready to walk.

Making posters to carry in the walk.

….. north up Yonge Street…..

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A Sikh man wearing a red turban is holding up a poster about treating and defeating AIDS.

Test. Treat. Defeat.

The walk made its way to the AIDS Memorial in Barbara Hall Park on Monteith Street (near Church and Wellesley).
Here, each walker was given a red carnation to leave at the memorial.

A group of people is winding its way through a park in which there are short concrete pillars. Each pillar has plaques on it with the names of the people from Toronto who have died of AIDS. Red carnations have been placed by the plaques O

Winding their way past the names of those from Toronto who lost their lives to AIDS.

The memorial was opened late in 1992 and dedicated during Pride Week in 1993.
There are about 2700 names now engraved on the plaques. New names are added once a year.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A group of volunteers is cheering on those who have walked so far. They are standing on the sidewalk.

Enthusiastic volunteers cheer on the walkers.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. Miss Teen Canada winners, seven of them, are walking as a group. They have stopped to have their photo taken.

A cheerful Team Miss Canada Globe stopped for me for a few moments.

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Money raised in the walk goes to support act (AIDS Committee Toronto).

A small group of people is holding a banner in the walk. The banner says Scotiabank AIDS Walk, in support of ACT . A C T is AIDS committee Toronto.

The lead group in the walk.

Link to the official Toronto AIDS walk website

another Kensington alley

Posted: September 4, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: all seeing, alley, blue eye, colours, eyes, faces, graffiti, grin, heads, Kensington, lane, people, red eye, smile, street art, Toronto, trees, wise

Back in May I posted some photos from a small dead end alley in Kensington.

This past weekend I took some pictures in a different Kensington alley.

Take a look 🙂

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. Close up of a pair of grey eyes. Bottom part of face is obscured, including her cheeks.

Eyes hold a fascination for me.

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The top part of a woman with long black hair and wearing a white and blue dress is standing amongst many tree trunks.... Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. There is a broom, a mop, and two large buckets on the sidewalk in front of her.

It looks like she is in the midst of cleaning. Mop, broom and buckets handy.

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane stencils of heads, one dark blue and one purple.

twins, similar but not identical

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.

buskerfest 2014

Posted: August 26, 2014 in events, people
Tags: #samsungsbbf, Ariel, art, balloons, buskers, chalk, chalk chick, clowns, crowds, dogs, DyneMike, entertainment, epilepsy toronto, great dane, littlest mermaid, music, ninja turtles, people, performances, photos, ponies, screech, Screeched Inn, shows, sidewalk, silver Elvis, smiles, stilts, street performers, toast, Toronto, touch2catch, Yonge St.

Buskerfest 2014

Yonge Street was closed from College to Queen for the event.

Yonge St. at Dundas, barrier across Yonge St. as it is pedestrians only. Lots of signs, lots of people,

Yonge Street on the Saturday afternoon of Buskerfest, looking north from Dundas Street

A man dressed in green is on stilts as he walks up Yonge St.

Hovering above the crowd.

There were street performers……

A group of four people are on stilts but dressed in very long pants. Two are playing a drum and two are playing shaking instruments. They are walking down Yonge St. People are on the sidewalks watching them. Street performance as part of buskerfest.

towering over the audience as they walk down Yonge Street

A performer is on a very tall unicycle. He is juggling lit torches as he slowly goes around in a tight circle.

DyneMike, playing with fire on high

A street performer is using a diabolo to entertain a crowd of people who are sitting and standing on the sidewalk around him.

This guy, part of Touch2Catch, was amazing to watch. Great diabolo action!

A performer has been launched into the air. He is holding a large ring that is on fire. He is turning himself through the ring while in the air.

more Touch2Catch – jumping through a ring of fire

One of the street performers from the group Touch2Catch is doing a side flip over a man who is on all fours on the street.

side flip over Dimitri

A picture of buskerfest is displayed on an electronic billboard.

Samsung was putting tweets and instagram postings with their buskerfest hashtag on the electronic billboard above Yonge & Dundas. At one point I looked up and saw this one. A great photo! She captured an unobscured view of the exact moment the performer from Touch2Catch did a side flip over five people.

A woman has taken the silver guitar from Silver Elvis and is pretending to play it while hamming it up for the small group of people that are watching.

sharing the limelight with Silver Elvis …. or taking over? All in good fun!

A woman is having her picture taken with a performer who is dressed in a white dress made of balloons. She has balloon wings and white feathers in her hair.

Photo op with an angel in white balloons. Balloon dresses are available from The Twisted Ones

A street performer is twisting the upper part of his body in order to fit it through a tennis racquet.

What one does in the name of entertainment – putting one’s shoulders through a tennis racquet…. don’t try it at home kids.

….. music

A toast to the cod, screeching in at Dundas Square. The Screeched Inn performed on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square, their “kitchen party”.

All money raised by performers on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square went to Epilepsy Toronto.
In addition, Samsung donated $1 to Epilepsy Toronto for every tweet of buskerfest that included the hashtag #samsungsbbf

….. sidewalk artists

A woman is using chalk to make a large picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the sidewalk

ninja turtles taking shape on the sidewalk (artist: the Chalk Chick)

A chalk drawing of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie on a sidewalk. A man's legs are also in the photo.

Ariel, Disney’s little mermaid is on the sidewalk. Another drawing by the Chalk Chick.

… and curious kids, entertained kids

Some children are watching buskers perform by peeking through a gap in the red and white plastic banners that are the backdrop to the show.

vantage point

A dog, a Great Dane, is standing in front of two women dressed as clowns on pink and white ponies. The dog has barked at them and they are reacting by making faces and moving back

Some dogs don’t like clowns either. Great Danes have quite the bark!

A large electronic billboard high above Yonge St. A picture of one of my buskerfest tweets is being displayed.

a narcissistic moment

With thanks to the Second Cup on Mt. Pleasant where I hung out while putting this blog entry together.

into the night at the CNE

Posted: August 21, 2014 in events, people
Tags: acrobats, aim, attractions, August, balls, Canadian National Exhibition, candy, CNE, crowds, Curious George, evening, Ex, gamble, games, Jeff, junk food, lights, midway, mirage, monkeys, noise, people, prizes, rides, ring toss, roulette, sand, sculpture, shows, stuffed animals, summer, Toronto, Whac-a-mole

another August, another trip to the Ex!

Evening shot as the sky is getting darker. Tiny Tom donut stand all lit up, with a line up of people waiting to buy donuts.

Tiny Tom Donuts, an iconic part of the CNE for as long as I can remember.

Two acrobatic women hanging from a large triple hook shaped bar suspended from the ceiling. Bathed in blue light.

One of this year’s shows is ‘Mirage’, an acrobatic show at the Ricoh Coliseum.

Two people on a rope in yellow and purple lights. Part of the audience can be seen in the photo.

another part of the ‘Mirage’ show

A boy wearing a fedora is standing beside one of the midway games. He is holding a coke bottle with the name Jeff on it. Behind him is a large picture of 3 stars.

A star on the midway. The coke bottle says Jeff.

Two young men are hammering away at Whac-a-mole while a woman who is running the game is talking to the people who are watching

playing Whac-a-Mole!

A number of people are competing to win a stuffed monkey. They are shooting water into a target.

shooting for monkeys, Curious George as the prize

A groups of young people are playing a midway game where you toss balls. What they are throwing them at is not in the photo!

Having fun tossing baseballs!

CNE midway game with the prize being a stuffed minion from the movie 'Despicable Me'. A woman is paying to play.

getting ready to play for minions

A young man is sitting by a giant roulette wheel, a midway game at the Ex

waiting for the wheel to stop

Lights on one of the midway rides, Starship.

Starship lights and motion on the midway

A display of candy apples for sale. Some are coated with smarties candies, some with multi coloured sprinkles and some with crushed nuts.

yum, candy apples… caramel, smarties, sprinkles and crushed nuts!

Sand sculpture of a woman sitting on the ground, looking wistfully through a round window. In the background are some woman standing behind a wood barricade who are looking at the sand sculpture

women watching, sand sculpture

Details of a sand sculpture (hands) with another sculpture behind (of a woman)

women from another angle

A father and his daughters are on a midway ride, spinning in red "seats" as they go around in circles.

spinning quickly on the midway – or at least a bit too quickly for the camera!

yogathon

Posted: August 17, 2014 in events
Tags: #riseforthecause, bare feet, child pose, cobra, community, downward dog, exercise, fun, good cause, help, laughter, love, mats, peace, people, postitions, postures, raise money, smiles, stretch, Toronto, upward dog, yoga, yogathon, yogis

Yogathon, Dundas Square, 16 August

Group of people at 2014 yogathon, Dundas Square

The first yogathon was held in Toronto a few years ago.
Today’s was the 3rd annual yogathon and it has spread to 46 cities in 12 countries.

During one of the short breaks between sun salutations.

The goal? 108 Sun Salutations. Variations were introduced to keep it interesting.

Try yoga while holding hands!

Money raised goes to Care for Children who work with youth in rural India.

A woman talks the group at the yogathon through their yoga postures, positions and sun salutations.

Instructors took turns leading the group through their salutations.

Happiness, Hope, Peace, Trust, Love and Balance.

Family time too….

Two women are sitting on the ground and talking to each other. Their backs are to the camera. On the back of their Tshirts are the words 'no one ever drowned in their own sweat'.

No one ever drowned in their own sweat – great T-shirts!

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I was curious as to the meaning of JAIGURUDEV as written in chalk in the above picture. So I looked it up and this is one explanation that I found. It may not be the only interpretation but I liked it……

“You know there is a Big Mind and a small mind. Sometimes the Big Mind wins over the small mind and sometimes it is the other way around.

When the small mind wins over, it is misery and when the Big Mind wins, it is joy.

Small mind promises joy and leaves your hand empty. Big Mind may bring resistance in the beginning but fills you with joy.

The word Guru means great. Jaya means victory. Deva means one who is fun-loving, playful, light. One who is playful is often not dignified and when one is dignified, he is often not playful.

Jai Guru Dev is victory to the Big Mind in you that is both dignified and playful. That is what Jai Guru Dev means: “Victory to the Greatness in you.”

You do not say victory or hail to the Master as he has won over already. You say victory to your own Self, your own Mind, which is being veiled by the small mind.”

from: Guru Vaani at guruvaani.wordpress.com