Posts Tagged ‘photos’

Croft Street

Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Croft Street is not a street, but it’s more than a lane.

It runs between Harbord Street and College Street, just west of Bathurst Street.  Although there are many different interesting things to be seen when you walk along this street, I have chosen to focus on the street art for this blog post.   The following is a selection of what I saw.

large piece of street art on a couple of garage doors.

surveying the scene

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a large piece of street art on a garage door.

a closer look

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large piece of street art on a garage door, in purples and greys. Above the garage door is a rusted metal wall.

paint and rust

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Blue garage door with the words can't sleep so I write written on it. There is also a stick figure drawing of a girl with a can of spray paint in her handof a girl

can’t sleep so I write

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mural showing two red brick houses, a small grey apartment building and a green street sign that says Harbord St.

Harbord street sign

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Did you know our Monty the cat? King of Croft and all that (Ask your dog. Ask your cat) Did you give him a pet Once you had met? Or tickle his soft silken tum tum? Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow And share his affection with a rub of his brow? His loss here has left us really quite blue But remembering all of those of YOU Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true Who would pause on the way, In midst of each day, To offer wee beastie affectionate feastie In Memory of Monty Thank you!

Did you know our Monty the cat?
King of Croft and all that
(Ask your dog. Ask your cat)
Did you give him a pet
Once you had met?
Or tickle his soft silken tum tum?
Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow
And share his affection with a rub of his brow?
His loss here has left us really quite blue
But remembering all of those of YOU
Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true
Who would pause on the way,
In midst of each day,
To offer wee beastie
affectionate feastie
In Memory of Monty
Thank you!

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Mural painted on the side of a garage. It has been painted to look like a red brick wall. In the wall is a yellow window and a black cat is standing on the window sill.

painted cat on painted window sill on painted brick wall

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Mural on a garage door showing a large group of people of many different races. There is a TTC street car in the center of the crowd. Some people are waving flags - a Canadian flag, a German flag, and a Union Jack

on the streets of Toronto

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An old wood door and wall with faded graffiti on it.

hidden doorway

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Street art on a garage door showing large stylized fruit with faces on them. A yellow banana, an orangish pink pear and apple and two other pieces of yellow fruit.

tutti frutti

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A graffiti picture of a boy who is wearing a black and white striped sweater. Shown from the hips up. His hands are on his hips. It is on a white garage door.

with hands on hips and with added words

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brown garage door, brown front door and rusty brown mail box. On the garage door is a piece of street art with orange and blue blobs. The front door is decorated with a grid made of metal strips.

art at the front door

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Mural on a garage door showing a man like figure made of leaves and other greenery. He is surrounded by, of made up of, flowers and plants

greenery

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A stencil graffiti of a stylized face in black and white. It is on a very red wall.

black and white and red all over

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Here I stand in silence but the patter of the rain who I was, you'll never know; my triumph

Here I stand in silence
but the patter of the rain
who I was, you’ll never know;
my triumph

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A stencil graffiti of a woman's head. She has shoulder length hair and she is staring straight ahead with a stunned look on her face.

staring eyes

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graffiti of a man's face. The mouth is actually a mail slot in a door.

mail man

At the south end of the street, there is a large red, white and blue mural by posr.  I have not included it in this blog post because it warrants a post of its own.  It’s the next blog post, or the URL is https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/posr-on-croft-street/

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paper people

Posted: October 25, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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paper people of Graffiti Alley

a paper graffiti of Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton on a graffiti covered door

Three Bills
This is now a recurring theme in stencil/paper graffiti. Originally, the Bills were used in response to ‘post no bills’ signs on fences surrounding construction sites.
The Bills here, from left to right, are Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton

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paper graffiti of ROb Ford, from the shoulders up, giving the finger.

In the fall of 2011, many of these Rob Ford stencils appeared in Graffiti Alley, amongst other places. They were the work of Toronto street artist, Deadboy. This might be the only one that remains in this alley.

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a poster with a black and white line drawing of a man's head. He has a beard. Beside him are words.

Leonard Cohen: “only one thing made him happy and now that it was gone everything made him happy”

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a black and white paper poster/stencil of a woman throwing her arms in the air and walking away. It is on a grey door in a lane. There is a broom beside the door.

“I don’t do floors”
“Clean it up yourself”

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A green and white sticker of a woman's head, stylized..

a brown and black set of posters/stencils of three heads. Two are the same - they look like heads with big ears and they are wearing very big sunglasses. The third looks like a woman in a helmet like the kind an astronaut might wear.

big ears and the astronaut

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I have not included all the stencils in Graffiti Alley as some have appeared in prior posts.  See https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/walking-graffiti-alley-again/

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a stencil of large headed, no armed, creature.

alien in the alley

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With thanks to:

Georgette for her help with the three Bills

and Sally who recognized Leonard Cohen.

Adelaide abstracted

Posted: October 13, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
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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.

A couple of tall buildings are reflected in the windows of the building across the street

reflections

the side of a brown building, There are four long skinny windows.

close up photo of metal bars on a window and the shadows that they cast on a sunny day

criss crossed window

A wall where part is painted dark green and the other part is off-white. There are three windows, each window has a metal grate over it.

green and white divided

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St. Andrews Bendale

Posted: October 4, 2013 in history
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St. Andrews  Bendale, Presbyterian church and cemetery, are located in a quiet corner of Scarborough, east of McCowan Avenue and north of Lawrence Avenue.  The property backs onto Thomson Memorial Park which in turn follows the West Highland Creek.

The acre of land for the church was donated by David Thomson and the original wood church was built here in 1818.  It was the first Presbyterian church built in what is now Toronto.   David Thomson had arrived in the area from Scotland in 1796 at which time he was granted 400 acres of land.  David was soon followed by his brothers Andrew Thomson and Archibald Thomson who settled nearby.  The area became known as the Thomson Settlement.

A large memorial in a cemetery. The memorial consists of three tombstones that have been attached to a large concrete structure that looks like a tombstone

Thomson burial plot.   The inscription across the top reads “1796 – To their honor who redeemed this township from the wilderness – 1921”    
The three plaques (stones) are for David Thomson, Mary Thomson and Hellen Thomson.On the left: “In Memory of David Thomas of Westerkirk Dumfries-shire Scotland who was the First Settler in Scarborough where his was the first land cleared.  He had arrived in Upper Canada in 1796 and died on the 22nd  June 1834, aged ?, leaving his wife, eleven children and 53 grandchildren.”
Center: “In Memory of Mary Thomson, Mother of Scarborough, who died the 8th of Nov 18–? aged 80 years….”
On the right is the stone for Hellen Thomson. It is very worn and is difficult to read.

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Robert Rae and Agnes Hamilton "natives of Lesmahago Scotland who came to Scarboro in 1832. Three weeks after their arrival, in his 29th year, he was killed by a falling tree :: his wife survived him 46 years, dying in 1878 - in her (86?)th year."

Robert Rae and his wife Agnes Hamilton
“natives of Lesmahago Scotland who came to Scarboro in 1832. Three weeks after their arrival, in his 29th year, he was killed by a falling tree :: his wife survived him 46 years, dying in 1878 – in her (86?)th year.”To the left of the Rae/Hamilton memorial is a smaller tombstone for Margaret Rae (d. 1860), wife of Amos Thomson.

To the right of the Rae/Hamilton memorial is a tombstone for James McCowan and Margaret Porteous. This couple also came from Lesmahago Lanarkshire Scotland and they too were one of the pioneering families of Scarborough.

There are a large number of other old Scarborough families represented in this cemetery – Gibson, Muir, Young and Stobo to name a few.

A view of St. Andrews Bendale showing a number of tombstones both old and new

four old tombstones in a cemetery

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