Posts Tagged ‘road’

with pink tutus and boas

Posted: June 12, 2017 in events, people
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women in pink tutus running in a half marathon

Run Like a Diva,
5 km run and a half marathon in the Port Lands.

below: Pink tutus were given to all those who registered to participate in the event.

two divas in their pink tutus near the start of the RunLike a Diva event on Cherry st in the Port Lands

1700 people ran the 5K event and almost as many (I think) ran the half marathon.

a group of women running on Cherry St in the Port Lands as part of the Run Like a Diva 5k run.

The original plan was to hold this event on the Toronto Islands but with this spring’s flooding, the run was moved to the mainland.   It was a charity event in support of Rethink Breast Cancer.

two women running together in the Run Like a Diva half marathon run, both are wearing pink tutus, they are connected with a piece of rubber that they are each holding on to. on the right is Diva Chelsea, bib number 1100.

two women wearing pink tutus in the Run Like a Diva half marathon . one of them is the Greatest Diva, bib number 1110

a groupd of women in the Run Like a Diva event, bib number 2794 in pigtails and bib number 2413 running beside her.

a black woman in sunglasses, head band, and pink tutu runs. Bib saya I am a Diva, and bib number 936

pink tshirts an dpink tutus, Run Like a Diva, runners running down Unwin street

a young woman, a spectator at a 5km run, holds a sign that says If Trump can run, so can you

below: It was great to see a few men joining the fun, complete with their pink outfits.

a man is dressed in pink for the Run Like a Diva event, pink wide brimmed hat, pink t-shirt and pink tights as well as pink tutu. Bright blue shoes.

a father and daughter, both in pink tutus run in a 5k race, Run Like a Diva, other runners in the background

two women smiling as they run in the Run Like a Diva half marathon. on the left is Diva Debbie, bib 808 and on the right is bib number 1266, Diva Sandy

running towards the finish line in a 5k and half marathon event

a couple, male and female, holding hands, both wearing pink tshirts and tutus as they participate in a 5 km run

below: Near the end of the event, participants were given pink boas and shiny tiaras to wear with their tutus.

two volunteers in bright yellow t-shirts hand out pink boas to race particpants as they come close to the finish line

divas in their pink, tutus, boas and tiaras

a young woman in a pink T-shirt, runner 3127, Eldiva, puts on her tiara and pink boa as she nears the end of the Run Like a Diva

a group of women running in the Run Like a Diva run, all in pink tutus and many in pink t-shirts, laughing and cheering as they come close to the finish line in their pink boas and tiaras

below: Coming to the end!

a group of runners comes to the end of a half marathon, a group of people are behind a fence watching them and encouraging them.

young man is picking up orange traffic cones and putting them into the back of a truck

#runlikeadiva | #divastoronto

there’s more than one way

Posted: March 15, 2017 in abstract, construction, doors, general Toronto, graffiti and street art, old buildings, public art, windows and walls
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traffic signs at an intersection, at Lakeshore Blvd East, two one way signs pointing in the opposite directions, an elevated expressway also in the picture

“There’s more than one way” describes the above picture quite nicely but it’s probably a stretch to say that it’s  relevant to this blog post at all.   Not that that’s ever stopped me!  The other day I stood at this intersection (Lakeshore and Sherbourne I think) trying to decide which way to go.  I went straight ahead because that’s what the traffic signal told me to do.  I obeyed.  “When in doubt, go with the green light”, is one of my ‘rules’ when I’m walking.

below: The artistry of hydro towers and wires framed by the Lakeshore and the Gardiner.

a view between the Gardiner and Lakeshore with the roads framing the top and bottom of the picture. Hydro towers and wires are the main part of the image

below: Shattered glass

shattered glass still in place

below: Part of “Site Specific” by Scott Eunson & Marianne Lovink, on Sumach Street at Eastern Ave.

rusted metal cut out, part of a public art installation, cut outs look like houses, polished steel cutouts below the rusty ones.

below: The view inside the streetcar.  A new 514 Cherry car was wrapped in a light blue ad.
I have no idea what it was advertising.

looking into the window of a streetcar, people sitting,

below: There are a number of this “eye” balls in the playground part of Sherbourne Common.

a large white sphere with a black circle in the middle, on a metal pole. Background is out of focus

below: Changing the billboard.  The image is printed on a large piece of vinyl (plastic? something similar?) and held to the frame by ropes.   Or at least that’s what it looked like.  It was quite a distance up so it was difficult to see exactly what they were doing.

two men are changing the ad on a very large billboard. One man is below and the other is above and he is passing a long rope to man below.

below:  Graffiti.  Two words.  In yellow.

in yellow paint, graffiti, words fuck trump written on a metal box on a sidewalk

below: Chairs.   Blue chairs.  Three blue chairs plus one reflection.

three old blue plastic chairs with metal rusty legs sit on the concrete porch of a commercial building. Windows behind them. one of the chairs is reflected in the window

below: A drab door on a drab wall.

drab double glass doors on a drab light brown brick building with a sign that says public parking with arrows pointing to the door, The sign is above the door.

below:  An entrance to a different parking lot.

looking through a parking garage to a lighted entrance with people carrying bags and returning to their cars

below: Numbers on the concrete.

close up of the side of a concrete structure on a ramp of an expressway, there are two number sequences there. In stencil it says R42-78 and in stickers, AJ48

below: More numbers.  Another code that I can’t crack.

black and orange construction cone site beside a kerb on which numbers have been spray painted in orange

below: Stonework details on an old bank building.

architectural details on an old bank building, a fancy column top (ionic?), some carvings in the stone work.

below: Another old building – now that the north building of the St. Lawrence market has been demolished, the rear of the St. Lawrence Hall has been exposed.  It’s quite a pretty building.

the rear of the old St. Lawrence Hall building, with a bright blue wood hoarding fence in front of it. a woman is walking past

below: Interior, St. Lawrence market

the interior of the St. Lawrence market, looking towards the north entrance, with the large arched window over the doorway

below: And when you’re in front of the St. Lawrence market, isn’t it obligatory to take a picture of the Gooderham building?   A Toronto iconic view.

the Gooderham building, built in the flatiron style, with glass towers behind it, downtown Toronto

below: Another icon, the CN Tower, as seen through the Distillery District from Cherry Street.
That’s a fabulous orange door!

Cherry street entrance to the distrillery district, looking west towwards the CN tower, brick road, overhead lights, bright orange door in the background,

below: Postage stamp art at 234 Adelaide East by Joanne Tod and Jon Reed.  The whole installation includes 12 images including a 1930 painting by Lawren Harris (2nd on the left) which was issued in 1967.   To the right of it is a stamp honouring the Alouette 2 research satellite.  In between those stamps is Queen Elizabeth, a fixture on Canadian stamps for so many years.   The old post office which was built in 1834 is nearby.

public art in front of a condo building that is a ribbon made of metal, flat, etched with a series of vintage Canadian postage stamps images

below: Walls.  Shored up walls of the construction hole in front of a wall of glass.

a blue crane inside a hole that is a construction site for a new condo, with many glass tower condos in the background.

below: Last, symmetrical? steps in the buildings.

a building under construction in front of another building

 

May all your lights be green!

strength in numbers

Posted: August 3, 2016 in graffiti and street art, public art
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Just before Dupont Street ends at Dundas West, it passes under a set of railway tracks…
and of course another underpass means another mural.

It is an Art Starts project “honouring the Junction and paying homage to its industrial past rooted in the railway and celebrating its development as a diverse neighbourhood oriented community. ”  Lead artists Joshua Barndt and Jamie Bradbury along with 5 youth artists took 4 weeks to complete the mural.

mural on a concrete wall beside a sidewalk, just before the road goes under an underpass - large purple triangel, drawing of a locomotive and a couple of gears

The mural was funded by the City of Toronto’s Graffiti Transformation Program.

mural on a concrete wall beside a sidewalk, just before the road goes under an underpass, gears, plus a stylized industrial machine in black and blue

mural on a wall showing a picture of worker in a hard hat, reaching upwards, standing on a pile of bicycle wheels.

mural on the wall of an underpass, in the Junction, on Dupont, a line drawing of a railway car, with a large blue bike superimposed on top of it, a person holding a stop sign,

Cycling is used as a theme and as a way of traveling from the past to the future in the mural.

mural on the walls of an underpass, orange metal bridge, mural of cyclists riding their bikes

mural under a bridge of people riding bikes

a wall of an underpass curves as it exits the railway bridge. on the curve is the continuation of a mural that was painted on the walls of the underpass. Windmills and bikes.

mural on a curved concrete wall, beside an intersection, showing windmills with bike parked in front, and a forest with some animals in it, fox and wolf

below: The final panel in the mural, a future friendly city.

part of a mural, the word city is used to make a futuristic urban scene in blue tones. The future is friendly.

logo of two black gears side by side with the words Art Starts written across the middle of them. a small graffiti painting of a girl's head with a heart above it

Robert Home Smith

Posted: July 17, 2015 in history, public art
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Robert Home Smith (1877 – 1935) was a lawyer, business man, civil servant, and land developer.   In the early 1900’s he acquired 3000 acres of land along the Humber River, from Lake Ontario north to what is now Eglinton Ave. 

 A mural has been painted by Emilia Jajus on Royal York Road as it passes under the train tracks close to Dundas West.  The east side of the underpass is finished and it depicts Robert Home Smith and some of the effects that he had on the area.

below:  At the south end of the mural there is a portrait of Robert Home Smith.  A young girl can be seen hiding behind the trunk of a large tree.   Because the tree is painted on the corner, you can’t see the young boy who is hiding on the other side of the tree until you get closer to the mural.

part of a mural on an underpass, including a portrait of a man, Robert Home Smith

part of an historical mural on an underpass, two kids are playing, one on either side of a large tree that has been painted on the corner.

 below: Part of the mural, fishing in the Humber River by the bridge at the Old Mill.  The bridge was built in 1916 after an older bridge was washed out in a storm.  It is still there.

part of a mural showing a stone bridge over a river, the Humber River. A man is fishing in the river from the shore.

Part of the land that he owned was the site of the King’s Mill.  This mill was built in 1793 on orders from Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe.  It was to mill lumber for the proposed town of York.    Here, Home Smith built the Old Mill Hotel as well as the  the Old Mill Tea Room.  The tea room was opened on 4 Aug 1914, the same day that Britain declared war on Germany.

below:  Part of the mural, the Old Mill Hotel

part of a mural that shows the Old Mill hotel, a tudor style two storey building with the lower part being made of stone

below: The Old Mill hotel in 1945

Copy of a 1945 photo of the Old Mill hotel in Toronto

photo from the City of Toronto Archives

Robert Home Smith planned to develop the land on both sides of the Humber River (known as the Humber Valley Surveys) into residential lots that were aimed at affluent buyers.  Although he died before the completion of this project, the neighbourhood of Kingsway as well as parts of Swansea, Baby Point, and Humber Village, still stand.

part of a mural showing a two storey stone house with fake tudor upper storey, in autumn, with tree with orange leaves beside the house.

The parkland that is adjacent to the Humber River as it curves around Baby Point is named Home Smith Park in memory of this man.

below:   A poor quality photo showing a view of the whole mural.   A replacement photo is needed, one taken on a day when there aren’t so many shadows!

picture of a mural painted an the wall of an underpass.

under the tracks at Bathurst

Posted: November 28, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Murals painted by Elicser in 2014, under the railway bridge on Bathurst St., just north of Dupont.

It is difficult to do justice to the paintings with a camera because of the structure of the bridge.   The following images are ones that I took yesterday.  Yes, there are many!

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - taken from across the street, The picture is of 4 people who seem to be looking at the camera.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man on a red bike who is cycling towards a woman with outstretched arms

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a woman sitting cross legged on the ground beside a miniature city

mural under a bridge

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man's hand reaching towards a miniature city. roads, houses, tall buildings and hydro wires

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a football helmet on and green triangles in his hand

A man in a blue winter coat is walking under a bridge, beside a mural that is painted on the wall of the bridge.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a pair of legs with sneakers on flying past a man's head.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a red baseball cap on backwards

A man sitting on a bench who is looking down into a bag that is on the ground. A face in profile is beside him

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - Two large people in the mural. A woman is walking past on the sidewalk. The picture is taken from across the street so bridge supports are also in the picture.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - the triangular part of the wall of the bridge at the end, showing a woman in yellow coat and hat.

woman holding baby, man behind her making rabbit ears with his fingers

rusty metal railway bridge over a city street. There is a mural painted on the wall beside the walkway on the far side of the bridge.

mural street art painting of a man's face. He has a moustache. He is looking at the camera

 

one December evening

Posted: December 17, 2013 in general Toronto
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One cold Saturday evening, during a snowstorm, in downtown Toronto

Snow, lots of blowing snow!

Ruts in the snow on King St. reflect the light from the street lights. Snow is blowing across the road. There is a red stop light in the distance, and you can see the headlights of the cars that are stopped for it.

Snow on the roads and snow blowing across the streets.

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Snow covered ground lights make round patches of light in the snow. Small white Christmas lights are wrapped around a small tree trunk. The wind is blowing snow across the lights.

A dance of snow and light choreographed by the wind.

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A shop window with 6 mannequins. They are all dressed in long dresses or black skirts except one of the mannequins who is wearing a red dress. They all have large red bows in their hair. The backdrop makes it look that they are standing in a snowy pine forest.

Ladies of the night – all dressed up but nowhere to go.

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Night time. Fresh snow on the ground with only one set of footsteps walking through it. There are a number of trees along the side of sidewalk and they cast shadows over the snow.

Shadows playing in the drifts of snow.

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Black & orange construction cones along side a plastic orange fence around a construction site at the side of the road. Traffic stopped at a stoplight in the distance.

It wouldn’t be a Toronto street unless there was construction on it somewhere, even on the snowiest nights.

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With the shorter days of December come the lights of Christmas to brighten the longer hours of darkness.

The photos below were all taken in St. James Park.

looking across a snowy St. James Park towards the cathedral whose steeple is partially obscured by trees. Late afternoon. Part of the Toronto skyline can be seen in the background.

St. James Cathedral through the snow as twilight falls.

Shining

Shining

Two tree trunks wrapped in strands of multi-coloured Christmas lights are in the foreground. In the background are bare tree branches against the sky. The sky is a grey colour because it is a cloudy winter night.

Spots of colour contrast with the plain grey of the bare tree branches against the grey late afternoon sky.

snow covered benches under trees whose trunks are wrapped in strands of Christmas lights.

Snow covered benches await a warmer day.

Six trees with their trunks wrapped in strands of Christmas lights. There is a fresh, deep layer of snow on the ground.

Colour, light, and shadow. St. James Park trees in the snow.

A snow covered path through a park. The tree trunks have been covered with Christmas lights. A couple of trees have blue lights, a couple of trees are covered with white lights, and some trees have multi-colored lights.

More lights…. a snow covered path through St. James park.

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