Bloor Street East passes high above Rosedale Valley Road. There is access from the southeast corner of Bloor and Parliament to a path that leads down into the valley but it doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t connect to any other ravine trails. These photos were taken early in April before there were leaves on the trees, and before anyone cleaned it up.
below: St. James cemetery
below: The covered bridge for the subway (built 1966) runs parallel.
below: No vaccine passports
While walking under the Gardiner Expressway a few days ago, I came across the debris left behind by those who once camped here. Or maybe it was trash that was thrown here.
Whatever the source, I found it rather fascinating to see what there was. Detritus as subject matter whether for photography or sociology or as anthropology in centuries to come.
The annual World Press Photo Exhibit is on at the Alan Lambert Galleria once again.
below: Finding Freedom in the Water by Anna Boyiazis, 2nd place, People stories.
below: Walking past four photos by Luca Locatelli about the environment, 2nd prize stories. These were taken in the Netherlands, a country that is the world’s second largest exporter of food (by value, after the USA).
below: On the right is “Jump”, by Thomas P. Peschak featuring a group of Rockhopper Penguins on Marion Island. Second prize, nature singles.
below: ‘Rohingya Refugees Flee into Bangladesh’, by Kevin Frayer. General news, 2nd prize stories.
below: “Wasteland” by Kadir van Lohuizen. A look at garbage in different countries. First prize, environment stories.
below: First prize winner in Long Term Projects, stories, “Ich Bin Waldviertel ” by Carla Kogelman – The life of two rural Austrian girls since 2012.
In the lead role, the hero of our story, the Tim Hortons coffee cup, a bright red Canadian icon with its usual black top and brown sleeve. He gets around. The city is his playground. Whether it’s standing out against a minimalist black and white background….
or trying hard to fit into the colours of the city.
There are times when he’s on top of the world. King of the castle so to speak.
.. and he rides in style with his private seat on the TTC.
But it’s not always an easy life. Sometimes he’s down in the dumps facing hurdles that are too high. He’s left feeling abandoned and neglected. Vacant.
And he has even considered ending it all.
But he’s an urban guy. He knows that life is what you make of it.
And there are always others just like him that he can count on for a chat or for a shoulder to cry on.
He has many fine traits. He can be a curious fellow but he knows his limits.
He knows that sometimes you have to be patient… but that doors usually open.
He’s frequently warm and often ready to lend a hand. In case of fire, he’s there!
You’ll find him in many places around the city, watching, waiting, and keeping an eye on the situation in his own quiet way. He too is part of this city.
Casting by Tim Hortons.
No cups were disturbed in the making of this story.
Look for the sequel, ‘A Tim’s Christmas’ playing in a street near you.
Well, not really Camden Street, but an alley that runs perpendicular to the street…. If the lane has a name I don’t know what it is. Google maps doesn’t even include it. It’s a very short alley that runs both north and south from Camden street and it doesn’t go anywhere. Both sections were painted with murals 9 or 10 years ago. Amazingly, they have survived.
Let’s start with the south side of Camden Street.
below: Mural Project, “The walls won’t know what hit them”. The mural was painted in 2006 youth from the Harbourfront and Cecil Community Centres as part of the City of Toronto’s Graffiti Transformation Project.
below: The mural is painted in a quasi cartoon style.
below: She’s upset and she’s expressing her hurt and anger with spray paint seems to be the start of the story.
below: My knowledge of slang is limited, and this is 10 years old but this sheezy is cool. It’s probably as simple as “this sure is cool”, i.e. spray painting graffiti is cool.
below: Oh no! I always laugh when I hear this expression these days… is there anywhere in Toronto where property values are going down? Okay, okay, so it’s part of the story – she’s complaining that someone has sprayed graffiti somewhere nearby, the vandalism part of the story. The angry young woman or the “sheezy heezy” guy above have been busy in her neighbourhood.
below: As you can see, a couple of things were in the way as I was taking pictures. I am not sure exactly how the plot of the mural progresses from here because I couldn’t see the whole thing. There are gaps in the story line. A few missing pages so to speak.
below: Flesh tones as dots in the face of woman who plays an unknown role in this story – the mystery woman?
below: I suspect that this is the “We’ve got to get rid of the graffiti” part of the story. Is it improper to make comments about Rob Ford and his anti-graffiti program here? I don’t want to insult the mural or the project behind it because I think that the Graffiti Transformation Project is an excellent program.
below: If there was a mural on the other side of the alley, it’s long gone.
A short walk across Camden Street to the other half of the alley….
below: You can see the taller buildings on Richmond Street West but you can’t get there from here.
And like most downtown alleys, garbage bins are a dominant feature.
below: At the entrance to the alley. There are words under the window by the sunflowers that say that this painting is also the work of the Harbourfront/Cecil Community Centre’s Graffiti Transformation Project, 2007.
below: A very low window with green arrows
below: And last, I’ll end with a weather comment because we’ve all been talking (complaining?) about it these days – someone’s a bit overdressed for this August weather although it doesn’t seem to bother him. Maybe he knows something we don’t. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
Stay cool!
below: Coke, Dole juice, Diet Coke, Fanta orange, cans, cans, and more cans.
below: Coors beer, Canada Dry, Nestea, more Fanta, more Coke, all crushed and ready to be recycled.
The City of Toronto collected about 200,000 tonnes of blue bin recyclables in 2014. Since a tonne equals 1,000 kilograms, that’s 200,000,000 kilos of recyclable plastic bottles, pop cans, tin cans etc.
Piles of crushed recyclables collected from Toronto’s blue bins are stacked along Bay Street beside City Hall. They will be part of an installation entitled ‘There is No Away’ for Nuit Blanche this coming weekend. This work was sponsored by the city’s Solid Waste Management committee and put together by artist Sean Martindale. This installation hopes to raise awareness of just how much garbage we produce and throw “away”.
All bridges have a character of their own including the Glen Road bridge.
below: Looking east toward Glen Road from the Beltline Trail that follows the Yellow Creek. Photo taken a couple of weeks ago just before the leaves started growing.
The following photos were taken under the north side of the bridge. On the day that I was there, it was impossible to cross the creek – something to do in the future!
as I walk Toronto 