The Iris season is beginning and this one is always an early bloomer. It has a profusion of those lovely purple blooms on short stalks and spreads nicely to cover large areas of garden if you let it.
I spotted this sweet garden in a local park. I love this variety of tulip with the pointed petals and lovely colours.
I happened upon another of the bookmarks from the Project Bookmark Canada movement (info HERE) when walking up Grace St a few weeks ago. The project places parts of texts at the exact physical location as they appear in the fictional world. This one is #6 in the series and is an excerpt from Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. I'll have to get a good pic of Grace St soon.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
A few days ago I went back to Jay Macpherson Green which was the little park that I showed you last Wednesday and Thursday in pics taken in April. What a difference a month makes at this time of year. The sign about Jay Macpherson is just barely visible on that post behind the tulips.
I'm still showing pics from Feel Good Lane and have a few more weeks to go from there. I like this mural by the artist Muisca with the friendly faces streaming along the wall. She uses such great colours.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
There is a huge sign at the side of this construction site saying that it is an "affordable housing" project. I assume that means that these will be rental units at a reasonable price. There is a real shortage of rental spaces in the city!
I spotted this Goldfinch couple having a snack during a recent soft rain. The rain didn't seem to bother them at all. It is so nice to see the bright yellow feathers back for the summer.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
When driving past this house in the Chaplin Estates neighbourhood I was forced to pull over by the sight of all of the lovely blooms. The Rhododendrons and the Magnolia tree frame this place so beautifully!
This is the small park where yesterday's sign was found and you can see the sign towards the right of the pic. That large building in the background was a church which was built in 1899 and which has been a Hare Krishna Temple for years now. I took this pic in mid April and now the leaves are starting to come out on the trees and the grass is growing so I will have to go back for a summery pic in a little while.
This sign is found in a small parkette along Avenue Rd and pays tribute to a neighbour who had passed away. It is so nice to know that a quiet person can have such an impact and be so appreciated. I'll show you a pic of the parkette tomorrow which I took in mid April.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
Our spring flowers are a bit behind schedule this year since it has been cooler and rainier than normal but the tulips are finally opening up. I took this pic in one of the gardens at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on yet another cloudy day!
I am still showing you pics of murals from the Feel Good Lane. This one by artist Ted Hamer looks so peaceful to me with the young fox resting in the grass. I'm not sure how the wee rocket to the left relates but I like that touch!
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This stone house in the Forest Hills neighbourhood was looking so pretty with the flowering trees that I had to pull over for a pic. We have had a cool spring so the flowers and blossoms are a bit late and have been lasting longer than normal which is nice. It looks like that is a cherry blossom tree on the right and a magnolia on the left which hasn't yet totally opened.
Usually Chickadees are perfectly groomed but on a windy day it is hard to keep the feathers in place. This little guy was dealing with wind and chilly temperatures so the feathers are a bit puffed up and out of place. They are such sweet and friendly birds and always a treat to see.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
This pic was taken just down the block from yesterday's post and here everyone has painted the bricks. They look nice but I prefer the brick as in yesterday's pic. What about you?
This row of semi-detached Victorian homes is found on McPherson Ave in what is probably the north part of the Yorkville neighbourhood. This is an area where every old home has been restored and renovated, some painted but most having had the bricks tuckpointed and cleaned to reveal the beautiful craftsmanship. It is interesting to see the one painted beauty in the middle of this group. These places will set you back a few million $$ in our crazy real estate market. I'll show you another pic from further down the block tomorrow.
The Havana Coffee Bar is located right across the road from the Avenue Diner whose sign I showed you last Wednesday. There is something about the Havana sign that I really like and it certainly is hard to miss!
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
I thought I would show you one of the homes found along Palmerston Boulevard. Each of the large houses along the street is different although several of them have large columns like this one does. And here you get a closer view of one of the cast-iron lamps that run along this street.
This is another of the murals from Feel Good Lane which we have been visiting for the last several Mondays. They certainly look like happy birds but there is no artist signature.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This is the view along the sidewalk of Palmerston Boulevard just north of College St. It is a beautiful street with stately houses which were built in the early 1900s and lovely large trees but the most distinctive thing about this area is the the cast-iron lamps. You can see the round globes as you look along the street. An attempt was made to replace them with aluminum copies but that was rejected by the residents and the lamps are now protected. It will set you back several million $$ to buy a house along here.
I took this pic through a window so it isn't totally sharp but it was nice to see the 2 birds eating away beside each other. The Cardinal and Downy Woodpecker didn't look at each other though - not a successful dinner party!
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
Another medium-sized condo building has sprung up along St Clair Ave W. This isn't an overpowering scale and blends well with the streetscape. That is one of our streetcars that is traveling past.
This is the walkway that runs between Casa Loma and Spadina House and leads to the stairs going down to Davenport Rd. With the Casa on the right side and Spadina house on the left this walkway sees hundreds of tourists every day and I was surprised to see it empty for a few minutes. I will go back when the leaves are out on the trees for a different view.
I love this sign for the Avenue Diner which has been in this spot at Davenport Rd & Avenue Rd since 1944. It lights up at night. Inside it is a cool retro diner that takes you back many decades until you look out the window and see all of the new condo buildings that are taking over the area.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
I spotted this exhausted bear on Sunday morning and I assume that it was a fun Saturday evening!
I've been showing you some of the pretty murals from Feel Good Lane over the last several Mondays but there are also a lot of fun ones such as this one by artists Emily May Rose & Rage Williams. Raccoons are a bit of a problem all over Toronto as they raid garbage bins and attempt to break through houses looking for shelter. They are fearless creatures and don't back down if you are trying to shoo them off your deck or out of your yard. These guys in the mural are having a bit of a laugh with the van - something I haven't seen yet.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This is the original pic that I used in yesterday's post before a lot of Photoshop work. I really like the silhouette of the bird and feeder.
I had to do a lot of work in Photoshop to get this White-breasted Nuthatch to show up in this pic since he was in deep shade with a very sunny background. I wanted to show him on this ring of peanuts that he was enjoying so much - it took him about 1/2 second to grab a peanut and then take off. I'll show you the original pic tomorrow.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
The railway tracks, beside the Condo construction site that I showed last Thursday, run over this old bridge that is on a smaller side street. At least a couple of times each month large trucks trying to take a shortcut attempt to go through the space and end up hitting the bridge. This results in engineer inspections before the road can be reopened. I love the patina of rust!
While I was a passenger in a vehicle traveling along Danforth Ave in surprisingly light traffic I took this pic of the streetscape. You can see the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Trinity way off in the distance and realize how much of a landmark it is. I showed it to you back in February (HERE). The snow is gone since I showed you the Danforth but there are still no leaves on the trees or flowers in the planters.
After two days of blue today I will show you purple since the May theme for the City Daily Photo Blog community is "Purple". It is rather unusual to find a mural in purple but this painted utility box by artist Muisca fits the bill. That looks to be a rather abstract cat face painted in yellow don't you think?
Taking part in the may theme "Purple". Click HERE to see more examples from around the world.
