We finally had hot weather this week and the flowers starting bursting open in gardens all over the city. The Allium seemed to go from closed buds to explosions of colour overnight.
This sweet dog named Willow was recently adopted by my neighbours. She was a rescue dog from the Caribbean island of St Lucia and has taken to her new home perfectly. She is a real sweetheart and loves everyone she meets.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
These deep purple Irises are always the first that I see blooming in the spring. They are so deeply coloured and have a wonderful iridescence about them!
This is the main building belonging to the Toronto French School which is a private, co-ed, bilingual school located on Lawrence Ave E. This building was constructed as a residence in 1922 by the Sifton family and was known as Sifton Manor. It was purchased by the school in 1962 and is one of several buildings on the large property. It is unusual to see it without a lot of people milling about.
I spotted this sign on the wall of one of the buildings of the Toronto French School as I wandered about the empty grounds of the school. All of our schools are closed. The words seem timely! I'll show you one of the school buildings tomorrow.
Taking part in Signs 2. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
These are the trees that were partly shading the laneway in yesterday's pic. The balconies belong to a very old 4 story apartment building, the kind of building that people move into and stay for years and years. It looks like the wood railings could use a coat of paint and then it would all look wonderful again. Someone has a green thumb in there!
This is a pic from my archives which I shot last summer and am not sure why I didn't post it before. I was wandering along a laneway and spotted this lovely face looking out through the shade of the lane. I'm not sure who the artist is.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
It has been a cool spring and so our flowering season is a bit later than normal. This small Magnolia tree is always a late bloomer but this year it is really late! It is nice to see the Tulips and Daffodils lasting longer than is usual.
This was my first sighting of turtles this spring. They were spotted in the pond in the Wychwood Park neighbourhood on one of their favourite logs catching a bit of sun. It is always a good sign to see turtles in the wild! I took the shot through some bushes so there are some fuzzy areas in the pic.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
This old house on Spadina Ave is being given a fresh up which will hopefully restore all of the wonderful details it has. I love how those round windows are made to look like they are hanging from above. It was built in 1909 and has heritage protection so things have to remain as they are after the renewal.
This is from my archives from when we were still allowed to go to parks and enjoy ourselves. I think our parks will soon be open and I can hardly wait!
I spotted this poster on some construction hoarding and thought it was totally suitable for these times.
Taking part in Signs 2. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
When I think of a Land Rover Defender I think of a rough and tumble vehicle like the one in Tomb Raider. I spotted this pristine, posh-looking one in a laneway during one of my wanders. It was originally plated in Albania and still has that plate but now sports a new Ontario plate too.
This carefree biker is found on the wall of a real estate office along Dundas St W which explains the basket full of houses. One wonders when we will be able to get back to such relaxed times. The artist, I think, is @the80eight.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This is another pair of semi-detached houses found in the Annex neighbourhood where each side is so unlike its attached neighbour. I like the turret on the right side but would probably go for the large balcony on the left half. Each of these halves would have originally been built as a single family home but through the years many have been divided up into flats although the trend now is to turn them back into single homes. They are really large homes!
This is the hawk that was watching the Canada Goose family that I showed you last week. I saw him looking at them for at least 20 minutes before flying off. There is a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that nest near here each year and this may have been one of them.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
It is a good time to take pics of houses before the leaves come out on the trees. This shot shows two very large semi-detached homes in the Annex neighbourhood. The halves are so unlike each other. The half on the left has those two large porches and a large turret while the right side has just a small turret. It makes you wonder what the difference in price was between them over a hundred years ago when they were built. I love the checker board brick trim running across the two of them.
Murals aren't the only type of decoration to be found on garages along the laneways. This garage is decorated with shells, beads, wooden cut-outs, and some butterfly stickers. The front of the house that it belongs to is also richly decorated to match.
I don't think there will be very many sightseeing buses traveling around in any cities this year. This is a pic at U of Toronto from last summer when things were a different normal.
Taking part in Signs 2. Click HERE to see signs from around the world.
This is actually two large Magnolia trees that dwarf the house behind them. You can see a guy in the far right who is also photographing the trees which gives you an idea of their scale. A few other people stopped to catch a pic while I was there a couple of days ago.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, has turned up in one of our laneways. Watching that we don't pollute there, I presume. The artist for this one is Meaghan Claire Kehoe.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more murals from around the world.
This small Magnolia tree is always the first one that I see blooming. Again this year it was covered in lovely pink blossoms before the larger trees had even started to open. I'm not sure of its variety but it is a welcome sight each spring. I took this pic a week and a half ago and the others are now flowering.
I was out wandering around the pond in Wychwood Park and spotted this cute Canada Goose family. Someone had put a sign up telling how the whole family had been up and out along the very busy St Clair Ave the week before and they had been captured and brought the couple of blocks south down to the park. They all look healthy and happy now - there were the four babies up front and there were two more behind the goose on the left. While I was there a Red-tailed Hawk was up above them in a tree watching them but the parents were very vigilant.
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
This is a rear view of the wrapped buildings which I showed you yesterday. Here you can see how they are teetering right on the edge of the excavation for the parking garages of the new buildings. The hole is about three stories deep. The old buildings will be restored and incorporated into the new complex, some as stores and others as community spaces. Construction continues but it will be years until this is finished.
The redevelopment of the Honest Ed's complex at Bathurst and Bloor St involves a block of old heritage protected buildings along Markham St. To protect them from the huge construction project around them, the fronts of the old structures have been wrapped. It reminds me a lot of the work by the artist Christo who has wrapped buildings and bridges all over the world. I will show you the backs of these places tomorrow.
I found another of the Bookmarks, this one at Christie Pits Park. You can read more about the Project Bookmark Canada HERE but basically it places excerpts from books and poems in the exact location where they are set. This one is from THE Five Books of Moses Lapinsky by author Karen X. Tulchinsky and this part takes place near the baseball diamond in the park which is slightly visible behind the bookmark. This one is bookmark #8.
Taking part in Signs 2. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.
With the city basically shut down and people not going anywhere the taxis have been parked. I spotted this parking lot full of Beck cabs which is one of our largest taxi companies. More people who are feeling the pinch.
With all of the humans isolating indoors the creatures are taking back the streets and laneways. This happy group of raccoons is even doing a bit of tagging on the wall. The artist for this one is Emily May Rose whose raccoons appear in a lot of places around the city.
Taking part in Monday Murals. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
I spotted this purple Little Library during one of my recent wandering walks while trying to avoid people. The window was a bit fogged up but it was full of books. Most of these libraries I have seen lately have been closed until after the virus lockdown is over.
I haven't been out to see many live creatures lately but have spotted some more painted ones. This mural is located just a few blocks from the one of the Chickadees which I showed you last Saturday. It is by the same artist, Nick Sweetman, and you can see more of his work if you click the Sweetman label below. The man is a talent!
Taking part in Saturday's Critters. Click HERE to see more creatures from around the world.
The May theme for the City Daily Photo Blog community is Shopping and for this one I offer a pic from my archives since shopping isn't a very common thing here right now. This is a summer shot from the Kensington Market neighbourhood which is full of small independent shops which are now closed until the virus is gone. Hopefully we will be back to normal at some point.
Taking part in the theme Shopping. Click HERE to see more examples of Shopping from around the world.
