All posts by Gina

Nuit Blanche 2013

Art & culture, Events, , , , ,

I seem often to hear people questioning the attraction of  Nuit Blanche.

For me there are two main strands.

One is a kind of sensory re-awakening. Each year there are many weird and wonderful happenings and just one or two pieces that really engage me at a deeper level, staying with me. But the overall impact heightens my experience of the everyday – leaves in water, light and shadow penetrating our home courtesy of a street light as we open the front door to a darkened room. It reminds me to see, to hear, to notice.

The other is the incredible openness of the crowd – a glorious diversity united in an ability to connect with childlike delight.

nuit_blanche_2013-1 Garden Tower - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-2 Forever Bicycles - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-3 Forever Bicycles - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-4 Forever Bicycles - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-5 Forever Bicycles - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-6 Familia - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-7 Familia - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-8 Familia - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-9 Music Box- Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-10 Tanks - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-11 Tanks - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-12 An unplanned moment - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-13 The Anthropocene - Nuit Blanche 2013
nuit_blanche_2013-14 The Anthropocene - Nuit Blanche 2013
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(You can see bigger versions of the photos in our gallery)

Birthday Shoes!

Happy birthday Paul!

Events, Museums & galleries, Sightseeing, Toronto, , , , , ,

A joyous start to the day; meeting our lovely daughter Jess on Skype for a tour of her new home.

Toronto Harbour
Birthday lunch
Toronto Harbour

Blue, blues skies and clear golden light – a perfect day for the lunch cruise that was part of a charity auction package we bought at the recent BuskerFest Ball.

Gina
Gina & Paul
Gina

We were reminded how lovely our city is when viewed from the water (as is so much of Ontario); the CN tower‘s inescapably commanding presence; the relaxed greenness of Toronto islands; the exuberant to-ing and fro-ing of every kind of water-craft, revelling in this patchy summer’s last hurrah.

Rogers Centre and Kayaks
CN & Rogers Centre
A day to be out on the water

Toronto from across the Islands

Gardiner Museum
Gardiner Museum
Gardiner Museum

We got our culture fix from a couple of hours at the Gardiner, Canada’s national ceramics museum – so much to delight us! If we had to pick one piece, I think it would be a huge modern bowl called ‘Playa’ by Steven Heinemann, its interior like a parched surface on which is superimposed a giant fingerprint.

Gina in conversation
A birthday kiss!
As always in Toronto, there were unexpected pleasures – a quiet conversation with a studious statue; a birthday kiss; a swathe of skateboarders swarming down University Avenue to a meetup in Queen’s Park.

http://youtu.be/tNNT3xnhb7Q

Finally, a detour to the Distillery District to buy birthday shoes.

Birthday shoes!

 

And, at home, cake (of course)!

Paul with cake

(There are more photos from Paul’s birthday in our gallery)

 

City Solitude

Nature, Toronto, , , , ,

I still get a real kick from the discovery of wild, solitary places in this urban sprawl.

We hiked 11.5 km at the weekend along the shores of Ontario’s shining waters, first down the ravine bounded by a tumbling stream to Bea McCowan’s sculpture Passage; then along an empty gravel road beneath the bluffs and then back up to the cliff top, through woodland glades jewel-studded with wild-flowers. A lovely walk – very hard to believe that we were still in the city.

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood

[Route: The Doris McCarthy Trail, along the shore and up through Guildwood Park, following the cliff as far as possible before cutting through the leafy streets to Sylvan Park and back to our starting point]

More photos in the Scarborough Bluffs Gallery in our Toronto Album

Expeditions and Adventures

Caledon Hills, Sightseeing, , , , , , , , , ,

I seem to be too busy living to keep up with making albums of our various expeditions and adventures (a good thing, I think!)

But I have just uploaded photos from a recent escape to a lovely nineteenth century farmhouse, about and hour and a half north of Toronto near Mono Centre – a much-needed retreat. And we saw our first porcupine.

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood

 

In the same album are photos from a nature walk filled with natural wonders in Mono Cliffs Provincial last August, a magical day at Alton Mill in the winter and some earlier photos from the area.

Mono Cliffs
Mono Cliffs
Mono Cliffs

Alton Mill in winter

We spent a glorious Spring day at the Royal Botanical Gardens on May 19, just catching the Rock garden saturated with the colour of the tulips, yet still with the pastel daintiness of the cherry blossom. These are a series of gardens that you drive between, though it was too early for some. But we had a wonderful long hike out through Arboretum and beyond, again blessed with an abundance of wildlife and natural wonders. For the first time in 50 years, Bald Eagles have raised chicks on the shores of Lake Ontario – we were able to view the nest from a distance. That so many people were so excited by this is truly heartwarming.

Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood

Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Doris McCarthy Trail to Guildwood
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton

 

I`ve also finally posted photos from our trip to the Midland area last August – we particularly liked Awenda Provincial Park.

Awenda Provincial Park

(Lots more photos in the Caledon Hills, Royal Botanical Gardens and Midland Area galleries in our  Ontario Album!)

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A Weekend of Awesome . . .

Toronto, Why Canada?, , ,

There is a song that says Spring is coming; a slushing, a splishing and splashing, drip-dropping, occasional gurgling and gushing, that sings of Spring breaking free of Winter’s grip, long before the greening begins.

This last weekend reminded me yet again of why I love this city!

On Saturday, a five mile, ice-cleat clad, walk through the ravines in thaw; part ice, part slush, part a crystalline softness for which I have no name, sparkling in the glorious, strong sunshine that reaffirms how far south Toronto actually is. How could we follow that but with hot chocolate and brownie roulade at Xoco Cava?!

On Sunday, the shore, bustling with Beachers revelling in a day that already speaks not just of Spring, but of Summer to come. People thronging the Balmy Beach Club patio; and, on the board-walk and beach, runners in shorts, a paddle-boarder, cyclists, roller-bladers, families and their canine companions, all embracing the warmth, the light, with exuberance and energy. We could have just walked and walked, soaking it all up.

Truly a weekend of awesome!