Foggy Morning after Torontohenge

The fog descended on our house about 30 minutes ago.  The street light is barely visible, and where is the light in the window across the street?  I am witness to the alert in effect of 'near zero visibility in fog is expected or occurring.'  And a few minutes later, it seems to have passed through.   As I looked at the weather forecast, I discovered that this weekend had a remarkable occurrence. The sun's position in the sky lined up perfectly with some Toronto streets - this is called Torontohenge.  In Manhattan, it is called Manhattanhenge.   There's coverage of it here on the weather news network.   The article with the map of streets is HERE. Here's another blog - Dailyhive.com - what a great picture with everyone standing in the middle of King Street watching the sun and taking pictures.  There's even a picture of a person lying across the streetcar tracks taking a picture of cars coming towards him.  It is like Stonehenge with the magic of the reflections on the buildings and the street.  The next one is April 22/23, then August 19/20, and the final one for the year is October 23/24. And our pictures today come from Santa Fe.  The adobe colours show up everywhere, including the street curbs where peeling, crusted paint makes for colourful abstracts.  Our last image is the town's most famous Mexican eatery.  I took this picture well before 7:00am.  People were lined up for breakfast soon after.

How Not to Dress on Halloween

School rules have already established that no 'terrorists' or 'pocahotties' will be allowed. Educational institutions in Toronto are releasing the 'no' list of costumes.  You can read advice on 'how not to be a jerk' this Halloween.  Security will screen costumes at college parties. There are 14 offensive Halloween costumes in the goodhousekeeping.com article.  Included are eating disorder costume, adult flasher costume, homeless person, the twin towers in flames, black face, and don't forget the 'adult fat stripper piggyback costume' which is new for 2017. Good Housekeeping somehow omitted the 15th most offensive costume.  Huffington Post asks why would you dress up as Donald Trump - 'a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther for Halloween?' What would make the news outlets - CNN, CBC, Huffington Post - and more give so much advice? These news organizations cover the news and that includes the newsworthy offensive Halloween costumes every year.The offensive costumes make the news because they are worn by Hollywood celebrities.  All of the above have been worn by celebrities - terrorist, eskimo, black face, Cecil the Lion, deceased football coach, sexy Indian, sexy Japanese geisha, and so on.   Our pictures today are from Santa Fe's street curbs with their different colours for parking and stopping, etc.

Over the Hill...of Summer

Our headline says we're over the hill...of summer - yes, we're into the dales. I got to wondering about words that end in 'ship' - I was reading about hardship.  We who live in North America have the greatest prevalence of a soft life, but it isn't referred to as softship.  So what does 'ship' indicate?    hard·ship ˈhärdˌship/ noun severe suffering or privation. "intolerable levels of hardship"   privation, deprivation, destitution, poverty, austerity, penury, want, need, neediness, impecuniousness; -ship suffix 1. indicating state or condition: fellowship 2. indicating rank, office, or position: lordship 3. indicating craft or skill: horsemanship,workmanship, scholarship Middle English, Old English -scipe; akin to shape; cognate with dialectal Frisian, dialectal Dutch schip

What is your horoscope today?

When I do date searches on iGoogle, how is it that horoscopes show in the top three searches>? They seem to have passed into disrepute compared to a few decades ago when there was more interest in them.   However, centuries ago, there was significant attention to astrology.  Astrology was closely related to astronomy in 1600.  It was a scholarly tradition until the 17th century, and it helped drive the development of astronomy. An article by Ryan J. Stark  says that: "Except for the Bible, no body of documents had a larger circulation in seventeenth-century England than astrological almanacs. "  It was in the 1700's that astrology declined. Here we are today with newspapers and magazines in our time including the daily horoscope, and somehow persisting. I found the answers in an article in the Smithsonian "How are Horoscopes Still a Thing?"  The newspaper horoscope is accredited to R.H. Naylor, a prominent British astrologer of the first half of the 20th century.  He did the horoscope for the recently born Princess Margaret in 1930, and it somehow was a tipping point for the popular consumption of horoscopes. Naylor did some predicting that seemed to come true, so he started a weekly column. And why do horoscopes continue to run so many decades later?  Readers like them.  There seems to be little scientific proof that astrology is an accurate predictor of personality traits, future destinies, love lives, or anything else. And for many people they go online to find out what their horoscope says for today.  Is it your birthday?

Surfacing Attention

It is an abstract picture day, with bright colours to counteract the weather.  We have another snow warning for this week, let us hope for the conclusion of winter weather. On the topic of temperature scales, our fact for the day is about the Celsius scale - it comes from one of those funny and weird fact sites and is confirmed in the wikipedia entry.   - At a glance, the Celsius scale makes more sense than the Fahrenheit scale for temperature measuring. But its creator, Anders Celsius, was an oddball scientist. When he first developed his scale, he made freezing 100 degrees and boiling 0 degrees, or upside down. No one dared point this out to him, so fellow scientists waited until Celsius died to change the scale.

So Many Top Tens

So many lists to help us along:  I looked up what might be the top 10 of things.  Here they are: 10 Most Expensive Things 10 Fastest Things Top 10 Everything of 2014 10 Amazing Things in Nature The Greatest Things in This World Top 10 - The World's Best Trips The 10 most important things in the world right now Top 10 Things You Can't Know Top 10 Things to Eat, See and Do Top 10:  Things Only Real Men Can Do 10 essential changes - better world shopper Top 10 products China manufactures most in the world The Top 10 of Anything and Everything!!! Oddee - Oddities, Weird stuff, Strange things of our world - 10 bizarre things eaten by man's best friend, 10 heartwarming Veterans Day stories...

Lavaland in St. Catharines

Today's images come from downtown St. Catharines.  These are a storefront window that has wear and tear on its window coverings.  The brilliant red made me think of lava - and so Lavaland came up as a title. Looking up Lavaland to check on the name brought forth a diverse group with lava lands all over the world - particularly the new world.  There is a Lavaland in Hawaii where there are tours of the active volcano.  There is a 's a Lavaland Elementary School in Albuquerque, NM. Alternately, one can go to the Lavaland RV Park in NM with the 'new platinum pull through' (ask about our new 135 ft long spaces). The one with the best pictures is 'Lost in Lava Land: The Church that Rose from the Ashes':http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/05/27/lost-in-lava-land-the-church-that-rose-from-the-ashes/ - located in Mexico.

Original Art

The original art in the Brickworks was graffiti.  Before the 'ever greening' of the area, graffiti artists and photographers were frequent visitors.  There was much discussion on whether the graffiti should remain. The resolution seems sublime.  This image is a combination of graffiti and an art installation - portraits of workers from the factory in graffiti style. When you look at the intensity of the graffiti images below the portrait, it is easy to see what makes them compelling in the space. For a self-guided graffiti tour, go to: http://www.evergreen.ca/downloads/pdfs/EBW-Graffiti-Tour.pdf

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Salvage in Sarasota

Sarasota Salvage

Sarasota Architectural Salvage  Just up the street from the house that we've rented in Sarasota are a few antique stores.  They are very large and full of wrought iron garden benches, arches, pergolas, etc.  There are a lot of old garden structures around here. The Sarasota Architectural Salvage (SAS) seems to find old everything from everywhere.  There are Spanish, Asian, nautical, farm themes in their furniture and accessories.  I enjoyed the former boat wood with many layers of peeling paint used for table tops and chair seats.  It was a whole warehouse of nicely posed peeling paint.  There are old pieces from the Ringling Circus, and columns from the Ringling Hotel that was demolished.  The Mermaid theme is abundant.  It makes one realize how long Florida has been in the tourism business. See more about them here: http://www.sarasotasalvage.com

Colour Combinations

Colour Combinations I thought these two images had a similar composition and colours.  The first comes from the Beamsville Fairgrounds and displays the scratches and rust on another transport truck.  We saw the earlier pictures in the shocking red. Of course, the second is of Koi swimming.  These were at the Portland Japanese Garden a few years ago.  I didn't know how to eliminate all the background elements in the water then.  When I saw it this week, I realized it could be an interesting picture.  I was drawn to the metallic colouring and shine that contrasted with the oranges.  This picture will join the series 'Koi, The Living Art'. I've included the Redbubble pictures of the series.

Farewell to Beamsville Fairgrounds I think of the string of towns in the Niagara Peninsula as beads in a necklace:  Stoney Creek, Grimsby, Beamsville, Vineland, Jordan and St. Catharines.  Niagara-on-the-Lake isn't in the string of beads.  It is so beautiful that it is a jewel on a pendant.  Beamsville is our next-door neighbour.  It had a big expanse of land - almost 25 acres in the downtown that was a fairground.  No one thought about it - it had been a fairground for 150 years.  It had a baseball diamond and a horse track as well as 12 buildings with entrances for sheep, cattle, etc.  It was privately owned by the Lincoln Agricultural Society and a sale was announced in 2008.  It was finalized for residential and commercial development in 2011.  The building is moving right along now.  It is as dense as one would find in Toronto, so it is a startling sight set in the rural layout of Beamsville.  One looks to the right and sees an old town, and looks to the left and sees a dense city block. The pictures today were taken at the Beamsville Fairground before it underwent its transformation.  These were transport trailers on the property that were being used as storage.  Their bright logos were peeling and blistering in the sun.  When I look at the bottom image, the title that comes to me is 'Concussion' or 'Slap Shot'. And thanks so much for those who gave advice on the wisteria images for the contest. It turns out to be a 3-way tie between the images.  Does anyone want to break the tie?

Urban Abstractions - an Update

I look for abstracts to be found in the urban and rural landscape of decays, dents, peeling paint and paper, and any kinds of wear and tear.

Here are a few found in Niagara:

Dents on a sign at the Lake, Vineland Ontario.

"Abstract in Yellow"

Decay in cement:

"Red Moon Blue"

Glue remains on a wall in St. Catharines after the signs are gone.

"Even Strokes"

Sunset Landscape

From yesterday's little mushroom in the urban garden, we return to the abstract today with bright colours creating repeating patterns of a landscape.

The Urban Mushroom Found

I have taken photos of this little spot of grunge at Rosedale and Yonge before.  It was yesterday that I recognized it as an urban mushroom, some fantasy in grunge and garden.

Paper Chase

Toronto is a good environment for torn paper - it mostly occurs on street poles where it is torn and pulpy from rain.  The last image below is actual sheet metal, but it does have the layers you would typically see with paper.