Skeleton

Location: A yard in Corktown

Date photo taken: 14 October 2014

Happy Halloween!

String Doll

Location: Off Cameron St. just north of Queen
Date photo taken: 15 September 2014

I spotted this fellow while hustling along in the rain one day and instantly my day was brightened. Not much to say about it except that a nearby marker indicates it was done by the team Tensoe2 and Birdo in 2011. That and it makes me smile.

Wilket Creek Park

Location: Trail in Wilket Creek Park
Date photo taken: 5 October 2014

The weather is glorious and the leaves are brilliant. If you want to get out there and enjoy it without leaving the city, there are lots of options. One that I discovered recently is Wilket Creek Park. Running in a long strip between Eglinton and Lawrence, the park is 44 hectares of wilderness in the city and it's part of a much larger interconnected park system that includes Edwards Gardens to the north, Sunnybrook park to the west, and Serena Gundy Park and the Don Valley trails to the south. All together, you can walk for hours on these trails, admiring the fall colours and the sound of the river.

The Bluffs as Viewed by Elizabeth Simcoe, ca 1793

Location: Kingston Road, east of Sharpe Street
Date photo taken: 9 September 2013
Image 13 in the Mural Series

This picture represents about half of the mural that appears on the west side of the building at 2384 Kingston Road. Painted in 1992 by Risto Turunen, it shows Elizabeth Graves Simcoe in a small boat, viewing the Scarborough Bluffs, or the highlands of Toronto as they were then known. As the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, she took the opportunity to explore much of Upper and Lower Canada. With a keen eye she documented what she saw, creating hundreds of watercolours and keeping a diary, which has since been published. To learn more about this remarkable woman, visit Travels with Elizabeth Simcoe, an online exhibit by the Archives of Ontario.

This mural was painted as part of the Heritage Trail project which saw 12 murals relating to Scarborough history painted along Kingston Rd.

The Chapel of St. Jude, Wexford

Location: Victoria Park Ave. just south of Lawrence
Date photo taken: 6 May 2014

This quaint church and quiet cemetery sit just off busy Victoria Park Avenue in the Wexford neighbourhood of Scarborough. It was built in 1848 and replicates an existing Scottish Gothic Church. According to a pamphlet on the history of the Chapel, stone was considered too expensive so it was built of wood planks which were then hand-chiseled to give the appearance of cut stone. The work was done by a chief carpenter with the assistance of local farmers. The only parts not built by local workers were the steeple and bell tower. Renovations in 1929 brought several improvements including stained glass windows created by Robert McCausland Limited of Toronto. The church is now considered to be the oldest remaining church building in Scarborough.