Sand Sculpture 2015

Location: Garden Show, Enercare Centre, Canadian National Exhibition
Date photo taken: 24 August 2015

One of my regular stops during my yearly visit to the CNE is to check out the entries in the International Sand Sculpting Competition. This year, the Ex is hosting the Pairs Competition, and four teams from around the world are competing. Each team is transforming 20 tonnes of sand into a work of art and it was fascinating to watch the artists in action. Each one I watched was employing a different technique. Eva Sazuko McGrew from the U.S., pictured above, was sculpting this nose with a trowel. Her partner was using a stick and string to sketch out gears on the other side. The men on the Canadian team were using straws to blow away the sand they were pulling out to create fine fur detail. The work is probably complete by now, but the sculptures will remain until the end of the Ex. If you visit, be sure to vote for your favourite!

Cold As ICE

Location: Berkeley Street, just south of Front

Date photo taken: 11 Aug 2015
Image #4 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Here is another of Toronto's traffic signal boxes, this one painted to beat the heat. It was painted last October by tattoo artist Random, aka Spencer Harrington. The rusted out edges are a nice touch. A very brief video of the work in progress is available on Random's Facebook page. 

Bird Banding

Location: Waterfront, near the base of Dan Leckie Way

Date photo taken: 30 April 2015

Toronto, with its waterfront and many naturalized park spaces, provides lots of great habitat for many species of birds. If you're the type to take notice of birds, you've probably also noticed that sometimes they can be seen sporting coloured and numbered bands on their legs, wings, or as in this picture, their necks. The North American Bird Banding Program has banded over 60 million birds since it started back in 1904. Information on banded birds helps scientists learn more about them, including their movement and behaviour. Did you realize that you can help with this work? Ordinary citizens are encouraged to record sightings of birds wearing tags and report them to the program. You'll be asked for information such as the colour and placement of the band, the number on the band, and where and when you saw the bird. In return, you will be sent a Certificate of Appreciation which will provide you with some information about the bird you saw. In this case, the banded goose is a female, about a year old, and it had been banded in the Toronto area just over a week before this picture was taken. Observing and reporting bird bands would make a great summer science project for kids of all ages, and it would help the Canadian Wildlife Service better understand the birds it tags.

Gibraltar Point Light House

Location: Toronto Island
Date photo taken: 22 May 2014

The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, located where the Toronto Islands jut out into Lake Ontario, stands as the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Great Lakes. Completed in 1808, it remained an operating lighthouse until 1958 when it, like many others in recent decades, was decommissioned. At that time, responsibility for the lighthouse was passed to the city's parks department.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which maintains lighthouses across Canada as part of water safety, declared over 450 of these buildings as surplus to needs in recent years. Realizing the special significance that these structures hold for Canadians, the National Trust passed the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act in 2010 to help ensure that these icons remain a part of our cultural landscape.