Project Bookmark

Location: North east side of the Bloor viaduct
Date photo taken: 11 April 2016

Project Bookmark is a unique project that takes passages from fiction and situates them in the real world. In this example, located at the eastern edge of the Prince Edward or Bloor viaduct, an early passage from Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of the Lion describes a nun being swept off the bridge by the wind. It's a scene, and a book, deeply rooted in place. Readers of this plaque can take a few steps and experience the bridge for themselves, take in its height and be exposed to the elements. Combining the fiction and the reality in this way increases one's appreciation of both. It was an excellent choice with which to launch the program. To date, 15 bookmarks have been placed across Canada, and the 16th will be unveiled in Hamilton on June 10.

Do you have a favourite book or passage that is situated in Toronto, or elsewhere in Canada? Project Bookmark wants to hear about it - suggestions can be submitted through their website.

Traffic Signal Box - Adrian Hayles

Location: Bathurst and Wilson
Date photo taken: 17 November 2015
Image #6 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

Another traffic signal box given a colourful treatment thanks to StreetARToronto's Outside the Box program. These colourful clouds are by artist Adrian Hayles, who has done several boxes around the city.

The Great Outdoors - Leventhal Mural

Location: Side of railway overpass, Macpherson Ave. west of Avenue Rd.
Date photo taken: 25 September 2013

Spring weather always makes me want to spend more time outside. It might not be nice enough to sit on the grass and read a book, but it won't be long! This peaceful scene is part of a much larger mural by Ian Leventhal located on the side of a railway overpass along Macpherson Avenue. To see more of the mural and to read about the community's involvement with it, check out this earlier post.

Home

Location: Ranee Avenue, at the Allen Road underpass
Date photo taken: 10 September 2015

This mural can be found on one side the of underpass where Ranee Avenue travels under the Allen expressway. On the other side of the underpass is it's twin, another mural with another feel good message. Both were created by neighbourhood youth working with Art Starts, an organization that seeks to use art to engage residents in under-served areas of Toronto. The youth involved did much more than paint however. For three weeks they were immersed in the revitalization process, doing things like attending meetings and interviewing residents. The project was initiated by Toronto Community Housing as part of the Lawrence Heights Revitalization Project. Like Regent Park, this 50s era housing development is being completely razed and redeveloped. Demolition began this fall and the project is expected to take 20 years.

Blind Date with a Book

Location: St. Lawrence branch, Toronto Public Library
Date photo taken: 5 March 2016

Blind Date with a Book is yet another of the Toronto Public Library's fun programs. While the idea didn't start with them, branches all over the city have adopted the idea and made it their own. These books from the St. Lawrence branch are wrapped in newspaper (more words!) to hide their identity, but one sentence taped to the front provides a clue to what you can expect when you get the book home. With the weather so rainy right now, it's the perfect time to set yourself up!

Red-breasted Bird

Location: Side of building on Bathurst near College
Date photo taken: 3 February 2015

While I know that spring doesn't officially start for another week, it certainly doesn't feel like winter weather out there. In honour of this spring-like day, I present this lovely red-breasted bird. Not quite a robin, but close enough for me. It's on the south side of 508 Bathurst, one of the most colourful buildings in the city.

Possum PSA

Location: Residential area at Yonge and Eglinton

Date photo taken: 17 February 2016

It’s nice to have friends. Or at least a good PR team. Walking in a residential neighbourhood near Yonge and Eglinton, my eye was drawn to this page attached to a street pole. It seeks to educate those in the neighbourhood about a new resident in the area – a Virginia opossum. While opossum’s do tend to look like very large rats, they have a much more benign lifestyle, as this poster attempts to convey. Toronto is on the far northern edge of their current territory so we don’t tend to see too many of them but as the weather gets warmer that may start to change. That wouldn’t be a bad thing. They’re not destructive and as they can eat just about anything, they make excellent clean-up crews.

It makes me happy to think that someone cared enough about these creatures to go to the trouble of making and posting this information.